Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Xantalos]

I reccomend that you don't finish it. Make your own ending. Everyone who I've talked to that's read it [myself included] got PISSED at the ending. It's all rushed, and filled with stupid things that I won't spoil for you in case you wish to be angry yourself. Nothing really feels tied up and... well it honestly feels like he stopped caring about his books.

I got pissed at the Marty Sue and gave up at the end of the second book.

Who was a Marty Sue again?

The best parts of the Second book were, as I said, Rohan or whatever the cousins name was. That and, as I said, the world building. Oddly after the first book the best parts were NEVER Eragon or what he was doing.

Kinda Eragon after a while *coughtatooceremonycough*.
And Roran got a bit ridiculous when he

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

killed something like 300 soldiers on his own with nothing but a hammer and survived 50 lashes directly afterwards.
Or was that the thrid book?

[Nerjin]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I personally enjoyed that bit. It had the right amount of overblown awesome. Granted that I think it was 200 or something. Yeah that's WAY too much and I prefer to think that it was somewhere in the 50-100 range and the sorcerer dude is just lying. Either way he at least has a reason to be fighting unlike Eragon who is all "Oh yeah I'm the savior of Algesia..." Ponders a few minutes "Oh yeah my uncle died or something too. Also Brom."

I do lik ehow he never really gets magic powers though.

Oh god... the ceremony... WHY? Oh man that was just... Then the vegan thing that he immediately drops in book 3? What?

Y'know, Brom did NOT need to be his dad. That was just plain fuckin' stupid. It didn't add much for me cause it was just kinda there so Eragon didn't have an evil dad which was part of the interest in the series for me. Rise above your birthright. NOPE! You're who you were born to.

Plus his mom's little inclusin... Whatever.

[Fniff]

So, I was thinking of some more general advice. I was wondering how to portray enemies in different variations. I mainly show them as sweary thug types, but that gets a little repetitive. However, it's easy to make dialog for. I had other ideas like "actually honorable, but you're in their way", "Evil yet fastidiously polite", or "Just doing their job", but I'm not quite sure how to show this through dialog and actions apart from the most obvious tells. Any ideas for unique enemies? I'm looking for human enemies, mainly, but monster enemies would be welcome as well.

[escaped lurker]

I was wondering how to portray enemies in different variations.

Actually, you are taking that from the wrong angle already. They might be adversaries to the main-character, but they also will be your creations, no? They are not "your" enemies, so you have the freedom - and joy - to see their reasons. Most importantly, no-one except tongue-in-cheeck characters is "an enemy / evuul" because he wants to be that. Each of them has their own reasons, and, even if plotted against the creation favored by you, is more likely than not just a victim of their own circumstances.

Treat them like a "real" character, give them some loving, see both sides of the coin - or rather, also their side - and they should be far less limited in their actions. Also, "actually honorable, but you're in their way" always applies. At least if you ask psycolegy and exclude the crazies. A human being is - in theory - incapable of doing evil. It needs a reason - be it plain ignorance of the results, that the victim is seen as "lower than human" (- scum or infidel), their own desperation, differing values; those kinda things.

Well, at least that is how it works best for me - and let's face it, an enemy with a reason is just that much more human, and thus in turn interesting.

[scapheap]

How about false rebels? In a controlled world, there going to be rebels, but I don't see false rebels despite they uses in the real world.

[10ebbor10]

A decent way to get depth in the evil character is to introduce depth in the friendlies as well. (Also, fill up the field with neutrals.) Adding a few friendly characters which are actually worse than some of the bad guys might help to stir some disturbance in the moral compass.

[Fniff]

Hrm... Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I think I'm going to fill a document with NPC ideas for both friendlies, neutrals, and antagonists. I think antag's a better word for what I'm looking for: enemy implies the person hates you directly.