Originally Published on OpEdNews
Every good story needs a hero and every hero needs a good evil protagonist-- the evil character in the story. So, what makes a good evil character.
There are some variants, but for most stories there are some common characteristics, some of which overlap.
Desire for wealth and or power.
Driven by money and power.
Exploitive, extractive, predatory.
Authoritarian, dominating.
Lack of empathy and compassion.
Not caring about other people, groups, the environment, culture, history-- unless there's money or power in it.
Cruel, even sadistic.
Duplicitous, lying, scheming.
Cool under pressure or when engaging in lying or committing crimes.
The best evil characters, the strongest antagonists are not purely evil. They are complex individuals who offer a bit of good with their evil. They might show a kindness here or there. It may be manipulative or for show, but maybe not. They may fight with the good guys for one cause while plotting against the hero or the cause of the hero. These complex villains provide a great challenge to the hero-- not only directly, but through the deceptions this complex character machinates to influence and sabotage the relationship of the hero to his or her allies.
Does this sound familiar?
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Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.
Rob Kall Wikipedia Page
Over 200 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Rob is (more...)
