Looking For Ways To Make Your Unintelligent Villain Scary? Here Are 10 Traits That Can Help!

Looking for Ways to Make Your Unintelligent Villain Scary? Here are 10 Traits That Can Help!

Somebody on my TikTok asked about ways to make a villain who is technically unintelligent (i.e. probably not smart enough to play 3D chess with or come up with insane plots to trap your protag) unsettling and it really gave me something to think about!

1.) They have an unrelenting persistence: Without the intelligence to know when to quit, they'll keep firing at something until it gives way. This can create a sense of dread, because they will always keep coming, no matter what happens.

2.) They're completely detached: Because they're too unintelligent to have a sense of empathy or morality, they might cause harm without realizing the gravity of their actions, and they'll never understand why what they did was bad...because they quite literally can't!

3.) Lacking logic = no chance of reasoning: If they're technically too low IQ to understand basic logic, then good luck reasoning, bargaining with, or manipulating them. They might be stupid, but that stupidity could protect them from potentially being influenced by their foes, thus potentially making them much more dangerous.

4.) No sense of emotional regulation: Without the intelligence to regulate how they feel, your villain could be prone to flip-flopping emotions with very little warning. They could go from joyous, to forlorn, to violent in one fell swoop, with very little provocation, and their foes might never see it coming.

5.) Or, maybe they're REALLY in touch with their emotions: Without intelligence to worry about, you can use that space to toy with their emotional core, and how they process their own and other's feelings. They might be so in touch with the idea of emotions that they can use those of their foes against them. Or, they consciously use their own as fuel for their actions.

6.) Weaponized innocence: Why have an dumb angry brute as a big bad when you can have one that's far more innocent-minded? With a childlike approach to everything they do, from their actions to their goals, a villain can become much more unsettling when characters (and readers) realize that nothing they're doing is inherently malicious; they just don't know better.

7.) They have goals that change with the tide: Because your villain might not have the intellect to really understand the concept of objectives, any goals they might have could seemingly change at any moment, which can leave their foes scrambling to pin down their next move.

8.) Most of the destruction they cause is accidental: Because they might not be intelligent enough to regulate themselves physically, whether that's through their raw power or something of a more magical nature, the might attempt to approach things from a logical, more refined angle...only to leave a trail of unintended destruction in their wake.

9.) Put your characters in a moral dilemma in your villain's regard: If your villain is too dumb to really comprehend the gravity of what they're doing, is it fair to harm them? Giving your villain's foes a chance to answer that question, perhaps as your villain is laying waste to the countryside, can build on just how horrifying your villain actually is.

10.) Harmless now, dangerous later: It might be interesting to build into their unsettling factor by starting them off as a pitiable, almost pathetic presence in the story before it becomes increasingly clear that despite not having many lights on upstairs, a mix of some of the previously mentioned traits come out to make it clear that they are indeed a threat.

As always, happy writing <3

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archiveofourown.org

nonviolent communication - randomprose - 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù [Archive of Our

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

title: nonviolent communication

tags: post-canon and post-airplane extras, fluff and humor, humor, or attempt thereof, established relationship

rating / word count: Gen / 842 words

relationships | characters: moshang | mbj, sqh

summary: shang qinghua asks a question that’s been plaguing him. mobei jun is all too happy to answer — even if he thinks the question is a stupid one.

“Why do you even like me?” Shang Qinghua asks in the wake of Mobei Jun’s confession. “Why must Qinghua pose such a stupid question?” Mobei Jun answers, tone light and affectionate despite his words. “I don’t just like you. I told you, I love you.” “Yeah, I don’t get that either.” “What is there to be confused about?” He takes Shang Qinghua’s face gently into his hands and lays featherlight kisses all over. “Besides, what is not to love?”

note: this is a direct sequel to ‘say what you mean, mean what you say’ a few days give or take after the confession scene at the end part of the final chapter, but this can be read as a stand-alone.

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myrrio

2 years ago

Yolo

reblog to bonk the person you reblogged it from with a hollow cardboard tube

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3 weeks ago

To suffer is to progress

I know that this is normal but why have we normalized pain? Why has evolution made pain in such a useless way? If we will not remember the pain in our youth, why must we suffer through it?

I wish to stay by your side forever to comfort you, but I must run away because your screams of agony are simply too much for me to bear.

I fashioned a ring of stars, but when I placed it upon you, it was a crown. Now, you have grown up, and it is once more a ring again.

For now, you are smaller than the rest of your kind, but you will grow to be happy and healthy and safe. I will guarantee it.

These lines will not reach you, nor will you ever find out about them, but here I stand, saying them anyway. One day I may look upon this, and laugh at my silly, foolish self for even thinking to say these words, but for now, I gaze at these letters with fondness.

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myrrio

6 months ago

Help I just need somewhere to put my fanstay au thing that was inspired by a dream if I type it out on a doc I’ll try to actually make it look good

Cass run from the guards you stole something and ur funny

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Oh no the guards a catching up

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Oh the hot Demi girl wants to do gender fuckery with you. That’s hot. hi Sandra yeah sure I’ll participate in gender fuckery with you *finger guns*

Tags

but hate to tell you this

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after eight years, I finally updated my huge Historical Fashion Reference & Resources Doc! Now in the form of a MUCH more easily updated Google Doc with better organization, refreshed links, and five more pages of books and online resources.

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