A way with worlds: 22 - The Paradox of the Badass

Now this is fine if your story deals with such things, but its not when your story becomes "he just kills a lot of people and doesn't care and stuff." As noted in the previous column on heroism, actions have results - and creating a character who does extreme actions without the repercussions of extreme results wrecks continuity.

Usually, stories come down to ignoring the repercussions of the sociopathic once-badass, or trying to make up excuses. The common excuses for why the characters personality and actions have no repercussions often are:

• Fear - people are afraid of the character. This assumes that all people who feel fear immediately capitulate to it. Realistically, fear is also an excellent motivator for action.
• Better than the alternative - Usually used in justifying vigilante/useful badass sociopaths. First of all you have to make the alternative believable worse and then explain why there are no reasonable alternatives.
• Society has been destroyed - The classic post-apocalyptic justification that makes the rather Hobbesian assumption that without culture people are crazed desperate murderers. This tends to ignore the question of why people have society in the first place and if they'd enjoy life without one . . .

In writing your super-tough focuses character, be aware of the culture and setting they live in - and make them aware as well. Write them realistically - and write those who deal with them realistically.

THE VICIOUS CYCLE:
These two major problems with developing an effective Badass get worse as they often play into each other: the feared character that leads to the godboy.

You take your new badass, and realize that such a character is rather frightening to some - and so, to make it believable they'd survive, you make them more powerful/skilled. However, this means that some would find the character more fearful. So, another increase in power is required to explain how they continue to exist. Meanwhile you keep making a character who is more and more feared and thus more and more separate from society . . .

Next thing you know, you have a character who's incredibly powerful, feared, and completely isolated. You're stuck in an arms race that ends up making the character useless to write, uninteresting, and overblown.

SUMMARY:
The problems that often plagues the creation and writing of a good badass character are power and writing a socially believable character, occasionally with the two problems combining.

Attempting to merely ape the classic badass characters of the "powerful and doesn't care" routine isn't going to result in good writing. It's going to result in unbelievable characters - so instead, focus on writing good characters, and be aware of potential flaws in writing.

STEVE'S SITES:
The Learning Kingdom - An online learning resource that I use for its listservs - daily sources of history, odd facts, holidays, etc. A great way to get new inspiration and ideas.

A Way with Worlds is also hosted at fanfiction.net.