[center][b][u]Development Villain[/u]
Part 1 of 2[/b][/center]

	I am going to kind of break the normal format here because there is a good chance that this section will be longer that the other. I want to restate what I said before in that playing a good villain takes time, practice, and learning from your mistakes. I was not able to play a [i]good[/i] villain right from the start, and for a long time was uncomfortable with playing villain characters because the the responsibility it brought about. It took me many failed attempts, lack luster plots, and watching others before I got the hang of it. Being evil is something that comes natural to most people, but that doesn't mean being a villain is the same way. This is where the issue of a Bulldozer is. They are evil, but nothing more. Then there are the other part of people that don't take naturally to being evil which is where Its My Job comes in. They have a villain that is kinda bad, but nothing ever comes of it. It was a long while before I was ran into some people that were in an RP group with both villains and heros that I saw the issues with my villains: They didn't interact with the characters on a level of development.

	Development is hard. Both in creation of something new and in the changing of something that is already set, it just isn't easy. This is the basic of what you want your villain to be; someone who pushes others to create new ideas of how they look at the world, or how the world looks at them. In my first run in with the group I mentioned before I came into the RP at the start of their second chapter so their world was pretty far along as far as heros vs. villains go. I introduces a morally gray character who was on the run but good at hart. I knew I wanted him to find the heros in some way and start in with them so he could clean himself up and make good progress on his personal plot. I was not ready for one of their villains though. It didn't take long for me to find the heros and join in with them, and after a while of playing and making some progress in his personal plot of finding his lost sister that the villains began to corrupt his path. Knowing his weakness for his sister and wanting him on their side because of what he knew of both the heros and an organization they were trying to knock over, they presented the heros with a moral dilemma. The heros had been closing in on some leads for stopping a crime ring set up by the villains, but in order to cut their losses the villains had made the choice to evac the leaders of the crime ring and kill the gangs and others involved. My character needed to capture one of the heads if he wanted to ever find his sister, but the group had decided to try and save an citizens who were negligently involved with the crime ring. It was an interesting turn for me as I had to play my character the way he would react not the way I wanted to. His moral code didn't have enough sway on him to make him care more for the citizens, but instead he went to attempt an intercept on the crime boss. This lead to him being outcast by the heros, and him taking a big turn into the almost joining the villains just because they had the answers he wanted and used that event to show him they aren't that different. 

	This is a classic point for a villain to take, they will give the hero a choice of getting their goal at a cost of moral integrity. This could be freeing a captured love interest at the cost of civilian lives, saving a member of team enabling the villain to get away, ect... These put the character in a hard place to be because heros have an image to the public, and a code they try hard to follow. If they falter in their moral conduct they will pay in image, relations, and self confidence. The villains can use this to play with their minds, and may even change their entire character if the hero isn't careful. For my character his sister was being used as leverage against him by a crime boss, he couldn't be seen interfering with their operations lest he risk his sister's life. He hated this and would take any means to stop it. This lead to him going down some dark paths that the group didn't know about, but they could tell something wasn't right. During this time his moral code began to change, being manipulated by the villains. This is what made me thinks more about what I could do with villains I play. It isn't just being evil all the time, it is pulling at the heros and testing them to see how far over the line they are willing to go, how far they want to travel into the darkness to get their prize. Could I have done this without being tempted? Yes, and in fact I did for a while, but my character got frustrated at cold leads and was presented an alternate way of gathering info that yielded better and faster results. These methods got to be more and more of a habit for him and the villains took advantage of that.

	During the Teen Titans RP of mine I mentioned in my Bulldozer section I had someone I had RPed with for a while play a Co-Villain for me. He played the leader of a gang that was directly connected to Slade, whom I was playing. He took up the part which made me very happy because he was good at playing a large number of side characters since I was playing a hand full already. He surprised me even more with his gang leader. At first I thought he was going to be a Bulldozer with the way he introduced his character, but it turned out he was just reflecting how a underground crime boss would be if they were reporting to Slade 'Deathstroke' Wilson. He started by having his gang flag plant the local news paper building, then knock over a large bank after a week of cryptic messages, and two weeks after that shoot up and flag plant the Police HQ. His character was cold, ruthless, and without empathy towards anyone who was against him. Reading his posts I was afraid that he was just going to be power hungry and gun happy while justifying it with "I work for Deathstroke." I confronted him about it asking him questions like how, and why? He explained that his inner circle of generals and his head man report directly to Deathstroke, and if that were the case their arsenal would be large, but limited as well due to the cops. with that in mind they would need to hit up a bank to get money to launder for weapons and supplies before they planned out and then attacked the Police HQ. He also said with a gang this powerful they would have contacts on the inside which explains the messages and hitting the Police was to shake them up a bit and allow for the gang to move product and weapons around in the coming week. Looking back at his messages I started to understand it all, but I ask then why the news paper? he said that with the character being played by another person who is employed in the news paper will soon become an informant due to the interest they have in the gang. It was a warning and invitation, so to say, for the investigating reporters.

	Looking back on his post after talking with him I saw they were an introduction more than anything. In the first attack he introduces a few of his generals, and a few more in the second attack, and finally himself in the assault on the Police HQ. He was using these posts to show the full power of the gang, while keeping it believable. He said that attacks like these would not happen very often since they are generally not needed. This series of attacks was a show of force tot he town and heros so they know what they are getting into when they decide to try and take him on. This was okay for me. It didn't derail the plot, it didn't permanently change the world we were in, he was simply taking into account that chapter two was a few years after the close of chapter one and that gave time for these problems and feuds to arise. I liked the feel he gave it, and his main character was one that was feared, powerful, but also tactful in his actions. He thought of what he was doing, and what that would bring about. The police were not as vigilant (they were played by another person.), The character at the news paper became afraid of the gang and was reluctant to do much investigating on them, and the heros now had a side villain that would cause some issues for them as they worked through the story. An A+ in my book.