Izurich
CyclingTortoise
Zygfryt
sassy1085
deegee
Ti
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tex
I'm a sucker for genuinely bad guys showing off redeeming qualities, especially in terms of good manners, a code of honor, that sort of thing. Like that scene in any cheesy fantasy story where the hero and the villain are squaring off, and one of the villain's henchmen jumps in trying to tip the odds in his boss's favor. Then the villain kills him and apologizes to the hero for his men's bad manners/weak discipline.
Conversely, I hate the Jax Teller sort of character where the creator's clearly trying to create a "badass," but isn't willing to commit to it because the character also needs sex appeal for the boring mid-40's middle-class housewives spotting him on daytime TV. So you know, he's a biker, and bikers have long mangy hair and big beards, but they can't be too long, so let's make the hair neck-length and let's make the beard a pitiful little six-o'clock shadow. And he's muscly, because he needs to win a fistfight if he gets into one, but not too muscly because lol gross? xD Medieval ranger/rogue types are the worst for this but it pervades all genres to a degree.
So when I see faceclaims like this, or this, or this, combined with descriptions of rugged individualism and a steely exterior hiding a secret heart of gold meant only for those special someones, I'm noping out hard because I'm not interested in heroes trying too hard to look bad. But I'm all over the inverse, a genuinely bad guy whose vanity compels him sometimes to follow the rules.
It ain't logical; we just like what we like. Really the lesson I'd want to convey here is that you should write whatever you want. Someone inevitably won't like it (and you'll see this in the variety of responses to this thread) but that's okay because that one dork will come along and fall in love with it. Or those hundreds and thousands of dorks, because clearly a lot of these ideas have some popular appeal despite how bad they are :^).
Conversely, I hate the Jax Teller sort of character where the creator's clearly trying to create a "badass," but isn't willing to commit to it because the character also needs sex appeal for the boring mid-40's middle-class housewives spotting him on daytime TV. So you know, he's a biker, and bikers have long mangy hair and big beards, but they can't be too long, so let's make the hair neck-length and let's make the beard a pitiful little six-o'clock shadow. And he's muscly, because he needs to win a fistfight if he gets into one, but not too muscly because lol gross? xD Medieval ranger/rogue types are the worst for this but it pervades all genres to a degree.
So when I see faceclaims like this, or this, or this, combined with descriptions of rugged individualism and a steely exterior hiding a secret heart of gold meant only for those special someones, I'm noping out hard because I'm not interested in heroes trying too hard to look bad. But I'm all over the inverse, a genuinely bad guy whose vanity compels him sometimes to follow the rules.
It ain't logical; we just like what we like. Really the lesson I'd want to convey here is that you should write whatever you want. Someone inevitably won't like it (and you'll see this in the variety of responses to this thread) but that's okay because that one dork will come along and fall in love with it. Or those hundreds and thousands of dorks, because clearly a lot of these ideas have some popular appeal despite how bad they are :^).
