# Good Vs. Evil



## VÃ¶lf (Feb 23, 2009)

Good guys, bad guys, who's better? Who cares? I bet you do.That's right, I'm looking at you. What do YOU think? Yes, it's general. Any bad guys in published books you like, good guys maybe? Why do you like 'em?


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## Attaman (Feb 23, 2009)

Good Guy:  Ciaphas Cain / Flashman.  Enough said.

Bad Guy:  Harkonnen.  Again, enough said.


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## VÃ¶lf (Feb 24, 2009)

Usually protagonists are on the good side, but sometimes the bad guys are the favorites. Darth Vader for instance; evil as a man can get, and everyone still loves him (okay, not like that :O ) and remembers the classic "Luke, I'm ur father" line. If anyone watches wrestling, or used to, Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart. Stone Cold was a ruthless maniac who set records for numbers of people whom he flipped off. Yet he was still the favorite over the late great Hart (My personal fav  ) Personally, I find making these characters in writing extremely difficult. Seems almost like Lucas just got lucky.


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## Poetigress (Feb 24, 2009)

Lucas didn't get lucky; he was working with archetypes (and the Hero's Journey).


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## heresydarling (Feb 24, 2009)

My favorite "bad guy" (if you could call him that) is Havelock Vetinari from the Discworld series. BRILLIANT.


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## Xipoid (Feb 24, 2009)

I am not really so much of a fan of the good guy/bad guy conflict. I much rather prefer a story where people are fighting for what they want and good/bad moral ground is just an ancillary point. When the story really justifies the actions of every conflicting party, it draws my interest because it makes the characters seem more real and alive and not just cookie cutouts (though they still might be).


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## Chanticleer (Feb 24, 2009)

See I'm in a very nerdy mood right now, so I've decided to shout out Gregor Eisenhorn and Dr Horrible as excellent heroes and villains both.


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## JerseyCat (Feb 26, 2009)

Volf said:


> Good guys, bad guys, who's better? Who cares? I bet you do.That's right, I'm looking at you. What do YOU think? Yes, it's general. Any bad guys in published books you like, good guys maybe? Why do you like 'em?



Bad Guy: H. Humbert from Nabokov's _Lolita_. The audience knows he's a cad, but he's deluded. His self-destruction is mesmerizing.

Good Guy: Oedipa Maas from Pynchon's _The Crying of Lot 49_. She has a vague sense of right & wrong subsumed by wonder and paranoia.


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## Toaster (Feb 26, 2009)

Evil but later becomes a good guy.


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## VÃ¶lf (Mar 9, 2009)

Ha, that's turned into one of my own faulty writing cliches... :\


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