How do you keep a villainous character from being offensive to a particular group?
If the villain of your story is a member of a certain group, how do you keep the story from being offensive to members of that group?
For example, one of the villain in my book is a WWII veteran. I want to make it clear I have nothing against veterans and they have my respect. What makes this character a villain is that he gets hired out to kill. The villain was one of the victims of the USS Indianapolis (CL/CA-35) incident. From this he lost most of his limbs and was left to rot in some old garbage nursing home. His only family is his billionaire son who doesn't have time for his old man and only takes care of his father for the good press. To put it simply his father is a prisoner of the nursing home, and from this his mind cracked, making him a prisoner of his time. And his son payed to give him robotic limbs for more good press and to sponsor an company who would give a big fat check for it. And from his delusions the veteran went out and made a lot of money getting hired out as an assassin, and with this upgraded his limbs into weapons.
Now after all of that backstory is out of the way is their anything I should be careful of when making character like this and how can I make this kind of a character without upsetting veterans, families of them, and people who have lost their limbs? Or, to make this question general, how can you make a very specific character villainous without offending someone? This seems like an especially tough question for a group that a lot of people respect, like veterans.
You either don't emphasise on him being a veteran, or use it to your advantage to convey a story which makes the reader …
6y ago
In addition to what others have said about how to portray the villain, a good way to have a portrayal of a bad character …
6y ago
In Short: Your character should be villainous because they have the qualities of a villain, not because the group they a …
6y ago
In addition to real war veterans whom you don't want to hurt, there's one more side to WWII. Intellectually, I know that …
6y ago
Don't focus on him being a "veteran". Yes, he was in a war, blah blah. You don't ever have to use the word "veteran." I …
6y ago
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/35650. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
5 answers
In Short: Your character should be villainous because they have the qualities of a villain, not because the group they are from gives them villainous qualities.
I think your real question is "how do I avoid offending people?" and the answer is by having hard conversations with the groups you might offend and if possible getting a reader from those groups to give your draft a once over. After all of that, you'll probably still offend someone.
Generically, you want to construct people who feel real, with all human foibles, but you also want to get any pertinent details about the experience right and not fall into traps of cliche.
The answer to your question is: research. There are going to be verteran communities on the internet somewhere. Should be a good place to start such research. I wouldn't get into everything you dumped on us in your paragraph. Just ask what life is like, what stereotypes to avoid, and what people get wrong in arts/literature/tv/movies about veterans. They'll be able to tell you.
If you do get readers from the population you might be offending and they tell you you're doing an awful job, which is possible, then you're going to have to make the call if what you're writing is publishable. There are published, successful, award winning authors out there who have put a book on the shelf unpublished based on advice from such readers.
You're right to ask, but not everyone is ready or has the background to approach such topics and give them the correct treatment. Given that you're an outsider, you may wish to rethink your strategy if you're unwilling to put in the additional time and respect the answers you are given. Then again, maybe amputees and veterans will love your story and not have a problem or you'll be able to work with them to tell a better story than you might otherwise have done so.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35651. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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You either don't emphasise on him being a veteran, or use it to your advantage to convey a story which makes the reader actually emphasise with him, such as flashbacks to the horrors of war which "skewed his mind".
I see that your story is also fairly futuristic, perhaps you can create a scene where he uses his robotic powers to save people faced with the same scenario that crippled him (saving people from a sinking ship?)
A good story is a good story regardless of so called "stereotyping" which exist for a reason. I've even read studies that conclude people who are aware and acknowledge stereotypes (commonly observed behaviour) are less likely to be prejudice towards various individuals. I'm actually not aware of too many stereotypes of veterans. Certainly not veterans being murderous assassin psychopaths. If a stereotype does not even exist, do not make it out to be one.
This is just my 2 cents. I'm an individual who is very aware of various stereotypes (many which are true), hold minimal prejudice, and would not care if someone makes an attack on me based on me stereotyping. I like a good story and I am able to differentiate between fantasy and reality, there is no way a story based on stereotyping people of my kind or type will ever offend me. So perhaps my opinions are biased.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35674. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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In addition to what others have said about how to portray the villain, a good way to have a portrayal of a bad character who's a member of a particular group(veterans in this case) without implying the same of the whole group, is to have other characters who are also in that group.
If of three or four veterans in your story only one behaves like this, it clearly shows that his behavior is specific to him, not to him being a veteran.
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Don't focus on him being a "veteran". Yes, he was in a war, blah blah. You don't ever have to use the word "veteran."
If you do, have him use it to game the system or seek sympathy; even veterans hate a cheat.
I was in the military, I don't ever refer to myself as a veteran unless it is a formal requirement in a grant or application. I usually leave it off my CV, if I am required to put it on (for some government contracts) I say I served from 19xx to 19xy as a [profession] in the [service].
You offend "veterans" if your character is used as a representative of "veterans". Don't give that impression, all actual veterans know that the people they served with range anywhere on the spectrum of cool to cruel, and no two soldiers are alike.
So make your guy unique, don't hold him up as a "veteran" but as one of the many jerks veterans know that joined up in the hope of killing somebody as part of the "job", for the bragging rights of having taken a life (or lives), the assholes carving notches and showing them off and laughing about it.
Move him far from the "honorable service" veteran, don't call him a veteran, and veterans will not identify with him. (except the psychopaths, and they will just like him.)
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In addition to real war veterans whom you don't want to hurt, there's one more side to WWII. Intellectually, I know that there were good people and less good people among American troops at the time. Emotionally, Allied Troops are the reason any of my family survived. I owe a debt of gratitude to every one of those soldiers. That too is something you have to deal with, with the setup you have chosen for your story.
So how do you deal with it?
First, make your villain a well-rounded character. Make him interesting, human, someone we can understand, if not agree with. Cliché villains are boring anyway, and even more so when you're dealing with a topic that would be sensitive for some.
Don't let the 'veteran' tag be a [TV TROPES WARNING] Freudian excuse for the villain's actions. It isn't an excuse, and it is in fact the most offensive trope I can think of, for any unfortunate situation: it implies that the character's evil actions are somehow OK because of what he went through. It both cheapens the experience, and deprives the character of free will. And it suggests that "anyone in this situation would be the same", which is offensive to anyone in that situation.
You can contrast your character with a war veteran who is a normal decent person - a minor character, perhaps the antagonist's comrade. That would help you get the point across that your antagonist is not representative of any group, and that you're not offering an excuse for his despicable actions.
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