Villains are not a precious little punching bag that’s going to stand there and take your shit and be sassy with their hand on their hip. If you mess with the bull you get the horns – if you push a villain, you will get the wrath of a villain. If your character is rude/disrespectful to a villain, especially one in a high place of power, and the villain lashes out (whether it be verbally or physically) –
THEN YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE UPSET ABOUT IT. WHAT DID YOU EXPECT TO HAPPEN?
Don’t write with villain/cruel/evil characters if you can’t deal with a villain/cruel/evil character being less than nice to your precious cinnamon roll of a character. Surprise! That’s not how this works! If the villain suddenly kills your character without having spoken to you first, then you have absolutely every right to be mad. But if your character receives a verbal lashing or non-lethal physical response that is in character for the villain to give, then you need to deal with it.
I’m also sick of this sense of prerogative way of thinking certain characters hold when it comes to villains. This mindset of, ‘oh this person is evil, bUT OBVIOUSLY THEY’LL LOVE ME AND I’LL BE THEIR SPECIAL SOMEONE THEY WON’T HATE ME OR TRY AND KILL ME.“ NO. STOP THAT. You cannot go into interactions with villains expecting them to absolutely fall in love with your character/be best friends with them. This is why it’s most times excruciatingly difficult to ship/bro-ship with villains. And even if this does happen, you should expect a villain to still be aggressive and/or rude from time to time.
A VILLAIN DOES NOT STOP BEING A VILLAIN JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE IN A RELATIONSHIP.
I’ve written villains for a long time now, and one thing has been made perfectly clear – you will get shit for writing your character too IC and you will get shit for writing your character too OOC. You will be fucking cursed out for your character being aggressive to those who are rude to them, and you will be blasted for writing them being nice even just from time to time. So fellow villain writers – just let your villain flag fly. Don’t fucking listen to people who try and give you shit either way for your portrayal. To those who do not write villains – respect them. Just because your character is sassy and spunky, doesn’t automatically give them the right to try and be disrespectful to someone who is most likely superior to them.
TL;DR IF YOU CAN’T STAND THE HEAT, GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN. IF YOU CAN’T DEAL WITH SOMEONE BEING CRUEL TO YOUR MUSE, DON’T WRITE WITH VILLAINS.
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