Reader Weaknesses: Villains

You know what really makes a story for me? An awesome villain. Which I guess isn’t necessarily a weakness. I mean, lots of people like awesome villains. And if you think about it, we love stories because of their conflicts. Villains often time drive the conflict.

But conflict doesn’t necessarily need a villain. There are lots of different conflicts like man vs. nature, man vs. himself and man vs. society that don’t have an obvious villain. And those plots are great.

But gosh darn it, man vs. man is just so much fun. And the smarter and more threatening the villain, the more nail biting the plot. I love me a good Sherlock vs Moriarity story.

Yes. Yes I did.

 I love me some Disney villains. 

I love me a diabolical super villain.

And sometimes, let’s face it, we don’t watch a movie or show for the hero. Most of the joy of Batman was the baddies that surrounded him. I mean, Batman is okay sure. But the Joker? Harley Quinn? Scarecrow? Poison Ivy? Cat woman? Riddler? The Penguin? Two Face? I could go on for pages about all the amazing villains with their complex motivations and various levels of evil. THAT’S why people keep coming back to Batman. Because there’s always new baddies to pit him against.

I’m also a sucker for a villain who turns out to be not so evil. Your Snapes and Darth Vaders I guess you could say. I could probably do a post on all the different kinds of villains. In fact eventually I will. But know that if a book or movie or show comes sporting an awesome villain, I’ll be there and loving every minute of it.

Except for this little bastard.

Reader Weakness: Special Powers

Happy Friday! Today I'd thought we'd look at another reader weakness of mine.

Reader weaknesses are things that make me pick up a book or keep reading no matter what. And big weakness of mine is special powers. A group of people that have cool supernatural powers will always get me jazzed up.

That said, I’m not talking superhero books. No, I like my super powers gritty and with complicated politics and battles and relationships. I don’t want one or two people with cool abilities. I want a group that plays off of each other. More X-men than Batman. I also love Avatar the Last Airbender and Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson.

I probably get a lot of this love for anime. One of my favorite animes, Darker than Black, has a lot of people with cool powers that our stigmatized because of it. These are really interesting talents different from the typical brand of special abilities and I'll probably do a Lessons from Anime post on it in the future. I like stories that can put a spin on super powers. And I especially like special abilities that have a cost or aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Its not a surprise that a lot of my own books deal with stuff like that.

Basically, if you have any good examples of books or TV shows where the characters have cool abilities, send them at me. I want ALL of them. And I have plenty of recommendations for you as well!