[Balor]

I was intending on abstaining from speaking in this thread as I feel that I may offend some of the people here, however since we're in the process of discussing antags, I would like to take this time to apologize. To absolutely fucking nobody. Because we don't want our villains to apologize. Heels are at their best when they're allowed to be heels.

Villains and Heroes: Antags are bringers of change in narratives, either they are cataclysmic entities made solely to kick a protagonist in the ass and wake them up. Telling them that their starting village is under attack and this great evil needs to be defeated or else the world will end. These antags are our forces of nature. Big faceless and two dimensional universal threats and concepts that you don't want at your doorstep. Easily written and often times forced to pin tragedy and character where none is needed. People don't need reason to find the giant firedemon bad, it's burning down villages that's all the reason you need. Simple and effective though plain.

Then there are my favorite Antags, the rival, the Vergil, the Blonde and Red Bayonetta, the palette swap version of your protagonist that is just oozing style. These are characters built to juxtapose the protagonist, and often times are the more memorable villains in the stories. Everyone knows who Vergil is, everyone knows Jetstream Sam, and Senator Armstrong. Because they oppose your protagonists ideals and character. They are made to act as rivals to your very soul.

These are two of the biggest villain archetypes, sometimes you can fold the sympathetic villain into either or, but at the base. All Antags fall under these two simple blueprints. They are either personifications of universal evil like Frieza was a metaphor for capitalist greed invading Japanese society during their recessions in the early 90's and late 80's. Or are dark reflections of our Heroes, such as Spike Spiegel vs Cowboy Andy or Vicious.

Where do we take them in SL2?:

SL2 Villains either try to hard, or have no proper Heroes they can effectively play off in order to move the characters forward. Often times during my first few months when an antagonist or a grand villain was brought to my attention ICly it never felt much like they mattered or that the clout was earned. The medium isn't suitable for villains on the scale of Force of Natures as they either don't feel earned, or they have existed long enough that people tell you what they've done. And tell you they are a big deal. When the truth is, they /were/ a big deal.

I also find that the gank culture of the server lends itself to shutting down antags before they can ever properly foster the personal connections needed to be persistent and intimate threats to their given heroes.

Which leads to my desire that if I were to play an antag, or to have an antag to my characters. That they are made by close friends who have an understanding of what my character is, and the pacing I desire from our conflict. And if I am to have global antagonists? Then things like the Dullahan event ran by Appo last month would be the peak of my experience with public crisis. As it was a problem that was birth from one of the games universally well known hotspots of evil Mallus.

TLDR: SL2 suits itself more towards personal antags made to challenge the individual rather than forces of nature-esque villains made to terrorize entire continents. And I would personally prefer hunting my own boogeyman. Than a shared boogeyman.