[C&C] Vad

[Kaden]

Hey, Sophia, stop stealing all of my opinions, you jerk. Unfortunately, a lot of what I was going to say is in the aforementioned jerk's post.

Regardless, here's what I got.

As you mentioned in the ChatBox not too long ago, one of the most interesting things about Vad is his... vibe, I guess. He's a badass and fuck anyone who gets in his way. Whether or not that's actually true is irrelevant. He has that primal, animalistic approach to pretty much everything he does from ravishing his woman to ravaging whoever happens to look at him the wrong way.

There are glimpses of a genuine, not-quite-so-psychotic assassin -- ex-assassin, sorry -- in there, and it generally works pretty well, but can feel kind of scizophrenic -- see what I did there? As a reader, I don't really want to empathize with a dude who's missing his wife when he just got finished chainsawing through dozens of armed alien invaders.

Wait... I think that was Gears of War. Point still stands. I suppose.

There are times when it works alright. There was a scene during Juno's saga in which you talk about how Vad's sorrow -- or grief or whatever it was -- over missing Trixie turned to rage which gave him the strength to tear through someone's neck with a serrated blade while screaming with a savage fury. Or something along those lines. It worked.

There's a careful balance you gotta strike. You're still working on it, but it's coming along. I liked the whole "Trixie as a hostage" means of motivating Vad. I think it gave you a lot to work with and while overusing the device could be a little too Super-Mario, it might be something to think about fleshing out for a future storyline.

Speaking of overused plot devices, you can't really talk about Vad without mentioning Trixie.

I'm kidding, relax. I do have mixed feelings about her, as a mechnic, but there's absolutely no denying that you've made it obvious how important she is to Vad. She plays a very integral part of Vad as a character. It helps give a glimpse into Vad's more... normal side. My problem is that she comes off as... hmmm... I think "fake" is the word I'm looking for.

Vad, as a character, has crazy baggage that's readily apparent to the reader. Trixie, on the other hand, seems relatively normal -- talking personality, not the whole demon-who-lives-in-his-head thing. Is she just as damaged? Was she originally into Vad because of how messed up he is? Are we supposed to care?

The whole Vad/Sage team-up is hilarious, conceptually. Given that Vad's badassness is purely, uh, implied? and not so much based on his actually strength in the game, it would be really interesting to see how he handles getting beat down by someone like Sage or Kaden or Sophia. Someone who's a bona fide not-fighter.

So... yeah. Hope that's, like, helpful.