Glory to the Empire! No longer will we tolerate the other villains
who menace the protagonist like terrorist organizations, lone super villains, or even
world destroying monsters. The Empire is an unstoppable military force
backed by the evil machinations of a variety of characters. Only the Empire can provide our heroes with
a real challenge while still keeping a human element. Plus all of their equipment, armor, and super
weapons are like really cool! Evil empires are one of my favorite cliches
and is a classic staple of both science fiction and fantasy. Given that empires are used so much as antagonist
means only one thing; that the bar is set so low we can't possibly fail! So gather the legions and march forth! For the Empire! Now when drawing inspiration, we should start
and end with Nazis. If one wishes to dig a bit deeper, then it
is also acceptable to rip off the Romans as well, but this is less common because it requires
an author to open up an actual history book. Just kidding! Reading history is a waste of time! Let's just rip off how Hollywood portrays
the Romans. I'm sure they have done their research! Even better, let's combine both into Roman
Nazis. That doubles the historical accuracy! Next we will give our empire powerful unstoppable
legions of soldiers whose only weakness is a complete inability to actually hit the main
the characters with their weapons. Be sure to mention how feared and respected
the empire's troops are and also have the other characters remark on the imperial army's
'precision', but never actually show the imperial forces being competent. We don't want to waste valuable time when
we can just have other characters tell us how threatening the Imperial forces are instead. That's just as good! Now a few readers might actually start to
wonder why the empire is wasting valuable military resources hunting down a farm boy
who may or may not be the chosen one. These readers are best ignored. Our evil empire doesn't need a reason to burn
down a peasant village, inadvertently forcing the main character to begin his hero's journey. Just like our evil empire doesn't need a public
relations representative to smooth over all of their atrocities. However, if we are pressed for time we could
just have all of the empire's war crimes committed off screen or not even mention them at all. I am sure the audience will root for our one
dimensional heroes and not the side with stylish armor, awesome weapons, and who have a catchy
military style orchestral theme song. With the legions on the march one would think
that the empire also needs a detailed internal political system. After all, our empire will need its political
machinery not only to run its own internal affairs, but also allow it to engage in diplomacy
and expand its sphere of influence. Not only does this add realism, but also provides
the author a rich array of conflicts and a chance to add a diverse range of antagonists
to menace the heroes. One would think that all of this world building
and rounded cast of Imperial characters would anchor the reader into the world, but there
is one problem. All of this extra depth is completely unneeded. You see, our evil empire doesn't need to have
realistic qualities or internal power systems that might explain how the empire came to
be in the first place. No. Our evil empire exists because they have an
inexplicable endless well of resources to draw from. From a near infinite pool of manpower for
their military, to super weapons fueled by either forbidden magic or dark technology, These infinite resources offset the empire's
aging, bloated bureaucracy that is inexplicably efficient at hunting down the chosen one,
but not at actually succeeding in apprehending them. Naturally, our empire will be opposed by internal
rebels and totally not just because we are ripping off Star Wars. These rebels should fight for freedom from
oppression rather than real world rebels who usually represent niche interests like separatists,
religious fundamentalists, left or right wing political radicals, or military coups wishing
to seize power for themselves. These rebels, despite often being splintered
into numerous factions, will set aside their differences and work together no matter how
completely incompatible their respective ideologies are. Not that it matters since the empire will
slaughter them to the man unless the main characters intervene. Once our heroes bail out the rebels, they
can exploit some of the empire's wide variety of historical weakness that could cause the
empire's fall like; the constant grind of civil wars, social unrest due to oppression
and corruption, economic instability due to depletion of resources, natural disasters
like plagues or famine, rival empires gradually supplanting them, or constant foreign wars
of attrition. One of more of these often cause the gradual
decline and fall of even the most powerful empires. But fictional empires have only one major
weakness: plucky teenagers! Our evil empire will be defeated by the chosen
one teenager who will slay the emperor in one on one combat. With the emperor dead, the imperial forces
will instantly route and totally not just pick another imperial successor to take the
throne. With the empire defeated, freedom will win
the day! We should end the story on a high note rather
than the grim reality of war crime trials, the monumental task of reforming a former
authoritarian government into a more democratic system, civil war between imperial successors, a bloody reign of terror enforced
by radical rebel factions The resulting break down in the global power
structure leads to an inevitable descent into a long dark age of silence, barbarism, and
ignorance. Way to go heroes!
Recommend your favorite books for the ending of the vid!
"The evil emperor was just overthrown and the former empire is broken into radical rebel factions and imperial successors as the emperor was the only thing keeping this realm together."
Anything out there?
I actually took a chance and got this guys book, I forget how much it was but it wasn't expensive. I listed the first line of it here the other day and it caught some attention.
Well anyway, there's a sample paragraph if something like that caught your attention. I'm only 31% into the book and so far it's like a 3.5ish. If he can pull off a well written ending I may feel it's a 3.7 - 4.0. We'll see!
Great video. It's funny how often those cliches actually apply.
Coincidentally I just finished the orgiginal Mistborn Trilogy and it somehow avoided or addressed literally all of them. Makes you appreciate good writing.