Now that we’re almost done with the personality aspects, the last thing you should do is throw in any ‘quirks’ the character has. Quirks are a character’s trademark. It is the little things they do, like fiddling with one’s beard when he grows impatient, or holding one’s drink a certain way, that make them distinguishable from other characters at a glance, that make them unique and memorable.
For example, Jūō’s affinity for animals prevent him eating meat….but he learned from his carnivorous summons that he needs protein to be strong. He will eat fish from time to time, but he finds it easier to get his protein fix by turning over rocks or fallen trees and eating the grubs that he finds underneath.
Alright, we’ve completed the personal aspects of the villain, time we move onto abilities.
The personality of a villain is closely intertwined with ability, combat or otherwise. For example, Ms.Sleepswithherbosstodistracthimfromhistreacherousson might not be so good with a sword and Mr.Isolveallmyproblemswithviolence might not do Sudoku.
In most cases, the base ability is established from the very start (most villains are born when someone thinks “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if (hero) had to fight a guy who had (powers)?”). Truly then, this is just defining the specifics.
In case of Jūō, exactly what creatures does he summon? To make it original, he shouldn’t do anything that’s already been done, so let’s look at what’s already been summoned in the series: Toads, snakes, slugs, spiders, gates, insects, weasels, monkeys, dogs, crustaceans, rams, pandas, birds, chameleons and salamanders. Damn, I was going use salamanders. Dragons are too magnificent for mere mortals to summon, and whales are only so useful. TIGERS. Tigers are good. Plus we already know from the third movie that there are saber toothed kitties, so let’s make them saber toothed tigers. Let’s got with that. That’ll be all from the feline group. I’ll leave canines alone, so we move onto the ursa family: BEARS. Big black bears with white marks on their chests. Hyenas are too unlikely, I want to leave the weasel family alone, so I can’t touch carnivorous land mammals anymore. BATS. He should summons giant carnivorous bats that fly around and bite people’s heads off. We’re out of good carnivorous mammals, so we move onto reptiles. Snakes are taken, lizards aren’t cool enough. CROCODILES. Yes, big toothy crocs. Turning back to the sky, he should also have a feathery summon. ROCS. Giant eagles that drop boulders on people. One more creature, I’ll make it a vegetarian for contrast. How about a….BULL. No, bulls are too boring. What about a minotaur? No, that was Greek. Wait, a ushi-oni (Bull-ogre)! It’ll a centaur, but mixed with a bull instead of a horse, and it’ll have a bull’s head. Also, it will stand 15 feet tall, swing around a stick with a blade on one end, a ball on a chain on the other, and Jūō will ride it. Yeah, that’s badass.
Now, if you think you’re done, you are sadly mistaken. Judging by the fact that you are reading this article, you have so far created a villain with powers that range from generic to semi-original. It’s time to go back and add something truly special, something that changes the character from one of the crowd to the crowd of one. This can be done by giving a weapon, a unique method of using their power, a weapon that provides a unique method of using their power, or something else cool like that. This must be unique to the character, so look to others for inspiration, not for answers.
Jūō summons animals. So to make him unique, he needs a unique WAY of summoning them. Normally in a summoning jutsu, the user puts a trace amount of their own blood on their hands, pumps chakra through it, smacks it to the ground and the creature appears. Let’s break it down and see what we can do with it.
…… the user puts a trace amount of their own blood on their hands…..
Just a thought here: but would Jūō use ONLY his blood in the summonings? I mean, he HAS killed other people for their summons. Perhaps he has some way of using their blood instead of his? This looks like a dead end for no, so I’ll leave it here.
……smacks it to the ground and the creature appears …..
A Hammer. Yes, a bigass hammer. He’ll put his blood on it, no wait, the hammer absorbs blood, so he need only put a summon’s worth of blood everytime he acquires a new summon. Better yet, he can just bash someone else’s head and use THEIR blood for his summons. He smashes it to the ground, and the summon will burst out of the earth. Perfect! Now it needs a name. Jūō no hanmaa(獣王のハンマー),hammer of the beast king…on second thought, since that doesn’t sound as cool as it should, the hammer doesn’t need a name.
Now hold on, you’re still not done. So far, you’ve created a villain with powers that range from generic to semi-original that are used in a unique way. This is a good villain, but it’s not yet a GREAT villain. For that, you need only add one more crucial power- the one they whip out the last minute to turn the tide of battle and scare the panties off everyone. This attack is usually an extreme version of their normal abilities, or their complete opposite. Imposing summonings, extraordinary transformations, kami-kaze style attacks, and uncategorized forms of epic destruction are common in this group.
I could have Jūō summon a giant beast, but he already summons some pretty extreme animals, so I’ll avoid that idea for more variety. He has such an affinity for animals, so what if he transformed into one? He’ll transform into a large tiger….with the horns of a ram. And a turtle shell, for superior defensive ability. Because it’s dangerous, he’ll also have a scorpion tail. Such a creature would surely make an effective last defense.
I should mention that if you have trouble coming up with any of these, try the fanpedia for the anime. Be warned that most of the contents are worthless pieces of crap, but then again, so is most Fanfiction. Besides, even pieces of crap should be able to inspire something decent. Also, there are a few good ones hiding among the hordes of the junk. Here’s 3 examples (the first of which I made myself)
http://narutofanon.wikia.com/wiki/Hydra_Clone
http://narutofanon.wikia.com/wiki/Genzon_Sumi
http://narutofanon.wikia.com/wiki/Organ_Jutsu
