To jump right into the purpose of this thread, my story has an evil king named King Dakia Aramal of Azéoran. A rebellion sparks up in the people to over throw the evil king. When the rebellion succeeds, the king's successor, his son or daughter (I haven't decided yet) takes over and wages war against the people of the kingdom, good fighting evil. So all this brings me to a few questions:

Should the King's successor be a son or daughter?
Which is capable of being more evil? Male or female?
What about the villains in your book? What is their gender?
And, honestly, does King Dakia (pronounced Da-kI) even sound evil to you?

P.S If I posted this in the wrong place, moderator-type persons feel free to move it.

Men and women are equally capable of being evil. Just in different ways.

My villains tend to be men, though there are exceptions. With my women villains, they tend to do less of the dirty work themselves, and typically have a "right hand man" who carries out a lot of the schemes that she thinks up. Women I think, being usually more emotional, make more bitter, crafty villains, but men are stronger. So it depends on what you want.

And he sounds evil enough to me.

Should the King's successor be a son or daughter?

Depends on what you are trying to portray. See, I see male and female villains as different types of villains, with different things that make them despicable, but neither is more intimidating. The thing I find scary about a female villain is how... base they can be. See, men are typically men when they are villains (okay, that sounded wrong...). But women take on both a male and female role, often, as villains. They often act as a male villain, but are not afraid to use the powers of a woman to affect their prey, making them quite creepy, I think.

Which is capable of being more evil? Male or female?

Again, I don't think either is more capable. Just depends on how you write the character. I think typically male characters are more evil, only because people are more comfortable with writing wicked male characters. But, as I said, I find a well done female villain gives me chills.


What about the villains in your book? What is their gender?

Dunndar and Volgarin are male. However, in my second book *will not say much so that she does not spoil things for her HW Beta Readers*, I introduce a complicated female character who is not really the villain, but supports the villain. I find her callousness to evil quite disturbing.


And, honestly, does King Dakia (pronounced Da-kI) even sound evil to you? I would alter the spelling, and then yes, I would say it sounds good. If you want to pronounce the name da-keye, I would write it Dakai. The way you have it makes me pronounce it da-keya, which is not intimidating in sound, I think.

Hope that helped.

Should the King's successor be a son or daughter?

I would say that it depends on what you have planned for the villain to do.

Which is capable of being more evil? Male or female?

Neither is more capable, but like the Aniese and Airilyn said, they do it in different ways. I see male villains as more predictable and physically cruel. Female villains would be more devious and both physically and emotionally cruel.

What about the villains in your book? What is their gender?

In The Masked Bird, my villain is male, consumed with the revengeful desire for one man's death. In my HF book I'm co-writing, the villain in the background....we actually haven't decided on a gender, probably male. The more prominent villain, from whose perspective I am writing my part of the story, is a heartless female who even betrayed her own brother to achieve what she desired.

And, honestly, does King Dakia (pronounced Da-kI) even sound evil to you?

I would agree with what Airilyn said for this one.

Thank you, everyone, that was most helpful. I still have yet to decide if I want to go with male or female, but I do have some more ideas now. I think female villains can be more manipulative, while males might be stronger, but females can also be underestimated because of their gender. There is a lot of pros and cons to both. I'll have to think about this some more.

And Airi, thank you for your suggestion, I've have changed King Dakia to Dakai. It does sound more evil.

I, personally, would go with a son.

Neither, really...However, to me at least, it's more "evil" when a woman does evil. You expect a male to be more violent, angry, what have you...You expect a woman to be more innocent.

Unfortunately, that's not always the case. Though it is many times true, in real life. More male criminals, for instance. Vastly.

Males, almost always. Will undoubtedly have a few female villains, though.

Airi's suggestion works.

Hope this helps!
God bless,
Joel ><>.

You are very welcome, Azlyn. Villi, Katie, Jonathan, and I had a chat not all that long ago about how to spell the "eye" sound on the end of a fantasy name, so the preferred "eye" spelling was still in my brain.

I just wanted to mention, that yes, usually male and female villains are divided the way you say.

But when a male villain is quiet, manipulative, and emotionally destructive, or when a female villain is extremely violent, it is really disturbing.

I always find it more shocking/disturbing for a woman to be evil. (But it's probably the onsite from women point of view.)

"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned,"

Well, these people just overthrew an evil king... The way I see it, if he had a son they would expect him to be just the same and either get rid of him at the same time or have the same rebellion when they realize he takes after his father. So with a son, they would be expecting what they had and maybe even get it. With a daughter, they might not even think of her as a leader until she's in power. If she's especially angry about the loss of her father, I expect things would get messy and perhaps stay messy for some time. Because they lived so long under a male rule, the twisted brutality of a daughter would probably be something of a shock and rather different.

As for my villains... They're generally male but my physical Satan counter-part is female. The styles mix a bit.

Female might be very interesting, just as something we don't expect, to help us remove ourselves from stereotypes and expectations, and just focus on what evil's actual nature is.