So I'm behind on my writing with NaNoWriMo so I can stop and make a few updates here and address a few things. Thank you all for reading!
Why does the villain always carry the antidote? In real life, even if a toxin does have an effective antidote its action will rarely be as fast as depicted in Hollywood. For example, atropine blocks and counteracts the symptoms of nerve agent poisoning, but it does not actually remove the toxin from the body or heal damaged tissue. Even with an antidote, a poisoned patient may require extensive hospital care. Poisons in Hollywood also typically have a time limit during which the victim will feel no symptoms until the time limit expires, at which point they die. It makes a bit more sense when the villain is using the poison as a form of blackmail, fully intending to hand over the antidote as soon as the hero has given him what he wants in exchange. (This doesn't explain, though, why the villain would need to carry or hand over an actual antidote...Just kill the hero already). Sadism aside (dangling the very thing that would save the hero in front of him, showing him how close he is to living), I would rather have the "obstacle" removed than dick around and torture it. Hiding in the curtains "I hide behind curtains 'cause I have a fear of getting stabbed." — Polonius, The Simpsons on Hamlet There are only so many places a person can hide, but one that's available in most indoor locations is the common curtain. When someone's coming and you've got to get out of sight quick, just duck behind ones of these and you're golden. There are only so many places to hide in a room. Will someone please invent a new one? Those Silly Old Nazi's Sure, they might be ruthless, evil murderers, but at least they can maintain law and order. The trains run on time and all that good stuff. Well, in theory anyway. But in fiction (and in real life), surprisingly often, it turns out that the overreaching authoritarian government doesn't actually have any real idea what it's doing. They'll enforce laws in a haphazard manner- extreme draconian punishment for jaywalkers, but anyone with enough sense to wear a paper thin disguise slips right under the radar. It appears that in this universe, fascism is controlled by a series of obstructive beureuacrats, who aren't really interested in things working so much as they are in seriously inconveniencing people. Heck, the idea isn't just limited to fascism, but authoritarianism in general. Communists, and even good ol' fashioned non-ideological tyrants can fit under this story. Evil Gloating Gloating. Monologuing. It's what villains do. Maybe they "set us up" and are calling to rub it in and take credit, perhaps he's just snatched the MacGuffin from the hero's very hands and insist on staying just out of reach to taunt. Maybe the villain finally has the hero at his mercy and just has to taunt him one last time before shooting him. Or perhaps this is the place where they finally have a chance to get all the reasons they despise the hero personally off their chest. Any mistakes the hero makes are also fair game for villainous gloating. At any rate, while this is a villainous staple on par with a hero, it's still one of the things the Evil Overlord List strenuously warns against, as any villain caught gloating is sure to be either killed or foiled. In their defense, it's really fun and gives you that warm evil feeling in the black pit of your soul when you utterly grind your opponent's face into the dirt. Unfortunately, most villains fail to grind hard enough. But how could anyone appreciate the brilliance of your scheme unless you explained it to them? I'd like to see this work out for once, or have the villain monologuing to a corpse. That's all, folks. Maybe some of this can be worked into your own NaNoWriMo so you can squeeze those ever important words out.
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