When/How to introduce Point of View Characters?

Keep our community informed! This forum is for discussing and sharing vore-related information. Post any relevant material and/or links here, and engage in conversations!
Forum rules
This is for general discussion, if you found something you want to post, please use one of the upload forum, if you made something and want to share them, please use the work to be shared forum!

When/How to introduce Point of View Characters?

Postby spanxthanx » Fri May 11, 2018 8:44 am

In most books the reader sympathizes with the point of view characters and the villain is usually not a point of view character. The story follows the protagonist, not the antagonist. Is it possible to write a story where the antagonist is a point of view character? It seems like new point of view characters are only introduced as friends to already established point of view characters, an enemy never becomes a point of view character.

Is it possible to sympathize with both parties of a conflict? If you have to write a story centered either around the prey or pred, then which one would you choose? Where do characters get there motivation from? I'm thinking that only a point of view character needs motivation whereas a non point of view character merely needs credibility. In Mistborn most point of view characters were amazing somehow, not very likely statistically. So perhaps point of view characters don't need to be credible - but they do need motivation, whereas non point of view characters don't need motivation - but they have to be credible.

Is evil the opposite of motive, or purpose? The antagonist is always a non point of view character and non point of view characters are always less likely to sympathize with the general plot in the story. Is this subjective, does evil have it's own purpose?

Is there a way to make vore reasonable and not an extremely antagonistic act?
spanxthanx
Somewhat familiar
 
Posts: 77
Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2017 9:21 am

Re: When/How to introduce Point of View Characters?

Postby ItsSongxing » Fri May 11, 2018 12:40 pm

It's not that the one that the story follows is the protagonist/hero, but rather, the protagonist is the one that the story follows; they are the protagonist because the story follows them.

Some stories change their PoV to different characters throughout, like Rick Riordan's "Heroes of Olympus" books following a certain character each chapter. George RR Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series, which the Game of Thrones TV show is adapted from, also does this. There are some stories, as well, like the visual novel "Saya no Uta," where the PoV character - Fuminori - declines in his humanity over time to where he goes from a sympathetic jerk who still has standards, to a morally reprehensible villain that will do some twisted shit for his own gain, but remains the protagonist all the same.

You can definitely have a villain protagonist and a hero antagonist in this respect. It completely changes the dynamic of the story when PoV changes. Imagine, for instance, how different The Lord of the Rings would be if told by Saruman, or how Harry Potter would change if it were told from Snape's or Wormtail's perspective. In that regard, writing as the villain, or the "amtagonist" in a typical story, is just that.

But if you're doing multiple PoVs in a story, have some division between the scenes, and maybe have the character's name in bold, detached from the rest of the story. That's the way Riordan and Martin did it, anyway. Just make it clear that there's a divide, like using a horizontal rule or a line of asterisks.
User avatar
ItsSongxing
Participator
 
Posts: 225
Joined: Sat Aug 02, 2014 12:14 am

Re: When/How to introduce Point of View Characters?

Postby ArcaneSigil » Fri May 11, 2018 2:55 pm

When I first read the topic, I thought it was asking when to introduce a point of view for a character and how to do it, so I'll input my ideas about THAT.

When I'm writing a PoV story, the main character is usually the FP-PoV, or First Person Point of View. All other characters are third person. Normally, the Main Character is the hero, though I've been trying to bleed away from that idea ever so slightly, playing with the idea of making the main character the villain but leaving it sort of ambiguous for the readers. The whole "We're following this one, so he/she must be the hero. Whoops, surprise twist at the end, THEY'RE the ones destroying the world" sort of deal. When I switch between first person and third person, I use adjectives a lot. He, She, They, for third person. We, Us, Our, for second, and I, Me, My, for first. I rarely ever do second person, however, because it's a little more difficult for me to wrap my mind around.

To answer your two questions, I split it into two separate answers, my answers.

"Is evil the opposite of motive, or purpose? The antagonist is always a non point of view character and non point of view characters are always less likely to sympathize with the general plot in the story. Is this subjective, does evil have it's own purpose?"


That depends on who the writer is and who the view point is through, to me. Evil can be motivation-less, "being evil for the sake of being evil", but those villains tend to be out done rather quickly. They don't have a goal they're working towards, they don't have some ultimate plan. They're just being evil. I do have several characters who have a REASON for being evil. I'm not going to name them here, mostly to gain more readers as the fics are posted, but their reasons make a range of difference sense, some make a lot of sense, some make none what so ever. One of them is evil because he doesn't like the universe. Just that. He just doesn't like the universe. No motivation, he just doesn't give enough of a rats ass to try and be different. Another character is evil because nothing ever went right for him, ever since he was a child, unless he was being mean about something, so he decided that being evil was the way to go. Being good doesn't work, so might as well be evil.

To answer the second half of your question, whether evil has it's own purpose... I'd have to say yes. The Cosmic Balance thing is the first that comes to mind. There's good in the world, but it's tempered with evil. Two sides of the same coin. Kindness begets cruelty, happiness begets anger, goodness begets evil. Another character in a story I have has a set coins (as of yet not posted anywhere, might post it here), that he uses to dictate how people act. He focuses on someone, pulls out a coin, and flips it. Depending on what side lands face up, that's how the person's life will go. And he's not even the villain.

Is there a way to make vore reasonable and not an extremely antagonistic act?


I think there is. Vore for the purpose of pleasure isn't antagonistic. Neither is vore for the purpose of survival. FidchellVore has a character that showcases the antagonistic side of Vore. I don't recall the character's name at the moment, but he/she (don't remember which) eats other characters simply because they can. Not because they need to but because they can.

There is also the idea of "Vore as punishment." Punishing someone using vore can be highly antagonistic. That's just my opinion though.
Just a wolf lookin' for some fun. I like all sorts. Just... don't eat me.
User avatar
ArcaneSigil
---
 
Posts: 1085
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2011 2:17 pm

Re: When/How to introduce Point of View Characters?

Postby Scrumptious » Sat May 12, 2018 12:27 pm

I've found that I'm happy changing the POV character. In one story [/shameless plug] (see chapters 3 and 4), I wrote the same scene from three points of view: the pred, the slave, and the interloper (a.k.a. prey to-be). It allowed me to explore the same voracious scene from three different angles.
User avatar
Scrumptious
Intermediate Vorarephile
 
Posts: 478
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2011 2:05 pm

Re: When/How to introduce Point of View Characters?

Postby Noxyoursox » Mon May 14, 2018 9:00 am

Quite a few books I've read have antagonist POV bits--usually to show the reader something that the protagonist has no way of knowing (for example, if the villain has an interesting backstory that made them the way they are, it's unlikely that they're going to explain it to the protagonist, but it can be shown as POV memories). Villain protagonists are uncommon but not unheard of.

As far as whether for can be something other than evil/villainous--there are a few ways of accomplishing that. There can be mutual consent (willing prey and pred). The pred might be unwilling (for example, they have an uncontrollable urge to eat people) or unaware (accidental vore, like in their sleep or prey falling into their food without their knowledge). The vore can be non-fatal or fatal with regeneration (prey survives). It can also be painless, pleasureable, and/or fulfilling for the prey (for the last one, a common example is the pred and prey are involved in a romantic relationship, and see vore as a loving act of "becoming one"). The pred may see vore as a natural and reasonable act, without any sort of malice (although in that case the prey might still view them as evil). The pred may be using vore to bring evil people to justice, or to protect people from harm (in the case of non-fatal vore).
User avatar
Noxyoursox
Participator
 
Posts: 214
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2013 12:56 am


Return to General Vore Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Afmob, Animefan300, Google [Bot], Shadowheart