Villains & Enemies; Seen & Unseen

The essence of a successful suspense story is a great villain. Intelligent and charismatic, plus enough of a sociopath to engage in single-minded pursuit of his or her goal no matter what. In a really good story, the villain is on the page, hiding in plain sight, and yet invisible to both the reader and the protagonist. The villain should also be a chameleon, changing its MO periodically to challenge even the most persistant protagonist.

A great villain leaves the poor protagonist stumbling in their wake. In fact, sometimes litterally stumbling over the ever-growing pile of dead bodies. Nothing can be done to identify the villain, much less bring him/her/it under control.

The folks manning the 2020 writer's room deserve a major award for their creation. In Covid-19, they crafted the perfect villain archetype. The only thing missing from the list of villain characteristics is intelligence. The virus has no brain, but that doesn't really matter. It knows how to get the job done. As for charisma - well, who will ever forget that circular shape with the cones sticking out all over the surface? Ever. 

No one ever said the villain of a story had to be a human being? Certainly not the English teachers who forced us to read The Old Man And The Sea. The first single-celled organism turned villain I remember came in The Andromeda Strain. I found Andromeda more terrifying than Hannibal Lector could ever hope to be, worse than Dracula or even Godzilla. Maybe because even then, the idea of a microorganism capable of killing every human being didn't seem impossible. Plus, the idea of a team of doctors and scientists saving the world felt cool to the young scientist in me. Plus, the villain pretty much killed everyone.

That was Andromeda's fatal flaw. It's kill rate was too close to 100%. Death was nearly instantaneous, too. It wiped out an entire town withing minutes, leaving only two survivors, an elderly man and a crying baby. Those deaths were enough to make the super-competant US government quarantine the entire area and send in a crack team of scientists. Characters treated a possible pandemic with the respect it deserved. Don't laugh.

The 2020 writers have crafted a superior virus villain. Covid plays with it's victims. Some die within days, others weeks or even months. Some survive with long-term illnesses. Covid doesn't care. It has one goal, to make more little Covids.  Writers interested in making a sociopath for a villain would do well to use this virus as a template. It doesn't hate humanity, it simply doesn't care. And it perfectly exploits humans who don't care either.

Covid is a pure predator. Like lions or wolves or sharks, predators begin by seeking out the weakest members of a group, the easy kills. JAWS, a true story of suspense, began with a shark pursuing a swimmer. As graceful as she appeared to othe human beings, to the charks eye she appeared to be a fish in distress. Covid is more dedicated to it's single task than the shark from Jaws. Truely hateable and yet unforgettable.

Like other predators, once the low hanging fruit is consumed, Covid graduates to stronger, more resistant prey. It's not a coincidence that the 2020 writers introduced a mutation into Covid to make it more infectuous. with the vulnerable, eldery and those with preexisting conditions either already infected or isolating themselves, the new and improved virus now infects the young and healthy who once thumbed their noses at the danger it present. It also goes after children, showing new symptoms that made our protagonists, the dedicated hospital staff, fear they had something new on their hands at first. In Jaws, the shark eventually tackles on an entire boat. We still have to wait and see what the writers have up their sleeves for Covid to do next.

And we have to deal with a subplot. In the real world, Covid is being assisted by human henchmen who prefer to believe it's no big deal. That's where a villain's ability to keep itself invisible comes in handy. People can argue about the strength of an invisible enemy. Some can claim its unimportant, and even if it exists at all. This not only allows the villain to claim new victims, but interferes with the protagonists attempts to track it down. In Die For Me, Author Karen Rose crafts a covid-like villain who is right there on page one, offering his victim water for his dry throat, so the poor man would be able to scream really loud when the torture began.  The villain can hardly believe he never realized the evil in this ordinary man. Halfway into the book, readers realize this villain is all over the pages, and neither we not the protagonists recognize him as a danger even as the body count rises. He's clever and accomplished enough that even his victims lend him grudged respect before they die.

The real problem with a villain built on the Covid-19 archetype is figuring out how anyone possessing less than super powers can defeat them.

Oh dear, I hope the 2020 writers' have that part figured out. We don't need a Neverending Story this year.