: Re: A villain that doesn't even know the hero's existence? In the story I'm writing, the villain is a tyrant who is taking over control of the world (a very small one, with only two continents)

@Kevin153

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Remember that just because the villain doesn't know the hero --very likely in this scenario --it doesn't mean that the hero doesn't have a personal connection to the villain. Not only is this often found in fiction, it's not necessarily rare in real life: People tend to get fired up about a larger injustice when it becomes personal.

You can make this more or less direct, based on your preference. For example:

The villain makes a new law, and the hero's mother ends up losing her job and starving to death.
The villain's entourage comes to town, and one of the soldier's horses tramples the hero's mother to death.
The villain stops at the hero's mother's coffee stand, refuses to pay for his drink, and then torches it to the ground, with her inside.

The villain probably doesn't care about or remember even the most personal of these incidents, but it's the biggest tragedy in the hero's life. Compare the climatic fight scene in The Princess Bride between Inigo Montoya and the six-fingered Count. For Inigo, the death of his father reshaped his entire life. For the Count, it was just another Tuesday (warning: TV Tropes).

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