: Re: How to prevent seeming like a Marty Stu-ish villain is cheating? In a story I'm writing, there's a villain who is a genius strategist that can get anything he wants, whatever it is, by developing

@Pope4766717

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I would carefully read the Sherlock Holmes books. I'd ignore the modern movies and TV shows for the purpose.

The author made it believable that Sherlock was super-intelligent. He also made him arrogant and almost unlikable. This was countered by his partner, Dr. Watson, who was much closer to an everyman.

Everything that Sherlock did, he was extremely good at. He was an expert in disguises, he usually made a surprising (until explained) deduction at the beginning of the story.

Luckily Sherlock never wanted power and was satisfied to be a "Consulting Detective."

He isn't exactly what your character is because aside from his intelligence and ability to observe, he had no special powers.

The only movie character I ever believed to be super-intelligent was Hannibal Lector from "The Silence of the Lambs." He was scary.

For your antagonist, I would make sure that some pieces of his reasoning is shown to the reader. Perhaps not the plans against the protagonist, but let the reader see him catch a cabinet member stealing, or catching a rebel cell.

I do think that it would be a mistake for the emperor to involve himself too much into matters which should be part of the police or army's regular duties. To have the emperor involve himself in catching petty criminals or rebels does stretch the suspension of disbelief. For one thing, he only has a limited amount of time each day, and he still may need sleep, food, and the occasional entertainment (maybe he plays cat and mouse with the corrupt minister).

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