: Re: Creating an incompetent antagonist I'm in the early stages of developing a fantasy story. At a high level, it involves the tried-and-true, if cliched, plot line of "Scrappy group of rebels fights

@Turnbaugh521

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Take a look at this article about the military in Arabic countries. The main point (at risk of overgeneralising) is that the biggest risk to an Arab leader is their own military. Hence they practice "divide and rule" by preventing different branches of the military from working together (no combined operations), and work to systematically eliminate initiative at all levels, including senior ranks.

You might also take a look at the Ottoman Empire, where inheritance went to brothers before sons, leading to a situation where the brothers of the ruler would either be killed or kept isolated in a gilded cage. The latter often meant that when the sultan died his heir would be pulled out of his pleasure palace and stuck on the throne with absolutely no idea of current events or how to rule.

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