: Re: Would readers feel cheated if the villain is successful in convincing the protagonist to change sides? So I'm writing a story where the main character is sent to kill the main villain. I have

This is the main plot point behind the Anime series, Maoyu. The "Hero" goes to fight the "Demon King" to end the war and suffering of all the human people, but ends up being turned to the Demon King's side.
The Anime accomplishes this in a few ways:

It doesn't give us much time at all to feel the Demon King is actually a terrible evil.
Â Â Â Â The Anime opens with the Hero about to enter the Demon King's castle to face off. We're only really told this is a great evil force, not shown. This makes it easier to accept that maybe the Demon King isn't so evil after all.

It makes the Demon King completely opposite of every expectation both the Hero and viewer have.
Â Â Â Â This is what really gets the Hero to actually listen in the first place. Perhaps your Ultimate Evil is actually a 14 year old, trying their best to fill the shoes of those before them while slowly changing the evil organization.

It takes pains to identify the "true evil" (and show this time, instead of just tell) and dissociates the Demon King with it.

These are the three biggest methods I see to defy the viewer's expectations and turn what might be hate into empathy. How you accomplish this is up to you, but your end goal shouldn't be convincing the Hero as much as convincing the the reader. If you can't win the reader over to the other side, they'll be stuck hating your main character, no matter how realistic it is for the MC to act this way.

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: I know Buffy has already been mentioned a couple of times, but I think the single biggest example has already been missed. If you look at the first 5 seasons of Buffy there is a steady

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: How do I add more details in my story? I'm writing a story where two lovers meet then I having one of them die at the end. I am curious to see how much imagery I should add.

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: I love the "different? Sort of person" tonally. The word different and the question mark really communicate that the speaker is STRONGLY questioning their own description as if they are still

: Re: Would readers feel cheated if the villain is successful in convincing the protagonist to change sides? So I'm writing a story where the main character is sent to kill the main villain. I have

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: How can a main character in a visual novel attract people of different personalities besides having a single trait each of them is attracted to? Ok, so I currently have a visual novel (For

: I know Buffy has already been mentioned a couple of times, but I think the single biggest example has already been missed. If you look at the first 5 seasons of Buffy there is a steady

: How do I add more details in my story? I'm writing a story where two lovers meet then I having one of them die at the end. I am curious to see how much imagery I should add.

: I love the "different? Sort of person" tonally. The word different and the question mark really communicate that the speaker is STRONGLY questioning their own description as if they are still

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