Nov 01 2009
The Generic Villain Speaks In Dreams
Normally the management and I don’t get too involved in each other’s work, but here we have a perfectly good riff on dreams, and nothing about how we deal with them. See, the dream is an excellent way to mess with a protagonist’s head. What better way of influencing them than in a situation where they can’t be sure if it’s us interfering or the Forces of Good sending a message or their own neurons firing in funny patterns or whatever metaphysical garble they explain the pretty pictures with? And better yet, they usually aren’t too good at shielding their minds when they’re asleep. Not paying attention, after all. But if you’re going to mess with their dreams, you’ll want to figure out what you’re trying to accomplish first, so you can adjust your battle strategy.
Usually, when messing with the protagonist’s dreams, we’ve got one of three objectives. In some cases, we’re just trying to deliver a message, one way or another. If your target is quite aware that this is how you’re going to contact her, go ahead and be obvious about it—adjust the dream to your personal advantage, speak your piece, and leave. While you can converse, I don’t recommend it, particularly if you’re up against a deceptive protagonist; it leaves you open to the same kind of influencing they’re doing on you. On the other hand, it’s quite possible that you want to deliver a message but don’t want it to seem to be from you. You might take on the semblance of someone else, or sculpt a dream that can be interpreted as suggesting whatever you want to get across.
Another reason why you might be in a protagonist’s dreams is to influence her emotions, either on a certain subject or in general. Maybe you’re trying to put the fear of you in her, or to make her more friendly towards one of your plants, or just to induce a sort of universal ennui or melancholy in her. For this, subtle is better. If it’s obvious that you’re sending the dreams, then they’re going to be resisted, but if your target thinks it’s just part of her, she might even make a point of justifying them when someone else tells her she shouldn’t be so wrapped up in them.
As a combination of the above two, you might be in a position to try to make the target want to follow a certain path—maybe come to a realization and then follow it wherever it leads. This, of course, takes time: you’re going to want to figure out what you want them looking for, and then you’re going to need to deliver it in pieces, in such a way that they’re having to work for every little piece. After all, nobody trusts a free lunch—and small wonder, given how often the things are poisoned—but the stuff they have to work for, they value, because, well, they worked for it. There’s a fallacy for that out there somewhere.
Then there’s the third reason: giving them the wrong impressions about themselves. This one is for masters; it requires utmost subtlety and a greater understanding of the target than any other method. If you want to make your target think she’s slowly losing her mind, you can’t put your face on every creature she walks past in her dreams unless what you’re going for relates to paranoia about you; if you want her to believe her friends are rejecting her, they have to speak in their voices and use their phrasings, not borrow yours. If it can be traced to you, if all of it is clearly your work, then it all shatters, because there’s a clear cause. But if there isn’t a clear cause, then it Comes From Inside, and if it Comes From Inside it must be true.
Knowing your objective is the first step to figuring out your strategy. “Evil will always win because good is dumb” only works when evil is smart like us. Think it through!
