Discussion Literature / UseOfWeapons

I think that people change. My God, What Have I Done? is a trope for a reason.

Time to cart out the ol' Complete Monster definition again.

• The character must personally engage in a series of truly horrendous acts, and the story makes no attempt to gloss these over or present them in a positive light. Acts concealed behind a Villainy Discretion Shot or by a distant Mook don't count. The Complete Monster usually starts at the Moral Event Horizon and keeps on running, though nothing excludes him becoming one through Character Development.
• The character must evoke fear, revulsion and/or hatred from the other characters in the story. If there are other villains around, they are afraid of/dislike this person, too — Even Evil Has Standards, after all. If the other characters in the story treat the character as a joke or don't take them seriously, they fail to qualify.
• There is no adequate justification or Freudian Excuse to balance out the misdeeds.
• The character must show no regret or remorse for their actions, however terrible. It's better if they obviously enjoy it, but complete lack of emotion or caring will suffice.
• Most importantly, the character must have no chance of redemption without being considered a Karma Houdini. The only way the story could come to anything resembling a happy ending is if they die or are otherwise removed. A Heel Face Turn is out of the question, and nobody would believe it if it happened. There can be no Redemption Equals Death for this character, and no Fate Worse Than Death is too extreme.

Looks like Elethiomel doesn't quite make the grade, judging by the remorse he feels for his actions, though it's a close-run thing. Definite Moral Event Horizon crosser, though, no doubt about that.

Missed your reply earlier, looking at the definition

• Engages in truly horrendous acts- definite check, although contrary to the description, the character does goodish things after the M E H
• Evokes fear, etc.- ditto- not only does his living step-sister hate him, but even his allies don't always feel at ease with him
• No adequate justification- that's a bit tougher- the action was a horrific M E H crossing, but the novel did suggest that the Zakalawe the protagonist impersonates was a pretty nasty dick to him, even if his victim certainly didn't deserve it.
• No regret or remorse- as you noted, he does have remorse
• No chance of redemption- probably true- from what I can tell, the novel implies that he's completely self-destructive and even if he does survive at the end of the novel, will likely have a bloody end

So, in short, I'd lean against keeping Complete Monster, but agree that it's a close call.

I'd say he definitely counts for 'no adequate justification'. There's no level of dickery that your foe can sink to that justifies turning your own girlfriend into a chair and her face into a pillow just to mess with his head.

Not saying that pushes him over into Complete Monster territory - there's still that pesky fourth bulletpoint - but it warranted mentioning anyway.

Complete pedantry: the pillow wasn't made of Darckense's face, since the button was made of her navel.

Just a little Johnny-come-lately comment - it's not actually clear what the civil war in question was about in the first place, so we don't have any idea what justification he might have had. Zakalwe and Elethiomel clearly had some backstory, but it's pretty clear that, in earlier scenes, Elethiomel is not at the head of his faction (Clarifying edit: as in he's probably not responsible for the start of the war, but he is responsible for his army's victory or defeat).