Subject (mostly) says it all.
Also, I want to run a panel on villainy and the importance thereof, and I'm interested in having a co-panelist. Although I could very well just up and do the whole thing myself.
Haven't been to a con in forever, but hope you have a good time :)
You need to amend that to *intelligent* villainy. There hasn't been a really awesome villain since.. Hannibal Lechter. And Kaiser Soze.
Negative.
A villain needs to be appropriate to the setting. A super-competent ass-pull-from-anywhere villain (see bad guys in the last two Batman movies) can leave a bad taste in the audience's mouths. A Xanatos roulette isn't considered really great, because it doesn't work with most of the normal storytelling rules (foreshadowing, and letting the viewers/readers feel informed, primarily).
A villain can be irredeemably evil, or sympathetic, or 'not so different, you and I', but 'intelligence' is just one tool in an arsenel. It's not _that_ much more critical than 'has super-strength' or 'is from the future'. If the villain can be a credible threat through other strengths, and evokes a struggle, it can actually be utterly mindless.
What matters most is that the villain fit in the setting; villains are meant primarily to be foils to the heroes. Or we can use the modern protagonist/antagonist tags, but still.
I'm also identifying the 'villain' as whatever the conflict is, as well. Oftentimes in generic stories, the main conflict is personified by one guy, also known as the villain. Without a decent villain, a decent conflict, you don't have a protagonist that does anything interesting, etc etc etc.
There are awesome villains. They don't have to necessarily be strong or intelligent... just effective.
Speaking of awesome villains... man, Handsome Jack was a good villain. He's pretty smart, but not SUPER smart. He's not really that strong. He's also funny.
He's just a douche that makes you want to punch him though, and he drives the story forward, keeping you interested plotwise.
Edit: ANYWAY it'll be a supercool panel. Either of you two going? (I'm guessing not on Iddy's part, since I'm guessing he's still stuck in Desert-istan.)
Well, I won't be going. Agoraphobic misanthrope; I don't handle large groups well anyway. Tend to go mildly catatonic or into a mumbling fuge in con-sized crowds. >_>;
As for Iddy, I think he's in Texas now. So maybe!
Get Anastasia to go!
Well it looks like I'm going to be the sole member of this panel. I have friends that are going, but they're not literary-minded enough to go on a diatribe.
Cy and I haven't been able to afford to go to ACEN in a while, sadly. Luckily, Toronto is FULL of frikken conventions.