How do I handle this type of villain?

[aqua03]

So I'm currently working on a new story and setting called Phaeton and it's coming along pretty smoothly, but there's a slight problem I ran into with the villains.

So a little background for the world of Phaeton: There are three main races: Homa (Humanoid type creatures akin to elves and oni and the like), Kemono (animals like Sorrel), and Automata (A race of robots reversed engineered from a robot that fell from the sky years ago.) Part of my plans for Phaeton society is a general idea that due to how the Automata are robots and thus are "Built" and can be repaired and such, that they're treated as a bit more expendable to society because of their robotic nature. (Why send a squishy, fleshy person out to do a dangerous job when you can send an easily replaceable or repairable robot to do the same thing instead?)

I was planning on having the villains of the first part being a group called the Cult of Tetsujin. The Cult frames itself as an Automata equality and liberation group, but in reality is an extremist group that believe in Automata supremacy that should have complete control over the kingdoms of Phaeton because obvious the Automata are far better than everyone else for much the same reason everyone treats them as expendable worker drones.

Now of course I don't think that civil rights movements and movements for equality are bad and secretly crazed cults trying to bid for world domination instead. So I'm wondering what the best way to go about showing that even thought the Cult of Tetsujin is a genuine threat to the world's stability and their mindset of supremacy and violent revenge is wrong, they're just a small group and most people campaigning for Automata equality are good people with a genuine desire to help both the Automata and the world of Phaeton as a whole be better going forward. Preferably without just having a token Automata be all like "Oh, most of us disagree with the Cult and their methods and want to do things peacefully!" as a throw away line or just randomly having someone like the Kemono protagonist shout "AUTOMATA RIGHTS!" at one point and expect a pat on the back for doing the minimum to show support for this big societal issue, along with just generally not having the entire race thing eat up too much of the story and draw too much focus from the main story and its core themes (Like Agency versus control, developing your own identity away from what others say you are, self worth, letting go of the past, and that sort of thing.)? basically how do I show that fighting for Automata equality is a good thing in universe without making just seem like I'm doing the bare minimum and going, "Well boys, we did it! Robot racism is no more!" along with not having it become too much of a tangent from the Protagonists' main goals and story? (An Automata rights story could be interesting as a separate story in the world, though.)

I eagerly await your feedback and thoughts on this subject and please please PLEASE try to keep things civil and on topic and not devolve into a fight over small things please. Thank you.

[OffBased]

You could have different Automata characters with their own views on the cult. Maybe one of them was a part of the cult and left because they found out about the shady things that they do, but they still want more freedoms.

[Rhonder]

I think the first thing to look at and try to work out is how you can make the cult contrast and oppose the protagonist's goals and ideals. From that conflict, then, an antagonistic relationship can be established to build upon. It's possible that other aspects of the cult, be it their methods, or something else, is the actual thing that the protagonist disagrees with more so than just the robot equality aspect, and thus they can be opposed to that group without being opposed to the idea as a whole (unless they are opposed to the idea, I dunno lol)

A similar narrative that comes to mind as an example is the plot of Pokemon Black and White. The whole deal there is that the evil team vouches for Pokemon freedom and not to capture and force them to battle one another. The people of the region are torn, because everyone likes battling and forming bonds with their pokemon, but is it really the right thing to do? The pokemon don't seem to mind, but do they? The way the group goes about trying to execute their goals are dubious though: they go around trying to forcibly make people release their pokemon and commit criminal acts in the name of the cause. The poster boy, N, doesn't seem like a bad guy, but we learn later that he's being manipulated by the actual main villain to try and persuade everyone to release their pokemon so that he can then be the only one using them and take over the world (or country, or something. I don't remember. it's been a hot minute xD)

This example only partially overlaps, of course, as the bad group is the only ones pushing for this change so it's different than if they were part of a larger cause and the pokemon also can't, like, communicate for themselves necessarily. But maybe this can spark some ideas nonetheless. The short of it is just that the protagonist and antagonist(s) have to be opposed in some way to create conflict

[IndigoShirtProd]

I think it would be good to show the roots of discrimination, and how the discrimination has evolved over the years. You need to show how the cult's is using things like activism and protesting to further their own agenda and how they poison the waters of discourse.

For example, maybe the cult organizes a large protest in one area or city, but in a different region, they are stealing Automata parts to build soldiers, but all of the average protesters are entirely unaware that that is going on. Even at this protest, counter protesters could arrive claiming the cult is a fraud and they could be made of a mix of different races.

It's a matter of creating instances of run ins with the cult that the main characters are there for but in the background, maybe as a subplot, a fight between pro- and anti-Automata equality is brewing. And everything comes to a head when part or all of the cult's plans come to fruition. The activists learn that they've been lied to, some grapple with that fact, others fall in line with the cult anyway because they believe so strongly in the cause. There's a lot of drama to be had mean manipulation is a part of the story, and having a character at the center of all of that would make it very interesting.

[Kaydreamer]

You're actually writing very close to reality here, because fringe groups which believe in supremacy splinter off from equal rights movements with more regularity than anyone likes to admit. It's often kinda taboo and not spoken about within the movement, and when it is bought up by external voices in critique, the majority of the movement will disavow said group.

This happens right across the political spectrum, so I'm not casting shade on any one movement. It's common.

As far as writing such a villain, just make it clear that their ideals of supremacy are not shared by the majority of the movement who desire equality. Have your other characters engage in conversations about how they think this villain is taking things too far. If you want an extra layer of reality on there, have critics of the equality movement point at the villain and say "See?! They're all like this!" and make your good characters have to defend themselves against that perception.

You've actually picked a very fun concept to play with here, which resonates well with many of the things happening in society today. You likely will cop critique for it, no matter how carefully you write it; some people are just unreasonable, so be prepared for that. Just write it with honestly, nuance, and good intentions.

[aqua03]

That could be interesting and something I was already thinking of doing. Maybe a later party member (maybe one who starts out as an enemy of the protagonists as well possibly). I know I do want to avoid cast bloat because my last project had too many characters to keep track of, but i think I could squeeze a character like that in later in the story perhaps.

@Rhonder

Yeah, that would probably work well as well. Especially because the protagonist (Another robot soldier that fell from the sky like the one that led to the creation of the Automata in the first place) is viewed as a "Chosen One" by the Cult to lead said group to victory in their conquest. So that might provide some interesting clashes given that his whole motivation is to figure out just why everyone thinks he's so important and is after him as well.

There's a lot of drama to be had mean manipulation is a part of the story, and having a character at the center of all of that would make it very interesting.

Yeah, those are some pretty good idea. Heck, the main protagonist's flaw is just how easily manipulated he can be thanks to both his amnesia and background of being someone literally built to follow orders without question. Could lead to an interesting part of the story where his desire to find out why he's so important to everyone he ends up getting manipulated to work for the cult for a bit. Already had a bit of a similar idea where maybe the cult holds one of his friends hostage, forcing him to work for them to get his friend back.

As far as writing such a villain, just make it clear that their ideals of supremacy are not shared by the majority of the movement who desire equality. Have your other characters engage in conversations about how they think this villain is taking things too far. If you want an extra layer of reality on there, have critics of the equality movement point at the villain and say "See?! They're all like this!" and make your good characters have to defend themselves against that perception.

You've actually picked a very fun concept to play with here, which resonates well with many of the things happening in society today. You likely will cop critique for it, no matter how carefully you write it; some people are just unreasonable, so be prepared for that. Just write it with honestly, nuance, and good intentions.

Yeah, I was thinking that as well. Maybe have the protagonist be shoved around a bit due to his robotic nature (being basically part of the same model of robots that were basically the "genetic ancestor" of the Automata more or less), thus allowing the Cult to slide in and go "Hey, why do you care about saving them so much if they treat you so poorly? You should help us rule them instead!" or something like that.

Yeah, that's definitely something I've been working on accepting: That I can't control how people react to my stuff, only how I react what happens. I guess I'm always just afraid of offending people on accident, but if I treat the subject matter respectfully and handle it well, then I really shouldn't have much to worry about. Because there will always be nuts people who don't like what you're doing no mater what, but they're usually in the minority. I should focus more on the people who actually matter in that regard. Positive friends and constructive criticism and the like.