Samuel J Ernst

How to Write a Compelling Villain Ensemble: The Knights of Ren vs The Phantom Troupe     If you’re writing a short story, novel, or screenplay, you probably have a villain. Maybe you even have multiple villains.     What if you have an entire group of villains, who more or less work together? After all, if your story can have multiple protagonists, or friends and side characters for the main protagonist, why can’t the villain have family and friends, too?     In this post, I’ll break down some elements that make a great villain ensemble, using two examples. The Phantom Troupe from Hunter X Hunter is an example of a well-written, interesting cast of villains, while the Knights of Ren from the Star Wars sequels serves as an example of what not to do. 1. Individuality Source:  https://www.cbr.com/hunter-x-hunter-strongest-weakest-phantom-troupe-members/       In a well-written ensemble, both the individuals and the group have thei...

  Pilotology: Why Stranger Things ' First Episode Can Be Kind of Confusing If you just clicked on this post to read about Stranger Things , then you can scroll down a bit, but because this is my first post on here, I want to do a little introduction.  My name's Sam, I'm good at writing, and I'm bad at making up fun facts about myself for icebreakers. I created this blog for three main reasons: 1) Because I like talking about stories, in any form  –  books, TV shows, games  –  both in a "that character's really cool, I love him" way, but also in a more analytical way. As a writer, I look to these things to see what they do well, so I can improve my own stories. There are a lot of blogs and YouTube channels out there analyzing TV shows. But not a lot of them are geared towards writing. I often found myself watching some really insightful analyses, and learning a lot about what certain shows did right and wrong. But then when I sat down in front of the keyboa...