Okay, so my second Space Outlaws essay, and I kick off with a really heavy and hard subject: Bad guys!
In any adventure story, you need bad guys. Heck, you need bad guys (and girls), aka antagonists in any story. Otherwise, how can your hero/heroine show off their heroics?
So, of course the Space Outlaws have bad guys. It honestly have more bad guys (and girls) than goodies. Hereafter I will refer to them as antagonists and heroes, respectively.
The first ones the Space Outlaws encounter are the rather faceless Genestealers. These are your ordinary bug-monsters, with a bit of Ridley Scott's Alien thrown in. They are gribbly, clawed monstrosities with little reason or tactics. On an ice planet. In this first part, the Eds are greatly aided by the Sisters of Battle (who in my current opinion didn't show what they truly can do!) In short, the Genestealers were, and are, portrayed as dumb animals. Rather sad, in a way. They have greater potential and a short story featuring some 'Stealer hunting in the Armageddon underhives would make for intense reading. Maybe I should add that to Memories? Ah well...
The threat of Xeno species was upped a bit with the entry of the Kanker sisters possessed by the Hive Mind that controlled the bugs. Yet still, the Eds/Space Outlaws were only facing puppets, weren't they? And I felt this myself. These opponents weren't really worthy of what the Eds (and later Commissar Rolf Yarrick) were capable of taking on. Right?
Things took an interesting turn, in my own opinion, when the Eldar turned on the Imperials by thermo-bombing Saim'Hann and leaving the Secondus system without a word. This enigmatic behaviour is something I personally feel should be checked out further, and I probably will in future stories. The Eldar are jokers, in the sense that you never know exactly where you have them.
But the real antagonist is, and always will be (HammerFall reference W00t!), Lord Kevlinn, in all his incarnations. All in all, Kevlinn has four (4) incarnations: Captain Kevin Poole, Lord Kevlinn, Lord Kharn and Deamon Prince Kharn Fleshtearer. Strictly speaking, the last one is not Kevlinn himself, but the point is coming across, I think. He is the constant antagonist, the constant evil. He is opposed not only to the Space Outlaws but also to both Yarricks (Rolf and Sebastian) as well as McGranth and Charleston (not McKenzie, see further down) not to mention the Emperor and the whole of the Imperium. If the Space Outlaws where Star Wars he'd be Darth Vader. If it was Doctor Who, he'd be a combination of the Daleks and the Master. The BIG bad guy!
As such, he needs a well fleshed out character in the same manner of the heroes. And he has. Matter of fact, I think Kevlinn has grown more than Rolf Yarrick and the others combined. Why? He started out as a card-board villain (think Dr. Claw in Inspector Gadget) and has since gotten a depth I think few antagonists lack. He has a true "Reason for Treason". In short, this is based on his resentment of McGranth and his outlawhood. For yes, Kevlinn is a Space Outlaw too. He and his 8th Assault Company of the Death Angels Legion was outlawed after an incident unheard of in the history of the Death Angels Legion. They took the name the Berzerkers and the rest is, as they say, history. His treason culminated in the slaughter of Imperial refugees on Armageddon after they had raided an Eldar Craftworld to save said refugees. On that Craftworld, he acquired what came to be known as the Axe of Khorne, a powerful deamon weapon and he also stared down into the Well of Time, after having slain the Eldar Phoenix Lord residing with the Craftworld. Some would say that Kevin Poole lost his mind to the Well of Time, but as he still seems to have some grasp of tactics, maybe the opposite is true: maybe he is more clear-minded than ever?
Anyway, it was after this that Levin Poole became Lord Kevlinn and turned his back on the Throne and the Emperor.
All in all, Kevlinn's evil lies in his destructive power. He is powerful as an antagonist because he is a sort of personification of destruction. He doesn't build up anything. He corrupts it. This is all very dry, I know. But pulling an engaging character apart like this and looking at him, scrutinizing him, is a dry business.
Apart from Kevlinn, the other big antagonist was Metallix, the General of the Necrontyr. An army leader. Completely and utterly driven by one purpose: domination of the human species. And if that failed, he'd destroy them in the process. The Necrons, having a lot of the Dr. Who Cybermen about them, were his slaves, and the human species once had been. Metallix was a C'tan, a star child and demi-god. And he was not alone. His "side-kick" was the scientist, Damien. As both Damien and Metallix were designations that humans had applied to them, their true names remain a mystery. Just as the Emperor's true name is shrouded in mystery. He is referred to as Sorn'henai, which is Eldarain for Eagle Eye, and sometimes even as Sigismund, but his true name is unknown.
In pure power, Metallix came to measure up and surpass Kevlinn, at least in the latter's human form. As a deamon, Kharn/Kevlinn is still unsurpassed.
As I mentioned earlier, McKenzie's main antagonist is not Kevlinn. Instead, he has his own brother, George "grimjaw" McKenzie as his opponent. The reason these two don't get along is in the main because of George's jealousy of his mentally powerful as well as Space Marine brother. George was an ordinary man in almost every respect, except for his ability to understand mechanics. So, to be able to measure up to his big brother, George started to experiment on himself. Somewhere along that line, he lost his sanity. And killed his own family in an attempt to find a "cure" to the McKezie family curse of mutation.
So far I've talked about true antagonists, like Kevlinn, Metallix, and George McKenzie as well as the Kankers and touched the Eldar. But whereas these people are originally good ones turn really bad, what about those that never were good, like the Deamon princes? or those who strictly speaking still are good, but only have slighted our heroes? These last ones are of course minor characters, but they should be brought up to give a wholler picture, but they are the subject of next time.
Why next time? This blog entry is very long... :P
