#theres a paragraph on Nikola Orsinov alone in me somewhere

[radiosandrecordings]

Okay this is a take straight out of the shower but I really wana talk about podcasts and the usage of calm, well spoken, soft voiced villains.

Because that’s mostly all of them?

Like, most major podcasts these days the villains all seem to fall into the same category, vocally at least. They’re overly polite (at least at first), very calm and composed, and hell, half of them can be described at chipper

Elias TMA. Wadsworth TBS. Carter W359. John TAZ. Even dating back to Kevin WTNV, and a million others I’m sure

There’s two main ways I think this theme has cropped up; one by the virtue of the story podcasts are often trying to tell, and by the way they’re trying to say it.

Number one is how they’re saying it, the most simple reason: it’s an audio medium. You can’t convey bulk and strength through a voice very easily, and often if you succeed you end up with something deeply unpleasant to listen to (See TMA’s Jared). It’s a necessity of the medium that they’re easy on the ears.

So what’s to be done to convey their innate villain-ness? Well you make them just. Too nice. So nice it’s a little unnerving, really. Kevin WTNV is the best example, his trademark wide smile evident in every word he speaks. And this clashes horrifically against Cecil, or any other protagonist facing this kind of villain, who just speaks... normally. They get nervous or uncomfortable facing off against this figurehead of power who just blatantly refuses to crack, always calm and composed in a way that becomes terrifying the longer the veneer is kept up. Because what the hell do you have to do to crack it, if your villain is so confidant they can remain mild and benign in conversation?

The second reason is more to do with the messages podcast so often are trying to convey, and another thing all these characters have in common. They’re all beaurocrats of some kind. They all represent a company, or a corporation, or some grand scheme in charge. Shorthand? They’re all metaphors for capitalism.

And what’s more terrifying about capitalism than just how.. unphased, everyone at the top is? How the world could be (is) crumbling and they’re just unperturbed, smiling away down at every inconsequential thing beneath them. They’re entirely relaxed in their positions of power.

They don’t need to convey physical power to be scary. They don’t even need to demonstrate that much intellectual power, though depending on the character that can also be a common attribute (especially in ‘mastermind’ characters like Elias and Wadsworth who rely on manipulation). They just need to have a confidence behind their words that the protagonists don’t. They can send chills down your spine because oh god, what if they’re right? They hold so much conviction behind their words because they exude this sense of I’m winning and there’s nothing you can do about it.

This is even worse when the characters finally snap. Because the absolutely horrifying reveal of that soft, mild mannered voice threatening you? That’s fuckin excellent storytelling.