A Gilgamesh inspired villain as MC story.

Jemini

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The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of a man who was born from the gods, given every powerful tool at his disposal, and told he was to be the hero of humanity. He turns into a tyrant king and the worst villain the land has ever seen and the gods panic as they have to now contribute more of their resources in order to defeat and/or reform the very tyrant they created.

I don't see how any of these typical power fantasy isekai protagonists don't resemble Gilgamesh other than how the writer portrays their personality as being blandly incorruptible. Why don't we see more of these isekai protagonists being more like Gilgamesh and letting the power go to their heads? Well, I guess we kinda DO see that, but they are side villains who the protagonist has to deal with. How about casting one of these guys who let the power go to their heads as the MC of the story? Wouldn't that make for a rather interesting story you think?

So, let's see some ideas on how to get an OP protagonist favored by the gods and trusted to become the savior of the world completely go off the rails and become the villain of the story.





BTW: Do not go Arifruetta's route. Arifruetta actually features an OP MC who was inspired by the Hurcules story structure, someone who has his promised greatness denied to him and he has to go through hard work scraping about and demeaning himself in order to rise to power. This model of requiring serious effort to come into your power is actually the perfect picture of how to create an anti-Gilgamesh character. In fact, Hurcules was originally conceived of as an anti-Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh was an effort by the writers of the time to point out how corrupting power is. Hurcules was an effort by the writers of the time to be idealistic and put forward the idea that forcing someone to work for their power and coming to it through merit can at least blunt that edge of corruption (I say blunted, but the writers of the time were idealistic enough to think their Hurcules character was incorruptible due to him having to work for his power. No, power still corrupts, but I'm with them that at least the corruption would be softened by having to slave among the working man for a while and getting some sympathy and understanding for the real world as a result.) Even if the writers of The Labors of Hurcules were not aware of The Epic of Gilgamesh (doubtful as they should have been well read people,) they were still inspired into their writing after seeing the exact same problem that Gilgamesh's story was pointing out and they approached it from the exact opposite direction.
 
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LotsChrono

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The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of a man who was born from the gods, given every powerful tool at his disposal, and told he was to be the hero of humanity. He turns into a tyrant king and the worst villain the land has ever seen and the gods panic as they have to now contribute more of their resources in order to defeat and/or reform the very tyrant they created.

I don't see how any of these typical power fantasy isekai protagonists don't resemble Gilgamesh other than how the writer portrays their personality as being blandly incorruptible. Why don't we see more of these isekai protagonists being more like Gilgamesh and letting the power go to their heads? Well, I guess we kinda DO see that, but they are side villains who the protagonist has to deal with. How about casting one of these guys who let the power go to their heads as the MC of the story? Wouldn't that make for a rather interesting story you think?

So, let's see some ideas on how to get an OP protagonist favored by the gods and trusted to become the savior of the world completely go off the rails and become the villain of the story.
BTW: Do not go Arifruetta's route. Arifruetta actually features an OP MC who was inspired by the Hurcules story structure, someone who has his promised greatness denied to him and he has to go through hard work scraping about and demeaning himself in order to rise to power. This model of requiring serious effort to come into your power is actually the perfect picture of how to create an anti-Gilgamesh character. In fact, Hurcules was originally conceived of as an anti-Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh was an effort by the writers of the time to point out how corrupting power is. Hurcules was an effort by the writers of the time to be idealistic and put forward the idea that forcing someone to work for their power and coming to it through merit can at least blunt that edge of corruption. Even if the writers of The Labors of Hurcules were not aware of The Epic of Gilgamesh (doubtful as they should have been well read people,) they were still inspired into their writing after seeing the exact same problem that Gilgamesh's story was pointing out and they approached it from the exact opposite direction.
There's actually various lightnovels that touch on this. One of which is 'My Instant Death Ability is so Overpowered' and another is 'The Executioner and Her Way of Life'. The former focuses on an OP protagonist dealing with a world where OP people let their power get into their head constantly, him being the few who don't as he has very strong morals and rules he uses to keep himself in check, and the latter deals with an individual called a 'Executioner' who is tasked with killing 'Transmigrated People' before they have the chance to cause Calamities using their powers in a world where those people can be summoned quite regularly and have caused massive destruction before.

However, as for one super-poweful individual being the villain and the MC? Hmm I've never actually seen it done. I've seen anti-heroes like that, but not straight up villains. The only thing I could think of is the light novel 'Dungeon Defense' (it's not actually about defending a dungeon) where, though the MC is very much a villain, he isn't overpowered, just incredibly smart. He's most similar to Lelouch in the fantasy setting he finds himself, playing his allies, his enemies, and the entire world at the tips of his fingers. Incredible series with incredible writing.

Alright that's my two cents.
 

Vaxel00

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A young boy grows up in the slums, poverty and disease run rampant and violence is the currency. He grows resentment for those in power, thinking it's them who are keeping the people down.

As he grows he becomes more and more powerful, more skilled. All with the purpose of dethroning the rulers and he leads a revolution.

After he succeeded then comes the question, now what?

The people agree that he's supposed to rule them and ... he tries. But as the years go by the status quo becomes the same but with different people at the top and the bottom. He doesn't get it, everything was supposed to be better, yet the more he tries to solve everything and to make everyone happy he fails.

He realizes that the problem wasn't the system that he thought oppressed them, it's their very nature that's the problem, the system was just a projection of it. The weak ones are there to justify the strong.

Why the hell did he fought so hard for?

His solution became as extreme as his realization, if the problem is their very nature then there's no point in saving them, you can save them from themselves. Might as well exterminate them.
 

Mechaphobic

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Adam Carpenter had one dream, for as long as he could remember.

"I want to be the villain! I want to betray the hero, and steal his harem! I want to put my foot firmly on people's backs! I want to rule with an iron fist!"

With this dream in mind he spent his youth silently preparing, and before long he was over 40 years old. While down on his luck one day, he ventured out into the world. While attempting to get back his stolen wallet, he was killed. Finding himself in a new world in a small room, he heard a voice in his head.

[I am your new personal system, I exist for your happiness, Adam. :) ]

Adam at first was stunned, before an evil smile filled his face.

"I will be the villain of this new futuristic world!"

This is a futuristic comedy about the world where humans made it. As a species they made it through with no wars, as they shared resources and technology. They flourished all across the galaxy, as shining example of the ideal species. They overcame all obstacles, until there weren't any left for them. How will Adam become the villain of this new world?

Oh wait I already started writing this XD

 

NotaNuffian

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So basically you want a main character who is corrupted by the amount of powers he have thanks to his sponsers? I think that there is a group of folks would want to read that and some of us who is just binging for the sake would not. The whole OP MC being a dick to the world is quite often, for me Overlord is one. Though I do get the whole "not going bad" thing as most of us project ourselves into the MC and deep down everyone is good, kind and possibly a carebear and thus, becoming the arrogant Gilgamesh is cool and all, it would suck if the recepients don't deserve it.

Case and point, CN authors often write their ruthless and arrogant MCs up againsting someone more diabolical than themselves, this is to make the readers feel good about being in the moral highground. It is stale, but I would still eat if off the floor when I am in braindead mode and binging content.
 

KyoruS

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A young boy grows up in the slums, poverty and disease run rampant and violence is the currency. He grows resentment for those in power, thinking it's them who are keeping the people down.

As he grows he becomes more and more powerful, more skilled. All with the purpose of dethroning the rulers and he leads a revolution.

After he succeeded then comes the question, now what?

The people agree that he's supposed to rule them and ... he tries. But as the years go by the status quo becomes the same but with different people at the top and the bottom. He doesn't get it, everything was supposed to be better, yet the more he tries to solve everything and to make everyone happy he fails.

He realizes that the problem wasn't the system that he thought oppressed them, it's their very nature that's the problem, the system was just a projection of it. The weak ones are there to justify the strong.

Why the hell did he fought so hard for?

His solution became as extreme as his realization, if the problem is their very nature then there's no point in saving them, you can save them from themselves. Might as well exterminate them.

Sounds just like my country's politics :blob_popcorn:
 

Jemini

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A young boy grows up in the slums, poverty and disease run rampant and violence is the currency. He grows resentment for those in power, thinking it's them who are keeping the people down.

As he grows he becomes more and more powerful, more skilled. All with the purpose of dethroning the rulers and he leads a revolution.

After he succeeded then comes the question, now what?

The people agree that he's supposed to rule them and ... he tries. But as the years go by the status quo becomes the same but with different people at the top and the bottom. He doesn't get it, everything was supposed to be better, yet the more he tries to solve everything and to make everyone happy he fails.

He realizes that the problem wasn't the system that he thought oppressed them, it's their very nature that's the problem, the system was just a projection of it. The weak ones are there to justify the strong.

Why the hell did he fought so hard for?

His solution became as extreme as his realization, if the problem is their very nature then there's no point in saving them, you can save them from themselves. Might as well exterminate them.

That's the Hercules model, not the Gilgamesh model. I kinda drew a distinction between the two for a reason. We're supposed to be going for the Gilgamesh model here.

That said, it could be interesting to corrupt the Hurcules model. It's kind of a mature view on the revolutionary mind-set of today that overthrows the idealism of the Greeks who wrote the Hurcules epic about struggling up from the bottom somehow making you immune to corruption.
 

hyperkvlt

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Uhh, put it simply: Gilgamesh got his power either gift from someone, a power since birth, or bottomless talent that doesn't require much efforts while Hercules is the type that works hard to reach OPness?
 

Jemini

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Uhh, put it simply: Gilgamesh got his power either gift from someone, a power since birth, or bottomless talent that doesn't require much efforts while Hercules is the type that works hard to reach OPness?

Well, Hercules himself had his immense physical strength from birth, but he was of the lower class and had the gods actively working against him in order to hinder him the entire time. (In the original story anyway, the Disney version changed it and replaced Harrah with Hades, most likely because they didn't want to get into the mess of Hercules' birth being the result of Zuse cheating on her and sleeping around.) Zuse wanted Herc to basically be a copy of Gilgamesh, but Harrah intervened.

So, due to Harrah, Hercules got knocked down to working class status, but that wasn't enough for Harrah. She went on to inflict him with insanity and force him to kill his own family, and on top of that she set him up to become a slave for that very same crime she made him commit. It was while he was working as a slave doing his 12 labors that he gained popularity among the people and usurped the cowardly king and became a good king for the people in his place.

Having to work for the OPness is probably necessary in our modern thoughts of the genre though, so it is worth considering that as part of the Hercules model of hero stories. Just putting out that Herc had the OP from start status for the sake of putting everything up front to keep someone from nit-picking later. But, yes, in modern portrayals of those following his model they would have to work up to OP status.

Your assessment of the Gilgamesh model is spot-on though.
 
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