Jaycee Woods

I was listening to Red at Overly Sarcastic Productions talk about heroic sacrifice as a trope when I thought to myself that I wouldn’t write that into a story. However, I realized that is exactly what The Butcher is trying to do in my Boudica and The Butcher draft.

In the story, I introduce him as a terror. Slowly his backstory is revealed giving him a sympathetic motivation. Next the utilitarian calculus of his crimes are laid out: ending the war sooner through causing horrific suffering saves more lives compared to an unending lower intensity conflict. If I express it well, the reader should sympathize with his logic within the constraints but be unable to imagine doing such horrible things themselves.

After Boudica established emotional intimacy with him, as his guard drops, The Butcher expressed his self-awareness that the cost of his choices and actions are the destruction of his soul (not in the religious sense) plus the end of his purpose, thus his life, with the end of the war.

In contrast to The Butcher, Boudica becomes the heroine of the story by rejecting his sacrifice and instead pushing to save him while he still ends the war.