Is a 12-year-old evil telepath a compelling supervillain idea?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Imagine Charles Xavier was the bad guy, and imagine he's 12 years old. He goes around memory wiping people and stealing all their stuff, including robbing a jewelry store.

What do you think of this basic concept?

So far, he appears in 2 chapters in the book.

[sawno]

I'm familiar with real telepathy so I am a bit biased since I find telepathy a cool thing in general. Memory wiping to my knowledge isn't a real thing so keep that in mind. It also seems to black and white I prefer my villains to grey.

So personally i'd go for something a bit more impactful than a simple memory wipe lets rob kind of scenario. Lets say you go for a full on mind reading approach wouldn't it be more interesting to have him be able to use his ability to know how to manipulate others to a perfect degree? So he's not doing something as basic as robberies but he's actively brainwashing people just by talking to them into whatever he wants them to do.

Then you need a motive, he's 12 in your story so we need to think like a 12 year old. How cool would it be if you could just brag to your friends that you can talk anyone into doing anything. And he's really just a bored kid testing how far his persuasion can go. All the chaos that follows is not directly pinned to him, but people doing outright unpredictable and interesting things while fully believing it was their idea because of his abilities.

I am taking some artistic liberty here with what I know since I am intentionally avoiding which parts of telepathy are real. So don't assume people can just do that, I'm working with the concept of him being able to read these peoples minds and talk them into anything while simultaneously leaving the impression it was their idea.

[goaded]

Is he evil, or just amoral?

There used to be a series called The Tomorrow People, who were kids with powers.

We meet one of them as he "falls" off Tower Bridge. He teleports himself to safety on the way down, just to watch the adults panic!

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Erasing people's memories and stealing their most prized possessions sounds evil to me. He even erases his own parents memories, which causes them to get into fights over what really happened each day.

[Ez-Bri-Z_v2]

Didn't that already exist as Cassandra Nova who was the evil telepath to Charles' "good" one, though I use good in quotations cause he's done some questionable things himself.

How well did she do in the comic runs she had? If your character is compelling beyond just the dark child trope then I can see it working.

[AI Opinion]

That’s a really fun concept 😈 A 12-year-old telepathic villain is creepy in the best way, especially if he’s casually wiping memories to cover petty crimes like jewelry store robberies.

It’ll be most compelling if you lean into the contrast: childish motives, impulsiveness, maybe boredom, mixed with terrifying power. Showing how others underestimate him because he’s a kid could make his scenes really unsettling and memorable.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

I'm going to have a telepathic battle between him and the main character hero, which he eventually loses, but only after she goes full power against him, because she under-estimates him.

[_Jenny_]

@Cinematic Lily very evil

[msc545]

meh - telepathy is far too powerful.

[sawno]

Doesn't have to be, telepathy in real life usually isn't compatible with most people from what I noticed. Its for example twins who can do it with each other, lovers who can do it with each other, random strangers if there's something particularly vivid. Most of the time though its completely absent. Maybe that's different for people who can do it way better.

But you can compare it to a mobile phone, mobile phones to call people is only overpowered when everyone has one. If you can only call 3 people out of 100 they are quite nerved.

As a writer you can work with this concept that there's a chance it doesn't work on someone or that some can sense you are doing it.

[Anonymous]

Sure, in Twilight Zone.