This story is still bouncing around in my head but I don't think I can actually write it.
A brilliant young man sees his brilliant father cheated out of a position he deserves and loses all respect for dear old dad as pops just timidly accepts it. When the young man grows up, the same nearly happens to him, but he refuses to go down without a fight, leading him to a life of crime and villainy which he is discovers he is quite good at. The budding villain builds a criminal empire such that he can finally reach the highest echelons of power, only to his great dismay to see the rulers of the world are bulbous, greasy, demon worshipping sex obsessed freaks. His fury at the world for rewarding mediocrity over brilliance drove him here and like the sick punchline of a bad joke, he couldn't escape it here either. Nobody here is his equal. Nobody here has any ambition or drive beyond the next fix of their preferred perversion. The demons here aren't even dapper clever monsters wheeling and dealing for power either but ravenous soul-hungry freaks who can only offer momentary pleasures that disgust our villain, who cannot even find some form of artful evil or meaningful symbolic cruelty anywhere amongst this crop of degenerates.
But, if demons are real... God must be too. Our villain engages in soul searching and decides that he must simply set his sights higher, to an even greater act of villainy. Tear down the society that feeds this soul devouring, hedonistic system, and he will do it to challenge God. He knows God is real and thus not something one can fight, but the villain will be the second Flood, doing what he feels is God's neglected responsibility, all to be the man who forced God to act, even if said act is to strike him down or humiliate him, our villain would know that he was the man who made God answer.
I do not know where to take a story like this. You could write all sorts of asides from the villain, musing how difficult it would have been to stop Jesus Christ were the villain among the pharisees, etc. He could be convinced that the universe where the meritorious are rewarded is with God, but no matter what by the laws of writing the writer would have to be a standin for God here and I would not want to have to answer a character making demands of capital G actual God on His behalf unless the questions were so simple as to be obvious, and then they wouldn't be interesting to ask
A brilliant young man sees his brilliant father cheated out of a position he deserves and loses all respect for dear old dad as pops just timidly accepts it. When the young man grows up, the same nearly happens to him, but he refuses to go down without a fight, leading him to a life of crime and villainy which he is discovers he is quite good at. The budding villain builds a criminal empire such that he can finally reach the highest echelons of power, only to his great dismay to see the rulers of the world are bulbous, greasy, demon worshipping sex obsessed freaks. His fury at the world for rewarding mediocrity over brilliance drove him here and like the sick punchline of a bad joke, he couldn't escape it here either. Nobody here is his equal. Nobody here has any ambition or drive beyond the next fix of their preferred perversion. The demons here aren't even dapper clever monsters wheeling and dealing for power either but ravenous soul-hungry freaks who can only offer momentary pleasures that disgust our villain, who cannot even find some form of artful evil or meaningful symbolic cruelty anywhere amongst this crop of degenerates.
But, if demons are real... God must be too. Our villain engages in soul searching and decides that he must simply set his sights higher, to an even greater act of villainy. Tear down the society that feeds this soul devouring, hedonistic system, and he will do it to challenge God. He knows God is real and thus not something one can fight, but the villain will be the second Flood, doing what he feels is God's neglected responsibility, all to be the man who forced God to act, even if said act is to strike him down or humiliate him, our villain would know that he was the man who made God answer.
I do not know where to take a story like this. You could write all sorts of asides from the villain, musing how difficult it would have been to stop Jesus Christ were the villain among the pharisees, etc. He could be convinced that the universe where the meritorious are rewarded is with God, but no matter what by the laws of writing the writer would have to be a standin for God here and I would not want to have to answer a character making demands of capital G actual God on His behalf unless the questions were so simple as to be obvious, and then they wouldn't be interesting to ask
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@DrRyanSkelton I think I can help get you unstuck. You just need someone who is competently versed in Scripture who can opine or guide you on how God would likely behave in the hypothetical scenario presented in the book.
VERY common practice in storytelling is finding experts as consultants for detailed, specific, or complex subject matter. Crighton was not an expert in the cloning community when he wrote Jurassic Park. So find someone A) close to God personally, and B) studied in Scripture.
That's not the only problem or way I think to take the story but if I do have to take the story in that direction that is something I would consider.
As a video gamer, part of me thinks: "Make it a video game." Protag is one of villain's employees at Flood2, so all the villain's backstory and goals becomes a slow burn mystery reveal as you only know you're doing dirty work for cash until you first fight a boss that turns into a demon.
