Villainous Motivation
By RaceKickfist 23 Comments
If theres one thing that can make or break a story for me its the motivations of the antagonist. There are so many games out there you'd think that more than a few of them would deviate from the "rule the world/ immortality/ change the world because of revenge for loss/ etc" motivation set. I can understand how naturally you can build a game around a threat stemming from villains whose motivations consist of "RULE THE WORLD! ARGH!" And I can see the allure of the clear-cut good vs evil themes that come from those particular motivations. I can also see how easily accepted and instantly recognizable those themes are to the audience in this day and age (what with the over-saturation of said themes and all). So I understand how they are so prevalent in video games and stories. And since the interwebernets grant me a big fat virtual soapbox i'll boldly as why.
So the writer has been given a task to create this narrative that is intended to do many things: Build an appealing world, create appealing characters, and move the plot forward in a fluid and engrossing manner. To me the most important question is "how come this stuff is happening?" I'm an artsy guy, so I can really appreciate the work thats gone into the aesthetics and stylish design of the worlds and characters. As a computer animator, I cant help but dig myself into the animation of all the characters, the subtle nuances in the cutscenes, the acting choices and posing, how BA it looks when that dude's axe of contemptuous tastelessness shears the carapace of a giant scorpion that has boobs for some reason. But without some sort of motivation its all just a tech demo. or an alpha build at best.
this is coming out short at all. sorry, I'll try to get to the dang point.
I think ruling the world is a stupid reason for somebody to strive for power. Why would you want to rule the world? You'd be responsible for everyone on the planet. Every little BS thing that goes wrong is either because of you, or you're expected to fix it. And you might think "well, who cares about the peons? let 'em rot! I'm KING, baby!" which is a definite stance to take. But to what end? the peons "rot," and end up killing themselves. and the planet goes to chaos all around you while you're sitting in your tower not DOING anything. pretty soon its just you in a pretty place. congratulations, you've reduced your world to a tech demo!
Maybe I'm exaggerating, but it seems that these conquering villains havent thought this thing through very well. They love that goal-orientation of "conquer this, then I conquer THAT! and then muhahahahah!" Sure, that journey can be exciting. but its a journey that ends. It ends with you in a lonely tower, ultimately king over a people of one. unless, you know, you WANT to help settle land disputes and office worker grievances for the rest of your life. and oh, whats that?
you also cant friggin' die?
Immortality is even more ridiculous. ESPECIALLY when paired with ruling the world. Twilight is dumb, but I think stephanie meyer nailed it when she showed just how effing BORING everything is. living forever is boring. twilight is BORING. dakota fanning looks like a MR F with her off-center red contacts.
the riff-trax for the twilight flicks are very choice, btw.
I'll spare you any more and expound on this later, since I'm a long-winded kind of fool.