Special:Badtitle/NS90:Forum:Trope Talk/Cleaning up of questionable tropes/reply (13)

We can continue here. If the threads start getting too small to read, just reply to the top thread and continue.

Anyway, my responses:


 * Affably Evil: Granted, but think of it this way: You know a guy who goes around and roughs up drug dealers and tries to get kids into drug treatment programs because Drugs Are Bad and he'll do anything to stop them. He's an asshole thug to the dealers and does not apologize for any pain he inflicts on them (and even admits getting pleasure from hurting them), but respects your right to disagree with his actions even though you sympathize with his motives, and he does genuinely care about those harmed by drugs.

That suggests to me that while his company is poisonous despite his good intentions, you can still respect the person and their goals even if their actions and attitudes in pursuit of those goals repulse you about him otherwise. FYI, wouldn't stop me from trying to get the authorities to stop him, but I'd still respect him as a person and the facts he's trying to remedy the drug problem even while being disgusted by his means of stopping the drugs trade.


 * Alternative Character Interpretation: Agreed, this could use cleanup.


 * Ambiguous Disorder: I disagree on medical grounds. Mental illness manifiests in many forms, such as schizophrenia, sociopathy, paranoid delusions, etc. Labeling all criminals as generic psychopaths would be wholly inaccurate.


 * Shell-Shocked Veteran: Fair point. All non military examples should probably be culled from the trope and put under something more fitting then.


 * The Woobie: Agreed entirely on the cleanup.


 * Jerkass Woobie: Let's put it this way: Someone is a jerk to everyone because of a medical condition that makes him suffer pain 24/7. His being a jerk to others is not justified, but you still can sympathize with his pain and feel pity for them regardless due to their suffering, which they clearly never asked for.


 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Let's put it this way: You have been crapped on since birth. Everyone who ever cared about has been murdered or died in various horrible ways. You are slowly dying due to radiation poisoning, and a bomb was put in your body that could destroy the world, and since you are dying and your whole life has been miserable, you decide to detonate that bomb and take the world down with you.

In that case, that act would be supremely genocidal and monstrous, but given the circumstances, I could sympathize with your motives even if the act itself is unforgivable.