Evil Versus Evil: Difference between revisions
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But there's a problem with this. See, heroes are so popular because people ''like'' heroism. People are, to some small extent, [[Rousseau Was Right|basically good]]; they like watching other people be happy, succeed against all odds, and so on. [[Humans Are Bastards|Most of the time]]. The reason villains lose all the time is because they do things that get them into [[The Scrappy|scrappy territory]]; [[Captain Obvious|that's the reason they're villains]]. Watching [[The Bad Guy Wins|a villain defeat the heroes]] and [[Downer Ending|plunge the world into darkness and suffering]] might be refreshing at first, but it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. |
But there's a problem with this. See, heroes are so popular because people ''like'' heroism. People are, to some small extent, [[Rousseau Was Right|basically good]]; they like watching other people be happy, succeed against all odds, and so on. [[Humans Are Bastards|Most of the time]]. The reason villains lose all the time is because they do things that get them into [[The Scrappy|scrappy territory]]; [[Captain Obvious|that's the reason they're villains]]. Watching [[The Bad Guy Wins|a villain defeat the heroes]] and [[Downer Ending|plunge the world into darkness and suffering]] might be refreshing at first, but it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. |
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The solution? Pit the [[Villain Protagonist]] against the [[Villain Antagonist]]. [[Complete Monster|Someone so rotten]] that no matter how low you go on the [[Karma Meter]], you'll ''still'' want to kick his ass. That way, the character(s) can ''be'' evil while ''doing'' good. It's the best of both worlds. You don't have to do really rotten things like [[Kick the Dog|kicking puppies]], you can kick |
The solution? Pit the [[Villain Protagonist]] against the [[Villain Antagonist]]. [[Complete Monster|Someone so rotten]] that no matter how low you go on the [[Karma Meter]], you'll ''still'' want to kick his ass. That way, the character(s) can ''be'' evil while ''doing'' good. It's the best of both worlds. You don't have to do really rotten things like [[Kick the Dog|kicking puppies]], you can kick fire-breathing demon puppies instead. It's kind of hard to [[Take Over the World]] when another [[Evil Overlord]] is already ruling it; [[Evil Versus Oblivion|or]] wants [[Omnicidal Maniac|to destroy it]]. For a [[Gentleman Thief]] who wants the best loot, what better target than other thieves? [[The Starscream]] has to have ''someone'' to overthrow, right? And even the most vicious [[Knight Templar]] is right once in a while. And if both bad guys are [[Complete Monster|bad enough]], having them killing each other is a victory for everyone! |
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Note that if a work's ''primary conflict'' is about Evil Versus Evil, then there is a serious risk of [[Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy]]. If the viewers/players/readers cannot support any faction, they may simply not care. |
Note that if a work's ''primary conflict'' is about Evil Versus Evil, then there is a serious risk of [[Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy]]. If the viewers/players/readers cannot support any faction, they may simply not care. |