Monster Sob Story: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:zzmss 9982.jpg|link=Bob the Angry Flower|frame|Bob knows this trope.]]

 

Monsters and villains in works of fiction aren't usually made to invoke sympathy. Engaging a monster emotionally as someone would another person diminishes the terror and revulsion villains are supposed to evoke. However, this isn't the case if the villain has a '''Monster Sob Story'''. Basically, this is a villain who gets a moment when, to everybody's surprise, he's cast in a somewhat sympathetic light. His motivations and emotional state are explored, and the audience finds itself pitying (if not identifying with) the villain. They may be a [[Smug Snake]] or [[Magnificent Bastard]], but the reader/viewer feels sorry for them. The heroes themselves may even feel pity. The experience enbeds up giving the villain a level of characterization that goes beyond what a villain doing things [[For the Evulz]] usually gets.

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] And [[Manga]] ==

* Told by both Souther and Kaioh to Kenshiro in [[Fist of the North Star]] ''right before'' their final battles, when there's no time left for the reader to watch them grow as characters or sympathise with them. Though the week-to-week short term plotting of the shounen manga industry is probably to blame here.

* The Vord Queen, in the ''[[Codex Alera]]''. In the first five books she is not sympathetic in the slightest, but in the sixth {{spoiler|we discover that she is attacking the Alerans because the Queens she has produced in Canea are trying to kill her, so she fled.}} She's still quite clearly evil, but it's very sad, in a way.

** Even all-around [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|treacherous bitch]] Invidia Aquitaine gets treated with a little sympathy in the same book, as she's managed to screw everything up so badly that even Isana is feeling sorry for her. For reference, Invidia {{spoiler|arranged to have Isana's husband killed, repeatedly tried to kill her son, and is helping the Vord Queen hold her hostage}}.

* The creature from the original ''[[Frankenstein (novel)|Frankenstein]]'' makes this [[Older Than Radio]].

* Kallor from ''[[The Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' was a son of a bitch long before he was cursed to a) live forever and b) fail at everything he did. ''Toll the Hounds'' however, spends a great deal of time demonstrating that not only did the curse fail to fix him, but the constant misery he has suffered over the millennia has only succeeded in making him even worse, transforming him from a standard [[Evil Overlord]] and into a [[Misanthrope Supreme]] who hates himself and all humanity with equal passion. An example of a character who you can both pity, and wish a horrible death upon all at once.