Mindfire
Istar
Let me explain. Anyone here read Order of the Stick? Anyone? Anyone? Well it's a fantasy webcomic. Fairly popular. Google for more information. Anyway, one of the villains is a goblin named Redcloak. He's a complex character with a sympathetic backstory
and an odd sense of nobility and honor. And I hate him. I absolutely hate this character. He's very popular among fans apparently. But I just can't stop hating him. And the more and more the author tries to make this character sympathetic and likable, the more I keep wanting him to die a horrible, painful death.
Am I missing something here? Because a lot of the fan discourse is all like "oh, how sad his family got killed by paladins" and "sure he's done bad things, but the good guys started it" and "is he really evil? what is evil anyway?" And meanwhile here I am slamming my head into the desk and shouting "Yes! Yes he really is evil!" You have to understand, the webcomic is based (loosely) on D&D rules. I haven't actually played D&D, but I know enough to know that the morality system is more or less black and white. (See: the alignment system.) If your alignment is (one of the varying flavors of) evil, then you're evil. No philosophical discussion to be had. That's simply the nature of the setting. Morality is simplified for gaming purposes.
Why is this relevant? Because goblins are aligned evil. (Neutral evil I think?) And Redcloak is also evil aligned, a fact in which he revels. So when you tell me that his family was killed by paladins, I don't care. Because by definition, they are evil. It's like asking me to feel sorry for the orcs in Lord of the Rings. It's not gonna happen. Ever. Racial morality as a concept is problematic in the real world, but this is a fictional creature in a fictional setting with rules designed for gaming purposes (and sometimes fudged by the webcomic for the sake of humor). So real-world moral quandaries don't enter into it. When you tell me that a group of paladins killed an entire goblin village, my reaction is not going to be "Oh, poor goblins," but rather "Go team Paladins! On to the next goblin village!"
Does anyone else see where I'm coming from here? Or am I just a heartless bastard?
To clarify, I'm not saying I hate sympathetic villains in general. (Misleading titles for shock value! Huzzah!) This is actually the first time I've had a reaction this strong against a "sympathetic" antagonist. Maybe there's just something about this character in particular that annoys me. Or maybe I'm just grumpy because the bad guys have been winning for so many comics lately. (From where I stand anyway. I'm only up to #546 out of 895.)
(long story short, his family and friends were slaughtered by paladins because, you know, smiting evil and all that, which gave him an undying hatred for the forces of good in general and paladins in particular)
Am I missing something here? Because a lot of the fan discourse is all like "oh, how sad his family got killed by paladins" and "sure he's done bad things, but the good guys started it" and "is he really evil? what is evil anyway?" And meanwhile here I am slamming my head into the desk and shouting "Yes! Yes he really is evil!" You have to understand, the webcomic is based (loosely) on D&D rules. I haven't actually played D&D, but I know enough to know that the morality system is more or less black and white. (See: the alignment system.) If your alignment is (one of the varying flavors of) evil, then you're evil. No philosophical discussion to be had. That's simply the nature of the setting. Morality is simplified for gaming purposes.
Why is this relevant? Because goblins are aligned evil. (Neutral evil I think?) And Redcloak is also evil aligned, a fact in which he revels. So when you tell me that his family was killed by paladins, I don't care. Because by definition, they are evil. It's like asking me to feel sorry for the orcs in Lord of the Rings. It's not gonna happen. Ever. Racial morality as a concept is problematic in the real world, but this is a fictional creature in a fictional setting with rules designed for gaming purposes (and sometimes fudged by the webcomic for the sake of humor). So real-world moral quandaries don't enter into it. When you tell me that a group of paladins killed an entire goblin village, my reaction is not going to be "Oh, poor goblins," but rather "Go team Paladins! On to the next goblin village!"
Does anyone else see where I'm coming from here? Or am I just a heartless bastard?
To clarify, I'm not saying I hate sympathetic villains in general. (Misleading titles for shock value! Huzzah!) This is actually the first time I've had a reaction this strong against a "sympathetic" antagonist. Maybe there's just something about this character in particular that annoys me. Or maybe I'm just grumpy because the bad guys have been winning for so many comics lately. (From where I stand anyway. I'm only up to #546 out of 895.)