I was watching a show recently where an antagonist challenged the protagonists by explaining to them why they would never win. He said that since he was a child, he never got into superheroes or hero shows because they seemed so fake. The good guys would always win just because they were the good guys when any logical person could see that the bad guys should have won. The bad guys, he said, can do anything while the good guys are constrained by morality and such. The bad guys should have won because they bad guys can do whatever they want.
I've had that cynical thought myself. Maybe it's the time and culture we live in, but it's often difficult to look around and see evil triumphing all over the place because it has no scruples and still believe in the simple hero triumphing because of his or her virtue.
Have you ever struggled with this strain of cynicism? What are your thoughts about it now? When you read stories that contain conflicts set in the current world, do you need this imbalance acknowledged, or can you get into the spirit of good triumphing over evil even if it doesn't make sense?
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I like to see the good guys win, but not when it's a joke. Seen Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog? On good days I think the good guys ought to win because they can actually do things like cooperate, and inspire hope, and show their sterling character when it really matters. If that's the case, then the bad guys shouldn't really have a chance because their character, company, and operations are all corrupt and ought (theoretically) to fall apart and fail. You need a bad guy with some kind of serious advantage to make any real contest possible- whether he has a super weapon, one ring to rule them all, or (most realistically) is operating from a position of power in a corrupt/blind world.
ReplyDeleteIn real life, however, it seems like the good guys tend to be more mediocre than good, and the bad guys more stupid than bad, and (more depressingly) there are just way too many stupid people for the good guys to win.