Comments on: Portraying Good and Evil http://www.somagames.com/somaniloquy/2009/10/12/the-race-post/ Terribiliter Magnificasti Me Mirabilia Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:27:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: John http://www.somagames.com/somaniloquy/2009/10/12/the-race-post/comment-page-1/#comment-23 John Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:00:18 +0000 http://www.somagames.com/somaniloquy/?p=18#comment-23 I was just talking about Nazis in this context this morning, believe it or not. The thought that occurred to me is that the Nazis are a known evil, and one that no one can identify with (at least with how they are portrayed in modern fiction). There is a sense that they are so totally separate from our own experience as to be completely unsympathetic. I think it's this sense of universal antipathy that allows Nazis to be the ubiquitous villains. Perhaps the only other entity to be so universally reviled (and perhaps even more so) would be zombies, which are entirely impossible to empathize with - the clearly unnatural origin of the zombie is recognized as wrong on an instinctive level. While the same reasoning could be applied to aliens (the "otherness", if you will), they have been portrayed as both good and evil for so long in popular culture that they are little more than another people group. On a side note - combining groups of "others" seems to be almost a sure-fire recipe for success when creating a villain. Examples are the Flood from the Halo series (zombie-aliens) and the Nazi-Zombies from Call of Duty: World at War. Someone just needs to create some Nazi aliens and we'll have the trifecta. I was just talking about Nazis in this context this morning, believe it or not. The thought that occurred to me is that the Nazis are a known evil, and one that no one can identify with (at least with how they are portrayed in modern fiction). There is a sense that they are so totally separate from our own experience as to be completely unsympathetic. I think it’s this sense of universal antipathy that allows Nazis to be the ubiquitous villains. Perhaps the only other entity to be so universally reviled (and perhaps even more so) would be zombies, which are entirely impossible to empathize with – the clearly unnatural origin of the zombie is recognized as wrong on an instinctive level.

While the same reasoning could be applied to aliens (the “otherness”, if you will), they have been portrayed as both good and evil for so long in popular culture that they are little more than another people group.

On a side note – combining groups of “others” seems to be almost a sure-fire recipe for success when creating a villain. Examples are the Flood from the Halo series (zombie-aliens) and the Nazi-Zombies from Call of Duty: World at War. Someone just needs to create some Nazi aliens and we’ll have the trifecta.

]]> By: God at play http://www.somagames.com/somaniloquy/2009/10/12/the-race-post/comment-page-1/#comment-19 God at play Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:46:07 +0000 http://www.somagames.com/somaniloquy/?p=18#comment-19 Have you seen the film? I think it provides a great framework to discuss the issue. It's interesting to see the cinema owner's response once she finds out the Nazis want to hold an event at her cinema. Maybe I shouldn't continue if you haven't seen it yet, though... Have you seen the film? I think it provides a great framework to discuss the issue. It’s interesting to see the cinema owner’s response once she finds out the Nazis want to hold an event at her cinema.

Maybe I shouldn’t continue if you haven’t seen it yet, though…

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