Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Thinks He's Good
There was a time of simpler storytelling when Villains twirled their mous-
taches, tied damsels to train tracks, and proudly proclaimed their evilness.
Ah, the bad old days!
On the cover of
X-Men
#4 back in 1964, Magneto and his allies proudly
proclaimed themselves “The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.” And to comic
topic readers of the 1960s, the name of this new super-villain group raised
no red flags. Cackling, hand-wringing, self-identifying evildoers were per-
fectly believable in that era and to that audience.
The days of self-proclaimed villains are long gone. Modern audiences
are savvy enough to understand that in the real world, no one acts that
way. And that's because in the real world,
no one thinks they're evil
.
Forty years later in the film
X-Men: The Last Stand
, when it came time to
introduce Magneto's assembled villains to movie audiences of 2006, there
were a number of changes made—including the group's name.
They simply called themselves “The Brotherhood.”
A small change that made a big difference! Removing just three words
makes it clear that this organization sees itself in a positive light, as a fam-
ily. The super-villain team instantly feels many times more believable.
And if the movie writers had retained the original name? Can you even
imagine Sir Ian McKellan (as Magneto) uttering, “The Brotherhood of Evil
Mutants” with a straight face? It would have felt off-tone, and possibly
produced some unintended guffaws.
The self-identifying evil Villain has become so laughably passé, in fact,
that it's now a character that tends to be found only in the arenas of com-
edy and parody. In the
Austin Powers
movies, for example, much of the
humor stems from the main Villain, Dr. Evil—a parody amalgam of several
James Bond criminal mastermind characters from the 1960s. Dr. Evil
laughs maniacally, wants to take over the world, and insists on being called
Dr. Evil (rather than Mr. Evil), citing the long years he spent at Evil Medical
School. When his long-lost son reveals he's hoping to become a vet
someday, Dr. Evil wistfully asks, “An evil vet?”
The word “evil” itself has become a punch line.
So, unless you are purposely going for cliché or comedy, your Villain
must not self-identify as a Villain. The one-dimensional antagonist of old
has been replaced by a more nuanced, more believable and frankly much
more frightening modern incarnation … the Villain who thinks he's a Hero.
