Things I Don't Get

[forsyth]

Okay, so, The Incredibles. Really good movie. So, Syndrome, the villain. He's obviously a villain, what with the killing supers to perfect each generation of his bot he was gonna send to attack the city. Right, got that.

So, his secondary motivation, though, was to sell off his inventions after he used them, and then "when everyone is special, no one is."

That's quite frankly one of the stupidest lines I've ever heard. Okay, yeah, when everyone can fly, being able to fly isn't unique, but it's still special. And damn useful. That's not really a villain motivation. For all that it'd overthrow the current status-quo, something most heroes don't do. Or maybe I'm just weird and reading too much into it.

Comments

[forsythferret.livejournal.com]

Syndrome's a good villain, and it's a sensible motivation for him, but I don't see it as a villainous motivation. Which is part of what makes it a good motivation, I suppose. Because he's not just one-dimensional, and he's doing taking something that'd be a good idea but doing it in a bad way and for the wrong reasons. But giving everybody superpowers isn't a BAD thing, is my point. And if other people get raised up to the levels of supers, the supers don't lose anything, except the ability to lord it over the peons. And good for that.

[kail-panille.livejournal.com]

Giving everybody superpowers would definitely be a bad thing. Kliebold and Harris with superpowers? Bad. Granted if everybody's super they're arguably better able to defend themselves, but that only goes so far. Not everybody has the talent or inclination to battle evil, even if they've got the power.

But the point here that I haven't seen mentioned is that Syndrome wasn't giving away superpowers, and certainly wasn't giving them to everybody. He was planning to sell them.

In effect, he's talking about creating a new super-class, the wealthy. Whether that's just a side effect of his own greed or because he thinks that money is a good measure of a person's worth is, I think, open to question. But Syndrome probably does think that someone who worked hard and earned enough money to purchase powers has more right to them than someone who was just born with them by dumb cosmic chance.

[evilcarp.livejournal.com]

Everybody else is making good points that I won't repeat. Though, I do want to say that I frequently agree with the motivations of super villains. Not their villainy actions, but a lot of the time, I think they've got the right idea. So saying that Syndrome's motivation doesn't seem like supervillain motivation because it's doesn't seem like a bad thing doesn't make sense to me. Parly because I hate fucking superheroes.

[forsythferret.livejournal.com]

Part of it, I think, is the supervillains are easy to sympathize with, when done well. Because they're the guys who are going out and trying to change something, or actually DO something. The heroes are generally content to dink around and beat up muggers until something happens to make them act. Superheroes are fundamentally lazy and creatures of the status quo.