Friday, December 26, 2014

Sacrificial Pawns of Villainy

Fictional slaughter can be fun! The victims must be "villains" or else their deaths are a travesty. They must be legitimate combatants or else slaying them is nigh murder. They must be people of a sort or else their destruction lacks the intensity of moral consequences. They must be easy to kill or else contending with them becomes a grueling drudgery.

It is gleefully amusing to watch a hero stalk and subdue sentries with effortless impunity. It is thrilling and grimly satisfying to watch a hero slaughter assailing droves. We smirk with delighted contempt as the bodies of anonymous villainy are tucked out of sight, heaped into piles or left sprawled about.

I am an avid connoisseur of the plentiful and expendable foot soldier of villainy. The Imperial Stormtrooper of Star Wars is the most popular of this inglorious type of character. The anonymous Amazon of Classical Mythology is the oldest. My very own Concubine Sentinel of Strange Galaxy is a celebration of the type.

It is the narrative purpose of the nameless goon to be an easy victim. These lowly pawns of villainy are readily sacrificed and never mourned. Their violent indignity is their distinct appeal. We relish their unceremonious mortality. Their doom is our guiltless pleasure.


2 comments:

  1. They are definitely pawns, being moved about by their villainous masters. They have so little gain, and yet so much to lose. Still they fight with their all, and most often achieve only an untimely demise...

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    Replies
    1. Totally. Evil is never appreciative. To do even your all and your best for the wicked is to cast pearls before ungrateful swine.

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