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.

http://yellowplasma.deviantart.com/art/Harry-and-the-Henchwomen-501737123

Good For Goodness Sake

History is not and shall never be a chronicle of freedom and justice. There is no science, philosophy, politics or religion that shall make right what is innately wrong. The simple are aimless and unruly. The wise are sinister. The mighty are cruel. Zombies meander, werewolves prowl and vampires lurk where human hearts should be.

Good people make things better. The wicked make things worse. A good life is a blessing just by being lived. A wasted life is poisonous whether by venom or rot.

Good is stronger than evil. That the wicked even pretend to be good proves my point. Alas, evil is illegitimate even among its own people. There is authority beyond what rules the world. Darkness, no matter how vast, gives way to even the slightest light.

Good against evil is not an ideology. It can neither be quantified nor codified. It has no worldly faction. It is never a matter of thinking particular thoughts nor feeling particular feelings. To be good is to be caring regardless of mood or whim. It is to strive for what is best in all things. It is to be friendly unto all who would be friendly and to be brave against those who are not. Be good for goodness sake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DESKsNOuq0A

The Amazons

The Amazons of Classical Mythology were a nation of women devoted to war and hunting. They were generally antagonistic but never particularly villainous. Their valiant soldiers were readily slaughtered or sexually enslaved.

Some Amazons were better than others. Their queens and champions were renown for their beauty and prowess. Only the greatest of heroes were manly enough to best them.

The Amazons were mortal and only human in a universe teeming with fantastic entities. Though skillful and relentless their warriors were useless against superhuman heroes. Their armies were defeated in every war of theirs mentioned.

The Amazons are peculiar indeed. The very idea of warlike women remains a novelty to this day. Friendly or hostile, Amazons were slain by heroes. They were belligerent yet never sinister. They were aggressors yet sympathetic victims.

The Amazons readily suffered defeat and humiliation yet they remained proud and their realm was never vanquished. True to their womanhood they found their identity and strength in their solemn devotion.

Thoughts and Feelings

Religion tells us to believe in something beyond ourselves yet relies on us entirely. Science pretends to be objective as if somehow divorced from the humanity of its scientists. Politics pretends to be caring as if assuming control of every life and resource was the epitome of compassion. The arts express our fancies and passions regardless of stark reality.

Human genius is irrefutable yet we mix it with speculation and agenda. Alas, our thoughts are innately corrupted by our feelings.

I am a writer and an artist. I am mindful that my feelings color my thoughts. Rather than pretend to be inhumanly objective I celebrate my humanity. I allow my thoughts to be fanciful. I refine and shape them into stories and images. I create works that entertain, enlighten and inspire.

Knowledge is impersonal. Wisdom is dispassionate. A human being is a person. We have feelings. Our hopes and dreams are what we strive for. The best of us imagine. We see possibilities and boldly explore them. For better or for worse we bring our thoughts and fancies to glorious fruition.

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Throngs and Sentries

The silencing the sentry and hero versus throngs are my favorite fictional action themes. The sentry must prove easily subdued. The throngs must prove easily slaughtered. The idea of both is the ordinary being utterly outclassed by the extraordinary.

I love the idea of the supposedly common proving itself exceptional. I am inspired by triumphs of the underdog. I am contemptuous of the truly ordinary, however. Only the excellent should excel. Mediocrity is unworthy of recognition.

The extraordinary exceeds the ordinary. A “hero” is a protagonist of extraordinary prowess. The “throngs” are the anonymous, ordinary folk as antagonists. The “sentry” of the silencing the sentry theme is an individual of the “throngs” on guard duty.

The silencing the sentry and hero versus throngs themes are a celebration of individual prowess besting the anonymous many. As themes of good against evil they are freedom and justice putting slavish conformity and mindless obedience to shame.

Good against evil resonates in fiction because it is the ultimate struggle in reality. The outcome of that struggle determines whether we rise or fall within. The “hero” of our fiction represents the individual in reality. His fight is our fight. We are thrilled with anticipation as we watch him stalk our enemies. We are inspired as he outfights the overwhelming odds that swarm us. The silencing the sentry and hero versus throngs are my favorite action themes because they are unassumingly the most relevant.

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