The action-adventure genre has always been humanity’s favorite, with horror as a close second and as horror-survival, the same thing.
Heroes and villains are the main characters of an action-adventure. The mentor, the damsel in distress and the sidekick are the hero’s traditional associates. The underboss, the seductress and droves of goons are traditionally the villain’s.
Unless an action-adventure is made specifically for children, characters are traditionally prone to die. It makes the action meaningful and the adventure especially thrilling.
Traditionally…
The mentor is prone to die when the hero has outgrown him. The damsel in distress is prone to be imperiled but with the understanding that she shall be rescued. The sidekick is not to die, and if young, is the hero’s successor.
Killing the villain is the final action that ends the adventure. The underboss is typically killed just before the final boss fight. The seductress either dies redeeming herself for love of the hero or is killed by the damsel in distress after rescue. The lowly goons are slaughtered with pathetic ease until the climactic boss fights.
The lowly goons are the least important characters… within the story. They are not unimportant as aspects of the fiction, however. Their deaths are not to be mourned. On the contrary: Their doom is typically inglorious so as to grimly amuse us.
The prowess of a hero cannot be measured by a boss fight.
A standard of ordinary must be set. The lowly goons, especially as the
anonymous cannon-fodder, set this standard. This is why these unimportant
characters are actually important. They give the action of the adventure an
objective basis of comparison.
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