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How can you bring back a villain?

Started by November 29, 2003 02:40 AM
95 comments, last by orionx103 20 years, 9 months ago
Are you sure you were watching Gundam ? Wasnt it Ghost in the Shell by any chance ? No I ask coz at the end, errr.

SPOILERS





so at the end, the hero of the story, and the bad guy she was hunting all along, merge their conscience into one. This is possible because they are both androids. Plus it makes for a much more interesting ending than would have normally occured.




END SPOILERS

The point is, it''s a nice idea
I think IIRC it was used first in Neuromancer, though.

Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !
-----------------------------Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !
I''ve seen Ghost in the Shell. >_> I liked it. ''Made me think of how life as a sentient android would be, knowing that when the electric stops running, they''ll cease to exist.
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uhuhuh, but they all believe in Life after Death. If they have been good during their life, they''ll be "plugged back in". They might even remember everything from before their "death".
LOL, sorry, I just thought that was an interesting concept. After all, when you switch the power off, you effectively kill the sentient machine, but you dont necessarily erase their memory
Wasnt it in one of the last Star Wars that C3P0 is "turned off" then plugged back in. Or was it when they are in Cloud City and he gets blasted to bits ? Cant remember...

Still, you have to admit that a computer villain would certainly be a rather hard bastard to get rid of

Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !
-----------------------------Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !
Its already been done before. His name is Brainiac, he was a reacurring superman villian, I belive he was a sentient computer from krypton.

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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document

It''s kinda funny to see that *everything* seem to have been done before, eh ?

Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !
-----------------------------Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !
that''s absolutly not true, i ve seen a couple a post that was not

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
be good
be evil
but do it WELL
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>be goodbe evilbut do it WELL>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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quote: Original post by orionx103
How can you bring back a villain? What method would you chose?

Scenario: A main villain is killed and all that''s left of him is his head and pieces of his torso and extremities.

The ideas I can think of are:
(1) Have an android body built using his remains.
(2) Combine his remains with a robot or android.
(3) Combine his remains with pieces he''s missing from another being or a number of different beings.
(4) Have his body restored by a wizard, witch, et cetera. (Ick.)
(5) If in a sci-fi setting, clone him. (Ick.)

What else can you do?


Have his work fall into the hands of somebody else, and the knowledge that represented the antagonistic force in one person''s hands can be the same threat in a different person''s hand even if time and space, setting and temperament are entirely different.

It would be like you going hiking in an old european forest, and throwing some rocks at a stone wall revealing a cave entrance overgrown for centuries within which you found the chambers of Nostrodamus.

Always without desire we must be found, If its deep mystery we would sound; But if desire always within us be, Its outer fringe is all that we shall see. - The Tao

quote: Original post by adventuredesign
Have his work fall into the hands of somebody else, and the knowledge that represented the antagonistic force in one person''s hands can be the same threat in a different person''s hand even if time and space, setting and temperament are entirely different.


Reminds me of how Skeletor took over Snake Mountain. Sorry, random burst.
If you play some of the great series games out there (Mario, Zelda, Star Fox, Metroid), you will notice recurring villains that almost always die at the end. Bowser has died an innordinate number of times at Mario''s hands and/or feet. Gannon has been impaled or been trapped in alternate dimensions a few more times than I think is neccesarry. Andross has been blown away by Fox about three times. Samus Aron (sp) has defeated Mother Brain many time. The list goes on and on. Since these games don''t focus on storyline, the player ends up ignoring the means and focuses on defeating the villain again. Usually, however, I get really irritated when I realize that the villain I killed in the past game has returned to be a threat again. The worst example of bringing back a villain I have ever seen occured in the old Advanced Dungeons and Dragons classics Pool of Radience and Curse of the Azure Bonds. Although these were great games, you find, after deafeating Tyranthraxus in the Pool, that he is immortal in Curse. Why are we still fighting him then? Isn''t he basically a God? The game''s plot becomes annoying when a major element, like the villain, makes little or no sense to the player. If you want to bring back a villain, the best way would probably be to not kill them at all. Perhaps all evidence points to the fact that the villain is dead, but the hero, and the player, aren''t sure. The first "death" of the villain should be anti-climactic, leading the player to think there is something more to come. In an RPG, unless used for comic purposes, every event should make perfect sense to the player. This is one of the reasons Final Fantasy IX didn''t work for me. I still don''t understand why Zidane decides to go down to Kuja, and why they try to get the player to simpithize with him in the end. HE WAS NUTS, AND HE WAS THE VILLAIN! The player is supposed to hate the villain, but instead, right at the end, we are made to sympythise with him. Alright, I''m a little off topic, here, but the point is, everything must make sense.

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official Necromancer of GameDev forums Game Writing section
____________________________________________________________unofficial Necromancer of GameDev forums Game Writing section
I don''t agree with having everyone hate the villain. As I''ve said before, I love villains. Most of my favorite characters are villains. (I''m not sure if I expressed this in this post or another.) Skeletor, Evil-Lyn, Count Marzo, King Hiss, Suzaku, Seiryu, Liquid Snake, Soildus Snake, Shalashashka, Vamp, Frieza, Cooler, Buu, Android 17, Vegeta (both as a villain and an anti-hero), Myotismon in all his forms, Ken Ichijouji as the Digital Emperor, Seymour Guado, Nero Angelo... the list goes on. They''re all the coolest.

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