Wintermute Posted May 3, 2003 Share Posted May 3, 2003 What would each of you say makes for a cooler character? Good, or Evil? Both sides have their champions. Sephiroth for a start, is evil, and one of the coolest characters anywhere in anything. Major Motoko Kusanagi is good, and also insanely cool. But which side is coolest? Personally I think Evil, overall, but it's a close call, and depends what your watching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MillieFan Posted May 3, 2003 Share Posted May 3, 2003 Definitely mixed. By that I mean a character that is normally mostly good but that struggles with evil or something else within or from the past, or that is mostly bad but struggles with wanting to be good. Some examples of that would be like Cloud in FFVII, Edea and Rinoa in FFVIII, Zidane in FFIX, Vash and Wolfwood in Trigun, and the list could go on for a really long post, but these are the most outstanding examples of the "mixed" character. Usually, IMHO, "all good" characters get rather boring, and so do "all bad" characters, because it's rather predictable what they will do in the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corey Posted May 3, 2003 Share Posted May 3, 2003 With certain prior conversations set aside, I think evil makes a better character. Ususally there is some life crisis or traumatic event that is much more in touch with what happens in the actual world. For argument number two, unfortunately there is an excess of evil in this world. Bad things happen everyday. There is much more bad news than good news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK DeatH Posted May 3, 2003 Share Posted May 3, 2003 Evil evil evil... Yay... Soujirou is evil, Sephiroth is evil, and they are the COOLEST characters there are! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeathBug Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 Evil all the way. Darker, more evil characters are usually more complex. It doesn't take a genious to figure out, for example, why someone who got bit by a mutant spider would use his powers to help the innocent. I'm more interested in why a man would fly a purple glider and blow things up with tiny orange bombs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GinnyLyn Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 For me, it's not a matter of good and evil so much as the motive behind the action. There are both good and evil characters that are that way just 'cause they were born that way or they woke up one morning and decided to, but the more complex ones with [i]reasons[/i] to what they do make sense. Sympathetic characters resonate with me. As do reformed/corrupted ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queen Asuka Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 [color=hotpink][size=1]I hate the way that nowadays if anything is considered "evil" it is automatically worshipped. I hate Evil. It's stupid and pointless. Thanks to evil, we live in this stupid and screwed up world. Wouldn't it just be nice if all things were good? I don't care what the motive behind an evil person is. It's evil and was probably created by evil and it will probably be accomplished by evil.[/color][/size] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kwai Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 I say Good is cooler... But its not easy to point to whats good or whats evil. Lets take Inuyasha... hes trying to collect the Shikkon jewels so he can become a full fledged demon... is that good or evil? Evangelion... Gendo/SEELE is trying to instigate the third impact supposedly for the betterment of mankind... is that good or evil? Good intentions but evil? Where do we draw the line? But in my case, Vash/Wolfwood is way too cool so I place my vote on good =P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yu Yu Hakusho! Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 [color=deeppink][b]Evil: They seem to always have the upper hand and the coolest attacks or weapons. They don't need team members to back them up or need love or memories to help them win a fight. Good: They always win in the end, unless you're reading an Italian or Japanese love story. So both I guess. But since evil is bad and good is good (you know what I mean) you just [i]have[/i] to be on the good side because....well, you know. You just do.[/color][/b] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK DeatH Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 Well, sometimes you see that to classify some of "evil", it's needed more than just a normal human mind... Go see Shishio's stuff and all the story behind that... You will see that the true "evil" is not only what some people considerate... After I saw the last part of the manga I was like, "Now which one was the evil side?"... I mean, for real... If you see the part where Yumi's talking about her job and all that happened, you would see what I mean... Shishio was evil? Yeah, you can say that, because he was a murderer and all, but he had his reasons... Of course that there are some stupid evil guys, but when you see some as Soujirou and Shishio and characters like that that REALLY have a reason to believe that what they're doing is not evil, then you will see what I mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kwai Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 I agree whole heartedly with dark death... Good and Evil is harder to decipher once you look into the back ground of all the 'evil' characters in the comic. Lets take up Kenshin himself. He was a mass murderer in the past right? Hitokiri Battousai. So then, Kenshin also becomes somewhat evil. Chapel the Evergreen from Trigun? Was he really that evil? I'm sure I can go on and on about this. I suppose this is one of the reasons anime is so captivating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Change Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 I enjoy something in between. That would be the character who is a shade of gray, to complex to judge in back and white like a Republican. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 I don't know if it matters to me whether a character is good or evil. I'd like to think that the most realistic and likable characters--whether they be in literature or films, should be a shade of gray. I mean, how many of us are strictly one or the other? You see, purely good and evil characters are flat and uninteresting for the most part. The motives behind their actions rarely make any sense. Well-rounded characters are much more interesting because they're easier to relate to. Plus, their personalities have much more room to develop. So, the heck with good and evil. Just give me a character with a well-rounded personality and his or her share of faults. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK DeatH Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 Yeah, I agree with that also, because a just "evil" character, that goes around just destroyin and all for no reason, just for vengeance or something like that, that has no sense... Also, if you have a good character that has no reason to be good, then again it's nonsense... Again, let's pick Kenshin's example... He's "good" because he wants to pay for all the crimes he's done back then when he was Battousai... Now he has his reason for not killing ever again... Now see Anji, the monk... He is evil because when he was a normal good monk, he saw the only people that he could considerate a family, get killed cold-bloodly... Now tell me, seeing your family being murdered for no reason, just because people think that living in a temple is not good, wouldn't make you irate and want to kill people to have your revenge? Well, that's how -I- personally think... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MillieFan Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Charles [/i] [B]I don't know if it matters to me whether a character is good or evil. I'd like to think that the most realistic and likable characters--whether they be in literature or films, should be a shade of gray. I mean, how many of us are strictly one or the other? You see, purely good and evil characters are flat and uninteresting for the most part. The motives behind their actions rarely make any sense. Well-rounded characters are much more interesting because they're easier to relate to. Plus, their personalities have much more room to develop. So, the heck with good and evil. Just give me a character with a well-rounded personality and his or her share of faults. [/B][/QUOTE] Good post, Charles. . .:) I totally agree. Like I said, I find both "pure good" and "pure evil" characters most often boring, because you know what they're going to do almost 100 percent of the time. I mean, it would have made for some interesting plot twists if, say, Sephiroth decided to turn back at the last moment and spare Aeris, or if, earlier on in FFVII, Aeris, say, went totally berserk and destroyed a city. However, you KNEW neither would happen because of the way the characters were set from almost their first appearance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK DeatH Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 Yeah... like, "To take over the world"... For most evil characters' mission XD Then, "To protect the weak"... For most good characters... for the "pure" ones, there is no variation of that, and no violation of the "rules"... lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeathBug Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 We're talkin' about *fictional* evil, right? Because real evil is bad. There's a school of thought that says that people are most interested in concepts that repulse them, as long as it stays rhetorical. So, an essentaily good person would be interested in darker fictional characters, because their motivations seem more alien to them. There's also a school of thought that says people want fictional characters to act in ways they secretly wish they could, but I do'nt buy that. Maybe it's just a big coincidence that most "evil" characters in an anime are more compelling and fleshed out than their heroes. As long as everyone can seperate reality from fiction, that's fine by me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juu Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 [color=ff00cc] [size=1]I actually like both. Whenever I read a book or watch an epic story, I usually get more attatched to the 'good' characters, since most of the time, the story revolves around a 'good' character. However, I like villans just as much, especially in most animes. In most stories I've read, they seem to be a little more unexpectable, and interesting, rather than the 'good'. I like them both, though. It's not like I immediately start cheering for one character just because they're 'good' or 'evil'. [/color] [/size] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subversive Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 I've gotta go for the good guy. But, as with evil, some (99%) of good characters have no depth and just suck. Ofcourse I'm pulling for the good guy, you all knew that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK DeatH Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 I agree with what Beelzebub said... Real evil is no good... Like, who likes wars? Or who would like to see someone wanting to kill everyone knowing that that person lives next to them? I don't think I would... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhys Mayiessen Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 [color=skyblue]EVIL! EVIL! EVIL! Hehe I sound like Darkmoon. Until I actually made up the characters Elëgaith and Dralegar I would have said good but now I really like evil characters...:devil: [/color] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kwai Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 Good guys all the way. Even though without the evil characters there will be no anime and no conflict so they are necessary, I still have to cheer on the good guys cuz I think protecting the weak/innocent and such is much cooler than killing random people/taking over the world things that the evil characters do =P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WW2 Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 I believe an "evil" character is much more interesting, because they believe their acitons are justified. You can't just become evil, there has to be something in the characters past that caused them to become that way. Its this element that makes "evil" characters so complex and overall interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarK DeatH Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 Agreed WW2... Ya know, random evil characters who have no reason to be evil are not cool, but when you see evil characters like Shishio, who was the government personal assassin, and after all, they just burned him alive, trying to kill him, and all that stuff, or like Soujirou, who when was young had no one to protect him, and lived as a slave, until an evil character took place and helped him, you see that they're more complex than what they look like... villains such as the Green Goblin, which only wants to destroy for no reason, have no sense to me... I would say that: Complex evil characters = cool Reason-less evil characters = stupid And the same counts for good... A hero that is just a hero because he wanted to be the hero, is also stupid... OK, enough babling already... I said too much... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shinken Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 Personally, I like the good characters that have a real mean streak. It really balances out their character, making them basically more human. Take Wolverine for example. Just take a look at X2 and you'll see what I mean. *snikt* :demon: Saiyan Out :demon: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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