On the subject of unlikable characters and behavior

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, SnowFire said:

.(I guess the Fire Emblem equivalent will be if World War 3 ruins our records and future gaming historians have to puzzle out whether a FE ROMhack that survived was ever an IntSys-blessed version or not.)

Fingers crossed the historians of the next world consider Pyrathi 609 offical Archanean Canon!

2 hours ago, SnowFire said:

 Parable of the Good Samaritan.  It's cool that it's famous, but it's also changed the meaning of "Samaritan" to a person who does good deeds unprovoked.  If you're researching the parable, it's important to get back in the mindset of the time, where Levites are good and Samaritans are icky.  If you don't have that context, there's an alternate, worse interpretation where it's just saying awesome good Samaritans are cool, icky Jews are bad, an interpretation that has been unironically and directly propounded in the past.  When really it should be more like "The Tale of the Good [Insert the Vilest Ethnic Slur In Your Culture Here]" to get across the idea of "actions matter not cultural status."

We are indeed getting very off topic now, but this video is just too on point to not share.

https://youtu.be/OIVB3DdRgqU?si=Hi-3GnltspSJ1H_n

Edited September 6, 2023 by Jotari

[Etrurian emperor]

On 9/4/2023 at 2:21 AM, Sunwoo said:

They don't really succeed in anything and are kinda over-the-top in personality. So they're more entertaining than threatening. Meanwhile, characters who are played as legitimate threats who succeed in harming (or killing) someone are both unlikable and not hilarious.

I think it depends. A character like Metalface has the glorious combination of being a very dangerous threat while also making funny over the top statements. Or even more so Kid Icarus Hades. Both are dangerous but have occasional moments where ''hilarious'' would be an apt description. 

[Sunwoo]

On 9/6/2023 at 11:49 AM, Etrurian emperor said:

I think it depends. A character like Metalface has the glorious combination of being a very dangerous threat while also making funny over the top statements. Or even more so Kid Icarus Hades. Both are dangerous but have occasional moments where ''hilarious'' would be an apt description. 

I haven't played any version of Kid Icarus, so I can't speak for that one.

But the original Xenoblade has a longer story than any FE game, a smaller main cast, more complex world building, and is just able to delve into deeper issues. So a character like Metalface can be both dangerous and over-the-top and work out pretty well. FE's story structure and writing isn't really conducive to making a minor villain with that much dimension. Heck, I'm not sure if they can even make a recurring major villain with that amount of dimension either ;/