[UA] The Villain Archetype (was: various topics)

[Timothy Toner]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gregory Paul Stolze" <holycrow at mindspring.com>
To: <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2000 4:50 PM
Subject: Re: [UA] The Villain Archetype (was: various topics)


> At 05:09 PM 12/11/2000 EST, you wrote:
> >In a message dated 12/11/2000 3:46:29 PM Central Standard Time,
> >holycrow at mindspring.com writes:
> >
> >>
> >>  Ehhh... I really shy away from all good or all bad archetypes.  (The
Dark
> >>  Stalker kind of snuck in under the radar in the early days.  Tricky
> >>  bastard.  Maybe if we ever do 2ed I'll write up the GOOD side of the
Dark
> >>  Stalker...)
> >
> >
> >Wouldn't the good side of the Dark Stalker be evident in all those
shadowy
> >pulp heroes? The Shadow, The Spider (Master of Men!), Captain Midnight to
a
> >lesser extent.
>
> And in the real world you've got...?
>
> The rule of thumb I use is "If the examples are all historical, it's an
> archetype.  If the examples are all fictional, it's a stereotype."  Keeps
> me from getting lazy.  ("'The Large Breasted Chick With The Guns'?  What
> the heck, it's in every RPG I've seen, and if I write it up fast I can hit
> my quota in time for MST3K!")
>
> Now, there are plenty of dark-side Dark Stalkers in history.  Jack the
> Ripper may have been the original.  Jeffrey Dahmer.  Ed Gein.  But shadowy
> vigilantes?  A rarer bunch, for damn sure.  And the argument that "you
> never heard of them because they never got caught" doesn't cut it for me.
> Dahmer and Gein weren't trying to get caught, and Jack never was.  So our
> hypothetical Benevolent Stalker would have (1) had some inept would-be
> Avatars* get caught and (2) would have a few clever ones who never got
> caught, but whose deeds were historically known.
>
> Ken?  James?  You history nerds wanna take a stab while I got raid the
> 'fridge?

Damn, dude!  It's all those 'angels' who appear and disappear in hospitals
and other places.  They featured one such entity in the X-Files (the one whe
re Scully gets recovered).  It's actually fairly well documented, as
benevolent urban legends go.  These people SEEM flesh and blood, but when
someone inevitably asks after them, they're told, "No one by that name has
ever worked at this hospital."

Now the crux of what you're saying is valid, to a degree.  The problem is
that we take the worst in humanity, and play it up, while 'the good  are oft
interred with their bones.'

I'm remembering a story from a few years back about a man who was going
around, impersonating doctors, lawyers, etc.  The thing is, he was really
quite good, and his 'patients' had nothing but good things to say about him.
He certainly fit the bill, moving as an anonymous force through the world.

Maybe the taboo has something to do with fame itself?  If too many people
know the man behind the deed, then the man is diminished?


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