[UA] Dark Stalker (was The Villain Archetype)

[Chad Underkoffler]

> Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 16:50:57 -0600
> From: Gregory Paul Stolze <holycrow at mindspring.com>
>
>
> 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?
>
> *Paging Team Salvation, paging Team Salvation...

Well, I'm not Ken or James, but I'd say that the Dark Stalker is
not an actual archetype-- it's the current, negative spin on the
Vigilante. 

The Vigilante follows only his own code, one that may point more
towards entropy than order-- which is why they clash with
Masterless Men. Unlike the Executioner, the Vigilante takes
matters into his own hands. The Vigilante has granted himself
the right/duty to decide what is just, what must be done, and to
do it. The Vigilante fills a mental niche between Masterless
Man, Pilgrim, Hunter, Executioner, and Judge.

My 2 cents.

=====
Chad Underkoffler [chadu at yahoo.com]
http://www.geocities.com/chadu/index.html
"Hold your breath. Make a wish. Count to three."
  -- Willy Wonka

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products.
http://shopping.yahoo.com/

_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua