[UA] Lara Croft and Inhumanity

[Stuart Anderson]

Chad Underkoffler wrote:

> > Yeah, I hate "heroes" like that myself.  Wesley in "The
> > Princess Bride" is an exception, and it's hard to figure
> > out why.
>
> Well, I have some ideas:
> 1. He's fighting for True Love. [1]
> 2. He gets the stuffing knocked out of him, repeatedly.
> 3. After the Machine and Miracle Max, he can barely move.
>
> It's all his attitude. He doesn't *revel* in his superiority--
> he just uses it.

Wesley is more than a transparent vehicle for adolescent wish
fulfillment.
The really slick presentations of James Bond are irritating because
they're as pure an example of this Lara Croft thing as there is. A
hero has to do *something* other than pose and crack wise and fly
at the camera silhouetted in fire.  I'd suggest that the problem is
primarily with film. Doc Savage ought to be the worst imaginable
example of this, but manages to save some kind of weird integrity
in print.  But any attempt to film him is a sarcastic shlock-fest,
because some stuff just doesn't go to film.  Since you can't see
through their eyes or get completely inside their narrative
envelope, as you can in print, film heroes have to be extremely
careful about what they offer the audience to relate to.

obUA: in my experience UA groups typically start off tighter than
other game groups with less work, because the characters are
designed to work more like print heroes than film heroes.  They're
neither, of course, but they aren't conducive to pure wish
fulfillment. Unless you have a very peculiar internal life. And
that's fine with me and the knob monkey.
--Stu


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