Leliel
2011-03-08, 05:31 PM
Anyway, this is a more general question for the fictional world at large, but I am intrigued by the concept of a traditionally "villainous" character archetype being well, not all that evil. Since this concept has fertile ground in tabletop, I decided to ask it here.
Take, for example, the scientist that desires to create a new race of atomic supermen of humanity, one that transcends it's physical flaws and puts other mortals to shame. Now, in most worlds, he'd be an unambiguously bad guy, an arrogant mastermind that sees no problem in destroying all life that doesn't fit his image. But what if, say, he comes from Exalted: his motives come from the fact that he genuinely sees the less-than-enviable state of mortals in Creation, and he wants to remove the "Die Horribly" Charm from their "reflexive" list. When it comes down to it, he's a genuinely philanthropic doctor who just has a wide definition of his Hippocratic Oath.
Now, he could still be a villain. I admit that. Now, however, he has sympathetic reasons for being a villain, and he could very easily be a hero without many changes to his moral code.
So, what characters do you have that traditionally fall under the "villain" page of TV Tropes, but are genuinely heroic in the Western sense of the term?
Take, for example, the scientist that desires to create a new race of atomic supermen of humanity, one that transcends it's physical flaws and puts other mortals to shame. Now, in most worlds, he'd be an unambiguously bad guy, an arrogant mastermind that sees no problem in destroying all life that doesn't fit his image. But what if, say, he comes from Exalted: his motives come from the fact that he genuinely sees the less-than-enviable state of mortals in Creation, and he wants to remove the "Die Horribly" Charm from their "reflexive" list. When it comes down to it, he's a genuinely philanthropic doctor who just has a wide definition of his Hippocratic Oath.
Now, he could still be a villain. I admit that. Now, however, he has sympathetic reasons for being a villain, and he could very easily be a hero without many changes to his moral code.
So, what characters do you have that traditionally fall under the "villain" page of TV Tropes, but are genuinely heroic in the Western sense of the term?