General Discussions

Part 1 of Insom's ongoing CHU message board improvement program: Making good threads so you learn how to!

Todays Topic: Super Villain Intellect.

Growing up as a child, I always rooted for the villain. Not because I hated the hero, no, I loved batman and spiderman as much as any other six year old. But because the villains frequently used brain over brawn.

In an era where parents are trying every method possible to make their children socially reclusive geniuses, why is it, that in the world of capes, brawn always wins?

Sure, Batman is incredibly smart, he goes toe to toe with the Riddler (my personal favorite). But I find it hard to swallow that any one member of the fantastic four is smarter than Doctor Doom, sure Mister Fantastic could probably keep up, but Doctor Doom is an inventor, scientist and sorcerer. If I wanted to replicate that in an RPG, I'd need DM approval before fudging my int rolls.

Discuss (meaning expand on the topic, add in your own examples, critique mine, and partake in this thing we like to call conversation)

Lurkers...You too. I know you're reading this. I used to walk these streets with a badge on my hip and the handy 'who's on what board' mod tools at my side. We need people to become the new 'regulars' and you're very handsome...Just sayin'.

I very much agree with you.

I used to watch the Powerpuff Girls, and I could never understand why Mojo Jojo always failed. Well, alright, they fail because if they win and kill everyone "it's too dark", but I like rooting for the villain.

I think it's a secret plot to keep us in our place. Those of us who are/were socially reclusive geniuses often longed to exact revenge upon the misunderstanding world with our intellect. Brawn always defeats brain to remind us that there are lots of people who can dish out ass whuppings if we get any ideas.

At least that's my theory *shrugs*

I always rooted for the hero simply because I could never understand the villain (Well other than being mental). I mean the hero is doing a good thing by saving the city or whatever but why does the villain want to destroy it? Sure if his loved one's had been killed by someone take revenge from them but why destroy the world for it?

I think Lex Luthor from Superman the best example. Superman is after all almost invincible, yet despite being an ordinary human being, Lex Luthor has come close to killing him many occasions.



[Edited by Elite, 1/16/2011 10:22:21 AM]

is villanous intellect like when you're christmas shopping and you want everyone else to drop dead.

i think that's mostly because he's a good guy and he's fully aware of the fact that he's near invincible and can easily tear Lex Luthor apart...literally...but he won't..he can't because the inherent goodness in super hero's prevents them from doing that and gives them a moral high-ground. because if they did...what would set them apart from the evil that they're trying to stop. which is y most super-villains being physically inferior to most super-heroes come so close to destroying them. and who says super-heroes have inferior intellect...spider man and super man etc. often rely on their own intuitive abilities to get out life-threatening jams ever so often.

Well personally I always sympathized with most villains because those villains, their existence was usually connected with something that is morally wrong in society. People being shunned from society, called monsters, hated, despised for being different and many other reason was why I always sympathized with most villains.

Occasionally there are some villains that rose to power simply to conquer the universe as it is, simply because they thought the universe was beneath them. I only pitied them because they sought to use their powers to destroy when they could've done so much more.

My sympathy goes out to Erik Lehnsherr who, whether or not some of you agree, was a villain because of what society did to him and "his kind". I can understand why, after all that has been done to him he hates mankind. It was because of the actions and more importantly the inactions of mankind did he become Magneto and went on to exact his revenge to those he deemed responsible.

When society is wrong about something and has wronged someone greatly, I can see the reason why would they want to exact their revenge.

And about the whole brawn winning over brain, it's something you come to expect from a materialistic world.

This reminds me of the "Superman Paradox" I came up with. Well I probably wasn't the first to think of it and its probably not even a paradox but anyways, when you think about it Lex Luthor would never have done all the bad things he did if Superman were never around. I'm basing that off of the latest Superman movie.

So for that example, and like Elite already said, brawn is not around for this case.

Another example I can think of is pulling from my favorite TV show, Burn Notice. All the "bad guys" Michael (the main guy) comes across don't physically force him to do anything...hell...he could probably kill them if he had the chance. But they always made him do what they wanted regardless...threatened his life, or his family's life or whatever and in the end Michael usually ends up outsmarting them.

So yeah, there is my contribution to this topic. Its not the best I could have made but its 3:30 in the morning and I'm kinda tired...