My biggest problem with cartoons like this:

Black and white archetypes have been a staple of children's morality tales for centuries. And make no mistake, that's what these are. Oh sure, they were also used to help pimp toys to kids, but simple and clear depictions of good and evil are important building blocks in the foundation of a child's moral/ethical foundation. The subtle stuff, the gray areas, the more complex issues, come later. You don't build the house before you build the foundation.

And I think part of this (and other such shows) enduring popularity and appeal is that it features heroes with no ethical dilemmas or moral relativism.

Re: Star Wars, yeah the baddies all talk about "The Dark Side", but I don't think they ever see themselves as evil. I think they embrace this Dark Side because they feel it's the right thing to do. The best path or choice. That they call it "The Dark Side"... well, even Satanists in this world have often embraced the labels and twisted imagery Christians and others have put on them as an act of defiance. The Jedi refer to it as "The Dark Side" so the Sith embrace that as a giant middle finger to their enemy.

----
A journey into the realm of the obscure: http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/

reply share

add reply

formatting help

In general, I agree with you that films/shows need to stop writing one dimensional caricatures as villains, and that villains who see themselves as evil almost always are caricatures.

However, for MOTU in particular I am okay with caricature villains, because MOTU is supposed to be appropriate for very young children. If you make complex villains in MOTU, very young children might get confused.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

We need to stop insulting the intelligence of viewers including children and stop with the crap where villains admit to being evil.

Why not? The average viewer is a lot more stupid than we think. Look at how many people fell in love with Hannibal Lecter and saw him as a sympathetic character in the movies and TV series. There were actually viewers posting about how "sorry" they felt for him the one time he was captured by another serial killer. This, after they had watched weeks and weeks of him butchering and eating innocent people. They couldn't separate their crush on Mads Mikkelson from the character he was playing.

Look at how many other people identify with amoral characters on TV shows and movies these days. For example, the entire cast of Revolution were sociopaths. One of them was a war criminal who murdered scores of people. But viewers identified with him because the writers played him up as a flawed antihero. This is why writers have to be blunt. There are a lot of weak-minded people who will identify with evil characters if the writers give them too much humanity.

---
Emojis=💩 Emoticons=

reply share

add reply

formatting help

One animated series from the 1980s that was a bit more morally ambiguous than its contemporaries was Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light. The heroic Spectral Knights and the villainous Darkling Lords both received their powers from and undertook missions for the wizard Merklynn, whose motives were often unclear. The Spectral Knights and the Darkling Lords sometimes had to work together. Instead of being evil for evil's sake, the Darkling Lords were flawed human beings jostling for power in a world that had been thrown into chaos. Some of them had legitimate jobs before their once technologically advanced civilization collapsed. One of the Darkling Lords, the dim-witted brute Cindarr, displayed moments of kindness, especially towards small animals.

reply share

add reply

formatting help