JeffreyAtW: The Reasoning of a Villain

The Reasoning of a Villain

These are thoughts. They are not what I truly believe, but they are points that I've come to by myself. You'll notice that they are very similar to the rantings of villains from popular RPGs - they often say these things promply before getting the shit kicked out of them, since that's the only way that they can be proven wrong. Unfortunately, it seems to me like the protagonists are just proving the point of the antagonists...

What is the world's number one problem? It's overpopulation.

With an exponentially growing number of people in the world, we must consume the world's resources at a growing pace. Forests and jungles will die out faster, we will use up the world's oil, and there will be more and more starvation, as long as we continue to let people live.

The ingredient for a perfect world? The absolute extermination of the human race. I do not agree with anti-environment types that remove laws to destroy wildlife, yet I cannot agree with pro-environment types that aim to prolong human life, at the same time prolonging the inevitable destruction of Mother Nature.

Now I would probably grow really powerful and get a giant laser beam and kill millions and millions of people, and the world would be at balance, and wilderness would thrive.

At about this point, if this were a game, someone would argue with me, and probably kill me. Then, they'd win and live a long life, making the human race grow and grow, starting the cycle over again.

Find a Final Fantasy that doesn't fit this description...

One point someone could make is that the earth will be around much longer than humans. I believe that... but don't you get a clear mental image of empty, rolling fields under a bright blue sky when the abscence of human life is mentioned? That would mean that the world is now going through an epidemic of parasites that must use its resources to live.

Posted by JeffreyAtW at December 03, 2002 06:29 PM | TrackBack

Comments

JeffreyAtW:

'Course, this now being the home of a simply hilarious comic, it will be very hard to debate this topic without someone posting "LET'S DDR!" on the comments, and discouraging anyone else from giving their thoughts.

Hence, those will be deleted.

( 3/12/02 06:31 PM)

Almasy Marquis:

Yesterday, I was in the middle of explaining why the rationale for the main villain in the Trigun series -- who wants (big surprise!) to exterminate humanity -- was perfectly logical and just as rightful an opinion as anyone's, and the person I was explaining it to starting SNORING at me. Some people have absolutely no fucking respect at all.

The perfection of the world as you describe it requires some sort of belief that the world was not intended to be overpopulated and used to the fullest extent by whatever lifeforms it wound up giving birth to. The parent cannot control the child, but neither can the child fail to respect the parent if both are to coexist.

I forget who it was who said it, but someone once said that if you have two answers to a problem, the actual answer is somewhere in the middle. This sort of idea can be applied to this situation with the ideas of an overpopulated world and one bereft of human life. A more likely solution would be that which history has taken for thousands of years -- a constant lapse between chaos and order, where wars and plagues sweep through and massacre populations in half for a few hundred years, civilizations topple and crumble, and humanity find itself in the dark ages -- and then the survivors start to rebuild.

Total and absolute destruction of humanity would be overboard on the part of ANY villain who was human in any kind of regard, mostly because even if humanity extinguishes all of the Planet's resources, I've seen no indication that the Planet particularly gives a damn, whereas I know that I, personally, as a human, would probably mind being decimated. It also implies a sort of egotism in knowing the true path for the natural world to take. For all we know, the total extinction of humanity would cause a chain reaction and destroy the rest of the Earth's wildlife anyway.

( 3/12/02 07:22 PM)

Almasy Marquis:

And coincidentally, it's the deviation from "DESTROY EVERYTHING FOR GAIA" and "NOW WORLD IS MINE" villain motivations that make me like the Wild ARMs series so much. The villains in those games aren't true villains so much as they are pure antagonists -- their paths and beliefs simply happen to put them at odds with the heroes.

( 3/12/02 07:31 PM)

JeffreyAtW:

THANK YOU. Great point about the planet really caring or not... it seems that those villains who do not really care about the planet are just lustful for power... if you put it that way, then both are a bit crazy.

And that's the way I put it, I think, that there will always be rebuilders and the cycle will start anew...

( 3/12/02 07:33 PM)

JeffreyAtW:

Ooh, and I just got a demo disc of Wild ARMs 3, and will be trying that out this weekend. Thank you, PS Underground!

( 3/12/02 07:34 PM)

Big Tsu:

Instead of destroying the human race (which could destroy other species in the process), I have a better solution: DON'T HAVE KIDS.

( 3/12/02 09:57 PM)

JeffreyAtW:

Well yeah, Tsu, why not convince everyone to do that... it's not like pro-life people (those that do not support abortion) have any other laws that would make anyone live longer.

( 3/12/02 11:30 PM)

Indogutsu "Big Tsu" Tenbuki:

Children having babies is evil & welfare for such evil is evil. Overpopulation is TimeBomb.

( 4/12/02 05:14 PM)

Felix:

Dumbest idea ever.
Just might work.

( 7/12/02 01:18 AM)

Felix:

... the post... the idea in the post.
I wanna have children... Well, I wanna have sex.. I mean, more sex.... and then I'll see about the children bit... yeah... I think if I have enough sex I won't want children.=P

( 7/12/02 01:20 AM)

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