Post originally by woodelf at 2004-01-15 17:15:35
Converted from Phorums BB System

Joe Grendel wrote:
> woodelf wrote:
>> If what the villain is doing can't be analyzed, or doesn't make sense, i lose all
>> sense of realism."

> You really need to bust open a few history books to check your realism bearings, then.
> Irrational villains who do things "just because" not only exist, we have numerous
> examples of them in the past 100 years.
>
> Cannibalism in BoVD is more along the lines of Idi Amin, who is one of the poster boys
> for "just because" evil. Also see Pol Pot and Adolph Hitler for some extremely real
> evil.

You make my point for me: Those people had reasons, justifications--in the context of their own twisted POV, what they were doing made sense. Either that, or they were clinically insane (specifically in the case of Hitler--from what i've read, Pol Pot and Idi Amin were bad people, but perfectly sane)--at least, *i'd* consider voluntarily doing something that you think you shouldn't be doing, and have no justification for, the very definition of insanity. Most people justify their actions--sometimes even those they were forced to do.

Now, maybe i *do* need to polish up my history a bit. Feel free to point out someone that is both sane, and made their choices (evil or otherwise) "just because". But, IME, sane people always have reasons--not always logical, sensible, or well-grounded reasons, and not always reasons they'll admit to, but reasons nonetheless.