Good vs. Evil

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Ninja_Mak

New member
It's common in cartoons to have two sides that are either good are evil, e.g., Jedi/Sith, Autobots/Decepticons, and Xiaolin/Heylin. In all these these depictions, the evil side is always portrayed as being the more powerful of the two. IMO, the most notorious example is in Avatar as the Fire Nation is stronger than the Water Tribes, Air Nomads, and Earth Kingdom combined. Not only that, but the characters on the evil side are cool and cunning while the charcters on the good side are hotheads with annoying personalities.

Why is it so hard to make cool, likable good guys that aren't emo? And why is it so easy to make likable villains that you can also hate with a passion?
 
I think the problem for heroes is if you try and make them lighter, you're accussed of writing cheap 2D cookie cutter heroes. People seem to only relate depth to the Batman-style "I have a dark reason for doing what I do". People want some kind of flaw or motive for the hero.
 
If evil forces were pushovers, conflict just wouldn't be very exciting. That's all there is to it, I think. Heroic underdogs are more interesting, and that way its much easier to build suspense. Its not like good sucks, though. For instance, Optimus Prime owns Megatron and we all know it.

I don't think personality stereotypes are obviously exclusive to one side. For every annoying good guy in one example there's an arrogant villain somewhere else.
 
In the old 50's live action show, Superman always had the advantage. The only reason why the villains had any success was either Superman wasn't there yet, or he was stuck as Clark Kent.

I am just bring up one example, when they tried to make the hero unbeatable.
 
Yeah, but overall Prime is better.

I think powerful heroes work when they're up against a major evil, facing something bigger than themselves. Then that power is an appropiate counter. Besides, ultimately we want to see heroes that represent some sort of ideal or that at least do something we can't do, or want to do, or wish we could do. Even Batman, a "normal" person, is an expert fighter and a terribly impressive intellect. In my view his function as a hero is no different than Superman's, he just appeals to different qualities than Superman. The best or most interesting hero is very much in the eye of the beholder.

I don't think people prefer "dark" so much as they prefer "realistic" since they like being able to identify with the hero and/or the situation said hero is in.
 
I think Superman on Superman: The Animated Series was a pretty rounded character. Not a super-genius or anything, but then not a smiling idiot.

Bob, Dot, Enzo, AndrAIa and Mouse from Reboot. Optimus Primal from Beast Wars, as well as Dinobot, most of the Mainframe heroes were neither hot-heads (well they were to an extent, but not to the point of being unlikable)... nor were they emo.

Batman on Batman: The Animated Series too. He was more quiet than emo...

Yeah... I dunno.
 
If the good guys were more powerful than the bad guys, things would be to easy. People like stories about struggle, and how underdogs manage to be on top. Quite frankly, if the good guys had the upper hand most of the time, things would get boring.

And for some reason I don't quite understand myself, people just don't seem to like anymore heroes who are just doing good for the sake of doing good. Like President Bush.:p
 
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