Silentpony said:
Dragons as final bosses/embodiments of evil, especially if demons are established to exist.
Dragon Age, Dragon's Dogma, Skyrim. Its such a waste and a cop-out. To me dragons are like apex-predators, but completely natural ones. And neutral at that. They'll attack if provoked or hungry, but they should just be giant lizards.
And if we have giant soul-stealing skinless, eyeless, all powerful fuck-me-raw rape demons that can and will torture you for all eternity, having the big bad just being a Blue Dragon is so...lame.
Have both! have Cthulhu-esque outer world super demons AND elder dragons, but if its a game about fighting evil, have the giant rape demon be the final boss. Leave the poor dragon in his keep to horde gold.
Eh, that just seems to be prefering the Tolkeinesque Trope over its extension, seeing as in Tolkein's work Dragons, from memory, were actually pretty similar to demons in how they were created and such. I don't really see why it can't be both; I mean we have evil human final bosses in games, even ones with demons and shit, should it always be demons?
Granted some more games with Dragons being purely natural forces could be interesting [Though at the same time Dragon Age has a lot of that too], but I don't really think there's anything wrong with a dragon having some cunning and its own goals that aren't necessarily "Hoard money" - yet another trope =P
MythicMatt said:
I'm also sick of dragons being this force of evil that overshadows everything. When do we get a story following a heroic dragon?
Witcher 2? Yeah, she's a major 'side' character, but she's the closest thing to a hero that world's got really. Or her father, not necessarily heroic, but not evil. If you like 4X games Age of Wonder III has dragons and dragonkin in it that are the "Good guys", vs - another trope - the 'bad guy' humans.
Silentpony said:
MysticSlayer said:
I'm not ignoring it. I fully understand that in its lore, Dragon's are the incarnation of super evil. But just as a monster design choice, I find it lazy. Like when I hear the name "Blight" and know its warriors are zombies, skeletons, pride/lust/anger/sloth demons and can possess witches and turn them into abominations, and come from an underground land of bitter darkness and cramp caverns, I don't think "Oh boy, I bet a dragon leads them!"
I think their leader is a mix between an earthworm, a skeleton, a horned demon, one or more manifest diseases and living, whispering shadows that can just blight out the sun.
Just not a dragon.
The only thing I really have to say here is, do the dragons lead the blight?
They're generals, sure, but they didn't start the blight AFAIK. They're likely not the ones calling the really major shots either. They're gods, corrupted by the blight, and naturally when you've got a god-level dragon, corrupted by the forces you are attacking into leading them... Well, yeah, that's going to be the final boss.
Whatever it was that created the Blight and ends up being likely the big bad of the whole series, is likely to be some sort of Demon. It came from the Fade, and that is the realm of demons and spirits.
With the way its going, it probably has something to do with the damn Elven gods as well, but there's too much unclear at the moment. I'd just say that the dragon made sense as a boss fight, because it was corrupted by the Blight. Its not necessarily the blight's creator, but its general, and that makes sense. If you've got a corrupted dragon-god, why not use it?
We haven't yet seen the true mastermind behind the Blight, and I'm taking a guess its unlikely to be a Dragon. Unless its a demon dragon, but that would be lame.
Mister K said:
My personal pet peeve is Heroes Prefer Swords [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeroesPreferSwords].
Look, I get it, swords are cool, but aren't people tired of main characters/protagonists, wielding this weapon? There are countless melee weapons of choice a Hero can use: mace, hammer, flail, staff, pole, axe, saws and chainsaws, brass knuckles, claws, spear, the list can go on and on. Heck, even shield can be used as a weapon (Thank you, Cap).
But no. It's always swords. To be more specific, either western straight sword or a katana.
I understand, that swords look noble and heroic, but isn't it boring to always keep hammers and maces for bad guys?
I think some of the reason is;
-Hammers are reserved for Dwarves, and very strong people. Weaker individuals are going to struggle to use them effectively
-Maces are reserved for Clerics, Cudgels signal either police or thugs, and spikey maces just LOOK evil, same for flails.
-Staffs look more Eastern, so if you're using a Western hero they, unless the know Kung Foo, they're unlikely to look normal using one.
-Polearms are difficult. They're unweildy in close range compared to swords, and if you're having close range fights that makes them harder to pull off. Same for spears.
-Axes look viking, or mass murderer. Not what you want your hero to look like. Unless they are a barbarian viking.
-Saws and chainsaws just look evil, as do claws. They look designed to inflict pain more than death, or to be overly gruesome in doing so. A sword can be a slash and magic death. Chainsaw? Yeah, you're seeing blood flying and bodies getting torn up, otherwise it just doesn't really connect for the audience.
-Brass Knuckles are harder to show off in a fight, and if you're using that may as well just go for normal fists, it looks more impressive, less just brutal.
Overall swords are just a generic weapon everyone is familiar with and how to use, a novice could pick one up and use it convincingly, even if they would still get wrecked by a more experienced user, and doesn't look inherently brutal or evil, nor leave especially gruesome wounds. Works well at close range, and signals a western hero, whilst also having an eastern equivalent if we want to make them more exotic. It also then ties back to imagery of Holy Knights in Shining Armour on their crusades in the middle ages, which you'd rather your hero be connected to a lot of the time, rather than viking pillagers and such.
Why not use guns? Eh, if its not justified it doesn't make the most sense. If the guns are like old muskets and stuff it can make some sense, seeing how long they took to reload and fire another shot, or if the combat always happens in extreme close range, or very stealthily, but... Yeah.
Anyway, with the above, not trying to pick on anyone's dislike of some tropes, more explaining why the still work for me 'cause discussion =P
Trope I'm sick of? The sacrificial Jesus Hero, who is better than everyone but sacrifices himself to save everyone from the evil coming to kill them. Its almost never executed well. In the Matrix I could accept it, as it was pretty much the only way to beat Smith at that point, but even there... There's always some plot contrivance that means there has to be a sacrifice, rather than any really logical reasons. See Mass Effect 3. Why can't I just hit a button and have the Crucible do its thing? Why not stand away from the exploding power relay, or throw Anderson's body into one of the beams? Why is that necessary to begin with, it runs on space magic! Beyond that, its all "Sunshine and rainbows" for the world afterwards... except it can't be. Things don't magically get forgiven and end just because your hero died. Extended Matrix lore sort of dealt with this a little I guess, in that there was still a sort of proxy war between man and machine, whereas in the movie its kind of like "Yeah, sure, us machines will be honourable and spare you guys. We have so much reason to be. Oh, and we'll totally let you free some more people from the Matrix, and totally won't constantly hunt you down like we've been doing for the last few centuries. Nope. All's rosey, thank Neo". Or Mass Effect 3... The whole thing just made no sense to begin with, so why am I expecting the outcomes from any of the options to make sense?
Its just... No. I get it. You like Jesus. He doesn't fit into every story, stop trying to make him. Hell, people have picked the Bible to bits for things that don't make a ton of sense all round. The story is flawed to begin with. Stop trying to use it.
