Lore: Was there ever any resolution to Mangle's story?

[RikOz]

I have become curious about the villain "Mangle".

 

In the hero alignment mission, "A Talking Cylinder", we rescue the hero, Arc Flash, who says she wants to help Mangle because he's a "tormented creature" (and then the player goes on to defeat Mangle). I also recently discovered a villain alignment mission, where you go to give Mangle the beatdown and put him in his place, and Overdrive shows up to stop you, again calling Mangle "tormented" and in need of help. I think I may have gotten a similar story in the vigilante version of the Talking Cylinder mission, but I've only done that one time, so I'm not totally sure.

 

In any case, does Mangle's story ever get resolved? Perhaps in the higher-level villain alignment missions? My highest-level villain is 29, so has not yet done any of the next two tiers of alignment stuff. I'm kind of wondering if Mangle has an arc similar to Frostfire's arc on blueside. I'm not asking for spoilers; I'm mostly just curious if this actually goes somewhere.

[Lazarillo]

Mangle stays full villain all the way up.  The point of his character arc seemed to be that while the heroes saw him as a victim of circumstances, ultimately, he just liked his various revenge-on-society plots to the point he wasn't ever interested in being "saved".

Edited December 23, 2019 by Lazarillo

[boggo2300]

3 hours ago, Lazarillo said:

Mangle stays full villain all the way up.  The point of his character arc seemed to be that while the heroes saw him as a victim of circumstances, ultimately, he just liked his various revenge-on-society plots to the point he wasn't ever interested in being "saved".

Missed opportunity there

[Fista]

I don't think so. No one thinks they're the bad guy. Mangle is convinced everything he's doing is right.  Besides we have the Frostfire redemption arc.

Edited December 23, 2019 by Fista

[Luminara]

18 hours ago, Fista said:

I don't think so. No one thinks they're the bad guy.

 

Megamind.  Gru.  Gallaxhar.  Nearly every Bond film villian (as well as satirical takes on the franchise).

 

Some people... or, um, squid... just want to be evil.

[Leogunner]

9 hours ago, Luminara said:

 

Megamind.  Gru.  Gallaxhar.  Nearly every Bond film villian (as well as satirical takes on the franchise).

 

Some people... or, um, squid... just want to be evil.

Didn't Megamind end up becoming the hero of the story because his crafted hero opponent became a psychopath?

 

And I didn't watch Despicable me but Gru seems like a guy that does "evil" stuff because he's trying to fulfill an image when in fact, he's a caring figure.

Edited December 25, 2019 by Leogunner

[Luminara]

16 minutes ago, Leogunner said:

Didn't Megamind end up becoming the hero of the story because his crafted hero opponent became a psychopath?

 

And I didn't watch Despicable me but Gru seems like a guy that does "evil" stuff because he's trying to fulfill an image when in fact, he's a caring figure.

 

Megamind's foe, Metroman, grew weary of being a hero, decided to pursue a life as a musician instead.  Megamind took over, became the new defender of Metrocity... sorry, Metro City, after falling in love.

 

Gru learned to care.  He was initially quite dastardly, but developed a fondness for his orphan girls and discovered a softer side to himself.

 

Generally, one doesn't find portrayals of villains who are evil for the sake of being evil, partially because there's a  fear that fiction can inspire action, which leads to most writers exercising restraint; and partially because delving too deeply into that abyss has deleterious effects on the psyche.  So most villains are depicted as campy, incompetent or sympathetic.  The ones I mentioned are certainly campy and incompetent, but they're bad guys because they like being bad guys.  Especially the Bond villains.  Even in the Daniel Craig era films, the bad guys seem to take a particular delight in their villainy.

[MetaVileTerror]

I work in a charity organization which provides housing and food for people who are at-risk for various reasons.

I can verify that there are definitely people who see themselves as "the bad guy," even when they're constantly struggling, or even succeeding, to do the right thing.

[boggo2300]

5 hours ago, MetaVileTerror said:

I work in a charity organization which provides housing and food for people who are at-risk for various reasons.

I can verify that there are definitely people who see themselves as "the bad guy," even when they're constantly struggling, or even succeeding, to do the right thing.

I've encountered this myself, saddest thing in my opinion is the people who DO see themselves as "the bad guy" are usually the ones that aren't

[Grouchybeast]

19 hours ago, Luminara said:

Generally, one doesn't find portrayals of villains who are evil for the sake of being evil, partially because there's a  fear that fiction can inspire action, which leads to most writers exercising restraint; and partially because delving too deeply into that abyss has deleterious effects on the psyche.  So most villains are depicted as campy, incompetent or sympathetic. 

My favourite thing about NBC-series Hannibal Lecter is how unlikable an out-and-out villain he is.  He's a cannibal serial killer who also manages to be vain, vindictive and ridiculously petty.  He has no redeeming qualities at all, it's evil all the way down.

[MetaVileTerror]

Speaking of that rendition of Hannibal, my spouse absolutely adores him for exactly those reasons!  She thinks he's the greatest representation of that character, and she giggles with glee at the mention of how ridiculously petty he is.

 

 . . . is this more telling of who she is as a person, or of me, since she married me?

[Leogunner]

50 minutes ago, MetaVileTerror said:

Speaking of that rendition of Hannibal, my spouse absolutely adores him for exactly those reasons!  She thinks he's the greatest representation of that character, and she giggles with glee at the mention of how ridiculously petty he is.

 

 . . . is this more telling of who she is as a person, or of me, since she married me?

Unrelated, but there are plenty of women who write letters to murderers, mass shooters, etc in prison asking to marry them or have kids with them.

 

Morality is subjective and objectified when taken from an isolated view within a standard.  The same can be said for depictions of morality in fiction.

[RikOz]

57 minutes ago, Leogunner said:

Unrelated, but there are plenty of women who write letters to murderers, mass shooters, etc in prison asking to marry them or have kids with them.

 

Morality is subjective and objectified when taken from an isolated view within a standard.  The same can be said for depictions of morality in fiction.

Interesting article on Cracked.com on exactly this topic: https://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-we-train-teenage-girls-to-love-psychopaths/