Originally posted by Gideon
[B]Vader is one of the strongest. But he was second fiddle when Palpatine came along.
Yeah but he's not the end all be all, is the point.
For twenty years, before the PT was made, Sideous was seen as one of the greatest fictional villains of all time, and in-universe he was feared because of his political savvy and military might, not for his actual combat abilities. No one really knew for sure Sideous was a certified fighting badass until the prequels (though I guess Dark Empire might help). So, for over a decade Palpatine was seen as one of the best despite his only real shtick being lightning... So basically I agree that Palpatine should be the strongest, but I disagree that it's necessary for a villain to be truly threatening. I mean, look at Lex Luthor and the Joker. You can be a super baddie, ad a scary one at that, and still be a physical weakling.
Originally posted by Lightsnake
What deconstruction, exactly? He doesn't go after the character, he just makes the character the polar opposite.
That's exactly what a deconstruction is, very much like how Song of Ice and Fire is deconstruction of traditional High Fantasy. Moorcock too Conan, and deconstructed the character, subverting it into Elric.
Originally posted by Lightsnake
And as I said...Elric justs angsts it up. No matter what. He's a whiny, perpetual child. With an unbelievably tiny amount of depth.
All things considered, the amount of shit Elric gets dropped on him: being physically crippled and forced to rely on Stormbringer just to move, accidentally killing the woman he loved, consistently having Theleb K'aarna screw him over, being a virtual ***** of the Chaos gods, and then finally getting killed by his own sword after the apocalypse between Chaos and Order. If I was him, I'd be bitching about how much life sucked too.
And, I don't know where you are getting this lack of depth from. Elric is a very complex character. His continual desire to try and free himself from the power plays of Chaos, stacked up against the fact that he worships a Duke of Hell and is constantly having to beg Arioch for help, despite serving the forces of Order creates, in my opinion, some very interesting conflicts.
Originally posted by Lord Lucien
Never read those books. But the movie SUCKED.
Aye the movie did suck but I rather enjoyed the books, haven't read the last one yet, working my way through The Night Angel trilogy at the moment.
I would have to agree though they do sound like they're talking about Eragon.