Advanced Wars: Days of Dialogue
Dec. 13th, 2008 04:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tribblewingWhenever a villain in this game runs out of arguments (which can get pretty long), they lambast the hero as "self-righteous". (See here for an earlier example.) I guess it's a step up from "goody two-shoes".
But I really have no idea what the word means anymore. It's one of those besides-the-point accusations. I suppose the villains see a hypocrisy in the heroes' behavior that the heroes' are blind to. But if that were the case, there'd be something to point out, and the villains always fail to do so.
So they tend to go like this...
A: Evil mass murderer!
B: Hypocritical, self-righteous prick!
A: Hypocrite? How?
B: Well, everyone is. So you probably are too.
A: What kind of argument is that?!
B: A true one.
A: WTF?
B: Believe what you want, but I'm completely serious here.
A: You hurt people! You killed my friends! You're the aggressor! WHY?!
B: Nah, they hurt themselves by being self-righteous pricks like you who can't leave well enough alone.
A: ::burning, inconsolable shounen rage rising:: You *inhuman* monster!
B: Well, like it or not, we're *all* human here. Let's just agree to disagree by *killing each other*, you self-righteous, self-righteous, self-righteous prick.
A: ::grimly:: Right. Let's.
This is still a vast improvement to what the franchise had.
Opening conversation between WILL and CAULDER in CAMPAIGN 26: "Sunrise": Day 1:
WILL: Caulder! We've come for you!
CAULDER: Hmmm... I did not expect you to find my nest so quickly. Perhaps you were not the ideal test specimens after all.
WILL: What is this place?
CAULDER: This is the central research facility for Intelligent Defense Systems. It is my playground. A place where I can satisfy my insatiable curiosity. Perhaps you would like to come in and... take a look around?
WILL: Ha! It's time to close up shop, Caulder! Your clones are human beings, not property. You have no right to experiment on them.
CAULDER: The man in the armored tank speaks of rights! How very tiresome... Whatever you may think of me, I have always been faithful to my curiosity. I am not motivated by greed, or fame, or the interests of society. If my research causes suffering or moral quandaries, I care not. I seek only to learn. In that sense, I am a pure and simple man.
WILL: Your curiosity comes at the cost of people's lives! You have no concept of what it means to be human.
CAULDER: Pah! Spare me your overworn lectures and tired morality. You have simply been conditioned to accept the values of society. And now you unthinkingly spout those same values to me. Do you not fight? Do you not kill? Is this not for selfish reasons? You cannot justify your war while condemning my research!
WILL: I fight to help others, and I take no joy from it. It's not because I've been conditioned... It's because I am a human being!
CAULDER: Merely the ideals a selfish society has imprinted on your young mind! Such ideals were constructed by society to ensure its survival. They serve only to channel people's energies away from killing each other. Did you not lose both of your parents in the Great War?
WILL: ... ... ... ...
CAULDER: With no one to care for you, you joined the Rubinelle military academy. They clothed you, fed you, and taught you to fight for your country.
WILL: ...That's right. What of it?
CAULDER: Such a life has turned you into a foolish, naive young man. You were conditioned to believe the greatest of lies... That a soldier's role is to protect people. When you were saved by Brenner, this ideal was only further cemented. None of your ideas are your own! You are simply conditioned to believe.
WILL: Are you done yet?
CAULDER: Listen to yourself! Then look about you! How can you possibly believe in hope? You think yourself the heroic successor to this Captain Brenner, yet--
WILL: No. I don't. I'm not a hero, and I'll never be the man Captain Brenner was. But the lessons he taught mean everything to me. He proved that hope is good. He taught me to leave no one behind. If those ideas aren't my own? If he conditioned me? Then that's fine. Keep your theories, Caulder. What's important is that I help people. I have no other ambitions. That is what my heart tells me to do, and my heart is my own.
CAULDER: You are clearly no logician, so I will speak with simple words. Morals or values that impede the march of progress must be stamped out! Otherwise we end up with hideous, self-righteous people like you!
But I really have no idea what the word means anymore. It's one of those besides-the-point accusations. I suppose the villains see a hypocrisy in the heroes' behavior that the heroes' are blind to. But if that were the case, there'd be something to point out, and the villains always fail to do so.
So they tend to go like this...
A: Evil mass murderer!
B: Hypocritical, self-righteous prick!
A: Hypocrite? How?
B: Well, everyone is. So you probably are too.
A: What kind of argument is that?!
B: A true one.
A: WTF?
B: Believe what you want, but I'm completely serious here.
A: You hurt people! You killed my friends! You're the aggressor! WHY?!
B: Nah, they hurt themselves by being self-righteous pricks like you who can't leave well enough alone.
A: ::burning, inconsolable shounen rage rising:: You *inhuman* monster!
B: Well, like it or not, we're *all* human here. Let's just agree to disagree by *killing each other*, you self-righteous, self-righteous, self-righteous prick.
A: ::grimly:: Right. Let's.
This is still a vast improvement to what the franchise had.
Opening conversation between WILL and CAULDER in CAMPAIGN 26: "Sunrise": Day 1:
WILL: Caulder! We've come for you!
CAULDER: Hmmm... I did not expect you to find my nest so quickly. Perhaps you were not the ideal test specimens after all.
WILL: What is this place?
CAULDER: This is the central research facility for Intelligent Defense Systems. It is my playground. A place where I can satisfy my insatiable curiosity. Perhaps you would like to come in and... take a look around?
WILL: Ha! It's time to close up shop, Caulder! Your clones are human beings, not property. You have no right to experiment on them.
CAULDER: The man in the armored tank speaks of rights! How very tiresome... Whatever you may think of me, I have always been faithful to my curiosity. I am not motivated by greed, or fame, or the interests of society. If my research causes suffering or moral quandaries, I care not. I seek only to learn. In that sense, I am a pure and simple man.
WILL: Your curiosity comes at the cost of people's lives! You have no concept of what it means to be human.
CAULDER: Pah! Spare me your overworn lectures and tired morality. You have simply been conditioned to accept the values of society. And now you unthinkingly spout those same values to me. Do you not fight? Do you not kill? Is this not for selfish reasons? You cannot justify your war while condemning my research!
WILL: I fight to help others, and I take no joy from it. It's not because I've been conditioned... It's because I am a human being!
CAULDER: Merely the ideals a selfish society has imprinted on your young mind! Such ideals were constructed by society to ensure its survival. They serve only to channel people's energies away from killing each other. Did you not lose both of your parents in the Great War?
WILL: ... ... ... ...
CAULDER: With no one to care for you, you joined the Rubinelle military academy. They clothed you, fed you, and taught you to fight for your country.
WILL: ...That's right. What of it?
CAULDER: Such a life has turned you into a foolish, naive young man. You were conditioned to believe the greatest of lies... That a soldier's role is to protect people. When you were saved by Brenner, this ideal was only further cemented. None of your ideas are your own! You are simply conditioned to believe.
WILL: Are you done yet?
CAULDER: Listen to yourself! Then look about you! How can you possibly believe in hope? You think yourself the heroic successor to this Captain Brenner, yet--
WILL: No. I don't. I'm not a hero, and I'll never be the man Captain Brenner was. But the lessons he taught mean everything to me. He proved that hope is good. He taught me to leave no one behind. If those ideas aren't my own? If he conditioned me? Then that's fine. Keep your theories, Caulder. What's important is that I help people. I have no other ambitions. That is what my heart tells me to do, and my heart is my own.
CAULDER: You are clearly no logician, so I will speak with simple words. Morals or values that impede the march of progress must be stamped out! Otherwise we end up with hideous, self-righteous people like you!
