Wearing a Black Hat in the Movies

The movie _Unbreakable_ was based on the idea that it wasn't possible to to have a super-hero without a super-villain.

In fiction, it's true. Your hero, or protagonist, is limited by the antagonist. The antagonist can be nature in a "man against nature" story or some other problem that is equally mindless... maybe sickness or a virus. But most often the antagonist is a person or an organization of people... the bigger the better because the whole of the thing, of the movie, is going to be limited by the scope of the antagonist.

Which is why I don't mind much (if at all) when a foreign movie has the United States or some portion of it, in the role of antagonist. Without invoking an alien invasion, where can a story-teller find a more imposing force to pit against the heroes?

Comments

Some times some people.

It's Not Projection

Take the case of "fascism". When you can see clear as day that the person who is accusing you of fascism is a fascist, they aren't projecting. They're talking about something ELSE. Basically, in the case of fascism, the basic set of fascist government controls are the default assumption of reality for a whole lot of people. The government is supposed to control every part of your life. The government is supposed to make you moral and good and reflect "justice". The government is supposed to do this by picking winners from the good people and losers from the bad people. The government is supposed to control the way people do business, how businesses (and farmers) function and what they produce. And people should be made to cooperate with this control because they are part of society and society is dependent on everyone being in compliance. This is simply the Truth. It's how the world works and how the world is supposed to work. The Socialist Nationalism,

What You Know That Isn't So

The saying goes like this, It's not what you *don't* know that is going to trip you up, it's what you know that isn't so. I believe that the first lady might possibly have been feigning helplessness, just a little bit. She already had concept art and visuals, so I think she'll be okay. But someone might truly be so new that they know nothing about science fiction as a genre or how it works in the world. That person, the truly "new" person, might not realize that the second lady, no matter how assured she seems to be that she's passing on vital Wisdom, is wrong. So lets unwrap her backpack a little (to steal a metaphor). Stories about space pirates are Space Opera, generally. "Soft" science in science fiction usually refers to sociology or psychology, social "science". A story about space pirates might be "soft". But that's picking nits. The first big boo-boo is this: "not as popular *because* it is women

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