[QUOTE="texasgoldrush"]
[QUOTE="hakanakumono"]
It doesn't amount to much of anything. There's no discourse on nihilism. Saying that life is meaningless may align him with nihilism, but no more than the out of nowhere Necron at the end of FFIX or other shallow villains.
Depth is the larger picture. Without depth, there isn't much of a picture. The fact that you try to apply concepts like "nihilism" demonstrates at least a part of you understands that a shallow villain doesn't cut it.
Senselessness and randomness of violence? Violence can be senseless, but it's almost never random and it's certainly not "senseless" in the sense that there isn't a reason for it to occur. A while back you were talking about how Kefka was realistic because he was a ****c "psychopath" in the sense that he has no reason for doing what he does, demonstrating a clear lack of understanding of the subject matter. Weak attempts to try to connect Kefka, a silly over the top villain, to anything "serious" aren't going to get you far, especially when the basis of your arguments demonstrates a limited understanding.
AdobeArtist
Kefka does not have to preach nihilism throught the game, he doesn't need to. Thats how good the direction is. Many characters have their moments when they find no meaning in their life and they either find it, or someone else helps them find it. It would actually detract from Kefka if he preached nihilism throught the game. He represents it through his actions and the other protagonists confront moments of losing meaning in their lives from the results of his actions. Its only when they wrap things up the party debates him on his views and plans.
"Depth is the larger picture. Without depth, there isn't much of a picture. The fact that you try to apply concepts like "nihilism" demonstrates at least a part of you understands that a shallow villain doesn't cut it."
Wrong...depth is important, but so is using it. The thing about Kefka is that he is deep enough for the story to work. He didn't need a huge backstory.
"Senselessness and randomness of violence? Violence can be senseless, but it's almost never random and it's certainly not "senseless" in the sense that there isn't a reason for it to occur. A while back you were talking about how Kefka was realistic because he was a ****c "psychopath" in the sense that he has no reason for doing what he does, demonstrating a clear lack of understanding of the subject matter. Weak attempts to try to connect Kefka, a silly over the top villain, to anything "serious" aren't going to get you far, especially when the basis of your arguments demonstrates a limited understanding"
You really should watch No Country For Old Men....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xyvOCNCXdU
If thats not random and senseless than what is. He basically kills a random parson fo rhis car. The guy even makes people flip coins for their lives. In the movie, the cops even talk about how senesless these killings are. Then thier is the ending....
And Kefka does connect to something "serious" like the overall theme of the game, finding meaning in life. Its perfectly clear.
I'm going to have to play devil's advocate here. While the encounter was random, the act itself was not. As you stated yourself, he did it to attain the car he needed at the time. It would certainly be disagreeable to us, but to the hitman any course of action is justified to gain his ends (getting the car or what not...) and that's all the reason he needs. Basically if the two had crossed paths but the hitman needed nothing from the stranger, chances are he wouldn't just randomly kill him like he suddenly thought to himself, "hmmm, there's a person, I think I'll just kill him just for the hell of it".
And of course the cops are calling the killings senseless, they don't understand the reasons behind the acts. Very often, sense and senseless is a matter of persepctive. Again, this is not to say anyobody's self reasoning can justify a violent act by concensus of society, but it does justify it to them, and that's all they need.
In more general terms, every killer's actions has some reasoning behind it, just that we don't always see it, as its often internalized based on that killer's perspective. There can be any number of justifications such as the victim was a threat to himself, whether real, as in there was an ongoing rivalry over territory, possession, money, position in an organization, or even the affection of a woman, or that threat might have been self percieved, one imagined by the killer but in his mind as real as if the victim had actually declared hostilities toward him.
Again these self justifications won't hold weight by societies standards but to the individual that doesn't matter. What ever threatens his saftey or goals, real or imagined will to himself jutify any means necessary to prevent that. He may be aware he breaking laws, but his personal interests override that, and enables him to carry out what ever actions deemed necessary.
Simply put, it may seem random and senseless to us,in his own mind there was a reason. It wasn't random to him.
I do agree for the most part with you...however there is an element of randomness to the character of Anton Chigurh.
These acts are random and senseless, to everybody but him, but the acts themsleves are really portrayed as random and senseless in the movie. That was really the point of his character of No Country For Old Men. The Sheriff (played by Tommy Lee Jones) struggles to understand this kind of violence. The rancher, played by Josh Brolin, fails to comprehend the type of man he is as well. But in this case, Anton's kills were both targeted and random, as chance is part of this killers persona. In one scene, for no logical reason at all, he forces a gas station owner to play a coin toss for his life in which he wins. He loves the idea of fate and chance, thats part of his craziness. In one scene he kills someone because he needs his car (and another person as well for his truck), but in another, he spares someone witnessing one of his murders, which is illogical for a killer to do. So their is some randomness to thi character.
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