If I left a trail of bodies in my wake then obviously I intend to kill the main baddie too.

Fuck games that make you let the baddie go.

I think one of the reasons people like FNV so much is kinda this. If you want to, you can tell the final boss to go away. Or you can kill them. I made a character that was speech focused. I didn't want to reassure the end boss that "oh, logistics is hard, don't worry, my faction will collapse eventually because of logistics" and I got to cave their head in.

Cof cof last of us cof cof

But if you kill him you'll be just like him.

You can kill each other, but you can’t kill the rich, deranged asshole in charge.

That tracks.

Lets leave those friends of epstein alone. We are better than them 😔

Once you spot this it becomes impossible not to see it.

Ever notice how most environmentalists in comic book movies and TV are evil, misguided, or at best ineffectual?

Or how a corrupt official can leverage whole armies to chase down the protagonist, but the conclusion is that the system itself is great and should be protected and it was just that one bad egg?

Exactly!

Im currently rewatching Smallville and there are so many random villains whose death are directly Clarks fault, and he never takes any responsibility, but still everyone acts like taking a life is a big thing.

Going a bit off on a tangent but are ludonarrative synchronicity, ludonarrative resonance, ludonarrative coherence, ludonarrative harmony and ludonarrative consistency all the same thing or are there some subtle differences? Over the years I've see all of them be used as the opposite to ludonarrative dissonance.

This exactly lol. Like bombing thousands of civilians and then decrying "political violence".

Yeah downscaling your power level for a cut scene is stupid too. Lotta times in games I'm just like "this is 6 mercs, I could have taken them easy"

MGS is also guilty of it

But don't you see? Just because the greedy capitalist killed millions doesn't mean you can kill him.

👉👈 Pwease compwy.

Hench Lives Matter!

Take out the henchcats and henchdogs too. Don't want them going feral.

What about the henchboss?

Here’s to Smitty!

Or you know, check like a pulse.

Is it just some cheap plot device, though? Now the big bad can escape from prison or whatever and find new plebs for Arrowman to kill and we'll all have a big ol' happy happy

Exactly, the random goons in games are designed to be without humanity and to fade into the background as much as possible.

Imagine if instead of dying quick and going immediately still and silent, random goons crawled around on the floor for two minutes in absolute agony after you shoot them like "Oh God there's so much blood! I don't want to die!"

Would totally change the tone of the game.

First thing that comes to mind is the OG Avatar the last Airbender. Aang has that dilemma at the end of the show but throughout the series he does plenty of damage to kill people. It’s just never shown on screen since it’s a kids show.

That's why I love fallout games. You don't even have to listen to their story and can just blast em and go about your day. Ladi dadi dah, oh right, I should eat something.

Aang doesn't kill anyone, though. It's an important part of his character for the entire series.

When I was young I thought the ending was the coolest thing ever because taking a person's elemental bending away is like ripping your entire being away. Like stripping a billionaire of all of their assets and cash. Horrible blow to their ego, lifetime of suffering, etc.

But now that I'm older, Aang should have just killed the bastard. The fight was hella cool tho.

Caillou looking centrist loser 😶

It makes sense for him as he is the equivalent of a Buddhist monk. They follow the virtue of no harm. Same way he is vegetarian in the story.