Is Destroying the World Actually A Decent Motive?

Villains, and particularly poorly written villains, are a dime a dozen. They pop up as a major plot point, part of a subplot, or just a minor distracting supporting character all around. And very often they seem motivated simply to bring down the protagonist. The reason they want to do this is largely explained by some mild or basic jealousy, but they don't really stand up to much scrutiny as to the excessive nature of their actions. Click here to know more about this article.

I wonder what it is about destroying the world that villains find so appealing.

When I first discovered anime, Sailor Moon in particular, the fact that Beryl wanted to rule Earth didn't seem like a problem at all. However, as you get older, you realize that when Beryl says she wants to rule the earth, she actually means she wants to absorb the energy of everyone on Earth and there will be nothing left, pretty much what happened with the Kingdom. of the moon. and we all know how the moon looks like a dead rock these days.

So what exactly did Beryl expect from all of this, even if she did succeed? One could argue that Beryl wasn't exactly in control of her own actions and that she was being used, but what did that higher power get out of all of this? Sure they absorb a lot of energy and then have huge amounts of power, but power is not a means to an end. Obtaining that power is the end. What do they do then when there's no one left to absorb power from and they don't even have minions left because they killed them all too? What's left?

I understand that from a narrative standpoint, having Sailor Moon defend the land from destruction gives the hero a huge motive and makes the stakes overall pretty high. However, the villain seems to get little out of the deal, even if she succeeds. While one or two of the villains had a legitimate grudge against the planet and really wanted to bring it down, most seemed to just want the power to rule, but in the process they were going to destroy what they wanted to take over.

These guys again didn't have much of a plan and it turns out it wasn't even their plan. They were also just tools used by another higher power that also wanted to destroy the world for reasons that were even less clear. Then again, the fact that they were called "gears" probably should have made it clear that they weren't the mastermind of the story.

What's even more tragic about Captain Earth is how often the villain came incredibly close to succeeding in his plan. All life on earth could have been extinct in an instant because some teenagers didn't pilot a robot well enough or worse... the inter-agency fight could have prevented them from even launching a defense and the bureaucracy would have killed us. That would have had a definitive message as a story, but I doubt we'll find that a satisfying conclusion.