![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Gnolls
I'm reading a D&D novel with Gnolls in it. Once again I'm reminded how out-of-touch TSR/WotC is when it comes to their worlds. The villains are still cartoons, evil by nature, cowardly and cruel, dumb and cultureless.
How in the world can something be evil by nature? Something can be unpleasant (like, say, ticks), but evil? That's a subjective label. Why would a predator be cowardly? Cautious, maybe... but not this snivelling, frightened demeanor. And *cultureless*?!? Predators tend to have complex social structures... pack-predators have the most complex structures of all. Add to that intelligence and gnolls should have intense, complex societies. Certainly as complex as the human groups (they do have religions and gods they worship).
The way villains, especially the grunts, are treated reminds me of how American Indians and African tribes were used by lazy writers and creators. A convient dumb golem to be killed in great numbers by the heroes. Haven't the gaming geek companies learned that good villains make great stories? That there is an audience who would like to -play- those kinds of villains. A small group, likely... but these days the game companies need -every- single customer they can get.
How in the world can something be evil by nature? Something can be unpleasant (like, say, ticks), but evil? That's a subjective label. Why would a predator be cowardly? Cautious, maybe... but not this snivelling, frightened demeanor. And *cultureless*?!? Predators tend to have complex social structures... pack-predators have the most complex structures of all. Add to that intelligence and gnolls should have intense, complex societies. Certainly as complex as the human groups (they do have religions and gods they worship).
The way villains, especially the grunts, are treated reminds me of how American Indians and African tribes were used by lazy writers and creators. A convient dumb golem to be killed in great numbers by the heroes. Haven't the gaming geek companies learned that good villains make great stories? That there is an audience who would like to -play- those kinds of villains. A small group, likely... but these days the game companies need -every- single customer they can get.