Many people enjoy discussing and judging the morals of characters in films, but that’s not the main point. Very few characters are entirely good or entirely evil, which tends to result in dull and poorly made movies. Regardless of whether viewers resonate with the story, they should show compassion for the characters. It’s important to interpret their motives and circumstances to understand what led them to make certain decisions and to reflect on ourselves.

  • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    22 days ago

    The Joker has a motivation though, his worldview is that everything is chaos and he needs to prove it to everyone else. Especially Batman.

      • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        22 days ago

        It means that when he does things, they feel like things the Joker would do. In the Dark Knight he takes all the mob money and burns half of it, because that is a Joker thing to do. Two Face wouldn’t do that, because Two Face has different motivations.

        That is the reason to have motivation. It doesn’t need to be complex, just nuanced.

        • Kowowow@lemmy.caEnglish
          12·
          22 days ago

          Couldn’t two face just be written to have flipped a coin and ending up burning half the money as a result

          • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            22 days ago

            He flips the coin to decide people’s fate, not to deatroy money.

            But you also just gave another example of a character’s nuanced motivation and morals. That is what makes Two Face an interesting character in a different way than the Joker!

            A villain that burns the money for no reason other than moving the plot forward would be boring.

            • Kowowow@lemmy.caEnglish
              12·
              21 days ago

              Ooh everything is motivation and what does plot have to do with anything

              • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
                2·
                21 days ago

                No, they are two parts that interact with each other and both are necessary for the whole thing to work well.

                In Alien when the guy is brought back to the ship, the captain cares about the individual and wants him taken to sick bay. Ripley is thinking about the whole crew, not the individual, and refuses to skip quarantine proceedures. This is made clear in dialogue. The plot is the alien being brought onboard the ship. They interact with each other, but without the conflicting motivations and moral nuance of how each character sees the balance of one person vs the whole crew the scene would have zero tension.