"Syndrome" Syndrome: or the Fallacy of "Special"
WayneLigon
Adventurer
The Parrs and the other superheroes are more deserving of their powers; they use them for the common good with no thought of reward for themselves. It matters not one hill of beans if they worked to gain those powers or were born with them. The whole point is that they took a gift that made them better in some way than most people and learned to use it responsibly and for the benefit of others. Since being good is almost always much harder than being selfish, in becoming deserving of those powers they were born with they worked a lot harder than most others ever work in their lives, at anything.
Syndrome's idea is a titanically dangerous one because he'll supply powers to anyone with money to pay for them. The vast majority of people are not going to be so selfless as the heroes; Syndrome would basically create a huge tide of supervillains or a huge tide of people who'd instantly kill themselves because they can't be bothered to read a manual, and laugh all the way to the bank while doing it. It would be like handing a gun to a baby.
The point of the movie really resides with Dash. He's the first person to use this phrase. He's a kid and can't see why he can't use his natual gift (which, unique among the Parrs, is the only thing everyone can do - he can just do it way better than most) to gain things it would be impossible for others to attain.
Robert, whose life was pretty much defined by his powers, doesn't see the harm in it because he's come to resent how he was treated - unable to use his powers, he's dying a slow death.
Helen does, but she goes too far the opposite way; she seems as if she'd be just as happy to never use her gifts again except in small mundane ways.
The truth, as it usually does, lies in the middle: Dash should use his powers but in socially acceptable ways - such as bashing rampaging mole men. Helen is shown that she can't deny who she is and that hiding her abilities as as bad as misusing them; she almost causes the deaths of her children because she's not let them use their powers.
Robert is shocked out of his resentment and learns to be a hero again.
Syndrome's later use of the term is totally ironic and meant to show just how single-minded and self-absorbed he really is. He thinks he'll be getting rid of superheroes by bringing everyone up to their level, because of his own inadequacy caused by his total tunnel vision. He can't see that he himself was special even a a child, just that he wasn't special in a flashy manner like Mr Incredible. Everything he's worked for has been a lie.
Kheti sa-Menik
First Post
I'll point out that Frodo didn't resist the Ring to the end. In the end, he gave in. It was his finger being bitten off by Gollum that removed its influence. It doesn't make Frodo any less a heroic figure, but it does his story more bittersweet.
mhacdebhandia
Explorer
GnomeWorks
Adventurer
Ruin Explorer
Legend
Yeah, and because of the language they used, they completely failed to convey that to, I would guess, a reasonable fraction of the audience. I know quite a lot of people I've talked to came away with a bad taste in their mouth from that movie.
It's not a matter of being a "philosophy major" or "looking too close", the FIRST THING that popped into my mind when he said that was that if we were supposed to think this was "automatically bad", then the writers of the movie clearly thought we were all deeply small-c conservative-minded knee-jerkers of the worst kind, who assume status-quo is always better than change.
I was instantly offended, I can tell you, in that the film was both putting out a pretty lame message and totally assuming that I'd swallow it whole. I was entirely behind the beating seven shades of smack out of the guy before that, but that damn line broke my suspension of disbelief with near-audible snap and made me think "Hey what exactly are these jerks trying to say here?".
Frankly, most of the rest of the movie, at least when Frozone wasn't on-screen, as kind of a let-down. Like Mac, I thought it was pretty trite, frankly, and lacked any real depth or emotional warmth (surprisingly, imo, given the subject matter).
Then again, I love to play knights and nice nobles in D&D, so maybe I should stop whacking on noblesse oblige. I was just really peeved to be expected to swallow that whole, without, at the time it's said in the film, them really earning it.
If I might interject - you missed two steps. First, he uses his inventions to make himself look like a hero. Then he sells them at high prices (and they're all weapons) to make a fortune, and only then does he make them so available that everyone scrabbles for them as the way to be special. So, you have lies, greed, and envy. That's why it is scary.
The Incredibles is about the damage you do to yourself and your loved ones when you hide who you really are under a facade. The problem most people have with the message here is that they assume that there's a value to "special". YOu see, Syndrome thinks special = better. The Parr family comes to realize that special just means different. That's why Syndrom is a whackjob, and they're a reasonably sane family.
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Yes on both counts. But that's not surprising, seeing as it's fantasy, and most literary/cinematic fantasies are naked power fantasies.
It's not surprising that a segment of the gaming populace believes exactly that, seeing as most roleplaying games are naked power fantasies.
Nightchilde-2
First Post
I like popcorn.
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