Also, as long as we are allowing unmoderated politics in this discussion
I'm inclined to doubt that we are.
The Incredibles said:
Dash: But Dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of, our powers made us special.
Helen: Everyone's special, Dash.
Dash: [
muttering] Which is another way of saying no one is.
Dash is lamenting being forbidden from "cutting loose" with his superspeed, winning foot-races, and consequently being recognized as "the best."
Dash grows as a character during the course of the movie: he realizes that his goal is really to *cheat* using his supernatural gifts. No one else can *possibly* run as fast as he can, so rather than winning at foot-races, he makes a mature choice and settles for joining in. Admittedly this is because he's found the very outlet Helen says early in the movie that he needs, but he still appears to have lost a chunk of the selfishness we saw in him.
[ASIDE] The other characters appear to make similar choices. In the short space of the denouement, Violet gets a date and Bob and Helen get in the bleachers to support Dash instead of hiding in the house. [/ASIDE]
The Incredibles said:
Mr. Incredible: You mean you killed off real heroes so that you could *pretend* to be one?
Syndrome: Oh, I'm real. Real enough to defeat you! And I did it without your precious gifts, your oh-so-special powers. I'll give them heroics. I'll give them the most spectacular heroics the world has ever seen! And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that *everyone* can have powers. *Everyone* can be super! And when everyone's super--[
chuckles evilly]--no one will be.
Syndrome is plotting to "cut loose" with his inventions, "win" at super-heroics, and consequently be recognized as "the most spectacular," following which he'll sell his inventions.
Syndrome doesn't grow as a character: when thwarted, he seeks revenge in classic supervillain fashion. Syndrome demonstrates he's the sort of character that resorts, by default, to tearing others down in order to build himself up by comparison: movie-wise, this is definitely a bad-guy sort of trait.
[ASIDE] Does anyone really think that literally "everyone" will be able to afford what Syndrome sells? Or, in the alternative, that the inexpensive inventions will be "as super" as the expensive inventions?
Or maybe Syndrome, who isn't known for the best of intentions, might be just having a poke at Mr. Incredible: perhaps he's explaining, in another way, that he doesn't find Mr. Incredible nearly as cool anymore (he says at another point, "I've outgrown you"), and that super-heroes in general bore him these days, because he can kill them and/or replicate their powers with inventions at his leisure. [/ASIDE]
So what are the filmmakers really telling us, and how does this relate to 4E's way of "leveling the playing field"?
Personally, I think the movie is a riff on Spider-Man's "with great power comes great responsibility" mantra. The good guys are at their best when they're using their "gifts" to protect others; the bad guys are at their worst when they use their "gifts" to get what they want in spite of others.
Syndrome's threat, "And when everyone's super, no one will be," can therefore, IMO, be read as shorthand for Syndrome's agenda to destroy all super-heroes -- in this instance, by invalidating their gifts through his inventions. But his real goal *must* be a new generation of supervillains: empowered, selfish people like him who want to use the "gifts" they purchase to get what they want.
And I would say that it differs fundamentally from Dash's lament in that Dash is mostly expressing pre-adolescent frustration, whereas Syndrome is gloating over how he'll throw the world into chaos.
When it comes to a game of D&D, it seems to me that most players would rather be able to make meaningful choices that have meaningful effects on the outcome of the game. Most players would rather not have their thunder stolen by a "cheat" that's on another player's character sheet.
Whatever your, or my, experience with wizards and clerics pre-4E, I'm convinced it's pretty clear they can "cheat" with relative ease in ways other characters can't. IMO, the designers appear to have leaned toward viewing the pre-4E spellcasters' experience during play as "more special" than other characters' experience during play. Spellcasters had meaningful choices: Which spells do I memorize/prepare today? Which do I cast right now? Non-spellcasters, IMO, had fewer meaningful choices.
So I think that's what 4E is addressing: giving all characters similar abilities to gain the spotlight in the way that pre-4E spellcasters tended to, and by extension giving all players similar chances to make meaningful choices.
IOW, it's not about holding Dash back: it's about giving Dash a field full of speedsters to race with.