Looking to Hamlet, perhaps the definition of a tragic personality -- one who has within his greatest strength his weakness (that of thought), I looked to the first available hero figures in gaming to see if they fit the mold.

Kratos, driven by vengeance, indeed fits. His greatest strength is his love of family, one which he was tricked into killing, but it is that love which condemns him to an eternity of misery.

Mario, driven by his love of Daisy, then Peach, plods along a treadmill of endless rescues for a scant few moments of reward at the end of each game.  His greatest asset, his loyalty, also his highest folly.

Nathan Drake, driven by a a childhood abandonment searchs for identity in his incessant trek for Sir Francis Drake's treasures, ignores the life that is laid bare before him.

Sonic... a hedgehog seeks... um... rings... Okay, I guess this is where it ends.

My point I guess, if I have one, is that if you look at our games, you can find some greatly troubling psychosis.

I don't even know where to start with Master Chief.  An orphen raised by the government for the sole purpose of becoming a super soldier, one of whom he is the sole survivor, and apparently celibate -- his only companion a holographic AI.  He must be one messed up dude.

Posted by aspro Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:44:26 (comments: 8)
 
Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:51:29

Pitfall Harry - a crazed lunatic who searches the jungle for imaginary treasure not even realizing he's walking around in one great big loop.

 
Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:29:52
The Baneling

Baneling

"The Baneling is an explosive Zerg ground unit that can be created after building a Baneling Nest. You can morph Zerglings into Banelings for the cost of 25min/25gas and 20 seconds. Similar to the Infested Terran from Brood War, the Baneling is a suicidal unit and so this must be taken into account when attacking with them. Banelings have a splash radius of 2.2 and do not deal friendly fire damage to either your units or those of your allies. However, their attack range - unless manually detonated - is only 0.25, which is basically melee range and too short to go off from second row by themselves. But they can be detonated manually and they will also perform their "attack" upon death."
 
Sat, 09 Jun 2012 02:28:54

Duke Nukem. He never has enough bubblegum. Sad

 
Sat, 09 Jun 2012 10:36:24
Sonic, destined to star in lame games.

Nyaa
 
Sat, 09 Jun 2012 16:50:57
If you want real tragic heroes I've always thought it was a toss up between 2 in the videogame world.

The main hero from DQV - He watches his father get killed in front of him as a boy and thrn spends the next 10 years in a slave camp. Later in life he and his wife are turned to stone moments after their twins are born and they stay that way for 10 years. Finally after being cured he gets to meet his long thought dead mother... and then she dies.
 
Sat, 09 Jun 2012 16:58:54
Zack from Final Fantasy:CC - Zack just wants to be a member of Soldier and ultimately it costs him everything.  His mentor disappears and eventually he's forced to kill him. His hero goes beserk and he has to fight him to the death...sorta. He's eventually tracked down and killed while trying to save the life of some scrub named Cloud. After Zack dies Cloud then takes his identity and steals Zack's girlfriend who he never got to say goodbye to.
 
Sat, 09 Jun 2012 17:09:36
John Marston-  the guy just wanted to do right and turn his life around.   He was used by the gov't then shitted on by then.  He should've just stayed with Bonnie.
 
Sat, 09 Jun 2012 22:51:29

Marston had it coming.

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