LNH: Legion of Net.Heroes Volume 2 #13

martinphipps2 at yahoo.com martinphipps2 at yahoo.com
Tue May 2 21:40:07 PDT 2006


Jesse Willey wrote:
> > But the Ultimate Ninja wouldn't give a rat's ass
> > about any of that.  He
> > would welcome the challenge!
>
>    I think the idea of guilty until proven innocent
> would grate on him.
>
> > And if you don't understand that, you might be the
> > only person who
> > doesn't understand the Ultimate Ninja.
>
>    If the outcome of the trial would impact him and
> just him then yes, he proabably would go for it.  But
> it's not.  So yeah.

That's not the point.  It's not that Ultimate Ninja isn't afraid of
anything. It's that he's an expert in not betraying his emotions.
Including anger: if he's going to rip somebody's heart out then an
angry look would make his next move too predictable.  Indeed, that is
the Ultimate Ninja's number one advantage (besides his ninja training),
his unpredictability: if you know what your opponent is going to do
then it is a lot easier to prepare a counter move.  This is the basic
quality of most fictional (and real life military) leaders, not just
ninjas.  The essence of this is summarized in the story Mirror Mirror
which was recently reposted as LNH The Early Years #4:

Doctor Stomper and Contraption Man left.  Sister State-the-Obvious
took the opportunity to speak to her commander in private.
  "UN?"
  "Yes?"
  "I'm scared."
  "We all are."
  "You don't look scared."
  "I know."

>   This one does have a point.   That the LNH really
> isn't any better than the Killfiles.   The Ninja is
> just as likely to use deadly force as they are.
> Ultimately we shouldn' care about them as 'heroes'
> because they aren't.

That point didn't come across.  In any case, I wouldn't agree.  As Tom
pointed out, heroes aren't perfect, they're still human and yet that
doesn't make them as bad as the villains.  If they were then there'd be
no distinction between heroes and villains and no reason to care who
wins and who loses.

> > Sure, that could be funny.  So do it with one of
> > your own characters.
>
>    Never create a character where an old one will do.

But if you don't write the existing character correctly then you are
creating a new character with the same name as an old one and causing
needless confusion. :)

Martin




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