Black Death with Sean Bean. Not a pure fantasy movie but you never know about these old times...
The young guy who went mad at the end and became a witch hunter (a faithfull christian cleric....) burning and killing innocent woman cause of his messed up mind. They were close to reality how "faith" can kill your humanity completely!
Nik Perumov's [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nik_Perumov ] "Elven Blade" and "Black Lance", in which he wrecks Tolkien's Middle-Earth. Yes, he hates elves that much The books are rather amateurish and poorly written, but nontheless managed to start many discussions (and flamewars ) on Russian boards and forums back in the 90's.
I think there are many evil endings or unsolved mysteries in our world which grew over times into pure speculation and "fantastic tales". Jack the ripper is another example, even the name is a tale and so are the theories around that bastard. I just watched the sherlock holmes vs jack the ripper movie, great movie but fantasy...
I´m bored at times by all the happy ends. It´s a good feeling if someone got his revenge or the evil is destroyed. But the "real evil" never gets defeated. It stays in the background and play´s it´s puppets. His allies keeps it guards up. Also most of the time the evil is stupid. Real evil kills you and thats it. It doesnt lets you go once it knows you are a threat and waits until you comes from another angle. So evil always wins because of it´s mercilessness.
Only good delays it´s action and keeps up the hope for the light in everything.
The evil in harry potter as an example is not evil. It is dumb and useless. Any negative force would fire that voldemort and all his silly allies. Know what i mean? 6 or 7 books and not one of his dudes just took a knife and stab that little guy in his chest, poison him or whatnot!
The sword stormbringer from elric was evil. Got it in the end! Thats one touche!
[Spoiler]The bad guy kills himself in the end, sure, but he's had his horrible, horrible vengeance. The main character cut out his own tongue and has his entire life ruined.It's just that vengeance was he only thing he had to live for, so when it was done, he was done. There's no happy ending, at all, in that movie.[/Spoiler]
Sadly enough I haven't found what you look for. I have read dragonlance and played many rpgs however not a single one let evil dude. Maybe it is supposed to lose for who oppose of protagonist. Cruel fantasy world it is.
There are a couple of fantasy plots that end badly for the good guys.
The first one that comes to my mind is the Scars of Mirrodin arc that Magic the Gathering recently did. The good guys were pretty much slaughtered into tiny groups and they're holed up in little hideaways. The rest of the were brutally converted by dark magic/ killed/ experimented on. The whole setting is really dark.
You could also argue that the Chosen of Nendawen trilogy (in FR) has the good guys lose. After all, the shiny knights are all butchered and a horrible demon horde nearly escapes. The protagonist is a cold, revenge driven character who isn't out to save the world. She wants to avenge her parents that were killed. I would say the good guys lost and she's just vengeance, not necessarily justice.
The Unclean/Undead/Unholy trilogy (also in FR) shows the good guys losing. Szass Tam takes over Thay and exiles all of them. Sure, they prevent him from unmaking the world, but they're still outcasts and Thay is still an undead ruled land. They lost the war.
There's a standalone novel in the Dungeons series of books (in FR) where the ostensibly evil sorcerer dies, but one of the heroes who vanquished him is shown to be evil herself. As in worships an evil goddess. This makes the ending somewhat ambiguous.
There's a third trilogy of books in FR that I just can't remember the name of BUT it also features the villain sort of winning. Basically we're following this evil super powerful wizard as he rearranges the tears of Selune and basically does a lot of amoral things. He kills people who are in his way and has three demons who are his servants. He's ultimately chasing this thing called a crown of fire and wants to possess it before he dies. It turns out the crown of fire was a solar eclipse and all of his actions were designed to basically set up an eclipse from this little island. He did it because it reminded him of when he was a child with his father. He ends up getting killed but the wizard does not care at all because he has his eclipse. He has what he's looking for so he sort of wins.
@Heindrich awesome post. I understood the peace through tyranny.
Knew about the warring states period. (An exhibition of the terracotta army that this emperor built visited England, feel bad because I've forgotten his name... )
That he had to defend himself from assassins is sooo cool. Now my second favourite emperor of all time.
Attila and Genghis got killed by their wives in bed... it just doesn't seem like the most heroic way to die...
Hmmm... in history do the evil guys always lose as well? I know evil can cause strife, but the does the natural human condition naturally rebel from it?
I immediately thought of this when you used the word "naturally:"
Comments
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/30532/wars-and-politics
The young guy who went mad at the end and became a witch hunter (a faithfull christian cleric....) burning and killing innocent woman cause of his messed up mind. They were close to reality how "faith" can kill your humanity completely!
That is an evil ending! and beginning ...
The books are rather amateurish and poorly written, but nontheless managed to start many discussions (and flamewars
I´m bored at times by all the happy ends. It´s a good feeling if someone got his revenge or the evil is destroyed. But the "real evil" never gets defeated. It stays in the background and play´s it´s puppets. His allies keeps it guards up. Also most of the time the evil is stupid. Real evil kills you and thats it. It doesnt lets you go once it knows you are a threat and waits until you comes from another angle. So evil always wins because of it´s mercilessness.
Only good delays it´s action and keeps up the hope for the light in everything.
The evil in harry potter as an example is not evil. It is dumb and useless. Any negative force would fire that voldemort and all his silly allies. Know what i mean? 6 or 7 books and not one of his dudes just took a knife and stab that little guy in his chest, poison him or whatnot!
The sword stormbringer from elric was evil. Got it in the end! Thats one touche!
[Spoiler]The bad guy kills himself in the end, sure, but he's had his horrible, horrible vengeance. The main character cut out his own tongue and has his entire life ruined.It's just that vengeance was he only thing he had to live for, so when it was done, he was done. There's no happy ending, at all, in that movie.[/Spoiler]
I have read dragonlance and played many rpgs however not a single one let evil dude.
Maybe it is supposed to lose for who oppose of protagonist.
Cruel fantasy world it is.
The first one that comes to my mind is the Scars of Mirrodin arc that Magic the Gathering recently did. The good guys were pretty much slaughtered into tiny groups and they're holed up in little hideaways. The rest of the were brutally converted by dark magic/ killed/ experimented on. The whole setting is really dark.
You could also argue that the Chosen of Nendawen trilogy (in FR) has the good guys lose. After all, the shiny knights are all butchered and a horrible demon horde nearly escapes. The protagonist is a cold, revenge driven character who isn't out to save the world. She wants to avenge her parents that were killed. I would say the good guys lost and she's just vengeance, not necessarily justice.
The Unclean/Undead/Unholy trilogy (also in FR) shows the good guys losing. Szass Tam takes over Thay and exiles all of them. Sure, they prevent him from unmaking the world, but they're still outcasts and Thay is still an undead ruled land. They lost the war.
There's a standalone novel in the Dungeons series of books (in FR) where the ostensibly evil sorcerer dies, but one of the heroes who vanquished him is shown to be evil herself. As in worships an evil goddess. This makes the ending somewhat ambiguous.
There's a third trilogy of books in FR that I just can't remember the name of BUT it also features the villain sort of winning. Basically we're following this evil super powerful wizard as he rearranges the tears of Selune and basically does a lot of amoral things. He kills people who are in his way and has three demons who are his servants. He's ultimately chasing this thing called a crown of fire and wants to possess it before he dies. It turns out the crown of fire was a solar eclipse and all of his actions were designed to basically set up an eclipse from this little island. He did it because it reminded him of when he was a child with his father. He ends up getting killed but the wizard does not care at all because he has his eclipse. He has what he's looking for so he sort of wins.
depends on the wife