We can have a little revenge. As a treat.

And if you let him live, he's just going to keep killing other people eventually. All you win is a moral high ground for barely 5 minutes after the credits roll. Monsters are really good at convincing themselves that they're not monsters!

I mean usually these stories are pretty contrived. They're set up in a way where anyone who dies along the way is kill or be killed, but the final villain conveniently gets a chance to cry for mercy.

Warning: massive spoilers below

I loved the last episode of The Last of Us. I loved that he wasn't about to make that sacrifice, even if it was for the fate of humanity. I loved that he was willing to kill everyone in the building to save his daughter, or whatever you'd call her. It was such an amazing direction to take, because nobody ever takes that direction.

I'm not a gamer, but I'll take your word for it.

There are legitimate criticisms for that game, but whenever anyone brings up “ReVENge baD” as the criticism it just makes me angry. It’s like they already made up their minds about all of the characters and were just too stubborn to change their minds during the story.

Is there any indication they've actually changed? Usually not. They just don't like that consequences are happening to them, personally, and so they're crying about it. Most of the time they had no problem killing innocent people or sending their own goons to die trying to stop the hero from getting to them, the tears and emotional manipulation are just the last ditch effort.

And if you spare them they'll probably do it all over again.

If we're thinking of the same country, it'd be like the bad guy using a bystander as a human shield and the person seeking revenge just goes ahead and stabs them both; not exactly what we'd expect from the "good guy".

I wouldn't expect it to happen in the real world, but we're talking movies here.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey isn't always great with its writing, but there's a few moments I like.

First one: You've quested to get an audience with Nikolaos, Kassandra's father that threw you and your infant brother from a mountain by orders of the villains. You're given a prompt to kill him, or question him. If you choose kill, then Kassandra lunges at him, announcing her intent...but then relents, shirking back, deciding it's not worth it. He says, gently, that he loved her, and her brother. That line hits the berserk button, and Kassandra immediately thrusts the spear through him.

Second one, when you've finally cornered one of the top cultists that nearly engineered an election in his favor, you get a simpler prompt: Either kill him quickly, or drown him painfully.

There's a great/horrifying chapter in for whom the bell tolls where the villagers of a Franco ruled town get revenge on their fascist leaders. Might change your mind.

And this is why Roadhouse is the best movie ever!

"Son of a bitch" is pretty tame as swears go, particularly in the 80s where even G kids' movies would probably be pushing PG-13 these days. I do agree having otherwise clean dialogue does increase the impact when it's used, but I'd argue that it's Mandy that really sells it. There's a lot of real pain, loss, and anger behind that line when Mandy speaks it, and that gives it some serious weight.

The saying is "Before setting out on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." Maybe we should pump up that number a bit.

While I tend to agree from an emotional and comeuppance perspective, stuff like zero tolerance laws a d "law and order" policies tend to show tackling the source and causes of crime for most to be more effective than a harsh punishment, with similar things with rehabilitation. That said, some people just gotta die. For everyone else's sake, or they just keep repeating their actions.