Please tell me ...
May. 21st, 2011 02:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladybug_archive... Why is it that a character can go through nearly an entirely episode being a horrible, rotten creep, but if he still manages to turn around and give one important show of integrity at the end, I suddenly feel softhearted and pity him and don't want him to die even if he probably really deserves it?
I just watched the Daniel Boone episode Bitter Mission. General Wilkerson is horrid. He's supposed to be a friend to Dan, but he's grown bitter and jaded after fighting war after war and not receiving anything that really lasts in return. He decides to deceive both Kentucky and Virginia into trying to start a war with each other, all because he's going to help the Spanish get Kentucky and thinks that they'll give him land and wealth for doing so. He shoots Dan, who later takes him prisoner, and Wilkerson continually does terrible things during their journey to Virginia, where Dan wants him to tell the governor the truth. He even dumps out the water from the canteen so Dan can't get any to drink.
There are occasional moments where he shows that maybe there's still some semblance of a good person there. For one thing, I can't figure out why he kept bringing up Dan getting the bullet taken out before blood poisoning set in. He wanted Dan dead for his plans to work. So why not let the blood poisoning do its thing? Instead he brought it up more than once and even said Dan should let him take it out. Dan finally agreed. It makes me wonder if he did feel guilty about shooting Dan, especially after being Dan's prisoner and being around him hour after hour. Maybe it made him think about all the times they'd spent together.
Still, then he turns around and does something horrible again. He reminds Dan of a time from their past when they were hunting together and then tries to overpower him when he starts to fall asleep. Right up at the eleventh hour, after they had to form an alliance to defeat the Spanish, who have decided to shoot them both because they don't want to do business with a traitor, the General takes Dan's horse and says he's going to escape because if he goes back to Virginia he'll face a firing squad.
But ...
Dan goes to the governor as quickly as he can, hoping to avert the war. When he arrives, the governor says that he has already told his troops not to march. And there's the General, having gone there after all to tell the truth. He says to Dan, "Call it a sudden attack of integrity." Dan says, "Courage might be a better word for it."
In the epilogue, the General wonders if he'll make it to his own court-martial (apparently afraid that someone will be so angry with him for what he did that they'll shoot him down on the spot). A soldier salutes him, which he returns, stunned. Dan says, "Does that answer your question?"
"He's saluting the General," Wilkerson says. "The firing squad will deal with the traitor."
He certainly deserves punishment for what he tried to do, inciting a war for his own selfish reasons and turning against a friend. But because he finally had a change of heart and did the right thing, knowing that he would probably die for doing so, I ended up feeling really sad not wanting him to die. I wanted him to have a second chance instead. The episode touched me so much I'm close to crying over it. (Of course, that could partially be because it's that time when I have mood swings like nobody's business.)
Am I the biggest marshmallow ever? Sometimes I think I'm too soft. I feel like I shouldn't feel so much compassion for him. I feel like I should feel that he should die for his crimes.
So why can't I? Why?
I just watched the Daniel Boone episode Bitter Mission. General Wilkerson is horrid. He's supposed to be a friend to Dan, but he's grown bitter and jaded after fighting war after war and not receiving anything that really lasts in return. He decides to deceive both Kentucky and Virginia into trying to start a war with each other, all because he's going to help the Spanish get Kentucky and thinks that they'll give him land and wealth for doing so. He shoots Dan, who later takes him prisoner, and Wilkerson continually does terrible things during their journey to Virginia, where Dan wants him to tell the governor the truth. He even dumps out the water from the canteen so Dan can't get any to drink.
There are occasional moments where he shows that maybe there's still some semblance of a good person there. For one thing, I can't figure out why he kept bringing up Dan getting the bullet taken out before blood poisoning set in. He wanted Dan dead for his plans to work. So why not let the blood poisoning do its thing? Instead he brought it up more than once and even said Dan should let him take it out. Dan finally agreed. It makes me wonder if he did feel guilty about shooting Dan, especially after being Dan's prisoner and being around him hour after hour. Maybe it made him think about all the times they'd spent together.
Still, then he turns around and does something horrible again. He reminds Dan of a time from their past when they were hunting together and then tries to overpower him when he starts to fall asleep. Right up at the eleventh hour, after they had to form an alliance to defeat the Spanish, who have decided to shoot them both because they don't want to do business with a traitor, the General takes Dan's horse and says he's going to escape because if he goes back to Virginia he'll face a firing squad.
But ...
Dan goes to the governor as quickly as he can, hoping to avert the war. When he arrives, the governor says that he has already told his troops not to march. And there's the General, having gone there after all to tell the truth. He says to Dan, "Call it a sudden attack of integrity." Dan says, "Courage might be a better word for it."
In the epilogue, the General wonders if he'll make it to his own court-martial (apparently afraid that someone will be so angry with him for what he did that they'll shoot him down on the spot). A soldier salutes him, which he returns, stunned. Dan says, "Does that answer your question?"
"He's saluting the General," Wilkerson says. "The firing squad will deal with the traitor."
He certainly deserves punishment for what he tried to do, inciting a war for his own selfish reasons and turning against a friend. But because he finally had a change of heart and did the right thing, knowing that he would probably die for doing so, I ended up feeling really sad not wanting him to die. I wanted him to have a second chance instead. The episode touched me so much I'm close to crying over it. (Of course, that could partially be because it's that time when I have mood swings like nobody's business.)
Am I the biggest marshmallow ever? Sometimes I think I'm too soft. I feel like I shouldn't feel so much compassion for him. I feel like I should feel that he should die for his crimes.
So why can't I? Why?
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-22 05:44 pm (UTC)The gun thing you posted a picture of is definitely cool. Very steampunk!
I've heard of the year without a summer! It's not a time period I've delved into much, but I am aware of it. What a weird year that must have been.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-23 12:59 pm (UTC)That would be neat.
I can see why! Did they ever learn it was because of the volcano going off or was that not discovered until many, many years later?