Mutant Bosses

[zfactor]

I am not refering to boss battles with mutants, I am refering to boss battles with humans who mutated themselves in order to kill you. My question is why? Why would someone purposely mutate themselves into some crazy monster in order to kill you? What are they going to do when you are dead? They cannot go back to whatever they were doing before because now they have an extra arm or eight legs or are the size of a bus. So why would they do it? And do similar questions come into your mind when you fight a human mutant boss?

As an example, take Lord Saddler at the end of Resident Evil 4.

Spoiler: Yeah, probably not a spoiler, but I am not going to risk it...

He mutates into that spider/scorpion thing to kill you. Why couldn't he kill you the same way he killed Luis? Just stab you through the chest. Instead, he mutates into some creature and promptly gets killed by you. But what was he going to do if he killed you? Just un-mutate? Chop the extra legs off and hope his head grows back?

I am probably just reading into this too much, but it is something that has been bothering me for awhile now... It just annoys me when main enemies grow extra limbs to kill you when nothing has been said of any reversal process. It sort of makes me think "Oh, now this character cannot go on in the story, so that means I have to kill him now..." Thoughts?

 

[DustyDrB]

According to one character at the end of a very recent video game, you become a monster because that's what your enemies expect you to do...

(Don't say the name. Spoilers and whatnot...)

But then that person attacks some allies and sees the whole plan go up in big failure flames.

 

[Pearwood]

Most of the time I've seen that it's a "Behold my true form!" moment so it's implied that the villain can get a new disguise, or it might have gotten to the point where if he doesn't mutate he'll die.

 

[Knife]

Think of it this way - someone attacks you and after some fighting you realize you are about to lose with a strong possibility of dying, you either let them kill you or grow a couple more limbs/whatever. If you lose you lose (so you're not losing anything, excuse the pun), if you win, well you're disfigured but atleast you're alive and its not like a few extra limbs are necesarily a bad thing (in fact objectively speaking it can actually be usefull in day to day life though not quite as apealing subjectively).

 

[zfactor]

Think of it this way - someone attacks you and after some fighting you realize you are about to lose with a strong possibility of dying, you either let them kill you or grow a couple more limbs/whatever. If you lose you lose (so you're not losing anything, excuse the pun), if you win, well you're disfigured but atleast you're alive and its not like a few extra limbs are necesarily a bad thing (in fact objectively speaking it can actually be usefull in day to day life though not quite as apealing subjectively).

Yeah, I can see it as a "last stand" kind of way. Then it makes sense. But when they already have the upper hand in a battle or no battle has started and they just mutate right then and there, it does not make any sense. And yes, having an extra arm would be very useful, but most mutant bosses grow to be the size of a car as well, making it rather hard to live anywhere designed for normal sized people.

 

[Knife]

Yeah, I can see it as a "last stand" kind of way. Then it makes sense. But when they already have the upper hand in a battle or no battle has started and they just mutate right then and there, it does not make any sense. And yes, having an extra arm would be very useful, but most mutant bosses grow to be the size of a car as well, making it rather hard to live anywhere designed for normal sized people.

I agree, going mutant when they have the upper hand is stupid. Now if they expect to lose, for instance if they saw you coming through killing hundreds of their guys with no seeming difficulty then its not that far fetch to assume they'll be defeated in the same manner. Basically survival instinct overrides everything else, be it limbs, weird shapes and sizes and whatnot. Again if they don't feel threatened in any way its rather stupid.

 

[KingofMadCows]

The Joker had a pretty good reason to do it in Arkham Asylum.

 

[FalloutJack]

The Joker had a pretty good reason to do it in Arkham Asylum.

Is this the answer?

[HEADING=1]HE'S INSANE!!![/HEADING]

Because if not, then he's not really the Joker.

 

[KingofMadCows]

The Joker had a pretty good reason to do it in Arkham Asylum.

Is this the answer?

[HEADING=1]HE'S INSANE!!![/HEADING]

Because if not, then he's not really the Joker.

His overall goal was insane but his plan for achieving that goal made sense.

 

[Zaik]

I assume it would be better to be a mutated mess of weird arms and flesh than dead.