The plot always seems to be: Villain: I have a wonderful and creative idea for world domination. Heroes: We don't, but we can come to your mansion of Evil and blow the fucker up. Villain: Drat... Heroes: Turn this motha out! *BOOM* Villain: You'll pay for this! Heroes: yay! Ok, lets go get a beer. The End
Both heros and villains have their leaders and their grunts. The leaders usually have the educational background needed for keeping an organization together. The grunts usually do not, so they end up doing all the dirty work.
I offer to you these counterexamples:
Undereducated Villains:
Overeducated Heroes:
Well, it's true. The egregiously overeducated love nothing more than oppressing those who rely on their homespun smarts. If it's so good, how's come they don't teach it in school? All those "heroes" are unquestioning tools of the patriarchy. TheFez knows his purpose and his potential, that's what makes him super. As a matter of fact, i'm tempted to become a supervillain now, just so i can oppress the uneducated. But mostly because of the cape. I guess when it comes down to it, i just want a cape. And i wanna be loved. Is that so wrong?
My theory on the stupid hero idea is that a stupid hero is easier for the audience to empathize with than a smart one. I mean, which would get more applause, watching Obi Wan Kenobi somersault out of the pit, through the air, grab a lightsaber, and bisect Darth Maul, or watching him think about his situation for three seconds, then use The Force to give ol' Darth a massive embolism?
One minor nitpick on the original node: Iron Man. Tony Stark was definitely overeducated; he became Iron Man because while being held captive by the enemy (DerekL reminds me it's the Vietnamese, often referred to in the stories as Asian Communists!) he was made to build a superweapon; knowing that the shrapnel in his chest would kill him if he didn't do something, he created the Iron Man armor as a dual supersuit and life-support system...all while being held in some crappy underground hideaway.
One could argue that it actually goes back even further, to the ancient tales of sorcerers and alchemists being defeated by virtuous jocks with swords. Medea is one example of an ancient Over-Educated Supervillain.
Perhaps because of my own bias as an atheist, I find the subtext of these older tales rather disturbing. The basic message is that knowledge is evil, and that virtue and scientific curiousity cannot co-exist. "There are some things Man was not meant to know" is the ominous tagline. While this seems not to be the point of modern superhero stories, I would point out that the basic idea (Virtuous brawny Everyman vs. immoral scientist) is still prevalent.
Stephen King's "Danse Macabre" actually covers this subject very well, and I recommend it to anyone who really wants an analysis of this theme. Some books and films (fiction) that address similar concepts:
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