Musical Inspiration Challenge 2. Part 4: The Antagonist.

Dread and the Fugitive Mind by Megadeth

I’ll admit. After the really nice, thick and meaty concept we got from that Kate Bush song last time, I’m actually kind of a mixed mind about this song from Megadeth. Not because I dislike Megadeth, no, but rather because well..

It’s such a blisteringly obvious bad guy song. It’s almost as if we set out to make a totally different adventure and decided to do it by rolling randomly on a table, and for our villain we got ‘Orc angry about having treasure stolen from his 10x10x10 room.  But this reminds me of an important thing..

Novelty can become an obsession. We shouldn’t always aim to recreate the wheel, but rather make our own wheels. So occasionally a typical baddie can become a very good baddie if we use him right.

Anyway, the lyrics.

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Let me introduce myself

I'm a social disease
I've come for your wealth

leave you on your knees
No time for feeling sorry, I got here on my own
I won't ask for mercy, I choose to walk alone

What's yours is mine and what's mine is mine too
If you shake my hand better count your fingers

What if I do get caught? What if there is no judgment?
If I'm right I lose nothing, if you're right I lose it all
I ought to get caught because I'm doing something wicked
I'm guilty haunted by my fear and the only consequences
Are Dread and the Fugitive Mind

You built walls to protect you so no one will infect you
Pursued by those out there that vanish in thin air
Come a long way to find what you really left behind
You don't know when the end is but it's coming fast

What's yours is mine and what's mine is mine too
If you shake my hand better count your fingers

What if I do get caught? What if there is no judgment?
If I'm right I lose nothing, if you're right I lose it all
I ought to get caught because I'm doing something wicked
I'm guilty haunted by my fear and the only consequences
Are Dread and the Fugitive Mind

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Actually, bizarrely, I think this song might mesh very well with our ‘hook.’

The song depicts someone of a criminal bent who indicates that ultimately that the only thing stopping most of humanity, from simply grabbing and taking everything they want is the fear of ephemeral and potentially non-existent penalties after death.  Despite apparently believing that these fears are groundless however, the singer seems to still possess them. An unshakable little spectre looming over their actions. Perhaps because the intrinsic nihilism of the conceit that there is no judgment, also means that all gain is inherently meaningless. Maybe our little bad guy here feels free license to do whatever he wishes because there is ultimately no meaning, no final arbiter, but at the same time, he feels that dread precisely because he feels that ‘he loses nothing’ and thus gains nothing.

Maybe he gains a sense of his self only through committing monstrous acts, like a child acting out hoping that his parents will punish him because then at least he gets some attention?

Hmm.

So perhaps our villain of the piece is like the hook would indicate. He’s in a world where no guidance or rescue from above is coming, a world where he feels that he has to set out with determination and drive, and thus is committing his evil acts (which lead to our adventure) for the function of attempting to almost dare the world to give him meaning.

I can work with that. But let’s see how the rest goes.