You Killed My Father, Prepare to Die

The tale of Jason and the Argonauts is rather complicated, but when broken down it essentially amounts to some surprisingly well-written fan fiction. The gist of the story is this: a hero named Jason gathers all the great heroes of Greek myth into a big group of Super Friends. They call themselves the Argonauts because they all sail on a ship named the Argo. The Argonauts have been gathered to go on a quest for a magical item called the Golden Fleece. The Argonauts have tons of wacky adventures on their journey until, finally, they arrive at the place where the Fleece is kept. Jason receives assistance from the local princess, Medea, who is also a powerful sorceress - she charms the dragon guarding the fleece to sleep so that she and Jason may escape with the fleece. The heroes escape from Medea's angry father and his army, and - because a sense of direction is not apparently a requirement for heroic deeds - they end up taking the long way home, going all around the continent of Europe until they (somehow) wind up back in Greece. After their return, things take a turn for the worse in Medea and Jason's relationship - Jason leaves Medea, Medea kills their children, and then - since apparently Jason still trusts a person who killed his kids a good deal - Medea manages to trick Jason into sleeping under the decaying hull of the Argo, which collapses on him and kills him.

I'm not really sure what to say about "stories of love and revenge." They are... certainly two genres of stories, with a great history behind each. I suppose I relate to stories of love more, since I have experienced much more love than I have urges for revenge. However, a revenge story is certainly cathartic when done well, because it taps into some primal urge or another for violent, immediate revenge. Perhaps it says something that creating a convincing and engaging revenge story is far easier, in my opinion at least, than crafting a convincing and interesting love story. Revenge is, after all, such a simple urge - I hate, therefore I must destroy. If one is to take a negative view of human nature, revenge is by far the most natural thing of all. Love, by contrast, is such a complex, such a nebulous human experience, it is nearly impossible to pin down in a truly satisfactory way.

By far my favorite story of both types is The Princess Bride, a film which rather seemlessly combines these themes of love and revenge, not simply by containing a story of love (that of Wesley and Buttercup) and a story of revenge (that of Inigo Montoya and the Six-Fingered Man), but also by making each of those stories themselves both stories of love and revenge - Wesley certainly loves Buttercup, but he is driven to take revenge on Humperdink as well, for his treatment of both Buttercup and himself (a revenge which, in my opinion, is the most satisfying of the movie despite its lack of a deadly finale); Inigo's story, conversely, is characterized as much by a love for his father as it is by a hatred for the man who killed him. One may also consider the character of Fezzik, who embodies love towards all of the protagonists. These three characters' dedication and love for one another and for others is what remarkably ties four disparate characters with rather different aims into a cohesive band of friends.

My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die