Pyrrhic Victories

(this is a rant and as such it rambles. I am only blogging this so I can remember to think more on it later.)

It took awhile but I think I understand abit more of why I hate good vs evil stories that end with the good winning and evil taking nothing but loss. It mostly screams 'this is the side you are to root for', and while I probably sometimes would root for that side the punishment is nothing but depressing otherwise. It is common for villains that lose to either be killed or sealed away indefinitely, but always it seems that the world doesn't change at all because of this. I always goes back to how it was before the villain.

I understand why this is, "status quo = god", but this makes the struggle seem meaningless. This is sometimes justified (atleast to the story's view) by many nameless good mooks died to make this victory possible. More rarely, a named person will die to show how much they lost, but they cry and morn and in the end everyone is unchanged so long as no one mentions the one who died. They stop developing as a character before the final conflict at best, at worst they hit the reset button.

I also think I know why this is. Most stories, adventure ones in particular use the hero's journey. Whether they follow the formula or do it by instinct, it always ends basically the same, the end of the story is the end of the journey. The world has no stories left to tell without new plotlines or just filling in plot holes.

I am sure the general audience doesn't share my love for causing the protagonist such Pyrrhic Victories, but I wish they did. (Seriously, I think almost every story should have one if it involves a cliche good guy/bad guy motif)