![[TAB Mascot Girl]](/files/0_mascot.png)
Well, been a while since I posted here, as I've been busy with other projects. But I just finished watching Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, and I had to comment on it.
The thing that really impressed me about As is the way they were able to tell a story involving conflict to the point of battle without having any truly evil characters in it. While there were many sides, and the sides came into conflict with each other, every side thought they were doing the right thing... perhaps some of them thought that they were serving a higher good, and some lost control of their powers, but everyone was trying to achive a result they considered good.
To me, not having an out-and-out villian in the show, yet still being able to tell a good battle story, is a sign of writers that know their stuff. And while I won't be able to proclaim A's great until I rewatch it, it really is a very good story that is worth taking the time to watch. (But do watch the original series first, also a fairly good series._
E.g. the beginning of Shakespeare's Henry V starts with someone explaining to Henry why he's the rightful king of France. The King of France of course believes that he's the rightful king of France.
For the rest of the play, throughout the bloody battles, both sides are only acting according to justice.
It's actually pretty trivial to have a good battle story with no villains. It just has to turn on an unresolvable factual dispute.
That being said, such stories are often better than those without cardboard cutout villains. On the other hand, cardboard cutout villains can be a lot of fun, as long as you leave the cutouts at an angle which hint that there's depth that you're just not being shown.