Ballos antagonist or not?

Dec 20, 2010 at 5:10 AM
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In an overall point of view, Ballos would be viewed as an antagonist as he is the final boss and is responsible for destroying a kingdom but does that make him necessarily a bad guy?

Ballos used to be a kind and helpful person and people respected him more than their king.
He was then cruelly and horribly tortured by the king which might mean either that the king was evil or just plain selfish, possibly both.

Ballos went mad after being tortured for such a long time and killed a lot of people including his children, his wife, the king...
Jenka, instead of killing him (as he was her younger brother), sealed Ballos inside the island to prevent further harm.

Year later, after Quote managed to destroy the Core, the island began to crumble, presumably by all the nagative energy Ballos had.

In my opinion the real antagonist of Cave Story is undoubtedly The Doctor because he wanted to take over the world and not caring about all the lives that would be lost in the process.

It is true that Ballos has a lot more power than The Doctor and killed many more but his power was out of control.
 
Dec 27, 2010 at 12:47 PM
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Gwindor said:
In an overall point of view, Ballos would be viewed as an antagonist as he is the final boss and is responsible for destroying a kingdom but does that make him necessarily a bad guy?

Ballos used to be a kind and helpful person and people respected him more than their king.
He was then cruelly and horribly tortured by the king which might mean either that the king was evil or just plain selfish, possibly both.

Ballos went mad after being tortured for such a long time and killed a lot of people including his children, his wife, the king...
Jenka, instead of killing him (as he was her younger brother), sealed Ballos inside the island to prevent further harm.

Year later, after Quote managed to destroy the Core, the island began to crumble, presumably by all the nagative energy Ballos had.

In my opinion the real antagonist of Cave Story is undoubtedly The Doctor because he wanted to take over the world and not caring about all the lives that would be lost in the process.

It is true that Ballos has a lot more power than The Doctor and killed many more but his power was out of control.

Ballos is indeed a sympathetic and non-evil antagonist. But he's certainly an antagonist, as he opposes the protagonist, Quote.
 
Dec 27, 2010 at 3:04 PM
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I'm pretty sure that Ballos himself isn't such a bad guy, but his magic controls him. So technically the antagonist is Ballos' power and Ballos himself is just a pawn.
 
Dec 27, 2010 at 3:07 PM
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Yes, in fact, Ballos himself actually says he WANTS Quote to kill him. Death would be preferable to being enslaved by one's own power.
 
Dec 27, 2010 at 7:13 PM
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Ballos definitely isn't the MAIN antagonist ... if you didn't play Sacred Grounds you wouldn't even know he existed.

However, I don't think it's a case of Ballos's magic, but rather ... uhm ... his mental state? While he was a benign and kind magician BEFORE the events of Cave Story, Ballos kind of snapped and that's what made his magic rage out of control in the first place.
 
Jan 7, 2011 at 9:11 PM
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he did explicitly snap then, but there's no saying he didn't later return to sanity... far after he was capable of doing anything about his magic.
 
Jan 8, 2011 at 1:59 PM
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Its said that ballos couldnt control his magic so ballos himself didnt snap but rather he couldnt control his magic and because of that the magic the kingdom was destroyed.
 
Jan 8, 2011 at 6:51 PM
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Marx said:
Its said that ballos couldnt control his magic so ballos himself didnt snap but rather he couldnt control his magic and because of that the magic the kingdom was destroyed.

I think in the long text dialogue thingy that you go through as you play Sacred Grounds for the first time it does say that Ballos's mind snapped ... and the king was engulfed so-and-so .... I'm too lazy to look up the actual quote.
 
Jan 8, 2011 at 7:32 PM
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Malpercio said:
he did explicitly snap then, but there's no saying he didn't later return to sanity... far after he was capable of doing anything about his magic.

Well he was trapped in some random room for like 1000s of years...that probably kept him mental.
 
Jan 8, 2011 at 7:52 PM
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CurlyBrace said:
I think in the long text dialogue thingy that you go through as you play Sacred Grounds for the first time it does say that Ballos's mind snapped ... and the king was engulfed so-and-so .... I'm too lazy to look up the actual quote.

here are the exact words from the sacred grounds

"Under the extreme cruelty of the torture Ballos's magical abilities finnally ran wild"

In other words Ballos didnt use the magic the magic itself went out of control.
 
Jan 11, 2011 at 3:31 PM
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not to say that he's perfectly sane. most likely mentally scarred from the imprisonment and torture
 
Jan 14, 2011 at 12:19 AM
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CurlyBrace said:
Ballos definitely isn't the MAIN antagonist ... if you didn't play Sacred Grounds you wouldn't even know he existed.

If you don't get the Booster 0.8 and get the tow rope, when you lose counciousness (drown) after you beat the core, It tells you that Jenka had a younger brother; Ballos. So you don't need to go in Sacred Grounds to know about Ballos.
 
Jan 14, 2011 at 12:45 AM
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Dude put some spoiler tags in there.
That may be true, by you wouldn't know that he was
a)still alive.
b)evil.
c)in this game.
 
Jan 14, 2011 at 8:57 AM
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Dude, Ballos is a priest! Of course he's a good guy! :o
 
Jan 14, 2011 at 11:11 PM
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Shadow Major said:
Dude, Ballos is a priest! Of course he's a good guy! :p

Dude, Ballos is a priest! Of course he's a bad guy! :D
 
Jan 15, 2011 at 8:24 AM
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hammil said:
Dude, Ballos is a priest! Of course he's a bad guy! :D

That's true, there are some bad priests out there... :| *shivers*
 
Jan 15, 2011 at 7:25 PM
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Splashos said:
If you don't get the Booster 0.8 and get the tow rope, when you lose counciousness (drown) after you beat the core, It tells you that Jenka had a younger brother; Ballos. So you don't need to go in Sacred Grounds to know about Ballos.

That's not the discussion.

Also, Ballos is an antagonist, and the Doctor is ultimately the main evil in the game, the bad guy who dominates the story. Ballos is no more an antagonist than Monster X.
 
Jan 16, 2011 at 6:20 PM
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Ballos is good under the surface. Of course my opinion is influenced by my conviction that evil does not exist at all. Let`s see around us nature, the existence. The evolution like all things in nature follow mathematical rules of cause and effect. The first cause itself can only be existence, since nothing is made out of nothing.
 
Jan 18, 2011 at 9:21 AM
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I just want to know, why the defeat of the core would let the island crumble?
Could the core be a seal that made by Misery or Jenka to control the wildly-running Ballo's magic power? :p
 
Jan 18, 2011 at 11:49 PM
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I just want to know, why the defeat of the core would let the island crumble?
Could the core be a seal that made by Misery or Jenka to control the wildly-running Ballo's magic power?

That seems to be the prevailing theory in this community. I would also add that, perhaps the Island is most structurally stable when gravity it's being held together by gravity and whatever force is opposing gravity, keeping it afloat. When the Island begins to fall, there is a period of time, before it reaches its terminal velocity, in which anyone or anything on the Island would experience the illusion of weightlessness. It's sort of like if you're holding a stack of books, and you drop them, they will begin to come apart from each other before they even hit the ground, unless there's some force (like glue) holding them together.

and lololol a catgirl just died :p
 
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