This is not really writing related but I’ve just finished watching a TV series where the villain made up the most ridiculous excuse I’ve ever heard to justify his actions. I thought it might serve as inspiration somehow as a means of shedding light upon the extent to which the human brain is capable of conjuring excuses as a means of self-defence or just for entertainment values.
The TV series is a spy thriller set in modern day China and basically the villain is the father of the main character. The setup was that the son works for National Security whereas the father had been the secretary to a City Mayor, just recently retired due to terminal illness. When exposed for being “the mole” who’s been leaking out confidential information to international spies, the son went to visit the father and asked him why he betrayed his own country. His father’s answer was, “I did it for you.”
It was mentioned in passing in previous episodes that the main character’s parents had divorced during his childhood, with his father being re-married and totally neglecting him such that the main character was still harbouring a grudge against his own father now. Going back to the scene of the final confrontation between father and son, his father tells him that apparently he regretted his negligence of his son and wanted to make amends. Then the father went on to tell a story where he was tutoring his friend’s son (who was in primary school, at an age that brought back to him fond memories of his own son) on an essay whose topic is “Is money all-powerful?” and how he had originally told the child that he should write, “no, money is not all-powerful, in fact, it is quite dirty and lead people towards corruption.”. The child’s response to that was, “But money can help out children in Africa. Also, if money is dirty, then why is Chairman Mao printed on it?”. According to the father, this then led him onto the stray path he wandered onto because it suddenly occurred to him that he needed to set aside x amount of money for his son so that he can live a good life. He went on to see how through taking small bribes for a period, he achieved his original target but then inflation set in and he had to amend his target and the snowball effect basically set in.
My first reaction upon hearing this was “What?!” and I picture the main character falling into utter confusion over hearing this obviously made up excuse for falling towards the seduction of money.
And that’s all I want to share, for now.
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