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Ok, so I'm going to skip ahead a bit just to get to what Soup Villain ended up being. As I said in part 1, this is going to be less about what I did at University and more just who Soup Villain became, especially when I stopped playing the character myself so often (although the model for Soup Villain was made from textures that used scans of my face etc).
Soup Villain essentially acts as a follow-up character of the Overman (or Ubermensch) from Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Nietzsche describes the conditions to create the Overman, which largely involve the cultivation of fertile soils from which the Overman will emerge.
[For those unaware of the Overman/Ubermensch, the essential concept is this superhuman who will overcome the shackles of established morality and take the destiny of mankind into his own hands. In other words, the ultimate human, who will take humanity to its apex. Nietzsche suggests we all work towards this goal in the interests of a better humanity]
Soup Villain asks what would happen if the Overman was born from poor, unfertile grounds. Nietzsche's warning is not heeded, and man does not seek to grow into something more, something greater. Instead of the Overman then, Soup Villain emerges. In Soup Villain's world, all that exists is art, yet all art is rotten, and plagued. The landscape is barren, and devoid of life. Ruins of great galleries scatter fields of grey, like crumbling castles. Humanity is long gone, and only ghouls, spectres and demons remain.
Soup Villain still attempts to fulfil the dream of Nietzsche. He wishes to destroy the old order of morality (contemporary art). But he has none of the lightning that man could capture, if we dreamed or aspired further. He has only rage, resentment, and a consuming grief. Amputated of his ability to build something new, something beautiful, Soup Villain is left with only the act of destruction. Perhaps, he hopes, destroying all that has cursed this earth will not save us, but act as the final show of defiance before the legacy of the human race fades to ashes.
The whole premise of these battles are that Soup Villain is kind of doomed to lose. He's utterly alone, with only the ghost of modernism watching him.
Soup's enemies are twisted perversions of major artworks that dominate the contemporary art market, from Damien Hirst's Shark, to Yayoi Kusama's pumpkins. He fights them with an absolutely stacked arsenal of guns, explosives, and eventually, the Spear of Longinus itself, sent down from the heavens by the Black Square. Whether Soup Villain will prevail or not remains to be seen, but it is certain that no matter where he is, the clouds of suffering will swirl over him.
I'm going to put pictures in the rest of this blog to illustrate a bit more of Soup Villain. Most of these are renders from a zine I did. I feel like I've explained the basic premise here, but I'd love to hear about interpretations, or even if there are any questions I can answer. Idk if this was worth the wait but I hope you enjoyed anyway :)
Final note: This project ended up letting me graduate with a first class. My lecturers left me a note at the very end of the year that read "The destructive character generates through his actions an equal amount of artistic defiance and intent confusion. May he find his kindred spirits and thrive onwards."
Make of that what you will.
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vogel
The fact this isn't a real game I can play and get super deep into and adore makes me want to throw a tantrum. Such a wonderful idea and concept and the way you recreate the retro style graphics (I don't know if you actually recreated them, only painted them or alternated between) mesmerises me. I need more content of him :'-(
There are like.. extremely loose plans out there for a Soup Villain game, but I shall make no promises as much as I would love for it to be a real thing :(( Thank you so so much tho! Most of what you see here is a combination of painting, photo-scanning and modelling, although I might do a part 3 specifically just showing all the Soup Villain paintings :)
by DreamForestPSX; ; Report
Please do post the rest when you have the time! Of course I'm not saying you should make a game, that's a whole nother thing to delve into aside from the art side of things, a very big task to take on. But I can tell you that if it were, I would love it. To be honest if you did decide to make it or enlist the help of someone else to make it, a much simpler form would be as a Half Life mod, I can see the graphics going together pretty easily. But sorry to sound like such a fanboy :P I swear I'm not just buttering you up hahaha I just think this character is so cool and it's such a unique idea. When I first came across your profile I assumed you were aiming to become a video game developer, something along those lines, but I've never seen someone take that sort of thing and approach it solely from an art perspective. It helps that I'm very fond of that style of graphics, so I see anyone trying to keep them alive and renewed as admirable
by vogel; ; Report
Oh you are too sweet! There *is* a DOOM mod I started and never completed for Soup Villain, because I had too much to do at that time and had to scrap it at the last minute. Maybe I could complete that? Who knows
by DreamForestPSX; ; Report
If you decide to and you need a playtester... May the wind guide you to someone (pspsps)
by vogel; ; Report
Top of my list, Vogel
by DreamForestPSX; ; Report