Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Some Administrative Jobs You Pass On

Chronicles of Riddick was on G4 last night. At the end, Riddick killed the leader guy, and thus, by the rules of Necromonger faith/society, becomes the leader. As usual, since I'm slow, the question finally occurred to me, what's Riddick going to do with all these followers?

He's been a leader, but it doesn't seem to be a role he particularly enjoys. It seems to happen because he's the best person in the group at surviving, so everyone expects him to help them survive. Admittedly, some have leadership thrust upon them, but that doesn't mean they won't drop it the first chance they get. With this group, you're only leader until someone decides they can kill you, so it'd be an especially unpleasant reign. Maybe Riddick's grown used to being constantly vigilant, but it seems he'd rather keep a low profile where he could relax a little, than a high one where the bullseye is always there.

I suppose he could try abdicating the position, but there's a) no guarantee they'd let him, and b) no guarantee whoever took his place would be smart enough to leave him alone. More likely, the New Guy would feel he had to kill Riddick to properly take control.

So if he keeps the job, what'll he have them doing? The Necromongers seem intent on forcing conversion of people to their faith, then destroying the worlds (and all those who refused) as they move on. Riddick's not adverse to bloodshed, but killing for a cause doesn't strike me as his style. Actually, learning about his origins in this movie gave me the impression that much of his earlier killing was what he had to do to survive. The Lord Marshal tried to kill every male member of Riddick's race, so at the least, Riddick grew up without a dad, possibly without parents, period, on a world ravaged by Necromongers. Mostly he seems to want to get away from people, for his own good, or for theirs.

I can't see him being able to order the Necromongers to stop doing anything, that'd likely set them to overthrowing him immediately. But I can't figure how he can direct them in positive ways. Their whole shtick is to forcibly spread their faith, gather new members, and kill the rest. I suppose he could order them to stand before any survivors of their attacks and let themselves be killed, but again, I can't see them complying with the order. Maybe their technology can be converted to peaceful means, but is Riddick the one to lead that transformation?

2 comments:

snell said...

Chronicles of Riddick was supposed to be the first of a trilogy, so presumably they had the arc for "Riddick leads the Necromongers" mapped out...Once in awhile you see Vin making some noise about how they're going to make the next two, but I don't see it happening...

CalvinPitt said...

snell: I hadn't heard that. I kind of figured it was the 2nd film in a trilogy, maybe. At this point, yeah, I'd say the trilogy is dead.