I've been working my way through Isaac Asimov's "Foundation Trilogy" (Second Foundation, which I'm currently 35% of the way through, is the 8th book in the series) for some time now. Today it struck me how much the character The Mule is like someone we all know and love.
Some small spoilers are inevitable here, but I'll tread as lightly as possible.
The Mule is a mutant who has the ability to control the emotional responses of others. He uses his power to put those others under his control--essentially by making their loyalty to him supersede all other motivations. It's not that they're incapable of rational thought, just that any rational thoughts which contradict their loyalty to The Mule are shunted off their mortal coils.
He runs up against another person who has similar (though in some ways inferior) powers, and that person tells The Mule that because of his experiences growing up, The Mule has been psychically distorted--and suffers from megalomania and psychopathic paranoia.
Although The Mule himself doesn't see it this way, the Person essentially says that The Mule's attempts to subjugate others...ALL others...is really just an effort to strike back at the world which mistreated him when he was young.
Sound familiar yet?
Yeah, I thought so, too.
And the cherry on top is that the cover art of my edition of the book (Avon, 23rd printing) is all in hues of orange. Heh heh.
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