Confessions of a Game-Mistress

I just finished rewatching ‘National Lampoon’s Van Wilder’. Oddly, I found it inspiring of plot and design. It’s a comedy, sure, but the characters are well-drawn for their purpose. Take Van himself. He is a reminder that everyone’s motivations are neither simple nor always conscious. His actions are driven by his anger at his father, a cry for attention. Though everyone else values him, he doesn’t value himself because his father doesn’t value him. An interesting dichotomy. I can see the character in a fantasy setting with the serial numbers filed off. Wouldn’t he fit as a Waterdhavian noble’s son, spending year after year in New Olahm (the bardic college) rather than joining the family business?