Despite the unsavory delivery, I feel Free may have a point. In any good story, you need a mix of success and failure, of challenge and triumph. If everyone always succeeds, it becomes boring. There is no longer any mystery as to what will happen, no question as to the heroes' chances. But, by the same token, if all that ever happens is failure, then you run into a similar problem. The question the reader has becomes not "will they succeed?" But, "how will they fail?" You get similar predictability. Failure and success, in my opinion, need to be just as likely. To give such power to foes, so early on, kind of removes that. I remember a long time ago, I watched a movie called the Mist. At the time, I was used to all of the usual happy ending stories, but its ending, well...if you've watched it, you know it is the polar opposite. It took me by surprise, definitely. I rather like that uncertainty. Then there was this streak of all bittersweet endings in movies and games, which became just as boring as the happy endings. I think it's all best when balanced.
Also, I'm starting to feel like a reverse version of the Obama Anger Translator (Key and Peele are great.)
