My trip through the d'Artagnan Romances continues
I am seriously wondering whether Dumas was trolling his readers.
So there's this kid. He gets turned out of the house by his uncle after his mother dies, left to fend for himself without a single friend in the world - and losing what should have been a substantial inheritance, which goes to the uncle. This happens when is five years old.
As a young man, he's been going around looking for the facts in his mother's death - her murder to be precise - trying to work out who is involved, and to wreak appropriate vengeance. He's probably, by this point, worked out that there's some irregularity with his birth: he might not be the genetic son of his legal father, but that of one of her murderers, to whom she once was married. Awkward. (Said murderer has killed a lot of people in what he says are the course of his duties, and used to be a terrible drunkard who beat his servants. He hangs out with thugs and killers, and is engaged in shady politics.)
On the face of it, that's a hero's story right there.
But Mordaunt is the bad guy, apparently.
There's been much discussion among the Inseperables and Lord de Winter about whether a child of Milady would automatically inherit her Evil Nature(TM) and therefore should be put down out of hand or let to make his own mistakes. I don't think it matters? He was abandoned when he was five. That's not a way to grow an ethical adult, or do anything but cause a massive, massive grudge. It's not going to teach kindness or compassion, just a terrible urge to hit them before they hit you. (Hang on, I think I'm pressing the case for villainy here. Oh well.) And don't get me started on how they easily justify their own awful behaviour but if a woman, Milady, does anything aggressive, She's Evil. (Women are scary, don't you know? If they ever sit you down and say, 'Hey, I was wronged and I need your help,' this is a deceitful ploy that will end badly for you.)
So... what makes a hero? Their actions? Or just whether you hear it from their point of view?
EDIT:
Just got to the bit where Athos' kid Raoul, in a flush of enthusiasm-and-duty, helps the musketeer regiment arrest a guy (there's some civil disturbance going on). And d'Artagnan, who is vaguely in charge of this, promptly hauls him out of there and gives him a very confusing talk about how he shouldn't be helping the faction to which d'Artagnan belongs, his dad guardian would be furious and he should totally hang out with the rebelling people. "I ask you, Athos left you in my care, what kind of mentor would I be if I let you associate with my people?"
Raoul's a bit of a moppet. I don't think he has a clue what d'Artagnan is on about.
So there's this kid. He gets turned out of the house by his uncle after his mother dies, left to fend for himself without a single friend in the world - and losing what should have been a substantial inheritance, which goes to the uncle. This happens when is five years old.
As a young man, he's been going around looking for the facts in his mother's death - her murder to be precise - trying to work out who is involved, and to wreak appropriate vengeance. He's probably, by this point, worked out that there's some irregularity with his birth: he might not be the genetic son of his legal father, but that of one of her murderers, to whom she once was married. Awkward. (Said murderer has killed a lot of people in what he says are the course of his duties, and used to be a terrible drunkard who beat his servants. He hangs out with thugs and killers, and is engaged in shady politics.)
On the face of it, that's a hero's story right there.
But Mordaunt is the bad guy, apparently.
There's been much discussion among the Inseperables and Lord de Winter about whether a child of Milady would automatically inherit her Evil Nature(TM) and therefore should be put down out of hand or let to make his own mistakes. I don't think it matters? He was abandoned when he was five. That's not a way to grow an ethical adult, or do anything but cause a massive, massive grudge. It's not going to teach kindness or compassion, just a terrible urge to hit them before they hit you. (Hang on, I think I'm pressing the case for villainy here. Oh well.) And don't get me started on how they easily justify their own awful behaviour but if a woman, Milady, does anything aggressive, She's Evil. (Women are scary, don't you know? If they ever sit you down and say, 'Hey, I was wronged and I need your help,' this is a deceitful ploy that will end badly for you.)
So... what makes a hero? Their actions? Or just whether you hear it from their point of view?
EDIT:
Just got to the bit where Athos' kid Raoul, in a flush of enthusiasm-and-duty, helps the musketeer regiment arrest a guy (there's some civil disturbance going on). And d'Artagnan, who is vaguely in charge of this, promptly hauls him out of there and gives him a very confusing talk about how he shouldn't be helping the faction to which d'Artagnan belongs, his dad guardian would be furious and he should totally hang out with the rebelling people. "I ask you, Athos left you in my care, what kind of mentor would I be if I let you associate with my people?"
Raoul's a bit of a moppet. I don't think he has a clue what d'Artagnan is on about.