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[kattahj]

A few days ago, jennyo had a smart entry about how superheroes have an obligation to society, and how Buffy, Angel and company fail to live up to that obligation. I left a reply, rozk answered my reply and was bitched out by me (poor woman

Comments

[miggy]

Ooh, thanks for including the Secret Service bit. I got in an argument last year with someone who was outraged that I thought the Scoobs should have destroyed the Box of Gavrok and taken their chances on rescuing Willow, rather than saving Willow for sure and taking the risk with tens of thousands of lives. Apparently, in his view, if you're willing to sacrifice a friend, you're not a good person.

I nearly brought up 24 to use different characters, and asked whether Jack would be a hero if he handed over poison gas that'd be unleashed in a full football stadium. The most important thing would be getting Kim back safely, right? Screw those 65,000 fans! Besides, he's good at his job, he'd (probably) be able to stop everything in time!

But I didn't, because by that point, I'd realized that it was a futile conversation. He and I just had very different definitions of "hero." Even as I said that yes, what he was suggesting was understandable and human but not heroic, he was still outraged. It's nice to see someone else whose definition matches up to mine. :)

[kattahj]

I got in an argument last year with someone who was outraged that I thought the Scoobs should have destroyed the Box of Gavrok and taken their chances on rescuing Willow, rather than saving Willow for sure and taking the risk with tens of thousands of lives.

And not only a risk - people *did* die on Graduation day, and as far as I know neither Buffy nor anyone else has expressed any guilt over that. So yeah, sacrificing a friend isn't a very nice thing, but there has to be a point where you go "we don't negotiate with terrorists."

...And now it looks like I've used yet another metaphor from the political realm of West Wing... I think it's useful because it's more down to earth - none of us are ever going to face a demon, after all. :-)