Holding Out For a Hero
Number of times I've fallen asleep in my clothes in the past four days: 3
Yeah, not good.
Anyway, this post will be slightly rambly, but I hope it will be interesting for some.
Small disclaimer: Spoilers from the following:
Sluggy Freelance by Pete Abrams (webcomic)
Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
The Girl Who Lived by Keiran Halcyon (fanfiction)
Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins (book)
Harry Potter-series by J.K. Rowling (books)
I admit it, I've always felt drawn to villains in stories. Even as a child, I would sometimes wonder what would make the bad guy in my favourite shows and movies tick; what made them choose the dark side. This obsession with villains was strongest during my teenage years when I would often refer to myself as an evil overlord (anyone of you who's received an e-mail from me will remember the name "The Mighty and Evil Dark Lord Miriam G. With a Big G of the Something-Empire", which is still in my signature (in case you wonder; yes, I remove the signature when sending e-mails to employers, teachers and others who might not appreciate the humour (including my mother; I don't think she'd find that funny (brackets are fun)))). I'd also joke about how stupid heroes usually are, compared to villains, and that it was a shame that the villains always made one fatal mistake which cost them their victory.
Now, this sort of talk might have been worrying for some. It probably did worry some, although I was never taken aside for a serious conversation about it. The whole thing was, however, completely harmless. I liked the villains as cleverly created characters, not more. If I had met someone as arrogant and ruthless as Voldemort in real life, I wouldn't have liked that person at all.
Another important point is that I only liked the villains for the role they had in the story. Voldemort is the villain. He's supposed to be arrogant and ruthless. If Harry, as the hero if the piece, had been arrogant and ruthless, not only would I have hated Harry, I would have been turned off from the entire series.
At this point I'd just like to point out that not all protagonists are heroes. The protagonist is simply the main character of the story. Sometimes the villain is the protagonist. If you remember the first two chapters of According to the Prophecy, which I posted on my other blog, Alex Cain is an example of this. She's the protagonist, but she's quite frankly a pretty bad person. In some genres there doesn't need to be a hero or a villain. But in this post I'm focusing on stories that are supposed to have a clear hero, and sometimes more than one.
When I laughed at heroes' foolishness as a teenager, I was partly right; heroes often do stupid things. They rush into danger to save a friend, even when it's obviously a trap set by the villain. When faced with the choice between getting the artefact that will finally defeat the villain once and for all and rescuing a person, they will usually go for the rescue. When their sidekick is too tired to keep walking and asks to be left behind, so the hero can at least save himself, instead of both of them dying... well, guess what the hero will do!
But you know what? If they didn't do these things, they wouldn't be heroes and we'd have no reason to admire them. A hero is someone who is more concerned about other people's well-being than his own.
Harry has caught a lot of flak for falling for Voldie's mind trick in The Order of the Phoenix. Yes, there are many things he could have done better, but if he had just sat down and said, "Screw Sirius! He's not worth getting myself into danger for!" he wouldn't have been a hero. Yes, it was a bit silly of him to believe that the merpeople were actually going to kill Cho, Hermione and Fleur's sister, but if he had swum back up with no concern for their safety, he wouldn't have been a hero.
There are many other instances in the series when Harry chose to do the right thing, rather than the comfortable thing. At the tender age of 11 he went to get the Philosopher's Stone to prevent Voldemort's return, and nearly got killed in the process. A year later he went down into the Chamber of Secrets to rescue Ginny, and nearly got killed in the process. Another year later he saved Sirius and Buckbeak. This time he didn't get mangled quite so badly, but it was still very dangerous. Finally, in the last book, he was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice and trade his own life for those of pretty much everyone he knew. And got killed in the process. Kind of.
Harry is a hero.
On to another example: The webcomic Sluggy Freelance has been updated daily since 1997, so there's been a lot of storylines and lots of things happening. The storyline I'd like to refer to, called That Which Redeems, begins when Torg, the protagonist, is asked to save a parallel dimension from a demon invasion. Torg is reluctant, because it's not his own dimension and because he doesn't see how he would be much help. Even when he gets trapped in the parallel dimension, he prefers to live a quiet life in hiding to fighting demons. Finally the lives of his two closest friends in that dimension are at stake, and he can no longer hide. He sets off to kill the Demon King and free the Goddess of Goodness. But on the way, something nasty happens. Torg loved that girl, so his first instinct is to set his quest on hold to get revenge. But then he realises what is more important. He can't bring Zoe back, and Bun-Bun can't do this on his own. Torg sets his own feelings aside to help his friend and to save the world. (Note also that the chapter is called A Moment of Heroes.)
In other storylines Torg lets himself get zapped into a random dimension, keeps his affections for the woman he loves secret, runs into an exploding building and does, well, this (which is followed by another hero moment here). All to protect different friends of his. Torg might be reluctant at times, but he is a hero.
Heroes, of course, don't have to be perfect. In fact, they shouldn't be perfect, or the audience wouldn't be able to relate to them. Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist can be an immature brat at times. He's also very sensitive about his height.
In an alchemy experiment that went horribly,horribly wrong, Ed's little brother Alphonse got sucked into a place outside of reality. Ed couldn't bring Al's body back, but he got back his soul, which he sealed into a suit of armour, using his own blood. Oh, and the price Ed paid for Al's soul? His right arm!
Since then the brothers have been trying to find the Philosopher's Stone to restore their bodies. That is, until they find out what the Philosopher's Stone is made of (I'll give you a hint - ever heard of Soylent Green?). They'd rather give up their goal of getting their bodies back than gaining it through unethical means. Then there's also this moment, which is, of course, followed by this one (I'd just like to add that Ed doesn't even particularly like that guy).
Ed is flawed, but he is a hero.
These three heroes were created by three good writers. Unfortunately there are also some pretty bad writers out there. When they set out to create a hero, they apparently ignore the basic definition of hero that I mentioned and they become self-centered, arrogant pricks.
One of these bad writers calls himself (or herself - it's one of those internet mysteries) Keiran Halcyon. Halcyon was of the belief that Harry Potter lacked common sense, and decided to set this right through the powers of fanfiction. In other words, he rewrote the entire Harry Potter-series (well, at least he tried - I think he got stuck in book 6) with a girl named Rose Potter as the protagonist who has more, um, "common sense" than Harry. Which, in Halcyon's world, apparently means "being an arrogant sociopath who knows what's going to happen because she's read the book already".
Let's compare:
*Harry has been bullied by Dudley and the other Dursleys most of his life. That's why we feel sorry for Harry.
*Rose learned ninjutsu at the age of six, so whenever Dudley and his lackeys attacked her after that, she broke their arms. When Vernon tries to take the Hogwarts letter away from Rose, she beats the crap out of the whole family, then runs off and still claims that it was self defense. Oh, and did I mention that she already has the strength of three grown men at the age of eleven?
*Harry confides in his best friends Ron and Hermione about everything.
*Rose believes that no one should know all her true powers, not even her, uh, friends (really, in her case the word "friends" is kind of a stretch. "Followers" would be more appropriate. Or even "minions").
*Harry is just a weak kid with average magic skills. When he goes into battle, he knows he's risking his life.
*Rose is a ninja, a druidess (which is to wizards what wizards are to muggles), smarter than Hermione and she single-handedly destroyed hundreds of Dementors by creating a new sort of Patronus. She has never gone into battle without knowing beforehand that she would win. Yes, that includes the duel with Voldemort in Goblet of Fire!
*Remember when Harry tried to Crucio Bellatrix, because he was so angry about Sirius's death? He couldn't do it, because he doesn't have the sort of hatred that is needed to fuel the curse. He's a good boy, after all.
*Rose successfully tortured Bellatrix with the Cruciatus Curse. But she powered it with love, so that's okay.
I could go on. My point is that Rose doesn't care about people around her. She doesn't fight to protect them, she fights to protect her own pride. She even allows Voldemort to be resurrected, just so she can teach him a lesson. That's not heroic, that's arrogant and selfish! In fact, she's got a lot in common with a young Tom Riddle.
Rose is not a hero.
Another bad writer is fundie Jerry Jenkins who was commissioned by fundie Tim LaHaye (a priest, or whatever fundies call them) to write a fundie book series for fundies about a post-Rapture world. Fundie-style. Have I mentioned that they're fundies?
By the way, if you don't know what the Rapture is, I don't blame ya. I've been a Christian all my life, and I'd never heard about the Rapture until a couple of years ago. Wikipedia to the rescue!
Anyway, the Left Behind-series focuses mainly on two protagonists, pilot Rayford Steele and investigative reporter Buck Williams who are most likely author avatars of LaHaye and Jenkins, respectively.
Early in the first book Rayford makes his way across an airport that is a complete disaster area. Planes have crashed, people have died, the ground is full of debris and wounded people. Being a pilot, he says, "We ought to be the last off the ship and first to volunteer for emergency duty." This emergency duty he's talking about entails walking from the airplane to the terminal, instead of accepting the ride that the airline offered. And here I was thinking that it involved actually helping some of the thousands of people who are dying all around him! Note that these books claim to be Christian, as in the Christ who said things like "whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain" and "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me". Yet Rayford never gives a second thought to the people around him. Oh, and that whole refusing-the-ride-thing? That was just for appearances. As soon as he gets to the terminal, he takes advantage of another privilege offered to airline pilots. Yes, we're actually supposed to like this character.
Rayford is not a hero.
In a different scene in the same book Gary Stu Buck Williams discovers a sinister conspiracy. If a real hero found himself in this situation, he would try to make the conspiracy public by contacting the authorities or the media. When they don't believe him, he has to take things in his own hands. Buck has a definite advantage here, because he is the media. Instead of trying to get some reporter to believe him, he has the opportunity to write about a real international conspiracy; a huge story that would be any reporter's wet dream. Sure, he might put himself in danger with this, but that's what being a hero is all about; doing the right thing, even when it's risky.
So what does Buck do? He meets with the antichrist and agrees to keep his mouth shut to get protection.
Buck is not a hero.
So next time you find yourselves shaking your head at a hero's decisions, ask yourselves if it's a decision Harry Potter would make or one that Rose Potter would make. If it's a Harry-decision, just remember that you wouldn't like the story as much if the hero wasn't such a caring idealist. If it's a Rose-decision, however, you have every reason to complain.
If you're writing a story with a hero, ask yourselves, "Is this person a real hero? What makes him or her a real hero? What motivates his or her actions? Is it love or fear or pride?" If you discover that you've created a Rose Potter or Buck Williams, rewrites are in order.
I appreciate comments, especially if you want to name and discuss some of your favourite heroes.
Yeah, not good.
Anyway, this post will be slightly rambly, but I hope it will be interesting for some.
Small disclaimer: Spoilers from the following:
Sluggy Freelance by Pete Abrams (webcomic)
Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa (manga)
The Girl Who Lived by Keiran Halcyon (fanfiction)
Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins (book)
Harry Potter-series by J.K. Rowling (books)
I admit it, I've always felt drawn to villains in stories. Even as a child, I would sometimes wonder what would make the bad guy in my favourite shows and movies tick; what made them choose the dark side. This obsession with villains was strongest during my teenage years when I would often refer to myself as an evil overlord (anyone of you who's received an e-mail from me will remember the name "The Mighty and Evil Dark Lord Miriam G. With a Big G of the Something-Empire", which is still in my signature (in case you wonder; yes, I remove the signature when sending e-mails to employers, teachers and others who might not appreciate the humour (including my mother; I don't think she'd find that funny (brackets are fun)))). I'd also joke about how stupid heroes usually are, compared to villains, and that it was a shame that the villains always made one fatal mistake which cost them their victory.
Now, this sort of talk might have been worrying for some. It probably did worry some, although I was never taken aside for a serious conversation about it. The whole thing was, however, completely harmless. I liked the villains as cleverly created characters, not more. If I had met someone as arrogant and ruthless as Voldemort in real life, I wouldn't have liked that person at all.
Another important point is that I only liked the villains for the role they had in the story. Voldemort is the villain. He's supposed to be arrogant and ruthless. If Harry, as the hero if the piece, had been arrogant and ruthless, not only would I have hated Harry, I would have been turned off from the entire series.
At this point I'd just like to point out that not all protagonists are heroes. The protagonist is simply the main character of the story. Sometimes the villain is the protagonist. If you remember the first two chapters of According to the Prophecy, which I posted on my other blog, Alex Cain is an example of this. She's the protagonist, but she's quite frankly a pretty bad person. In some genres there doesn't need to be a hero or a villain. But in this post I'm focusing on stories that are supposed to have a clear hero, and sometimes more than one.
When I laughed at heroes' foolishness as a teenager, I was partly right; heroes often do stupid things. They rush into danger to save a friend, even when it's obviously a trap set by the villain. When faced with the choice between getting the artefact that will finally defeat the villain once and for all and rescuing a person, they will usually go for the rescue. When their sidekick is too tired to keep walking and asks to be left behind, so the hero can at least save himself, instead of both of them dying... well, guess what the hero will do!
But you know what? If they didn't do these things, they wouldn't be heroes and we'd have no reason to admire them. A hero is someone who is more concerned about other people's well-being than his own.
Harry has caught a lot of flak for falling for Voldie's mind trick in The Order of the Phoenix. Yes, there are many things he could have done better, but if he had just sat down and said, "Screw Sirius! He's not worth getting myself into danger for!" he wouldn't have been a hero. Yes, it was a bit silly of him to believe that the merpeople were actually going to kill Cho, Hermione and Fleur's sister, but if he had swum back up with no concern for their safety, he wouldn't have been a hero.
There are many other instances in the series when Harry chose to do the right thing, rather than the comfortable thing. At the tender age of 11 he went to get the Philosopher's Stone to prevent Voldemort's return, and nearly got killed in the process. A year later he went down into the Chamber of Secrets to rescue Ginny, and nearly got killed in the process. Another year later he saved Sirius and Buckbeak. This time he didn't get mangled quite so badly, but it was still very dangerous. Finally, in the last book, he was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice and trade his own life for those of pretty much everyone he knew. And got killed in the process. Kind of.
Harry is a hero.
On to another example: The webcomic Sluggy Freelance has been updated daily since 1997, so there's been a lot of storylines and lots of things happening. The storyline I'd like to refer to, called That Which Redeems, begins when Torg, the protagonist, is asked to save a parallel dimension from a demon invasion. Torg is reluctant, because it's not his own dimension and because he doesn't see how he would be much help. Even when he gets trapped in the parallel dimension, he prefers to live a quiet life in hiding to fighting demons. Finally the lives of his two closest friends in that dimension are at stake, and he can no longer hide. He sets off to kill the Demon King and free the Goddess of Goodness. But on the way, something nasty happens. Torg loved that girl, so his first instinct is to set his quest on hold to get revenge. But then he realises what is more important. He can't bring Zoe back, and Bun-Bun can't do this on his own. Torg sets his own feelings aside to help his friend and to save the world. (Note also that the chapter is called A Moment of Heroes.)
In other storylines Torg lets himself get zapped into a random dimension, keeps his affections for the woman he loves secret, runs into an exploding building and does, well, this (which is followed by another hero moment here). All to protect different friends of his. Torg might be reluctant at times, but he is a hero.
Heroes, of course, don't have to be perfect. In fact, they shouldn't be perfect, or the audience wouldn't be able to relate to them. Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist can be an immature brat at times. He's also very sensitive about his height.
In an alchemy experiment that went horribly,horribly wrong, Ed's little brother Alphonse got sucked into a place outside of reality. Ed couldn't bring Al's body back, but he got back his soul, which he sealed into a suit of armour, using his own blood. Oh, and the price Ed paid for Al's soul? His right arm!
Since then the brothers have been trying to find the Philosopher's Stone to restore their bodies. That is, until they find out what the Philosopher's Stone is made of (I'll give you a hint - ever heard of Soylent Green?). They'd rather give up their goal of getting their bodies back than gaining it through unethical means. Then there's also this moment, which is, of course, followed by this one (I'd just like to add that Ed doesn't even particularly like that guy).
Ed is flawed, but he is a hero.
These three heroes were created by three good writers. Unfortunately there are also some pretty bad writers out there. When they set out to create a hero, they apparently ignore the basic definition of hero that I mentioned and they become self-centered, arrogant pricks.
One of these bad writers calls himself (or herself - it's one of those internet mysteries) Keiran Halcyon. Halcyon was of the belief that Harry Potter lacked common sense, and decided to set this right through the powers of fanfiction. In other words, he rewrote the entire Harry Potter-series (well, at least he tried - I think he got stuck in book 6) with a girl named Rose Potter as the protagonist who has more, um, "common sense" than Harry. Which, in Halcyon's world, apparently means "being an arrogant sociopath who knows what's going to happen because she's read the book already".
Let's compare:
*Harry has been bullied by Dudley and the other Dursleys most of his life. That's why we feel sorry for Harry.
*Rose learned ninjutsu at the age of six, so whenever Dudley and his lackeys attacked her after that, she broke their arms. When Vernon tries to take the Hogwarts letter away from Rose, she beats the crap out of the whole family, then runs off and still claims that it was self defense. Oh, and did I mention that she already has the strength of three grown men at the age of eleven?
*Harry confides in his best friends Ron and Hermione about everything.
*Rose believes that no one should know all her true powers, not even her, uh, friends (really, in her case the word "friends" is kind of a stretch. "Followers" would be more appropriate. Or even "minions").
*Harry is just a weak kid with average magic skills. When he goes into battle, he knows he's risking his life.
*Rose is a ninja, a druidess (which is to wizards what wizards are to muggles), smarter than Hermione and she single-handedly destroyed hundreds of Dementors by creating a new sort of Patronus. She has never gone into battle without knowing beforehand that she would win. Yes, that includes the duel with Voldemort in Goblet of Fire!
*Remember when Harry tried to Crucio Bellatrix, because he was so angry about Sirius's death? He couldn't do it, because he doesn't have the sort of hatred that is needed to fuel the curse. He's a good boy, after all.
*Rose successfully tortured Bellatrix with the Cruciatus Curse. But she powered it with love, so that's okay.
I could go on. My point is that Rose doesn't care about people around her. She doesn't fight to protect them, she fights to protect her own pride. She even allows Voldemort to be resurrected, just so she can teach him a lesson. That's not heroic, that's arrogant and selfish! In fact, she's got a lot in common with a young Tom Riddle.
Rose is not a hero.
Another bad writer is fundie Jerry Jenkins who was commissioned by fundie Tim LaHaye (a priest, or whatever fundies call them) to write a fundie book series for fundies about a post-Rapture world. Fundie-style. Have I mentioned that they're fundies?
By the way, if you don't know what the Rapture is, I don't blame ya. I've been a Christian all my life, and I'd never heard about the Rapture until a couple of years ago. Wikipedia to the rescue!
Anyway, the Left Behind-series focuses mainly on two protagonists, pilot Rayford Steele and investigative reporter Buck Williams who are most likely author avatars of LaHaye and Jenkins, respectively.
Early in the first book Rayford makes his way across an airport that is a complete disaster area. Planes have crashed, people have died, the ground is full of debris and wounded people. Being a pilot, he says, "We ought to be the last off the ship and first to volunteer for emergency duty." This emergency duty he's talking about entails walking from the airplane to the terminal, instead of accepting the ride that the airline offered. And here I was thinking that it involved actually helping some of the thousands of people who are dying all around him! Note that these books claim to be Christian, as in the Christ who said things like "whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain" and "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me". Yet Rayford never gives a second thought to the people around him. Oh, and that whole refusing-the-ride-thing? That was just for appearances. As soon as he gets to the terminal, he takes advantage of another privilege offered to airline pilots. Yes, we're actually supposed to like this character.
Rayford is not a hero.
In a different scene in the same book Gary Stu Buck Williams discovers a sinister conspiracy. If a real hero found himself in this situation, he would try to make the conspiracy public by contacting the authorities or the media. When they don't believe him, he has to take things in his own hands. Buck has a definite advantage here, because he is the media. Instead of trying to get some reporter to believe him, he has the opportunity to write about a real international conspiracy; a huge story that would be any reporter's wet dream. Sure, he might put himself in danger with this, but that's what being a hero is all about; doing the right thing, even when it's risky.
So what does Buck do? He meets with the antichrist and agrees to keep his mouth shut to get protection.
Buck is not a hero.
So next time you find yourselves shaking your head at a hero's decisions, ask yourselves if it's a decision Harry Potter would make or one that Rose Potter would make. If it's a Harry-decision, just remember that you wouldn't like the story as much if the hero wasn't such a caring idealist. If it's a Rose-decision, however, you have every reason to complain.
If you're writing a story with a hero, ask yourselves, "Is this person a real hero? What makes him or her a real hero? What motivates his or her actions? Is it love or fear or pride?" If you discover that you've created a Rose Potter or Buck Williams, rewrites are in order.
I appreciate comments, especially if you want to name and discuss some of your favourite heroes.