As always, you can jump down to the writing updates if you’re just here for the books and don’t care about my mental meanderings.
My brother recently shared an article with me that delved into our obsession of turning villains into heroes (as well as the financial motives to never have a villain meet their end). It’s a fascinating article.
I get it. On a personal level, we’d all like to believe we’d be the hero in the story — we’d be the person standing in front of the tanks during a student uprising, the ones hiding our neighbours in our attic. However, if wishes were unicorns, well, history would be filled with more unicorns.
And the best villains have a strong motivation. Even the sharks in Deep Blue Sea had a motivation — freedom and maybe a touch of revenge. Though maybe they weren’t really the villains. Maybe that was Samuel L. Jackson’s character experimenting on the poor sharks. But the article talks about The Boys and Homelander. I’ve only seen the first season, but is Homelander the hero even in his own head? I have doubts.
But it got me thinking about the difference between villains and antiheroes … and antiheroes vs flawed heros vs reluctant heros. They all have a slightly different flavour to me, but is there a difference?
John Wick: antihero. John Rambo: flawed hero. John Mclane: reluctant hero … but maybe also flawed. (Also, another article on why so many action hero names start with J.)
At around the time I read the article, I was in the middle of watching Andor. Rogue One is the best of the new movies, even with uncanny valley Tarkin — you can argue for another one all you want, you won’t win. But Andor is what got me to finally sign up for Disney+.
But I’m not sure where to place Cassian Andor. He’s not a villain, but — and I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say this — at the beginning of his story, he’s most definitely not a hero, not even a flawed one. Does he count as an anti-hero? His actions in the first episode are not heroic, they don’t have a positive outcome, and he’s not acting from a place of courage or idealism.
What do you think?
As an aside, back in my university days, I wrote an essay on the hero of Milton’s Paradise Lost, and walked through the various possible heros — and Milton probably considered God or Adam to be the hero. But I argued that, if you consider our modern view of people fighting against a tyrannical authority, Lucifer is the obvious choice.
Of course, the best heroes are the everyday ones — the friend who checks in on you, the colleague who helps you in a pinch, the stranger who stands up to racism and misogyny.
Writing update
Okay, this is not much of an update. I have a few things going on that have pushed writing to the side, so I’m still working on the short story novella in the Lyra Cycle universe, then it’s on to finishing the edits on book 3 … oh, that’s an update — I have some of the feedback on book 3 back from the beta reader.
If you’re here for the vampires, A Scarlet Fever, book 1 of the Bloodborne Pathogens series, is the book of the month over on Armchair Alien in March. You can pick up a copy at a discount, or get it for free if you subscribe. And one of my shorter stories is running right now.
Books for your TBR pile
I just finished one called Hench — appropriate for this week’s meanderings. It’s a different take on the superhero / villain story from the point of view of a henchperson. It’s not what I expected when I read the description but it was good.
And there’s still a few days left to discover some new scifi authors with these free books.
Happy reading!
— CR
Where to find my books
If you’d like to read any of my scifi or urban fantasy books, you can find them at your favourite online retailers. Or you can buy them direct from me on the Armchair Alien store.
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I need a hero...
Your title brought the 1980 movie 'Hero at Large' to me because in my memory the lyrics to Bonnie Tyler's 'Holding Out For A Hero' come to mind (the song wasn't actually in 'Hero at Large' memories are weird) - The movie stared John Ritter where he pretended to be a superhero then circumstances forced him into becoming a real hero. Another type of hero arc.
I haven't seen the movie since I was a kid, but in my memory it was a fantastic movie--I don't dare watch it again, as I'm sure it's not as good as I remember.