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Date Posted: Friday, January 27, 10:58:13am
Author: Swatkat
Subject: Ooh!
In reply to: ~delle 's message, "what is a hero?" on Friday, January 27, 07:19:43am

Thank you for bringing this up here. You and Warren were having a very interesting discussion out there, but this *is* the right place for a discussion like this. *g*

I am, as you know, slightly obsessed about 'heroes'. I generally tend to get attracted to characters who have something to do with being a hero (except Jack, who needs to DIE), and I find their struggle with the concept of heroism and the burden of *being* the hero fascinating. In an ideal world, the Hero is someone who does the Right Things for the Right Reason. None of our characters, of course, live in an ideal world, and all of them are human, with human fallibilities, so for me, the hero figure is simply someone who strives to do the right thing for the right reason (whether they succeed or not, and the nature of their success is a different question altogether), someone who genuinely *cares* about saving the world, someone who has a vision of making a better world.

Speaking of LFN, specifically – none of the characters really fall into the Hero archetype in that sense. Nikita would like to be, certainly – she comes to Section from a world of absolutes (her street background. Faith has given me a totally new understanding of this. *hearts*), and her conception of the Hero is one who *always* does the Right Thing for the Right Reason, and because Section does that (kills terrorists – right thing, saves innocents – right reason), that qualifies her for Hero, right? Only, it doesn't, because Section will often do Wrong Things for the Right Reason. And then it becomes even more complicated, because what is the Right Reason? Is Section (and therefore she) any better than the people they fight? And if they aren't, then they're doing the Wrong Thing for the Wrong Reason, and where does that leave her? I'm slightly unsure about Paul (need to think more – JayBee?); Michael and Madeline don't qualify.

Why Michael doesn't qualify for this archetype is quite simple (to me. those are the operative words here) – Michael does not care much about doing the Right Thing (ends justify the means), neither is he much of an empath. Which isn't actually a bad thing, because you need people like Michael to do the dirty work. He is a thorough professional, and while he is aware of the *good* that he can achieve, it isn't something he's going to lose sleep over.

(And I also had some other things to say about how he is a selfish bastard, which again, isn't always a bad thing, but sleep has addled my brain. um.)

Swatkat

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