Should heroes be heroes?

[katikat]

In one of the GW forums, someone posted this part of an interview with Brad Wright about what SGU's characters will be like:

And the characters themselves will prove to have moralities that are surprisingly like quicksilver. "In Universe, all of our characters are both heroes and villains," explained Wright, "and remarkably have the ability to slip in and out of the skin of both." Source

Well, my response to that was:

I like my heroes to be heroes. Yes, making tough decisions but not to the point where it's hard for me to like them. I'm the old school gal that likes her heroes to do the "right thing", to have some "code of honor", morals that they stick to not only when it's convenient. That's what I do in real life and that's what I like to see in my shows. I stopped watching BSG for the very reason that the "grey areas" became a stinking sludge of immoral, selfish behavior. Glorifying villainism and selfishness under the pretense of "flawed characters" is not my thing.

And of course, immediately I was told how wrong my opinions are etc. Whatever.

I know that it's really "trendy" and "in" these days to have characters that are less then stellar when it comes down to integrity but I hate this trend, I really do. When I watch a show, I like to root for my characters, I want to be able to say "I would like to be like that one day." Pollyanna-ish? Sure.

I don't mind flawed characters. I mean, can you imagine anyone more flawed than Rodney McKay with his bitchiness and hypochondria and neuroses etc.? But I could still love him because he was in no way a coward. He knew what was right and he did it - even though he yelled and whined and complained all the time. Would I be able to even like him if he hadn't risked his life to save Elizabeth's in "The Storm"? Or if he hadn't rushed out to save Sheppard in "The Defiant One"? No, I don't think so. And I can't watch someone I don't like week in, week out.

I'll rather not be "hip" or "in" or whatever and support characters with integrity and "code of honor" than swoon over someone with "quicksilver morals".

Comments

[astri13.livejournal.com]

Glorifying villainism and selfishness under the pretense of "flawed characters" is not my thing.

THIS!!! It's something that is getting lost more and more with an easy fix of "ah, it's okay, it's human to do this".

It's also human to kill, abuse, show unimagineable cruelty and whatnot. Is that, too, okay? Not every action can be excused with it being human. Shouldn't be at least.

Now I can like characters who have very dark things in their past but I need that to be acknowledged and them not only to experience consequences for this but actively work on redemption. You don't need to start out a hero for me but you better should work hard at becoming one.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

My point exactly. Why do writers think that "flawed" equals "selfish, immoral, cowardly" these days? Look at McKay - he started as selfish but he still knew the difference between right and wrong. And he progressed from a deeply flawed to a great hero, but still flawed. What's wrong with that?