It was nice of him to make it the first sentence, ’cause it saved me a lot of time.

It’s called Hero’s Journey. It’s seriously one of the oldest and most universal elements of mythos, and described and played out by cultures the world over.

Exactly right.

The (western) public demands heroes rise up, even if its just in popcorn movies. Elitists, politicians hate the hero because they trump everything the non-heros (villains?) stand for; power, control, authority.

Diane Feinstein’s response to the Marine who sent the letter about how he is not her subject is a perfect example. Not many people will stand up and say such a thing, and the response is a perfect example of “we know what’s best, so sit down and do what you are told” thinking of those who think they are our betters.

That in the modern era it’s comic book films taking place in a morally grey world doesn’t change anything.

You can’t have a character deciding to do the right thing “just because”, their decision to do the right thing must be agonized over or, if they decide early on what the right thing is, it has to be wrong.

You can’t make a character whose willing to sacrifice himself out of the greater good, they (being development execs and other low-level gate-keepers) don’t believe ANY reason for self-sacrifice that isn’t rooted in some trauma in the character’s past.

And a character must be flawed or the audience won’t find them “sympathetic” and those flaws must be in the same way Hollywood is flawed.

Whatever. The Dark Knight Rises was AWESOME!

ThePrez on January 7, 2013 at 8:42 PM

Couldn’t disagree more. It was painfully bad. I want my 5 hours back. Wasn’t 5 hours long? Sure seemed like it.

The comment section can’t use any profanity, but the HotAir proprietors can post the worst kind of profanity.

Right?

*facepalm*

Weird stuff.