The Lonely

[beccaelizabeth]

This is a bit about Doctor Who and a bit about Batman. I haven't read Batman recently because I got annoyed at it last time it went into a 'Batman is Lone I tell you, Lone!' phase, which they do on a regular cycle. There's this thing where there's this idea that The Hero is lonely and isolated and alone and this makes saving the world much more heroic on account of not having help. And to do this some writers make him be, well, alone, actually physically. And... yeah, but no. Because dealing with a problem because you're the only one there isn't quite so much heroic. Dealing with the problem because you're the only one there who can do what you do, that's heroic. Same with Alone. If you're alone because nobody else is around the solution is pretty obvious. You go where people are, you no be lone. You not do that, you look pretty stupid. But if you're alone because there's nobody else in the universe who sees it the way you do, who thinks like you do, if you're alone even in a crowd because everyone else is just not like you, well, that's a whole other thing, and if it's then the not-like bits that save the world, that's the hero stuff.

But being the guy nobody can stand to be around isn't very heroic.

And being the guy who can't teach isn't very helpful either.

So Batman, or the Doctor, ends up with this family of students, who will all grow up to be slightly different sorts of hero. So they still end up so different they're alone, but with all these connections around them.

Making them go mope in a dark corner with no people actually in the room just... doesn't really add much.

Doing it by messing up the other heroes really takes away stuff too. People that only look great cause everyone else is reduced isn't heroes.



I should have this thought again at a more awake time with less headache.

Comments

[philippos42.livejournal.com]

This is a really good critique of problems with the Lonely God paradigm (which has been applied to both characters you mention).

[beccaelizabeth]

:)