The hero and the world: how they relate
Mar. 9th, 2015 06:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI'm watching MacGyver some more.
Every week, he turns up in some new bit of geography, with minimal local knowledge. Every week, he makes some kind of local contact, very frequently a woman. But they're new to him, so he has to find them, and then he has to do something that makes them want to help. Usually what he does is offer his gadgeteering. And it's pretty important to his character, and to the kind of reactions that he gets, that he often asks for nothing in return. And he doesn't do it in order to make contacts, he's frequently just passing through with no expectation of needing help, or in this episode he's on his way home so he knows the ground pretty well anyway. He just likes to help, and by being such a generally nice and helpful guy, he makes friends. That's how many of his adventures so far are characterised, not in terms of paid employment or orders given and received, he just likes to help and has a network of friends so large there's always someone somewhere who needs the help.
I like it. It's karma in action. Treat people well and it comes back around.
Yesterday I watched Batman, and when he needs to find something out, he either applies large amounts of money or he kidnaps a reporter. Who he is also dating. Which could be considered creepy. There's also the traditional hanging people off the edge of buildings and beating people up. The emphasis is not on people saved or contacts built or even deals made, it's all about the exertion of power. And by staying all secret identity and trying to be urban legend level shadowy, he really limited his options.
Torchwood had all the power they wanted to swing around. They were all going on about being outside the government beyond the police, so they just took what they wanted. They were in theory so secret they didn't leave a trace. They could and did wipe everyone's memories of even meeting them. Zero accountability. But, as demonstrated by later seasons, zero favours owed or good will built up. And enough people who could still observe them that consequences eventually caught up. That whole explosion thing only made sense if someone decided that zero control was no longer acceptable, and without contacts or reputation, well, bye bye.
But then regular police stories don't always focus on forging good community relations, even though that's the core of information gathering and good police work, according to my sociology textbooks at least. I'm not big on watching police stories, but I hear some think swanning around threatening people and making people crack in the interview room is somehow more useful. Not so very much. People know stuff, so you have to know people. But being police can be a really boring shortcut to finding things out, people tell the institution, it's not so much story and the karma isn't highlighted. Though it's hopefully all about police do good work, people tell them how to do more good stuff, good stuff gets done, particular police don't have to be particularly good to people at all.
I think I like MacGyver's way best. If I'm writing, I mean. Random acts of kindness can always fill a spare five minutes, and then you get the idea how these people stay all connected to their community, and how it would tug them into all kinds of everything.
Every week, he turns up in some new bit of geography, with minimal local knowledge. Every week, he makes some kind of local contact, very frequently a woman. But they're new to him, so he has to find them, and then he has to do something that makes them want to help. Usually what he does is offer his gadgeteering. And it's pretty important to his character, and to the kind of reactions that he gets, that he often asks for nothing in return. And he doesn't do it in order to make contacts, he's frequently just passing through with no expectation of needing help, or in this episode he's on his way home so he knows the ground pretty well anyway. He just likes to help, and by being such a generally nice and helpful guy, he makes friends. That's how many of his adventures so far are characterised, not in terms of paid employment or orders given and received, he just likes to help and has a network of friends so large there's always someone somewhere who needs the help.
I like it. It's karma in action. Treat people well and it comes back around.
Yesterday I watched Batman, and when he needs to find something out, he either applies large amounts of money or he kidnaps a reporter. Who he is also dating. Which could be considered creepy. There's also the traditional hanging people off the edge of buildings and beating people up. The emphasis is not on people saved or contacts built or even deals made, it's all about the exertion of power. And by staying all secret identity and trying to be urban legend level shadowy, he really limited his options.
Torchwood had all the power they wanted to swing around. They were all going on about being outside the government beyond the police, so they just took what they wanted. They were in theory so secret they didn't leave a trace. They could and did wipe everyone's memories of even meeting them. Zero accountability. But, as demonstrated by later seasons, zero favours owed or good will built up. And enough people who could still observe them that consequences eventually caught up. That whole explosion thing only made sense if someone decided that zero control was no longer acceptable, and without contacts or reputation, well, bye bye.
But then regular police stories don't always focus on forging good community relations, even though that's the core of information gathering and good police work, according to my sociology textbooks at least. I'm not big on watching police stories, but I hear some think swanning around threatening people and making people crack in the interview room is somehow more useful. Not so very much. People know stuff, so you have to know people. But being police can be a really boring shortcut to finding things out, people tell the institution, it's not so much story and the karma isn't highlighted. Though it's hopefully all about police do good work, people tell them how to do more good stuff, good stuff gets done, particular police don't have to be particularly good to people at all.
I think I like MacGyver's way best. If I'm writing, I mean. Random acts of kindness can always fill a spare five minutes, and then you get the idea how these people stay all connected to their community, and how it would tug them into all kinds of everything.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-09 06:41 pm (UTC)