Who watches the Wedgeman?

Right. If any of you in the wide world of the internet are paying attention, you’ll have noticed that my entries seem to follow a simple pattern: happy entry; sad entry; happy entry etc.

So, by that logic, this one’s a happy one. This is great because I’m happy right now, making the whole thing lots easier.

Now I’ve got a bit more free time, too. I thought I’d revisit the heroism thing (no, I’ve not got it out of my system yet) by looking at some of the characters suggested by my lovely readers (thanks all, especially Bash for reminding me about it) and some other people I’d meant to cover the first time around but didn’t. I’ll also go over why I’ve not included certain people.

36) James Bond from the James Bond novels and films. Ok, so I’ve lumped the Bond from the films in with the character from the novels. This might well be a bit of a mistake as they’re not that alike. The Bond from the novels is much more like a real secret agent and has the moral high ground against his adversaries far less often. Bond gets in because he’s brilliantly stylish in an Indiana Jones way whilst having a more sophisticated charm for winning over the ladies. Bond’s puns and comments as he kills seem to me like a coping mechanism for the trauma of death he keeps having to go through as his close friends and fiancée (yes, I know On Her Majesty’s Secret Service sucked, but it’s still canon) are killed around him.

He takes life, but he is certain never to inflict too much suffering or to enjoy it. It’s strange, really, because he doesn’t have a great deal in the way of passion, except for women, but finds himself constantly seeking revenge. There’s not much mentioned about his parents in the films or books, only that they died in a climbing accident when he was young. It’s possible that his desire to make the world a better place by defeating evil springs from this. If there really is a hidden tragedy behind 007, he’s a considerably more interesting character. And if you’ve never read anything that Ian Fleming himself wrote about the character I suggest you do so. You’ll discover a very different Bond to Brosnan or Connery and especially Moore.

37) The Doctor from Doctor Who. The Doctor has probably the best rogues’ gallery in creation. From the Daleks to the Cybermen to the Master, they’re all brilliant. Now, I should probably mock the Russell T. Davies remake for being crap at this point and complain that the BSG remake is a million times better than anything that man will ever do. With that done, I’m going to attempt to avoid the inevitable “so which Doctor is the best, then?” questions as I did with James Bond. Now that’s all over with, I can get on with the entry proper.

I remember occasionally watching Doctor Who when I was somewhat younger and appreciating the slight strangeness of Tom Baker and latterly Sylvester McCoy. I was never a diehard fan of the series, but it kept me entertained enough. Now I’m a bit older and, mainly thanks to the university’s library, rather wiser about Whodom, I appreciate it all rather more.

Admittedly, there are lots of things in the series that are less than great (the 1996 film, over-reliance on the sonic screwdriver as a Deus Ex Machina writing crutch, 90+% of the assistants, jokes about Daleks and stairs – I could easily go on) but the fact remains that regardless of exactly who he is, The Doctor is a hero and does what needs to be done to save the galaxy.

38) John Crichton from Farscape. Imagine being the furthest you’ve ever been from home. Now imagine you were there alone and didn’t know anyone at all. Now imagine that you’ve got no way to return to where you belong and that there’s a psychopath who really wants to kill you and the only people around you are criminals who aren’t even human. Welcome to Crichton’s world.

Farscape is one of the few series I’ve watched nearly all of. There were a lot of fairly duff episodes (and characters) in there, but nearly any of them that focused on Crichton were great. He’s the central character of the series with good reason, he’s charming, witty and, most important of all, he’s human. His references to 20^th century pop culture are often cutting and funny, but provide the viewer with a grounding in this futuristic and occasionally nearly incomprehensible world. Crichton’s romance with Aeryn is touching and not nearly as predictable as you might expect (in fact, most of the characters on the ship get off with one another at various times) and probably my favourite moment from the entire series is when Crichton (or a Crichton, rather, as he has been split into two identical people at the time) dies more or less in her arms. The resulting tension between her and the remaining Crichton and the truly inspired scene where he plays rock, paper, scissors with a hologram of the dead Crichton (finally having the two of them choose different things) are fantastic moments in a good series.

I can’t leave Crichton and Farscape alone without mentioning Scorpius who is a superb villain and manipulates John by quite literally, getting inside his head. When the two are forced to work as allies, we can really appreciate the differences and, it has to be said, similarities between them.

39) Sylvester “Sly Boots” Bucelli from Anachronox. Anachronox is one of my favourite games. This has not a lot to do with the plot (sadly generic stuff about the forces of Order battling the forces of Chaos) but with the characters. From the sassy Dr. Bowman to the yammering Grumpos via Pal-18, Paco, the planet Democratus and, of course, Stiletto. Yes, you read that right, you have an entire planet in your party (in miniaturised form), as well as a retired superhero, an assassin and the cutest robot since… well, probably the cutest robot ever.

If you aren’t familiar with the game, I strongly suggest you pick it up and give it a go. Failing that, the game’s cutscenes have been edited into a huge machinima movie which you can find via Google easily enough. It’s long, but by the end, you’ll have experienced some of the tribulations of the characters, and, of course, appreciated the game’s brilliant humour; not to mention some of the tragedy of the past that sits at its core. Any game that can have a character like Rictus appear in it gets the thumbs up in my book. I’ve chosen Boots because he’s the protagonist and because the others are really just minor characters in his story. Of all of them, only he really gets the backstory he deserves.

40) Halo Jones from The Ballad of Halo Jones. Ok, so one of the unwritten rules I decided on for this list was not to have two characters created by the same person or from the same universe. This is the reason that Warren Ellis’ Spider Jerusalem doesn’t appear (he was responsible for Jenny Sparks) and why I’ve not mentioned more DC and Marvel superheroes. I’m breaking my rules with this entry, and not in the manner I’d originally planned. Alan Moore is one of the most talented writers in the comics industry. I’d probably say the most talented, in fact. He’s that good.

So I thought I could stretch the rules a bit for him and write about V from the superb V For Vendetta. In light of the recent film, I’d imagine that lots of you would be familiar with him and I’ve always been secretly happy of the fact that, in my house at least, I’m the man from Room V.

I changed my mind. You probably want a good explanation for this, which I’m not sure I can adequately give. I guess I’m just a bit worried that there aren’t nearly enough women in this list (ethnic minorities do a little better, but not much, there’s a lack of black people, unless you count JC Denton). I’m also concerned with spreading the word about characters people haven’t heard of. This is why Halo gets this entry to herself. If you’re concerned about the rulebreaking, feel free to imagine this as an entry about why Buffy’s great. If you’ve seen the series, you probably don’t really need me to tell you (shame she moped for so damn long after her mum died).

Right, to business. Halo is woefully underappreciated by everyone who hasn’t read her story. She’s probably the first full-blown realistic feminist depicted in a comic (and it only took until 1984 for this to happen. Gotta love the comics industry). It’s brilliant that she’s not some crazy, homicidal, man-hating bitch and is instead just an everywoman (albeit one from the 50^th Century) who lives through a fairly strange set of circumstances to become a legend. Of course, a part of the reason I like her so much is due to Moore’s nifty ideas and the fact that all we really see is a snapshot of her life. We don’t ever discover why she becomes so famous (the reason for this is probably because the series was intended as a nine book saga, of which three were completed) but the ending of the series is desperately poignant, as she’s forced to choose between her love and her ideals. If you’re really wondering what she chooses, remember that she’s a hero.

 

With that done, I’m going to discuss some of your suggestions (which I’ll thank you for again):

Leon – One of my failings in life is to not have managed to watch all of this film all the way through. When I do, I’ll reconsider him.

The Crow – Yep, it’s another one I’ve never seen. I know bits of the story, though, and the real-world tragedy associated with the film is obviously another factor to consider.

Vash The Stampede – I quite liked bits of Trigun. I liked how Vash’s world was black and white and desperately simple. I liked the world/mythos. I liked the animation style. I liked the outfits. I liked the fights. I really liked Legato. I didn’t like how Vash abandoned his moral code and killed him . I’m not sure quite what the point of this was, to show that man is inherently flawed (ok, so he’s not technically a man, whatever) and that his evil side will always win. Vash isn’t a true hero because he abandons everything that makes him a hero.

Bravestarr – I remember watching this but only fairly faintly. It was good, but sadly never had as much of an impact on me as Transformers or even He-Man. I kinda covered the world of nostalgic cartoons with the former and, if I were to go back to it again, I’d mention the likes of Bucky O’Hare and He-Man too.

Firefly/Serenity – Yes, I know not having seen these makes me a sucky geek. I can deal with that. On the list. High up it, in fact.

Sharpe – I must say I’ve never been into the whole “heroes of war” thing. I’m one of those people who really hates war and dislikes the way it’s often depicted as having one side as the “good” one and another as the “bad” one. I blame propaganda etc. I’ll admit to being a bit anachronistic here, but this is the main reason I’ve never read the Sharpe books or been interested in watching the TV series. I might have to try both at some point.

Titus Groan – I’m a bit ambivalent about the Gormenghast books, I liked the deep and dark gothic world that Peake depicts, but could never really bring myself to care very much about the characters. Titus, to me, always represented lack of change and I found myself more on the side of Steerpike (even though he’s obviously intended as a villain). It was only in the second and especially third books that I began to warm to Titus at all. However, I’m not sure if he’s really a hero. He doesn’t actually do an enormous amount and is only sympathetic because he’s the protagonist.

Paul Atreides – Here’s a character I could probably do a full entry on. I’d need to re-read the first book and probably read some of the others first, though.

Arthur Dent – Good old Arthur was actually one of the characters on my original list and was due to go up on it. The main problem with him is that he’s not actually a hero at all. Zaphod would be a better choice from the cast as an antihero, but he’s not all that suitable either. Arthur’s just a bit too dull and predictable and too cowardly and too tea-dependant. Nearly the only thing of significance about him is due to the planet he was born on and the lucky fact that he managed to avoid getting blown up by knowing the right person. Arthur’s a cool character for sure, but he’s not a hero.

The Wheel of Time guys – I’m not enormously into the WoT books and have no plans to cover them (too many other things on the list first!) in the immediate future.

Joshua Calvert – I’ve not even heard of this chap before. Another one for the list.

Mulder – Mulder’s tricky, because alone he’s just a conspiracy nut. It’s Scully’s rational judgement that makes anything he believes seem plausible. However, he’s usually just investigating things (until later in the show’s history, at least) and most of the time his conclusions are just as plausible as Scully’s. Maybe I’ll do a double entry so-to-speak, on these two at some point.

Louis Wu – Another series I haven’t read.

Thanks for continuing along this interesting and occasionally introspective road with me. I’m enjoying it, I hope you are too. I’ll have to keep collecting things and maybe delve more into the Classical side of heroism next time.