Can a Racist Character be Heroic?

Depends on who you ask. Hitler was a racist (and had many other flaws in morals) and was considered heroic by millions who share the same warped thoughts.

In fiction, a character can have immoral thoughts and actions and still be the protagonist and antihero of the story, but it depends on your definition of heroic. If it’s just that they are brave and do deeds for a better world (like saving the world/people from obvious bad guys) then sure.  If being heroic require to have common sense of morals then no, a racist cannot be heroic. I stand in the middle, where I think a racist can be a hero (if his/her actions save people) but not completely heroic.

As for the comic strip you added, I’m not familiar with it. Seems like a twisted thing to do to stab with scissors even if littering is a shitty act and the shopkeeper was obnoxious as hell, but idk about the background of the character. If she was some kind of ocean hero who is close with animals of the sea or some kind of sea species herself like Aquaman then I would completely understand her wanting to stab the guy and think from a fictional point of view it is justified, but she’s not heroic.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by SuperSoynic_Speed.

how can marvel allow this kind of stuff to be published? that’s the real problem.  Unless she’s a villain? I dunno, I don’t read their shit anymore.

But if she’s not a villain… then they’re basically promoting murder.

Which anime hero did this kind of stuff?

… you call that a flaw? lol “oops, I just cold-blooded murdered an innocent person… I’m a flawed hero lol”

@SuperSoynic_Speed, you brought up some interesting anime characters to analize there, also i’d better add a spoiler alert to this 😅

First off Death Note: Light Yagami, yes he is the MC, but i wouldn’t call him a hero, sure he mainly kills criminals, and hey, if i got my hands on the death note, you can be sure that every p*do’s name would be written in there, so i don’t disagree with the concept of “death note is a good way to get rid of dangerous criminals”, but, is that really Light’s main goal? Don’t forget that one of the first things Light thinks about himself when he realizes he has that power is “I am god”, and this narcissistic thought just keeps growing thruout the series. You also bring up the fact that he has no problem sacrificing his father and sister for his own gain and has murderd innocent people, and i will add that all of that is maticulously calculated and he is fully aware of his actions. Yes Light is an interesting character, and yes Death Note is a great anime, but these are in no way the flaws of an unstable hero, they are the traits of a psychopath

Second you bring up Code Geass: Lelouch Lamperouge, you speak as if Lelouch and Light are very similar when in fact they couldn’t be more different

the MC shot his half brother only because he was related to his own father who the MC was seeking revenge against

Staring with this, it’s a lot more complicated than “i hate my dad, you’re related to him, so i hate you too”, if it was as simple as that he’d want to kill all his siblings no exeption. If you listen carefully to what Lelouch says to Clovis, the reason he also wants revenge against him is because he sees him as being complicit to his father’s behavior

He also accidentally brainwashed his best friend’s girlfriend … Unable to take the burden of the consequence, he lies to everyone, claiming she betrayed him

Key word “accidently”, this wasn’t premeditated, and as for lying about it after, he didn’t really have a choice, that was the only option he had to survive, and unlike Light who unscrupulously murdered innocent FBI agents, Lelouch feels great remorse for his actions. Lelouch is obviously very unstable, this also due to his upbringing, but nevertheless he’s a good person, he wants to do the right thing but tends to go about it the wrong way, and yes he’s flawd, he wants revenge, he gets so focused on battle he forgets about collateral damage, he does get power hungry, but the reason he wants power is mainly because he thinks that’ll guarantee him and his sister’s survival, these are traits/flaws of an unstable hero

I don’t know JJBA (which anime is this?) or Fate so let’s skip to Attack On Titan: Eren Jeager, ok… ok, Soynic, did you watch AOT, like properly, paid attention to subtle details? Did you notice the difference in Eren between season 3 and 4, not even, just between season 3 and the end of season 3?? By the time season 4 comes around Eren is completely broken, he is so traumatized, he watched his mom get eaten by a titan, he turned into a titan and ate his dad, he watched Hannes who was like an uncle to him get eaten by the same titan that ate his mom, he watched countless comrades die on the battlefield, yeah, that can fuck someone up real bad, you look at Eren’s eyes in season 1 compare to season 4, in season 4 he’s blank, it’s like there’s no one there, the second his teammates saw this change in him at the end of season 3, ’cause they did notice something was wrong, they should’ve kept a very close eye on him, kept him away from the battlefield, and got him psychological help. I’ll add to that, when you are that traumatized, you become very easily manipulated, and who is Eren hanging out with in season 4? Oh yeah, Zeke, ’cause sure, Zeke would never take advantage of Eren’s mental state for his own gain, right? Are you shitting me

Great posts guys, I wish we could have this type of conversation more often here. :)

I can agree with all 3 posts.

But @SuperSoynic_Speed, as DigiCat said, I don’t think those MC are really heroes. Or at least they’re not the same kind of heroes as the marvel and dc ones.

Yagami Light is definitely not a hero lol ;)

The Attack on Titan one is more complex… but digicat already explained it very well. :) But I get your point. Maybe that new x-men character is that kind of character… maybe she’s not really a hero… (i hope so lol)

Keep posting guys ;)

Cheers

@SuperSoynic_Speed, my mistake, thought you were comparing Light and Lelouch in your post before :P

Now on Nature Girl

Lelouch, Light and Eren had different reasons to do fucked up things. One is a psycho, one got broken by hatred and trauma, one acted in terrible ways because he thought reaching his goal was worth it all. But still, most of us support these characters? Then why is it a big deal if this comic character does similar things?

It’s not a big deal for the character to do similar things or to even like the character, i think what most people have a problem with is the way her actions are portrayed

She seems to have a noble goal (to keep the earth clean and save animals lives, which seems like a big part of her character considering her name and design) but she goes to extreme measures to reach her goals by apparently killing people who are negative factors and a hindrance to her goal

To dertermine whether a character is a hero, antihero, or villain it’s not enough to just look at their actions, there’s lots of factors that go into building a character, just to name a few

• What’s her backstory
• Does she feel remorse
• Is she mentally stable

And after looking at the link @FallenOmegaStar posted with more details of the comic, she outright says she doesn’t feel remorse, she’s very well awer of her actions, i will say her actions aren’t premeditated, she’s very impulsive, maybe a little delusional with how she insist she’s in the right, but not delusional enough to plead insanity as we see she is capable of being a hypocrite, changing her morals to suit her needs when she forces a bear to fight Wolverine. This in itself isn’t a problem, the problem comes at the end of the comic, when after she rightfully gets arrested for her crimes, she not only gets let out on parole, but is also praised for her crimes! It’s the fact that her behavior is being praised and condoned which i’m sure is pissing many people off

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by DigiCat.