At the same time when we get to criticising fiction, I sometimes have the impression that there is a significant portion of fandom that wants the main characters in all the TV shows, books, movies and comics that they love to be perfect role models who never say anything that they consider wrong, despite the fact that there's considerable disagreement in our society about what's right and what's wrong and the characters they love may not come from a background that's the same as theirs.
And I think there's something to be said for having characters who are presented as heroes *act like heroes*. And think like heroes, and everything else. I think there's a *lot* to be said and done with occasions when the heroes screw up in one way or another -- it's one of my favorite things to write about -- but I also think that it's important to show these characters, these supposed-to-be-heroes learning from their mistakes and behaving better once they do so.
It would be one thing if we were talking about a show like Oz, in which there was not one hero to be seen, but we're *not*. Like it or not, we are supposed to view Sam and Dean as intrepid heroes fighting for the good of the world, and *that* means that, if they don't act like it, there better be a damned good explanation *or* the acknowledgment that they're not really heroes, at all.
This is what I think people are asking for when they interrogate the SPN text so fervently, and I don't see any problem with that, at all.
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Re: part 3
Date: 2008-02-28 12:06 am (UTC)And I think there's something to be said for having characters who are presented as heroes *act like heroes*. And think like heroes, and everything else. I think there's a *lot* to be said and done with occasions when the heroes screw up in one way or another -- it's one of my favorite things to write about -- but I also think that it's important to show these characters, these supposed-to-be-heroes learning from their mistakes and behaving better once they do so.
It would be one thing if we were talking about a show like Oz, in which there was not one hero to be seen, but we're *not*. Like it or not, we are supposed to view Sam and Dean as intrepid heroes fighting for the good of the world, and *that* means that, if they don't act like it, there better be a damned good explanation *or* the acknowledgment that they're not really heroes, at all.
This is what I think people are asking for when they interrogate the SPN text so fervently, and I don't see any problem with that, at all.