Storytelling
Are You a Hero or a Villain?
The Answer is both, but it depends on the story you’re telling.
The Hero’s Journey
I plan to go see the movie: Venom this weekend. If you know the story, he’s an alien parasite that takes up residence in a human and he’s badass. He eats people but I like him. He makes jokes, but he’s got a heart (and lungs, and brains and intestines — which he also eats) but what makes him good is that he only eats bad people.
To his human host, he’s a good guy. To the bad guys, he’s a villain. To the viewing audience, he’s both a good guy and a bad guy all rolled into one, and that speaks to me.
For the story to work at all, you have to be either a psychopath who enjoys seeing people being eaten or, you have to align yourself with the good guys by setting up moral absolutes in order to accept the destruction of others.
It’s fascinating but the hero in so many of our stories requires this — both in fiction and in life.
Joining the resistance
In a galaxy far away, a young boy lived with his aunt and uncle. One day when he was out on the farm repairing equipment, an evil army sent by an evil empire killed his guardians and burnt down his home.
