Heroes… There is No Such Thing
I was told I have a “Hero Complex” recently. It was lighthearted and in the context of playing a match of Destiny 2. I was told this partially because during the match I seemed to relish jumping in and saving the day (which was true, but that also had a lot to do with the fact that my build is very broken and overpowered at the moment). I won’t lie, there’s definitely a bit of ego tied to that feeling of enjoyment that I get from personal glory, accomplishment, and recognition (however trivial they may be in the grand scheme of things). In and of itself that seems natural and not necessarily harmful if it’s kept in check.
But there was also a deeper point about my personality that I’ve been reflecting on.
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of (most of) the MCU. I mean look at the Tomorrow People logo, does it seem familiar?
But I wouldn’t say there’s no taste involved in my fandom. Some movies are definitely better than others in my opinion, and some I don’t even consider good media at all. But taking into account the age at which I started watching the movies, their general popularity among both nerds and average moviegoers, some good writing/storytelling, and the vast interconnected plot, I don’t think my enjoyment of the MCU is enough to warrant the diagnosis of having a Hero Complex.
On a deeper level, I have read some Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, I’ve talked about the Hero of 1000 faces before, and I do think there are underlying themes and archetypes that present themselves and that I resonate with. I’ve put a lot of thought into explaining why that is, drawing parallels between psychological archetypes and say the Platonic solids.
The way I look at archetypes is like they are idealized blueprints that don’t exist in the real world, but that we can approximate through our actions and beliefs. In the same way, a perfect circle can’t exist in the real world, but you can use the equations that describe it to make arbitrarily good approximations of it, a perfect “hero” can’t exist in the real world but we can imagine what that person might be like and seek to learn from them and emulate their behaviors in a given situation.
The question I’ve been pondering though is at what point does this practice become pathological? When does striving toward an ideal stop being a noble goal and start to become detrimental?
A lot of stories deal with this question. In The Dark Knight movie, the Joker is a great antagonist to Batman because he tries to use his strengths against him.
To summarize my understanding, the goal of the Joker is to expose the hole in the logic of Batman’s philosophy. He is a man who is so nihilistic about the world that he just wants to see it burn, as Alfred puts it in the movie. To achieve this end he wants to show that the hole stems from Batman's pride and sense of moral superiority over the villains for not killing, and the police for not being corrupt and ineffective at upholding the law.
The Joker tests Batman’s resolve and moral compass about not killing criminals by showing that innocent people will end up dying if the villains are allowed to remain alive. This then would prove his ineffectiveness (similar to the police) and show that Batman is no different than anyone else who uses violence to satisfy their own personal agenda.
The villain presents the hero with impossible situations and forces a choice. This reminds me of a quote I read recently:
“Jung has said that to be in a situation where there is no way out, or to be in a conflict where there is no solution, is the classical beginning of the process of individuation.” — Quote by Marie-Louise von Franz
Now I don’t have to deal with situations of life and death in my daily life, though recently I have been presented with numerous situations in my personal life that feel like like impossible gambits. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
And my instinct truly seems to be to ask “What can I do? How can I help this situation? What actions would make things better and bring about a greater sense of harmony and peace?”
But while that intention is pure, as far as I can tell anyway, it does seem to backfire a lot of the time and cause more chaos and pain. I get frustrated and the people involved get frustrated and I end up getting diagnosed as trying to be a savior.
But I’m reminded of this quote from a scene in Captain America: Civil War that I think perfectly sums up his entire philosophy on what it means to bear the responsibility of being a hero. It comes right after a mission where they stop some terrorists from stealing a bioweapon but in the process, a lot of civilians are killed from collateral damage. He says:
“In this job, we try to save as many people as we can… sometimes that doesn’t mean everybody. But if we can’t find a way to live with that, next time maybe nobody gets saved.”
I think this resonates with me deeply because it all boils down to three key ideas.
- Use whatever powers or gifts you’ve been given to help others
- Take responsibility for the consequences of your actions
- Never give up on trying to do the right thing
And if that means I have a Hero Complex, then I guess I better find my theme music.
