[UA] Hero archetype

[Liam Astley]

From: <holycrow at mindspring.com>
Subject: [UA] Hero archetype
> I shy away from the idea of "Hero" and "Villain" as archetypes for UA
because they're pretty flat.  "Philanthropist" might work better for "Hero"
and "Exploiter" might work better for "Villain," because those are people
you DO meet every day.
>

yeah, i was thinking of them in terms of a variant UA campaign rather than a
standard one. i think it would spoil the mood a bit if TNI kept running into
the Avengers...

however, i think the idea of the Hero is such a strong one throughout our
culture, or any culture, that it must merit some kind of archetype even in
normal UA.

> I recently read John Keegan's "The Masks of Command" and it discussed
Alexander the Great as a prototypical "Greek Hero
> Hero?  To the Macedonians, hell yes.  To the Persians, the guy was the
devil made flesh.

my problem with archetypes like this is that they seem to be "after the
fact". alexander now seems like the obvious choice for an avatar but that's
only with the benefit of hindsight. that's why i also disagreed with
people's ideas for hitler ascending as the genocide - because that aspect of
him only really came into the public consciousness after the war.

> So the "hero" perhaps is fellow who's willing to risk everything, kill
and/or die, for his cause.  The nature of the cause?  Well, you know how
causes are.  They look good on paper, but it's very hard to be completely
pure...
>

i dunno. i think maybe the "getting taken advantage of" thing is part of a
Hero's lot. seems to happen a lot in myth and fiction, anyway. i'd imagine
the Hero as being more of a white knight figure, someone who travels around
helping any people he meets that seem to need help (basically any character
out of a Glen Larson TV series). sure it wouldn't be easy but what avatar
is?


liam
 --
www.dogzilla.co.uk


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