Episode 85: Rooting For The Anti-Hero

"I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror/it must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero."

                                            -Taylor Swift, "Anti-Hero"

   Don't get me wrong. I like the goody two-shoeses, the boyscouts, the lawful good characters. Your Supermans and your Captain Americas. It's always nice to see a hero who's a good role model, someone who's morally upright and makes actions that aren't very questionable.

   However, there's a certain appeal to protagonists that don't exactly fit that mold. The heroes who are still good, but have questionable means of executing that good. Perhaps immoral behavior and actions, but they're still fighting evil. Your Batmans and your Moon Knights, and to an even stronger degree, your Punishers and your Rorschachs. 

  Characters who are flawed and not morally superior are more relatable because their imperfections might remind us of our own, or it's at least more satisfactory to see them overcome the battles and succeed, at least for me.

  Of course Superman and Captain America have their internal struggles and aren't the shiny, perfect citizens they come across as, but it's in the darker characters that it's more apparent and leaves an impact on their stories. Like Moon Knight struggling with his DID, Daredevil with his severe depression, or The Punisher constantly carrying the weight of mourning his family that was murdered in front of him.

   That song I quoted at the beginning, at least how I interpret it, is Taylor Swift singing about how she feels like she doesn't deserve the love she gets from her fans. The lyrics make it pretty obvious that she thinks her fans must have a hard time supporting her because, in her mind, she's a very flawed person who isn't worthy of support.

    In Bastille(my favorite band)'s song, "Flaws", it says, "you have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve, and I have always buried them deep beneath the ground." This song describes two different approaches to one's own flaws - embracing them or hiding them. He admires the subject of the song because of her pride in accepting who she is, and he feels bad about himself because he's insecure and wants to be more like her about who he is - when he says later, "dig them up, let's finish what we've started".

   Both of these songs remind me of my own stance on flaws. We are all imperfect. Remember that Jesus chose a man who persecuted Christians to be an apostle and that man ended up writing most of the New Testament. Redemption is real. Success in spite of flaws is real. There is no such thing as perfection, not in humanity, so don't waste your life trying to achieve it. Embrace who you are, as long as you're not being evil in doing so. Wear your flaws upon your sleeve and don't think that the people who support you must be exhausted from rooting for an anti-hero. Shoot, I want to root for the anti-heroes. 

Anyway, see you next week!