Thursday, June 28, 2007

Hero or Villain?
























While listening to the Michael Emerson interview in
Episode 93 of Comic News Insider Emerson said he's
always assumed despite all evidence to the contrary that
Ben is going to turn out to be a hero. What do you think?
Are the following Heroes or Villains?

  • Benjamin Linus
  • Jack Shephard
  • John Locke
  • Kate Austen
  • James "Sawyer" Ford
  • Juliet Burke
  • The Island
  • Jacob
  • Smokey

4 comments:

Amused2bHere said...

Hmm. Let me be the first to answer:

Benjamin--not on your life. He's been too deceptive, too slimy to be a hero. Even if he does a noble thing in the end, the end does not justify his evil means.

My "heroes": Jack, Juliet, John. They all walk a fine line at times, but in the end I think they will be seen as heroic figures, even sacrificing themselves for others (Charlie is the most heroic so far, Desmond may be heroic if he doesn't wimp out in the end).

Not so sure: Kate, Sawyer, Jacob. We don't know enough about Jacob or his situation, so he may yet be a hero in captivity. Kate and Sawyer seem to want to be heroes, but their selfishness or fear seem to get in the way of true heroism. They come just so close, and then fall just short.

I'm not sure the Island or Smokey can have altruistic motives, which I consider essential to the hero class.

Just mho, of course!

pgtbeauregard said...

Memphish, in my book a hero is one who puts him or herself at risk with self-scrafice and possible harm to themselves.

Jack is the only one on this list who does that time and time again, without lying to everyone, or killing anybody arbitrarily. Everyone else on this list has quite a few murders under their belt.

Locke would like to be a hero, but he has a certain weakness of character which keeps him from doing so.

I agree w/Amused2 that we don't know enough about Jacob. Also, Charlie was very heroic.

Capcom said...

I don't know how TPTB could erase or over-ride all of Ben's slimy and manipulative actions to make him look like a hero. If they have something like that up their sleeve that will work, more power to them! I will enjoy seeing it! I can see how he could be a hero to his own people and the natives, but I can't see him being a hero to everyone on the island. There are too many diverse agendas across everyone on the island now, and at this point I don't see how any one person could be a hero to all. Unless of course, this flash-forward thing will eventually reveal that the World does indeed depend on this Island existing in its pristine state, and only Ben can keep it that way. But that's wild! Even so, the way Ben talks, it seems that may be the case!

The most productive hero to me so far is Hurley. Once he got over the initial shock of the crash, and got over his fear of handling his temporary pantry detail, he has been the true man behind the curtain for the Losties, in that he has engineered (behind the scenes) so many of the positive events that have happened for the Losties since they set up camp. And he's not a showy, "I'm the hero now, so do what I say," kind of hero like Jack. Hurley is a silent hero. He just figures out what needs to be done, runs it by the Losties, and if he gets any flack about it he goes ahead and does the task by himself. Then when he is done, whoever is the lucky recipient of his efforts, is happy that he did it. Whether it's one person (like getting Sawyer shaped up there for a while), or many (setting up the golf course, or running over the Others with the van, etc.) someone seems happy that Hurley acted on his ideas.

martysbaybay said...

Got to agree with capcom on this one. Just can't see Ben as any kind of hero. Since he was a child Ben has been about Ben..."all for one and one for me" seems to be his motto.
Hurley has the heart of a hero.