The Sword and Laser discussion

I have been thinking the same thing myself lately. It seems like everything i read anymore has a flawed hero. I can understand why, its a reflection of what we see in our real life heroes. Steroid abusing sports heroes, politicians who can't keep their stuff in their pants, and bad cops pepper our nightly news.

Do we still have real heroes today? None jump to mind.

Who ever said heroes need to be noble? That certainly isn't the case in classic literature. Achilles, Jason, Hercules, Aeneas, Gwydion and Siegfried are all supreme jerks -- heck, half of them are rapists.

Arthur sure isn't noble in many of the medieval stories. The Alliterative Morte Arthur, for example, presents his life as a tragedy -- after uniting all Britain, he turns his attention to the continent, with the intent of conquering the Roman Empire. But his neglect of his kingly duties leaves an opening for his steward, Mordred, to seize the throne for himself. Arthur is camped within site of Rome when news comes of Mordred's treachery, and he has to pack up and go home to retake the throne. (And we all know how that goes.) He doesn't come off much better in Sir Launfal where he's a cuckolded fool, or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight where ... well, let's just say none of the knights come off very well in that one.

As I've had a few recent figures in my estimation go from Hero to Zero, it is my cynical observation that a "hero" is a whitewash. They are prefect because they won and got to present their side of the story best, eliminating the embarrassing parts, dropping the mistakes, and playing up their role in events. Every time I hear about a great hero in history I have to wonder what got swept under the carpet.

There are certainly great people, and there are just as certainly those who will leave their mark, but none of them are great to everyone unless you whitewash their pasts enough.