The Hero
For me the beginning of this fiction is the Spaghetti Western where a cowboy rides into town on his stallion, sorts out the bad guys, and leaves again. Over time this cowboy has worn many different hats. The cowboy has evolved into the comic book superhero, the secret agent defeating the communists, the police officer combating an underground cult. The list goes on and on.
These stories don't show us what we really are, they show us what we want to be. These protagonists aren't just Saving people, they are saving people purely because they are good. We want to be Superman, James Bond and Nicholas Angel because they don't have ulterior motives. They only want what's best for the true greater good.
Now obviously these can be very boring characters. Part of what makes someone heroic is their flaws and we've known this since Homer first told the story of Achilles. Conversely Anti-Heroism, acing heroic because of a morally corrupt or inadequate reason, leads to the creation of many interesting stories and characters. But these flaws don't make them not heroes, it makes them people.
Eh, I don't know what I'm talking about.
These stories don't show us what we really are, they show us what we want to be. These protagonists aren't just Saving people, they are saving people purely because they are good. We want to be Superman, James Bond and Nicholas Angel because they don't have ulterior motives. They only want what's best for the true greater good.
Now obviously these can be very boring characters. Part of what makes someone heroic is their flaws and we've known this since Homer first told the story of Achilles. Conversely Anti-Heroism, acing heroic because of a morally corrupt or inadequate reason, leads to the creation of many interesting stories and characters. But these flaws don't make them not heroes, it makes them people.
Eh, I don't know what I'm talking about.