I write a lot about heroes…SEALs, Marines, doctors and every day people, who just stand up for what they believe. Lately I may have taken it a bit far when I dressed as Wonder Woman for Comic Con. Truth is that heroes and heroines are the strangest things…we only remember their victories. We always like to forget all the times they got their asses kicked to get there.
Of course, the cheesiest example of this is the ‘original’ BatMan series from the 60s and 70s. It was always at least two parts to every story line. At the end of part one, Batman or Robin and usually both were tied up, suspended, about to be destroyed/chopped up/incinerated or something of the kind. Then the beginning of the next episode, they always managed to escape…somehow. It was one of those cases of something being so bad that it is good.
My favorite of all time though is John McClane, especially number four…Live Free or Die Hard. In that movie, McClane teams up with a young hacker to fight a ‘cyber’ bad guy. Matt, the hacker, asks him at one point why he does it…goes after the bad guy.
John McClane: You know what you get for being a hero? Nothin’. You get shot at. You get a little pat on the back, blah, blah, blah, attaboy. You get divorced. Your wife can’t remember your last name. Your kids don’t want to talk to you. You get to eat a lot of meals by yourself. Trust me, kid, nobody wants to be that guy.
Matt Farrell: Then why you doing this?
John McClane: Because there’s no body else to do it right now, that’s why. Believe me, if there were somebody else to do it, I’d let them do it, but there’s not. So we’re doing it.
Matt Farrell: Ah. That’s what makes you that guy.
Later in the movie after the bad guy tries (AGAIN) to blow them up Matt says…”Win? When did we start winning?”
The point is (the one I am trying desperately to remind myself of at this moment)…heroes are nothing more than the stubborn fuckers who refuse to give up even when they are getting their asses kicked. Spoiler Alert: And sometimes the ONLY way to win is to put a bullet right through your own shoulder…into the heart of the villain.
Tara Cox - Literary Erotica 