Sunday, August 23, 2009
Heroes: What's the definition of a hero? What makes a hero a hero? What must a hero fight for to be counted as a hero?
A man from outer space fighting to save us (Superman), a man who uses a belt to transform and fight monsters (Kamen Riders), a guy who fights his physical and mental scars to salvage what's left of their planet (Cloud Strife), war time hero (Lim Bo Seng) or simply someone that brightened up your day (anyone).
Heroes span across a huge genre, a huge variety but is always around us. I guess this topic is spawned from recent events ba.
Firstly, for GP lessons, there was movie screening of Hotel Rwanda. It was a very informative movie. Bout the conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi, on how cruel it is, how horror and the repercussions. Here are some takeaways i got from watching the movie. In such a society, its real how fight for survival is apparent. Before the conflict even started, main character, Paul, already had planned and put in place safety measures for his family and himself, in the form of favours from several influential people whom he had worked hard to please. Secondly, its how there are people who really do not wish for such conflict, but are simply forced by circumstances to comply. Take the very 1st scene, in their van, paul had to brandish out his "passport" in the form of a colourful shirt just to ensure his own safety. Class Tee??? Lastly, it will be the how the story ended. On their UN buses to the safety camp, they were protected from danger by rebel armies, hiding in the bushes ready to ambush the infiltrators. Isn't it ironic how their onli way to safety, is through what they had just escaped from, all the fighting, all the deaths. Those are just some thoughts that came across my mind then.
Cloud's Personal Weapon!!!
Cloud's super cool bike with his weapons spreaded out!!!
For those who have never seen the movie before, refer to the image above (credits to google...). Its made up of a combination of 5 swords all put together, a revolutionary idea i have never seen before. This gives Cloud a super cool style of fighting, able to brandish any combination of sword he wishes. He was the reason why i luved characters wielding huge swords. Oh ya, there's also his freaking cool bike (see picture above). His black/gold bike has a compartment infront that opens and spreads out his swords infront of him...OMG cool to max!!! Back to story development, its how the writer introduced his various swords. In his 1st battle, Cloud uses the 1st sword in battle mode, subsequently sword number 2 in his fight in the forest against the evil three. In his final fight, he was able to summon all his swords, and did an omni slash version 5 (basically flying around his enemy and slashing him with all the swords he has in a very cool way).
Omni Slash V5. You can see the weapons seperating from the huge sword.
Cloud in omni slash mode. He's the gold flash. The long hair is his enemy.
Ok thats tat. To main topic, Cloud is a hero in the story for he is the what the people calls "Big Brother". He was originally liked the bad guys, mind influenced, then he came over it and became good. Now he fights to save the people. More than that, he battles a problem that the citizens themselves face, Geostigma, a kind of genetic disease that is cured onli by defeating the enemy. And he has a dark past behind him, a failure to protect friends of his, which made him sad and thus incapable of fighting. So in the end, he overcame it, forgived himself and saved everyone (yay). But him having the same genetic problem as everyone else, and willing to stand up and fight for it makes hima hero in another way...one closer to the people???
Now lastly, my favourite example, Kamen riders. Been watching a new series, Kamen Rider Den-O, during my free time at nite. And something in the storyline really touched my heart that i had to bring it up in this topic. In the series, there's this rider, Sakurai Yuuto. He uses cards to transform himself, but one thing about this outcast, is that his cards are actually people's memories of him. Everytime he finishes his transformation, the card simply disintegrates, along with certain memories of him in other people's mind, even those of his lover's. A sad thing for someone who is fighting to save the world. So this brings about the point, what is he fighting for...is the sacrifice worth it? He fights for the world, which in the end would be forgetting who he is, and he becomes jus a guy in the world, all lonely. Is he counted as a hero too? A lone ranger?
So ya, thats just my take. I am not that good at expressing my thoughts, so I prefer to use examples and hope u all can feel what i felt. In the end what are heroes, I cant conclude, but i can definitely say I love the feeling of having heroes in my heart :)
Revealed on [7:21 AM]