Quote:
Originally Posted by Dunyain
I am not sure attributing the "hero" archetype to Judeo-Christian values is accurate. I suspect it is something much deeper in the human psyche. My son has grown out of it, but he went through an anime phase, and the values of the main protagonists in this genre are pretty similar to something you would see in a Superman or Spiderman comic or the Bible. I am not super familiar with a lot of other cultures, but I suspect the "masculine" stoic hero who suffers in quiet dignity and never lets himself give into despair and succumb to the darkness (of if he does it is briefly and he redeems himself in the end) is a pretty common motif.
I am not saying any human society has a strong track record of actual heros' who lived up to this ideal, but the ideal itself seems pretty ubiquitous.
1. Yeah, I'm not going to claim that at all. Just that you mentioned Jesus being the most famous representative example of this archetype made me think of just the idea of Judeo-Christian values and #WWJD generally.
2. I entered and am still in an anime phase in my early 30s and the motif you're describing is perfectly depicted by Berserk, 1997/2016 anime based on a manga that's been going since 1988. Also Vinland Saga which is still ongoing and fairly new. Frankly, most western entertainment media is woke and g4y as **** these days. And even when its not its depressingly formulaic and badly written on average (obviously there are exceptions, but it seems they're becoming fewer and further in between). It also just seems like almost everything is catering to neurotypical normie women aged 15-40 and most of us just won't find that appealing.
Most Chinese entertainment media is terrible and cringe because it's so tightly controlled and censored by boomer males to only reflect their tastes and values and nobody elses. But frankly even without the censorship it'd probably still be not very good. They are collectively just not a very artistically inclined people.
But those Japs and Koreans... both their live action and animated television and movies are super entertaining and free of irrelevant political messaging, arbitrary homosexuality, the woke faith, or the annoying tropes that get spammed out in the latest marvel movie... or at least their tropes are still relatively more novel to western audiences. And maybe they have their own political messaging inserted in there but without cultural context we literally don't even notice and can't feel patronized by it. BGP recommended a movie from Korea called Burning from 2018. It was fantastic and literally became my favorite movie.
Indian entertainment media is also pretty damn good. It leans into the campiness and cringe comfortably instead of trying to be cool and failing.