Music Monday -- The Tortured Hero? or About to be a Stalker?
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Jessie's Girl. Tortured Hero? or Could-be-Stalker? :D Music Monday on the blog...and we're all singing along.
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Tortured Hero Tuesday
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Not that I'm going to continue this feature every Tuesday, but you never know. Maybe I will.
So, here's the story. I watched The Cape last night. Predictably enough, I like it. Yummy hero. Bad, bad villains. Cool explosions and cars. Strong women. All the elements of a great story. And it reminded me of how much I appreciate a tortured hero. I can think back on several of my favorite books and movies. Sometimes the torture is subtle. Other times, like with Vince Faraday[sounds like a soap name, doesn't it?], the torture is obvious. A framed good cop who goes underground. The world thinks good cop is dead. So he picks up a cape and decides to fight the evil that separated him from his family.
Comic books have never been my cup of tea. My kids, on the other hand, have really gotten into them in the past few years. My son read this HUGE graphic, super-hero novel that was at least 300 pages long, at least. So, I picked up a few as well, and found them fun to read. The comics that have been made into movies are also entertaining. For example, Dick Tracy, and Batman. What do I enjoy about them? The villains.
So, here's the story. I watched The Cape last night. Predictably enough, I like it. Yummy hero. Bad, bad villains. Cool explosions and cars. Strong women. All the elements of a great story. And it reminded me of how much I appreciate a tortured hero. I can think back on several of my favorite books and movies. Sometimes the torture is subtle. Other times, like with Vince Faraday[sounds like a soap name, doesn't it?], the torture is obvious. A framed good cop who goes underground. The world thinks good cop is dead. So he picks up a cape and decides to fight the evil that separated him from his family.Comic books have never been my cup of tea. My kids, on the other hand, have really gotten into them in the past few years. My son read this HUGE graphic, super-hero novel that was at least 300 pages long, at least. So, I picked up a few as well, and found them fun to read. The comics that have been made into movies are also entertaining. For example, Dick Tracy, and Batman. What do I enjoy about them? The villains. Why is it that comic book villains are just so darn creative? I love it. They border on science fiction or paranormal. They emphasize the hero's victory because he's just a regular guy. He's not always super-human, like Superman--or he if he is superhuman, his human qualities make him down-to-earth. He often uses his brain, braun... and a bit of magic. I loved the magical element of The Cape.
Take a chance. You might be surprised. I was. :D
Heroes -- The Series
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Doing a series about heroes will be a gas, so I've teamed up with writing friend and partner, Penny Dune, to highlight the best of what makes a hero and to share some of our own writingly insights.
"So what," you say?
"So what," you say?
I'm starting with my favorite, The Tortured Hero. Keira at Romance Love Passion calls him the Brooding Hero, but I like tortured better. When I hear the word brood, I think sulky and Maximus Decimus Meridias was NOT a sulker. :D
The storyteller for Gladiator immediately wraps every woman around his finger by opening the story in Max's home. The heartfelt goodbye, the noble duty... and finally the agony. I mean, what woman doesn't want to think that if she is dead, her lover will wreak vengeance on everyone involved? It's so romantic. [okay, yes, i'm chuckling a little, but we all have our fantasies. *wink*]
William Wallace gave us this in Braveheart, another movie that just pulls on all the right strings. Course, Gibson is no where near as nice looking as Crowe, but... since this isn't a blog post about looks, I'll move on. :D
Okay, one more picture of a tortured hero. Though not a main character, Gabriel Martin's story held my attention in this epic saga about the Civil War. The thing is, you're actually glad when the tortured hero dies... I think that's a key element in all of these movies. Though it isn't the death I'm wishing for, it's the reunion...in a tradedy, they can't always be separated.
It's the emotion that a tortured hero evokes that leaves that mark in our minds. I think we want to do that in our books, as well. Nora Roberts did this in Public Secrets. Her primary, secondary--really the story was intricate, there were actually two heroes--hero, Brian was a tortured mess! I LOVED IT! Still my all time favorite book.
Check out Penny's blog in another day or two, and she'll be featuring the next hero in our series... The Beta Hero--everybody loves a nerd at least once in their life.
