The Boys and Becoming Cynical About Heroism
The moral case for coming to terms with heroes who aren't perfect.
We all need to look up to someone.
A person we can believe in that gives us hope for the future and humanity. The type of person who lives up to our ideals of what we should be but sadly often fall short. Someone who can help others simply for the sake of being compassionate and giving. We need this person to look up to because it's the kind of person we want to be. We call these people heroes. More often than not, we use this word to refer to those in law enforcement or emergency rescue. In large part thanks to how they rush into burning buildings or catch criminals who want to hurt us. It makes our ideas of the world a lot simpler to look up to these people. Which isn't to say that they don't deserve it. They do a valuable service to society and believe we can rely on them for help in the worst moments of our lives.
Sadly, these people are just like us. It would be nice to think that these people we look up to were the best of us. The kind of people who won't let us down. Who don't have the same needs and urges that the ordinary person does. Despite this however, they're human beings who aren't perfect and are able to do terrible things or at the very least selfish things. Heroes like them are as likely to choose to save themselves when their lives are in danger. It's hard to fault them for doing something like that. After all, most people would do the same in their situation. Given the choice between helping another person and making sure we survive, we have an instinct to care more about ourselves. Especially when death is an option on the table.
When these heroes do let us down, it can make us pretty sad or even angry at the idea we ever looked up to them in the first place. We can lose hope in the idea that people have any kind of redeeming qualities at all. Part of us will start to see the flaws in every person around you. To see people as nothing but selfish who would step over their own mother if it meant they could make money off it. In losing this hope, you can really struggle to get it back. For some people, it's not possible to ever get any kind of belief in any kind of goodness back.
The Boys is very much about what happens when you lose that sense of hope in a better world. Hughie Campbell, as played by Jack Quaid, used to believe in the heroism of The Seven like Homelander and Queen Maeve and A-Train, as played by Antony Starr, Dominique McElligott and Jessie T Usher respectively. He believed that they were out there helping others for the good of society. That they really were heroes making the world better. But when he's confronted with the fact that this isn't the case, it destroys his belief in the goodness of people. Even Starlight, played by Erin Moriarty, who similarly believes in the cause The Seven represent, has her idea of humanity destroyed.
While they do find some comfort in each other, they end up disappointing each other because they're just as flawed as everyone else. Coming to terms with this fact is really hard but they have to at least try.
Explore the struggle to maintain an idea of heroism by checking out The Boys as soon as you can.
You can watch The Boys on Amazon and iTunes.
I love The Boys, looking forward to the 4th season.. Great sum up of the series!