This is a very Lord of the ringsy based topic, but I think by analyzing our feelings toward the hero's and villains in a story we can come to better understand what makes us like and dislike real people. What makes us feel one person is a hero and another is a villain.
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Because Boromir wants the ring for unselfish reasons.
Boromir and Smeagul both want the one ring, and in the end Boromir tries to take the ring from Frodo, yet even before Boromir dies we like Boromir, and dislike Smeagul. I think the only possible reason can be that we feel Boromir wants the ring for unselfish reasons, to save his country and his people. Smeagul only wants the ring for himself. He needs it, much like one needs a drug, and damn anyone who tries to keep it from him.
Yet does this mean that hero's can be absolved of all wrong acts if the are doing their wrong for the right reason. In the same token, is it more important for the villains actions to be done for the wrong reason to make him the villain, instead of mattering what the acts are?
For example, the Hero decides to save the princess because she's in danger and might have her honor injured and because he saves her she ends up marrying him. For contrast the Villain saves the princess from one evil because he lusts after her, wants her for his very one. Wants to bring her to his castle where he will force her to marry him, weather or not she wishes it.
One is heroic and the other villainy, yet other than for intentions the results and the actions are much the same.
Voted for by
bowie.
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TeChNoWC
July 17, 2007
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Weydon
July 17, 2007
I also liked Smeagul and felt bad for him. He had been warped into somethign terrible and made a genuine effort to change into something better. He even succeeded for a little. I liked him and was happy. Then he fell again--not entirely his fault--and started betraying his friends in order to get what he wants.
Boromir had better intentions, and when he realized the ring was getting power over him he felt great remorse and tried to redeem himself. Then he died valiantly fighting to protect the hobbits.
I don't hate a drug addict for being addicted to drugs. But when the addiction gets such a hold over them that they hurt people to get their fix, and they feel little pity or remorse and end up betraying again and again, I can no longer trust them--and yes, I even dislike them, even if pitying.
"For example, the Hero decides to save the princess because she's in danger and might have her honor injured and because he saves her she ends up marrying him. For contrast the Villain saves the princess from one evil because he lusts after her, wants her for his very one. Wants to bring her to his castle where he will force her to marry him, weather or not she wishes it.
One is heroic and the other villainy, yet other than for intentions the results and the actions are much the same."
No, the result may be that some poor girl is kidnapped and raped. Alternatively the girl may be saved by a lucky turn of events. A boulder came rolling down the mountain and crushed the murderer. In one scenario she lives on due to heroism, in another due to villainous intent, and in other by a stroke luck. The boulder and villain are not heroic. They are separate things. One without intention, one with horrible intention. It is probably fortunate that she lives on and can have a chance to escape the crazy man forcing her to marry him, but it is not good.
TeChNoWC
July 19, 2007
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Imagine it like the hero who saves the princess in a gallant feat of bravery, thinking of his love for the princess, only to find that the princess decides, upon being saved, that she doesn't fancy the hero, so he chucks a wobbly and forces her to marry him. He has done both a good and bad deed, with intention behind both.
July 23, 2007
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Boromir might have become like Smeagol
had the ring fallen into Boromir's hands, it would have corrupted him as completely as it did Smeagol. neither Boromir nor Smeagol were evil themselves, just vulnerable to the rings influence. the ring itself was the very mainifestation of evil, and eventually corrupts whoever posesses it (even Frodo was not immiune, although he held out longer than anyone else could have).Boromir represents what may become of even the bravest soul if he tempts evil, even for a good cause. Smeagol is merely the completion of that cycle, a pitiable, yet at the same time despicable, creature.
Lost to Apathy
December 20, 2007
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So the ring...
Can be also referred to the influence of enormous power that a single soul has.The more power, of course eventually you become corrupted to the point of addiction.
A slave to the power that you possess,(Smeagol) so that now you are no longer a hero, (Boromir), a former shell of your previous intentions.
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