Main > The Round Table

Is John McClane Knightly?

<< < (2/2)

Thorsteinn:
Also think about McClane after reading this little post.

http://destinyeclipsed.tumblr.com/post/136346722194/rabbittiddy-steamchef-roane72-okay-but


--- Quote ---"Okay, but the funny part here (aside from Lilian), is that Cap does this ALL THE TIME in the comics. Like, this exchange. Even in the little bit I read, I saw it two or three times:

Villain: You won’t do the thing, you’re Captain America.

Cap: Nope. *indicates less morally upright companion* They will.

Which kind of suggests that Cap is less about moral uprightness and more about plausible deniability. ;)

He’s still just a paladin in a mixed-alignment party. “I can’t kill that orc, because it’s unarmed, and I’m a paladin of justice. My ranger buddy, however, can totally do that. So go ahead, ranger buddy.”

Paladin America knows the benefit of utilitarian good.
--- End quote ---

Jon Blair:
Standing back and letting evil happen is just as bad as doing the evil itself. John Stuart Mill once said, "Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing." There is another evil though, one recognized by Georges Bernanos: "The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means." By knowingly allowing the "ranger buddy" to kill the unarmed orc or allowing Black Widow to push the Hydra guy Whatshisface off the roof (something that might have killed him even with Falcon saving him - heart attack anyone?), both the paladin and Captain America have become accomplices to the evil committed by those less moral than they would like to believe themselves to be. John McClane suffers from a similar issue, in that his actions are justified in the end; only circumstance (and the scriptwriter) paints him in a heroic role in that no innocents died due to the actions he committed. And since property damage doesn't seem to matter in a film like Die Hard and its sequels or Captain America: Winter Soldier, we tend to think them heroes because they saved lives. That's all that matters, right? Whatshisface had it coming (so what if he dies) and so did the orc and Sheriff Hans Gruber of Nottingham. Tell that to the fictional woman whose only means of transportation was wrecked (leaving her stranded in New York City) or the small business owner whose imaginary store is destroyed by the actions of the hero stealing (ahem, borrowing without asking) the fictional woman's car and driving it through the storefront to escape the bad guys.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page