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IT IS HARD TO FIND A TRUE HERO OR SUPERHERO ANYMORE. THEY ARE NOW TERRIBLY “HUMAN” WRITES DR KATHERINE GROCOTT
Content Warning: This article contains discussion about sexual assault and spoilers for the television series The 100 and Dexter, movies Cruella, 50 Shades of Grey, and Maleficent, and the musical Wicked.
The 100 is a futuristic teenage dystopian television drama based on a novel series of the same name by author Kass Morgan. The earth has been environmentally destroyed and the last known surviving human outpost is a failing space station, where any criminal offence is dealt the death penalty, being floated out an airlock, unless the offender is under 18. The premise of the show is that 100 teenage offenders are sent back to the planet’s surface, 97 years after the survivors left earth, to determine whether it is inhabitable again.
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he main characters consist of a headstrong and resourceful teenage girl Clarke Griffin, who has watched her father be ‘floated’ for trying to speak out about the dying space station, her scientist mother, Dr Abby Griffin, a military trained guard Bellamy Blake, his sister Octavia, best friends Monty Green and Jasper Jordan, engineer Raven Rayes, distinct rebel John Murphy, and politicians Marcus Kane and Thelonious Jaha.
On their return to the planet, the group discover that there are actually other survivors. There are tribes of people, known as Grounders, who have become immune to the toxic radiation. There are Reapers who have been made into cannibals by the Mountain Men, another group of privileged survivors housed in a military bunker. What is interesting about The 100 is that there are no clear heroes. All of the main characters commit murder, acts of violence, are selfish and greedy, or are duplicitous. There is no one main character that shows a consistent level of compassion, care, or self sacrifice. Rather we see the far too oft used phrase ‘I had no choice’ being used to justify all manner of violence and death. Even Clarke, the main character and the leader of the original 100, destroys a military bunker and kills everyone inside. In the final test of humanity, she fails because she commits murder during the trial, excluding her from the experience of eternal transcendence. As a viewer, one is left feeling that there is no one to look up to in this series, no one to aspire to, no one who is a true inspiration.
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This type of anti-hero is not new. Think the tortured Batman in the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy. The serial killer who only kills other serial killers in Dexter. The misogynistic and violent Christian Grey in 50 Shades of Grey. It is hard to find a true hero or superhero anymore. They are now terribly “human”. We can’t put these heroes on a pedestal. We can’t always emulate their behaviour. We can’t trust that they will always choose the right, noble, or good path anymore. Perhaps that is the point. They are, after all, only human. But nor should we demonise villains. In the age of fractured fairy tales we discover that Maleficent was cruelly treated and betrayed by her beau, resulting in grave mistrust of deceitful humans. In Wicked we learn that the green skinned Elphaba, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West, was born out of wedlock, despised by her father and is wrongly accused of a series of incidents. Cruella was a misunderstood fashion genius whose mother stole her designs and murdered the only woman who ever cared for her. In her powerful examination on sexual violence, What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape, survivor, counsellor, activist, and author Sohaila Abdulali warns about dehumanising perpetrators. It is imperative to prioritise the protection, safety, and healing of victims. It is important to believe and listen to victims. It is essential to allow them to process their experience in their own time. Abdulali also reminds the reader
