redwoodalchan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
redwoodalchan) wrote2012-12-30 07:56 pm
redwoodalchan) wrote2012-12-30 07:56 pm
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Enough with the Jerks with Hearts of Gold Already!
So, I'm really starting to get sick of the Jerk with a Heart of Gold trope. Just to be clear, there's plenty of characters who fit that description that I do like; but the overarching concept is starting to bug me.
I just feel like the trope's gotten overused lately. If you want to give your hero depth of character, you make him rough around the edges and give him a hidden softer side. Oh, it may take anywhere from minutes to hours to episodes for that softer side to manifest, but as long as he's got it that makes everything okay, right? At least he's not squeaky-clean or boring, right?
Well, the truth of the matter is that any device that gets overused becomes boring in the end. And it's inevitable that popular devices will get used badly more often than not. The reason why jerks with hearts of gold bug me so much is that lately I've come across plenty of hack writing that's attempted to pass characters off as "jerks with hearts of gold" that actually have no hidden hearts of gold worth speaking of, or whose "hearts of gold" are purely cosmetic or one-time things, such as a foul-tempered character refusing to beat someone else up once over a minor slight, or solving a problem that is different from the problem that he's already caused (which then never gets addressed). Even in writing that's not the work of a hack it seems like there's a distressing tendency to take the fact that their characters do good things as such overwhelming evidence of their virtue that it turns their usual abrasive way of interacting with other characters into a non-problem, however annoying it may be to watch or read about.
This is a big part of my problem with Natsuno in "Shiki." He spends the first couple of episodes acting like a jerk, but he's still one of the few heroic characters in the story and that turned his characterization into an unbearable waiting game, where I was essentially counting down the episodes until he began to man up and be nice! And yes, my favorite character in that show, Masao, is an even bigger jerk than Natsuno, but that doesn't bother me because there are no two ways about it (and this, in turn, makes the few moments where he ISN'T being a complete asshole all the more interesting). I didn't even like Masao that much when I started watching the show, but I've always liked him more than Natsuno because at least it was clear from the beginning that we were meant to disagree with him. By the time Natsuno finally grew into the Noble Hero I always knew he would be, I was way more interested in most of the other characters than I was in him. Characters like Natsuno often feel like a lose-lose situation to me: they drag their feet in appearing genuinely kind and likable and then by the time their goodness emerges I've latched onto the other, less-frustrating characters and completely lost interest in them (at least until they die or make some other big sacrifice).
On the other hand, it seems like this is less likely to happen when the jerk with a heart of gold is deliberately morally-ambiguous, or not the primary POV character. I actually really love Lelouch, Suzaku, and CC from "Code Geass," and they all, in their own ways, display jerkish tendencies and softer sides. That works because we're not asked to view them unquestioningly as heroes. Then there's "Princess Tutu," which employs narrative misdirection with its resident dark gentleman, Fakir, whom the heroine, Duck, is sure is a villain until it turns out that they're on the same side down the road. Since we spend most of our time with Duck, we don't have to endure episode after agonizing episode of Fakir making life difficult for Mytho and seemingly empty reassurances that Fakir has his best interests at heart. Even Harry Potter had a good setup like this for the first book's relationship between Harry and Snape. Then in later books Harry himself became a "jerk with a heart of gold" and all the problems associated with that came in full force.
So, yeah. This is why jerks with hearts of gold bug me. If you want your character to be a jerk, just make your character morally-ambiguous, or have another character be observing him so that it can be at least somewhat surprising when he turns out to be good. But for crying out loud, don't make a character act petty and irritating and act as though the mere fact that you gave him the "hero" label will stand as evidence of virtue until you can think up something nice for him to do!
I just feel like the trope's gotten overused lately. If you want to give your hero depth of character, you make him rough around the edges and give him a hidden softer side. Oh, it may take anywhere from minutes to hours to episodes for that softer side to manifest, but as long as he's got it that makes everything okay, right? At least he's not squeaky-clean or boring, right?
Well, the truth of the matter is that any device that gets overused becomes boring in the end. And it's inevitable that popular devices will get used badly more often than not. The reason why jerks with hearts of gold bug me so much is that lately I've come across plenty of hack writing that's attempted to pass characters off as "jerks with hearts of gold" that actually have no hidden hearts of gold worth speaking of, or whose "hearts of gold" are purely cosmetic or one-time things, such as a foul-tempered character refusing to beat someone else up once over a minor slight, or solving a problem that is different from the problem that he's already caused (which then never gets addressed). Even in writing that's not the work of a hack it seems like there's a distressing tendency to take the fact that their characters do good things as such overwhelming evidence of their virtue that it turns their usual abrasive way of interacting with other characters into a non-problem, however annoying it may be to watch or read about.
This is a big part of my problem with Natsuno in "Shiki." He spends the first couple of episodes acting like a jerk, but he's still one of the few heroic characters in the story and that turned his characterization into an unbearable waiting game, where I was essentially counting down the episodes until he began to man up and be nice! And yes, my favorite character in that show, Masao, is an even bigger jerk than Natsuno, but that doesn't bother me because there are no two ways about it (and this, in turn, makes the few moments where he ISN'T being a complete asshole all the more interesting). I didn't even like Masao that much when I started watching the show, but I've always liked him more than Natsuno because at least it was clear from the beginning that we were meant to disagree with him. By the time Natsuno finally grew into the Noble Hero I always knew he would be, I was way more interested in most of the other characters than I was in him. Characters like Natsuno often feel like a lose-lose situation to me: they drag their feet in appearing genuinely kind and likable and then by the time their goodness emerges I've latched onto the other, less-frustrating characters and completely lost interest in them (at least until they die or make some other big sacrifice).
On the other hand, it seems like this is less likely to happen when the jerk with a heart of gold is deliberately morally-ambiguous, or not the primary POV character. I actually really love Lelouch, Suzaku, and CC from "Code Geass," and they all, in their own ways, display jerkish tendencies and softer sides. That works because we're not asked to view them unquestioningly as heroes. Then there's "Princess Tutu," which employs narrative misdirection with its resident dark gentleman, Fakir, whom the heroine, Duck, is sure is a villain until it turns out that they're on the same side down the road. Since we spend most of our time with Duck, we don't have to endure episode after agonizing episode of Fakir making life difficult for Mytho and seemingly empty reassurances that Fakir has his best interests at heart. Even Harry Potter had a good setup like this for the first book's relationship between Harry and Snape. Then in later books Harry himself became a "jerk with a heart of gold" and all the problems associated with that came in full force.
So, yeah. This is why jerks with hearts of gold bug me. If you want your character to be a jerk, just make your character morally-ambiguous, or have another character be observing him so that it can be at least somewhat surprising when he turns out to be good. But for crying out loud, don't make a character act petty and irritating and act as though the mere fact that you gave him the "hero" label will stand as evidence of virtue until you can think up something nice for him to do!