Revisiting the Concept of Hero

Revisiting November 10, a day supposed to be a memorial for all the late heroes. Many writings in newspaper tried to redefine what it meant to be a hero. Yep, surprisingly the memorial day this year was close with the execution day of Amrozi and friends, people responsible of Bali bombing terror.

For some people, they are seen as the devil incarnation, who dared to erase many people from their existence within this plane. More than one hundred people (hope I'm not mistaken) had been killed during the tragedy. But for some others, they are considered as the purificator of the so-called Indonistan (sorry, I borrowed this term from one of the famous BB in the net).

But then, the Dutch also considered Pangeran Diponegoro as the devil incarnation during the Diponegoro war. Meanwhile, he is one of Indonesian great heroes.

Then, I came back to the old yin yang theory proposed by a lady I know. It was said that there is no single soul ever considered as the saviour. For if one would be a saviour, then this soul would be seen as the eliminator by the other sides. When a hero saved one party, he beat the other party. Thus, by his party, he would be seen as someone good, but as someone evil for the beaten side. Hero for one side is automatically evil for the other side. Just like shadow cannot exist without light, and vice versa.

But then, how could people judge whether someone is a hero or a traitor?

It might be a bit freakish, but I would like to put a focus on the philosophy of the whole Gundam series. Well, to be honest, this is the first series which made me think of good and evil.

In the classic plot, there were two characters, each played important role. One is Amuro Ray from the Earth Federation, and the other is Char Aznable from Zeon. During the whole canon, Char was viewed as the evil one, while Amuro is the angel. Quite strange, I prefer Char as the good guy in the story (My fault probably, for I watched the closing movie of the whole canon, Char's Counterattack). Then, I saw that both were heroes. Amuro was considered as a hero for the Earth Federation, while Char was a hero for Zeon and Colonies. However, Amuro was also considered as the grim reaper for Zeon and Colonies, and vice versa. Many side story movies were produced, and those took different point of view, both from Zeon and Earth Federation.

Thus, stepping from those view, I started to look for a new definition of Heroes. Probably, it's time to (borrowing the tagline of Marvel vs Capcom 2) A New Age of Heroes...

Well, in short, what is the conclusion? I got to say that IMHO, hero or evil is just a matter of perception. Let the people build a monument for Amrozi, and let other people spit at it. It's their right to choose which side they are on. Me? I'll keep on my track. Hell with being evil or hero.