the essence of heroism...

"the essence of heroism is to do so that others may live". What do you guys think about that quote? Also can any of you guess (or do you actually know) where that quote is from?

Anyways, I think the quote has a point, but does the hero really have to die. Maybe it doesn't only mean physical death, but maybe dying to oneself (kind of like the parable about the grain of wheat falling to the ground). After all in many stories the hero doesn't really die, but in some ways he dies to his old self: for instance Frodo survives, but he no longer feels at home in his home (he says something to the effect of "I have saved the Shire, but not for myself. Sometimes it must be this way, sometimes in order to save something one must give it up"), Spider-man isn't killed in the movies, but he makes the decision in the second Raimi film to continue being Spider-man even though he thinks that means sacrificing any chance of a relationship with Mary Jane (to quote Aunt May: "sometimes to do what's right we have to be steady, even if that means given up the things we want most, even our dreams").

I think someone is watching Arrow....

Great show btw,really picked up with season 2

I thought it was from Conan but well...

it's all about perspective...

That sounds awfully like that pararescue stuff......

Indeed. Season 1 was pretty good, but I started liking it more towards the end (particularly from the episode "Odyssey" on). For a while during the first season I think it was kind of eclipsed in my attention by Last Resort and then by Vikings. Now this year I think Arrow is eclipsing Vikings (the fact that the gap between Vikings seasons is May to March where the show is not on tv, while Arrow's season ends in May and a new season starts up in October doesn't really help Vikings out). Season 2 of Arrow's been quite cool, particularly from the 7th episode on, it's cool in that there's the advertised thing for each episode that hooks you, but then at the end of the episode when you think the ep's about to settle down something unexpected happens (e.g. the episode State V. Queen: they advertised that Count Vertigo would come back, then at the end... you know who also comes back).

Kind of ironic though that the "essence of heroism" quote originated with Ivo and he wasn't "dying so that others would live" he was exposing a guy to radiation in order to give him cancer so that he could see if mirakuru could cure cancer (I think that must be what his wife was sick with and the doctors couldn't cure her). It seems that most of the "major" villains in Arrow went bad because of someone they loved: Merlyn because his wife died, Ivo to find a cure for his wife, Slade because of Shado, Isabel because Robert stopped having the affair with her when Thea fell off the horse (imagine if Thea hadn't fallen off the damn horse, maybe Robert would've left with Isabel and never got on the boat, then Ollie would still be a fratboy, Fyers would've shot down the plane, the undertaking would've succeeded, and Ivo might've got the mirakuru. The whole show would've been so much different, all cause of a damn horse!).

First person to post (after me of course), and you knew the answer, I was expecting it to take longer. Just a curiosity, did you decide to view my topic because you saw the title and figured that it would be about that Ivo quote?

Nope. But this is: "the tree of woe".

Love Conan.

In the The Frost Gaints Daughter the almost the entirety of the story is devoted to him chasing a scantily clad women across ice planes because he's proper horny to indulge in abit of rape.

In Queen Of The Black Coast he outright abandons guys being attacked and killed off by pirates to work alongside them, primarily to bang a hot lady.

In The Tower Of The Elephant he tries to steal some phat loot, because he can.

But at the same time as well, there is usually a point where his conscious kicks in, like in The Tower Of The Elephant he finds an enslaved being that has been hobbled and grants it mercy by dispatching it - in doing so helping him defeat the bad guy.

Conan appeal is that he's a very simple character, but at the same time he's not simplistically good and fits within the context of Hyborian Age, both in the movie and the book is the idea of of your own domineering masculinity = win

The ending to the 1982 movie is pretty much exactly that, with James Earl Jones telling him he exists because of the state, overcoming him, and dispelling evil communism by waving his head around to show he is fallible and not the end of all of ends.

@whipassmt:

I agree with that quote to an extent but like you said, you shouldn't have to sacrifice yourself to be considered a hero. I've always felt that true heroism is about fighting for what you believe in and protecting the innocent from evildoers. It's a heavy burden and a thankless job but above all else, it's about pure selflessness.

A hero is someone who puts the well-being of others above his own. Nobody needs to die for someone to be a hero.

Heroes can be as simple as people who labor under the hot sun, picking up trash along the highways without asking for anything in return.

@uninspiredcup: if I could be any BAMF in all of past, present, future, fiction...of anything written...I think I would like to be Conan the Barbarian.

He just is what he is. Simple, but not a simpleton.

There are a bunch of heroes that didn't die when performing the heroic act, for example Oskar Schindler.