Dec Talking Meme - oops, should have posted this yesterday

[bagheera_san]

Dec 15, dragonofmemory wants me to talk about: superheroes, what makes them super

Comments

[x_los]

See, whereas I often find the business of the superhero secret identity a tedious plot contrivance, more there to prompt artificial will-they-won't-they find out drama rather than to protect anyone or enable anything. So often it's this self-perpetuating thing tangentially connected to the plot---and you could say that's the nature/rhythm of deception, but like, we've all been burned by Keeping the Magic Secret, and the plot consequences thereof.

[bagheera_san]

Well, in some cases keeping the secret seems sensible up to a point - "Merlin" and "Smallville" both had good in-show reasons for their heroes to initially keep secrets (at least from some people - it never made much sense for Merlin or Clark to lie to EVERYONE, and both shows dragged it out too long), and in many urban fantasy settings I'm okay with "magic is powerful but muggles outnumber us" as a justification for secrets (probably because I've GMed campaigns where the characters decided "to hell with secrets" and it turned out the result was just boring). And I like situations where a character keeps a secret identity not because it's useful or necessary, but because they're so messed-up that they need to compartmentalize.

[x_losfic]

Yeah def--it was the self-sustaining energy of keeping the magic secret at all costs, even when it no longer made any sense, that bugged me, not the initial deception. It's interesting that 'to hell with secrets' ended up dull! Perhaps b/c there wasn't another good/ready replacement for that tension/plot motivator? I do hear you re: compartmentalization, but then, that's sort of a subset of how it's usually interesting when people are psychologically complex, and when the plot things that happen to them have real emotional consequences that become plot matter in and of themselves.

[dragonofmemory]

I would have to disagree with you there, but then, I'm a sucker for identity porn, so there's probably a bias there. It can be fun when you end up with a comedy of errors as well. It does go on for too long sometimes though.

[dragonofmemory]

There is nothing wrong with being shallow on number seven. XD

Superheroes as modern mythology, hm? I could see that.

Superheroes really do become legends in their own right. I tend to keep to the film and television side of things rather than comics, so sometimes looking in on that mythos can be a bit daunting. It's definitely interesting tracing evolution of these things.

Keeping things simple is the best way to make something last, I've found. You make something too complex for the concept, and you get people wondering why to bother. Something simple can be re-adapted and made iconic and lasting.