Who Is The Hero?

[Hearthcoal]

To see what previous contributors had to say click here. Who Is The Hero?

Who do you think is/are the hero/es of The Gap series?

Morn?

Angus?

Davies?

Donner?

Lebwohl?

or...?

[amanibhavam]

are there any?
do we need any?
who is the hero of LotR? Frodo? Gandalf? Aragorn? all of them?

[Hearthcoal]

Amanibhavam, you have done a good job illustrating my question. Who is the "Aragorn" or the "Frodo" or the "Gandalf" of The Gap Series.

One of the things that draws me to LOTR and TCTC are the "heroes". I admire and respect these characters.

My question here is about finding their equivalents in The Gap.

[Angus Thermopyle]

I think Morn and Davies are the closest thing your going to find to heroes in the Gap series. And thats kind of a stretch too. Its kind of strange - everyone IS a hero at times, and other times they anti-heroes.

[Skyweir]

good point ..

[Angus Thermopyle]

Something else I realized when reading the books is there is no ONE bad guys. Chronicles had a pretty cut and dry bad guy in Foul. But the gap has far more nebulous characters.

Nick, Holt, Hashi, Sorus, Marc, and the Bill kinda round out my 'team' of bad guys. Though even thats kinda hard cause many of them do, IMO, somewhat redeem themselves.

But I guess thats just one thing that makes 'em so fun to read!

[Holt Fasner]

Sib Mackern and Vector Shaheed are heroes of sorts, because despite being cowards they keep on fighting.

[pitchwife]

Here is a different perspective I've just thought about.
Angus represents the animal within us, our drive for survival, our instincts, our fears.
Morn represents humanism, morals, ideals.
In order to survive we need both, and we need to find the right balance.
What do you guys think?
-pitch

[Skyweir]

far out!! wow .. really interesting .. I like it!!

I like that Angus and Morn form a balance between bestial-baseness animal survivalism and humanism ideals and moral/ethics ..

[danlo]

SRD does do an excellent job of showing us just that--cruel juxtaposition! (I'm using that word alot lately--fun word--word o' the week!) 2 the "crib" w/ye Angus!!!!! horrible, horrible, boy... Angus:

[pitchwife]

Danlo,
I never know if your'e serious or joking ...
please enlighten the ignorant, what's w/ye?

Here's a quote from "Chaos and Order":

... And was it all for the sake of some shit-foolish humanitarian gesture? This wasn't what he did to bleeding hearts. This wasn't how he manipulated them -- or reacted to them. He had a long and feral history of making such bastards pay for their moral superiority.
... What was wrong with him? ... And yet he hadn't felt the coercion ... No, the coercion was of another kind. It came from Morn.

Angus hated people that acted on 'moral superiority'. Why? Is it because the cost of believing in ideals is compromising survivalism? When you belive in ideals you have to be ready to die for defending them. Is that why Angus despised and felt contempt for such people?
-pitch

[amanibhavam]

w/ye = with ye, I presume:-)

[danlo]

Yes amy is right and I am joking---Agnus was extremely frightened on the inside--the crib was a big part of the nurturing of that redirected in2 anger--deep down he admitted 2 himself that he was a terrible coward!

[Skyweir]

I think you are absolutely right pitch .. as your quote highlights .. Angus was used to functioning to serve his survivalist instincts .. he loathed what you term 'moral superiority' because it challenged his notion of superiority of self/ his desire for survival .. We can see from the crib which tormented him into adulthood .. that survival was the only motivation for living .. <I know that sounds like a contradiction> He had no time for ideals .. for accomodating the needs of even the concerns of others ..

I cannot fully explain my point .. I will think more on it .. but I do agree with where you are heading with this assertion .. and I think it is very interesting and perceptively astute!

[DirectorDios]

Since I've read the Gap series several time, I consider myself somewhat of a moronic-expert on the subject and I must say, there are NO HEREOS in the Gap series with the exception of Davis Hyland and Sixten Vertigus - No one in the UMC or UMCP could be considered a hero because they're all compromised by there voluntary in involuntary commitment to Holt Fastner. Sixten is a "hero" because he fought the good fight all his life even before the existence of the UMCP and Davies came into the picture too late to be considered compromised, he also willingly agreed to sacrifice himself for the sake of the greater good. With those two excepetions, I'd say there are no heroes. Arguments to the contrary?

[Landwaster]

There is a big spiel by SRD in one of these book, where he makes reference to the drama aspects of Das Niebelung, and the duplicity required in one's personage to actually give them character.

I reckon he eventually mentioned something along the lines of many characters getting 15 minutes of hero in this story, but also having some darn nasty moments too.

Therefore I argue that there is no intentional clear-cut hero. Best example is Angus, who did some wonderful things for the right reasons at stages, and was put through hell through much of the story. But he was also a grub of the lowest common denominator.

[DirectorDios]

Well stated Landwaster....the "spiel" you refer to is an Afterword in The Real Story. A MUST read for all Donaldson fans!

[Landwaster]

A-ha! That's the one!

SRD also mentioned how he was discovering what a fertile ground his darker thought processes were turning out to be!

*backs away slowly*

[danlo]

This will sound VERY sappy! But I believe the real hero is any reader who can make it through the Real Story--it's QUITE rough 4 most--but once u do--the Universe is ur oyster!

[Loredoctor]

I'd say the heroes are Morn, Angus, Warden . . . they are heroes due to what they accomplish, not who they are.