Assholes and Saviours: Two Very Different Protagonists: 003

Assholes and Saviours

Two of my absolute favourite character types in any movie or book are the Assholes and the Saviours. I love the function and personality of these characters. How entertaining I find them from both sides, and how their morals often collide. Sometimes they can even have completely the same goal, yet will still clash heads at every opportunity either to hilarious or great emotional effect.

Each of these archetypes can work independently of one another, but excel when they’re around their opposite. It just makes for good cinema or an entertaining read. It also allows for more natural conversation and dialogue. The ability to give exposition in a heated argument rather than dryly enforce it.

I love these characters as a writer, but I absolutely adore watching other people’s versions of Assholes and Saviours. Getting behind the Saviours actions and thinking someone else out there has similar moral’s to me. Or, watching as the Asshole slowly does the right thing while leaving a chaotic blazing trail behind them.

Both can be heroic, just in very, very, very, different ways.

The Saviour

The Saviour is just that, they want to save everyone. They are the diplomats. The last to resort to violence. If there is a peaceful way to solve a situation they will find and take it. I adore these type of characters. I feel in-tune with their behaviour and sensitivity. They often share the same moral and ethical code I like to believe I have. They believe violence should be the last resort, and life should be valued above all else.

Despite writing a lot of extreme horror and often having an aggressive tone within my work i’m a pacifist at heart. I want everyone to stop fighting and be at peace with one another. I want a united, progressive, and creative world. These characters often represent that same desire and share my naivety.

I think of them as heroic. I’ll always be on their side because they are usually on the side of what’s truly right, even if their solution or end goal is unattainable. If one of these characters pops up in a movie my friends will recommend the film to me. They will tell me that i’ll really like the main character, or this particular supporting character, and I’ll know exactly what they mean. They will mean the Saviour character.

I love the relationship these characters often have with their counterparts too. The leaders or the more pragmatic characters. The ones who have to make the choice, whether it’s right, or wrong but right in a practical real world sense. This is where things get interesting with the Saviour’s

My favourite example would be Daniel Jackson and Colonel O’Neil. Daniel is one of my absolute favourite characters, and his relationship with Jack in SG1 helped form a lot of my beliefs (alongside old-school Star Trek)

Daniel always wanted the peaceful solution, while Jack always wanted a practical solution that didn’t harm their own goals. The two constantly clashed. It was that battle of intelligence, ethics, and practicality, which taught me not to be judgemental because there was always multiple ways to look at things. They could have polarising opinions in which both felt like they were doing the right thing. But, while he right thing is the right thing, it doesn’t always mean its the right choice. Both Daniel and Jack had to learn that, and so did I.

Other Saviours I adore are characters like John Crichton in Farscape. He is capable of violence a lot more than Daniel, but it’s still a last resort. He always wants peace first. As his arch-nemesis Scorpius put it ‘at the end of the universe there would be just him, John, and the cockroaches left, and John would be trying to save the cockroaches.’

James Holden from the Expanse is another prime example. Someone trying to do the right thing and save the whole system while being stuck in the middle of a system trying to exploit their own needs. James is the voice of reason, but that doesn’t mean everyone else is listening. But, Saviour characters are our moral compass, and we should listen to them more whether we take their advice in the end or not.

As a side note it’s funny/worrying how most of the Saviours I immediately think of are in Science Fiction, it’s like they can’t exist in the contemporary world…

The Asshole

Then there's the Asshole’s. Not the villains, they’re a different kind of asshole. I mean the Assholes who could do the right thing, but they’re going to be a handful while they get there. They’re the ones who appear to not give a shit, even when they do. They will kill. Steal. Be insanely rude at every opportunity. Make bad decisions and wrong choices on a whim. They will figuratively (and sometimes literally) burn everything and everyone down if they have to, and they will be massively entertaining while they do it. But, ultimately, they will help (Am looking at you Vegeta)

While the Saviour is often quiet and reserved, the Asshole is loud and brash. They’re the centre of attention, and if they’re not, they will do something to make sure they are. They’re often a powerful character too, someone who can cause harm as they please, or are known to be rash. And they will exploit that fact. (Still looking in your direction Vegeta)

My relationship with these characters is built on entertainment rather than any moral connection. I wouldn’t get on with most of these characters in real life. To loud. To obnoxious. To prone to violence. But I love them in movies, books, and shows, especially the ones who are often misunderstood or have a tragic backstory.

I recently reread Warren Ellis’s incredible cyberpunk graphic novel series Transmetropolitan and Spider Jerusalem might be my second favourite ever Asshole character (The aforementioned Vegeta will always be first) He’s violent, loud, obnoxious, and petty. He’s a dangerous baby who doesn’t like not getting his own way. He has no issue beating the fuck out of people, or potentially killing them. If there’s a nasty statement to be made, he’ll say it. If there’s a chance to smack someone, he will. Basically, he’s a bit of a cunt.

But, he’s also the character in the whole series who cares the most. The one who really wants the city and the world to be a better place. The one who actually gives a fuck when most can’t even be bothered to pretend they do. He’s the one who needs everyone to have an opportunity to be happy. He’s an Asshole because he has to be. If the Transmetropolitan world was a better place, Spider would be a better person.

Then there’s Asshole characters like Hank Moody from Californication. He’s an irresponsible manwhore (not judging) He’s a constant fuckup who doesn’t appear to be afraid to ruin the lives of everyone around him. Again, he’s rude, quick to violence, and is possibly even more self-centred than Spider (it’s a close call)

But on the flip side, he’s trying. He’s an asshole who knows he’s an asshole. Should that make him more sympathetic? Maybe, maybe not, but that’s the charm of these sort of characters. You enjoy watching them melt the fuck down, but you want them to sort their shit out.

Going back to Expanse the opposite of Holden is Amos. Amos is a dangerous Asshole. He’s a killer. A violent sadistic savage. He’s a vicious dog you can set on people, and he’s incredible funny while he does it. Some of the most entertaining moments in the pretty serious show are when Amos is completely unaware of his own brutality and assholeness.

But again, we can have sympathy for him. There’s clearly something wrong with him. He has no compassion, or ability to judge, and not in a knowing moustache twirling villain way, but in an actual mental illness way.

He gets upset with Naomi when she does something wrong because he uses her as his moral compass. His way of knowing whether what he’s doing is right or not because he can’t judge for himself. She was meant to be his Saviour character. This is something he later leans on Holden for because Holden is that Saviour characters. Naomi tried, but her loyalty is to the belt, Holdens is to the whole of humanity.

Why I Love These Two Character Types

There are plenty of other examples of both, but I just wanted to highlight the merit of these characters. The entertainment and morals they can instil. They are polar opposites of one another, but that’s probably why I enjoy them both. I want to be the Saviour, but am entertained by the irresponsible Asshole. I’d be Simon in Firefly, but Jane’s everyone’s favourite. At the end of the day both are (kinda) fighting on the same side because their end goals become similar, but they walk very different paths.

Storytelling enables us to have both. To use them with or against each other. To present different arguments or show different responses and perspectives through these characters even when they’re heading to the same place. And there is room for both. It takes all kinds. There are plenty of other personality character types out there which I might touch upon in the future, but these two are my favourites and have been on my mind a bit of late. So, I figured I’d share those thoughts.

How’s My Week Been?

I’m writing this post a couple of days earlier than normal as I’m about to head off on holiday for a week. The weather forecast there doesn’t look great though so I’m sure I’ll still be writing and reading like it’s any other week. (Have three new books with me)

I’ve written a couple more chapters of Alice on the Air, and edited a few of the earlier ones too. The book is definitely going to be longer than I first thought which is a good thing, despite now having to consider the additional cost of getting a longer book edited. Life of a self publishing author.

Speaking of which, I also got my short stories back from the Editor. One of them was an older, nastier story, and she’d deleted some of the more graphic content. I was slightly annoyed at first until it concurred to me that those sort of details aren’t the norm.

I’ve been writing Extreme Horror for so longer it became second nature to me to add those type of details which don’t overly have a place in my new work. The tone and stories I want to tell can still have an edge and nastiness to them without the need to go into obscene detail. It was a good lesson to learn and one I thanked her for, even though I don’t think she was trying to teach me anything. It was more that she felt those details were unnecessary for the story I had written, and she was right.

But if I ever write the conclusion to the Rot I think I’d have to get someone else to edit it lol.

I finished reading Wool. I enjoyed most of the first half of the book but it started to lose me a little as it approached the end. But then the end was great. I guess any book that long is going to have a few peaks and valleys but overall I really enjoyed it. I’m not sure I’ll read the sequels any time soon as there’s so many other books I want to read, but I might get to them one day.

Gaming wise I’ve spent my late evenings replaying Balatro as the Switch 2 edition isn’t the same save file as the Switch 1 edition. Not a problem as I’ve enjoyed going through it again. I think I’m addicted to deck builders these days.

I don’t know how much I’ll get written this coming week as I do want to relax a little while on holiday but some writing will get done, especially if the weather is as bad as predicted. I’ll be posting as per normal on Thursday with the final part of my Space Critters series before I move onto the next subgenre. And if you didn’t catch it I posted a Short Story yesterday called Terraroid to coincide with that Space Critters work.

That about wraps up this weeks post. Speak to you all again next week when hopefully I’m well rested and motivated.

Stephen.