Your poverty-shaming is not going to get me off government assistance

Your poverty-shaming is not going to get me off government assistance.

Loki: Exploring The Development of A Sympathetic Villain

Modern Minutia

Many of you may remember the post about the Five-Part Spectrum of characters. In that, we mentioned the Sympathetic Villain and used the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s Loki for that example. In celebration of the Thor 2: The Dark World being released, let’s take a closer look at what makes Loki a Sympathetic Villain throughout the three films he has been in.

Thor

In Thor, we meet Loki as the eponymous hero’s little brother. He is very much the proverbial ‘spare’ to Thor’s ‘heir’ in their father’s eyes. Odin, the King of Asgard and their father, is not alone in showing favoritism to Thor. All of their friends seem to ‘put up’ with Loki because he is Thor’s brother.

And then the truth is revealed. In the photo above, Loki has just discovered from Odin that he is not only not REALLY Odin’s son, but he is not…

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The Modern Anti-hero: What IS an anti-hero?

I can get down with this.

Modern Minutia

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary entry, the definition of an anti-hero is

Antihero- a main character in a book, play, movie, etc., who does not have the usual good qualities that are expected in a hero;

a protagonist or notable figure who is conspicuously lacking in heroic qualities

In literary circles, there is much debate over what exactly an anti-hero is. Some believe any hero without heroic qualities (he lies, cheats, steals, etc.) is an anti-hero (think of Robin Hood). Others believe any ‘dark’ character would be an anti-hero (think Sirius Black post Prisoner of Azkaban). It is even argued that a non-protagonist-or-antagonist villain is an anti-hero (think Gollum). There are debates between what the actual characteristics of an anti-hero are. Is it a dark, gritty hero? Is it a selfishly motivated hero? Is it a villain with good intentions? All of these are debated ideas of…

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