Unfulfilled Deconstructions of Heroes: How Studios Keep Failing

 It currently seems to be the trend in media to have beloved heroes reduced to the lowest of lows. See how Luke becomes a miserable grump in The Last Jedi, how Picard feels like a washed up failure in Picard, how Batman has become a psychopath in Batman vs Superman, and how Capaldi's doctor in Dr. Who became a miserable jerk who treated everyone around him like garbage for all of what I saw of series 8. In theory, there is nothing inherently wrong with these ideas but the execution consistently fails. 

The first problem is how these pieces of media seem fundamentally uninterested in establishing how the characters got to this point. Luke was always defined as someone who failed. Throughout the OT, he is failing at things, whether it be needing to be saved by the Sand People, or failing to lift the X-Wing without Yoda's assistance. Yet ultimately, he overcomes these failures to become a Jedi. What this shows is this a man who will respond with failure with a determination to overcome it and not let it drag him down. Strangely, however, in The Last Jedi that is exactly who he has become. A single failure with a student of his has left him resigned to die. 

Picard is a man who was assimilated by the Borg and was thus forced to do unimaginable things. Yet, he rebounded and proceeded to continue to be a shining example of a hero. That the show, Picard, asks us to just accept a single failure would lead to Picard quitting Starfleet and holing up in a chateau and withdrawing from the outside world is mind boggling. In Batman vs Superman, Batman has become a psychopath and it is implied he has become so from fighting crime for so long. This is probably the strongest rationale of the characters discussed but again it is off screen and thus lacks impact. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Capaldi's doctor who is a miserable grump for no clear reason at all.

Another critical problem these deconstructions run into is by reducing the characters to these miserable states, they struggle with reasons to make us care about the characters again. Luke and Picard have become angry recluses who seem oblivious to the suffering in the galaxy around them, and more interested in wallowing. Picard is even explicitly called out about this by one of the characters, Raffi, but since no clear reason is ever given why he is wallowing, the viewer is left to think he has just become a jerk. Batman's becoming a psychopath has obviously made him unlikeable and for the whole film I was hoping Superman would throw him in jail. That he faces no real repercussions for his branding of people with the explicit intention of having them be murdered is just sickening. The doctor, someone who once loved his companions for their innocence and who was angered by the death of any member of the common folk, now continually lashes out at his companions and seems to not care about the death of the common folk. So again, one has to ask: why should I care about this person who seems to be a borderline narcissist at best.

So what we are left with is the hope that the redemption rings true. Typically, however, even the redemption falls flat. Luke saves a handful of resistance people at the end of The Last Jedi but does that really atone for the millions who have died partly due to his inaction? Picard saves the day but is then put in an android body against his will. A man who once had his agency stripped away by the Borg and had parts of his body replaced by cybernetics but managed to overcome it is now reduced to just being put into another cybernetic body against his will. It leaves a sour taste in one's mouth. Batman's becoming a psychopath seems to be largely brushed aside and so too are the lives he has destroyed through his branding. I cannot comment on the doctor's redemption as I could not bring myself to finish the season.

To be absolutely clear, there is nothing wrong with deconstructing a hero. Indeed, many of the heroes I have mentioned have already been through a deconstruction. Luke was an archetypal hero in A New Hope but then become someone who failed to do much of anything heroic in The Empire Strikes Back. It worked there though because we saw first hand Luke encounter things he did not expect as he struggled to adjust his paradigm. We also saw his mistakes would often stem from misguided places we could relate too: the desire to save his friends even though his not ready.

Picard was deconstructed in First Contact where he was far from the intellectual luminary we know and love. Again though it made sense. He was encountering the Borg, the species who had tormented him and stripped him of self. He was now seeing the same thing happen to his crew, the closest thing he has to a family. Of course, this would be triggering and set him off. The Doctor, as played by David Tennant, became drunk with power in the episode, "Waters of Mars," but again it made sense as he was driven by a desire to save people he cared about. His desire to play god was something we relate to and in our weaker moments seek to do for ourselves. Critically, all of these positive examples built ON the lore and explicitly showed the fall. They did not invent things out of the ether. And that is what these modern deconstructions so often miss. They become so enraptured with the idea of taking apart these beloved heroes that they forget to do the proper leg work to get there. And as a result, far too often, it feels like a math problem with the equation 2+1=4.