The cheap and the legitmate heroes

I've been thinking (y'all know that is when it time to be afraid) about people and how people love the concept of the hero dying for everyone else in a story. Think about it. There are hundreds of stories, spanning from the Ancients to the present, where the hero of the story sacrifices himself for everyone else. I forget the Greek dude's name, but Greek mythology is full of examples of the story dying for his friends. Or we've got Brutus for the Romans, he threw himself into a crack in the ground to save Rome. Or when Mr. Carton switched places with Mr. Darnay and dies for him. There are literary examples throughout all of history.

We as humans are fascinated by another person dying to save others. It gets us excited. There's just one problem for all of these guys who heroically die: they're dead. I know of only one, true story, where the hero dies and then rises again. That story can be read in the Bible. Jesus paid the ultimate price, and sacrificed Himself for us. He died for the villains.

And now Hollywood is trying to get in on the action. Think about it: there are lots of movies nowadays where the hero "dies." But the sacrifice in the movies is a cheap sacrifice, because the hero never actually dies. Everyone thinks he's dead, and so they're sad, but then it turns out he didn't really die and so it all turns out well. This seems like a cheap form of sacrifice to me. The most recent movie I've seen, "How to train your dragon," (I loved it, very funny) is a good example. The hero does something brave, but everyone thinks he dies; and so they cry and get really sad. But then he shows up a bit burnt and everyone is happy again.

I'm not entirely sure where I was taking that...but its been something I've been thinking about. Hmmmm....I'll do some more thinking and then come back with a brilliant conclusion.