Joss Whedon and the Coerced Hero

[madimpossibledreamer]

Releasing this into the wild without looking over it too much, because I've already spent too much time on this already.  Just so you know what you're getting into, spoilers abound, and this thing is 3,628 words.  Brief mention of the harassment stuff + sexism + racism because this is Whedon.  If you're good with all that, then buckle up.

          Do I have the time to write this?  No.  Should I be writing Shadowed Suspicion instead?  Yes.  Am I doing it anyway?  Yes.  Here, you can get a taste of my first drafts for a college paper.  (The Xander as a Trickster Figure one would count, too, I guess.)  Sorry if this is well-known in any of the mentioned fandoms.  I definitely haven’t read all the literary analysis on the subject, don’t have access to the journals I had when I was in college (JSTOR, I miss you!), and google is generally not being useful in this endeavor.  I’m going to try to have a few quotes if I can find any quickly, but like I said, first draft.  Quality’s going to be a little bit freewriting.  I’m structuring it as much as I can, but I’m not editing.  Also, there are going to be spoilers for Buffy, the MCU, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible's, Firefly, and Yakuza of varying degrees (mostly the first two, but I do address the rest).  No real spoilers for Babylon 5 but I wanted to tag it because it is mentioned.  Not tagging some of the Whedon stuff as I don't plan to talk about them much in the future and don't want them taking up a tag slot (which probably inevitably means I'll be writing about them in the future but shh leave me to my delusions; they're cozy).  Assume when I’m referring to Marvel without further elaborating, it’s on the MCU.  While I don’t particularly want to be listening to Whedon about anything at this point, Word of Joss has said that the general outline of the movie, at least, is considered canonical, so I’m going to briefly talk about that too.
 

          So, I got here from a really weird route.  As usual, really.  I was thinking about the similarities between Captain America, particularly in the first Avengers movie—which, obviously, Whedon—to Kiryu (from Yakuza/Ryu ga Gotoku).  Kiryu’s story can basically be summed up as the quote “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” –The Godfather: Part III.  (I haven’t watched the Godfather movies, but I know the quote.  They’re on my ‘to watch’ list, but I don’t have this mythical thing called free time.)  They’re both very good-hearted, ‘on the side of justice’ type individuals, but both in the MCU and the Yakuza/RGG games, are getting pulled into conflicts not entirely of their own free will.  (The random comparison-making isn’t helped by the random multiple fanart pictures of Majima really, really looking like Tony Stark.  Or that one random picture of Majima that looked like Xander that you can thank the entirety of Slayer’s Mad Whelp and Bloody Petals for.  I’d link but I haven’t talked to the artists, so find them on your own if you’re curious.  Anyway.)

          And that led me to thinking about Whedon’s hero (and, in the case of Dr. Horrible’s, villain) types, and…huh.  That’s really weird.  He doesn’t seem to write heroes who want to be heroes and are in the position because they want to be.  They might grow into the position, but they’re not originally there because they want to be.  He also dives into a related topic, the accidental or reluctant hero, particularly in Firefly.  But it’s what I’ll call the “Coerced Hero” that really catches my attention.  Maybe it’s mainstream, and everyone’s doing it.  My reading/watching has not been I wanted it to be of late.  I wouldn’t be surprised, particularly if it came out before his wife’s announcement and subsequent discussion of his racism/sexism/harassment.  (I’ve talked about the sexism before and how it’s not particularly surprising given the whole Cordy storyline/the worst parts of Xander seem to be from him/etc.  I just read about the racism stuff today, but am not particularly surprised on that front, either, given how he treated his non-white Slayer and how white a California town seems to be.  It’s one of the reasons I’m giving Aura more screentime.  Maybe off-topic from this piece.  Maybe not.  There are, uh, implications to the possibilities for this theme here, but it’s all pretty murky.)  I will say, from what little I know about Suicide Squad, he definitely hasn’t 100% cornered the market on this, but I’m not sure how prevalent it is.

          I’ll define the Coerced Hero here.  In contrast to a Reluctant Hero (which is far more common), I’m using the term Coerced Hero to describe one who doesn’t have a choice whether or not to be a hero.  Blackmailed into the position, killed for disobeying orders, hostages, what have you.  They otherwise would have little stake in the situation at hand.  That’s not saying that, say, Captain America wouldn’t have chosen to be a hero otherwise, in the present day, or Buffy wouldn’t save one of her cheerleading friends with her Slayer powers however reluctantly.  It’s just removing the Taken-style justification.  If the Hero has a stake in the current plot because their DNPC (Hero System Dependent Non-Player Character) got kidnapped, they were reluctantly forced into the situation of tracking down the hostage-takers and stopping them.  A Coerced Hero might be acting because of a hostage, but the actual hostage-taker is independent of the situation.  Using Marvel as a very vague example, because I’m going to actually get into specifics soon, a Reluctant Hero would be a mutant who doesn’t want to use their powers and pretend to be normal to avoid discrimination, but can’t sit idly by while a loved one is targeted.  The same mutant would be a Coerced Hero if their loved one is taken captive by an organization that then tells them they have to fight Hydra or their loved one would be killed.  Fighting Nazis is a good cause, yes, but drafting someone through using a hostage as a bargaining chip is dubious ethics at best.  However, it comes up several times in Whedon’s writing.  I’m not sure how I feel about the use of this…theme?  Trope?  And I’m definitely not saying it’s good or bad.  Just pointing out it’s a thing that comes up in his works.

          In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the titular Buffy likes being a normal popular girl, throwing her energy into cheerleading, hanging out with the other cheerleaders, and drooling over the boys.  She’s not a ‘nerd’, so she doesn’t try hard on her schoolwork (her SAT score shows that she’s really intelligent when she applies herself).  Throughout the series, even when it’s shown she at least occasionally enjoys saving the day or the life (with friends that aren’t popular and getting to be more of her genuine self), she’ll occasionally bemoan her loss of a normal life.  When told that she is a Hero, the Slayer, a girl with the increased strength, speed, and healing to be able to take out vampires, demons, and other forces of darkness, she tries to deny her calling, which leads to the death of her Watcher.  Vampires and other demons, you see, can sense a Slayer, and while some might flee, others (like Spike) will take it as a challenge.  Even the best-trained Slayer will die eventually, to a surprise attack, to a mistake, or simply to a better trained or stronger foe.  With demons being the ultimate predators who can sense a Slayer’s existence, just as she can sense theirs, the kill-or-be killed scenario might be enough to make a Slayer a Reluctant Hero…but for the inclusion of the Watcher’s Council.

          As the title might suggest, in most circumstances the Watcher’s main purpose is observing.  They train their Slayer and help research.  It would generally make sense that the ones without much in the way of powers of their own can’t help out much with the fighting.  However, they are not the support they’re supposed to be.  Implications exist that the Slayer is purposefully kept a little weaker than her potential limits in order to keep her in line (for example, while more modern weapons have been shown to occasionally be useful, say, in dealing with the Judge, the Watcher’s Council never gave a Slayer training or any of these modern weapons, or that witches or other magic users have been shown to be useful in The Fight were never assigned as her backup).  If one dies, the next one is called, and more than simply resigned to the fact, there’s a certain callous pragmatism with the way the Watcher’s Council discussed this pattern.  Keeping them in the dark, not giving them a salary, tests like the Cruciamentum, all designed to keep the Slayer dependent on their Watcher, with the power and control firmly with the Watcher’s Council.  We’ll set aside the general missteps with writing Kendra for the purpose of this article and note that they did do a good job highlighting exactly what the ‘desired’ Slayer, in the eyes of the Watcher’s Council, is like—with hints of individuality, but serving more as an obedient weapon than an individual human being with rights.  They want to control every aspect of their Slayer’s lives.  The exact extent of this might differ, but in many cases Potential Slayers are taken from their parents when young, and the Watcher Zabuto insisted that his Slayer couldn’t have a social or romantic life.  Given that ‘a Slayer with friends’ is treated as such an anomaly throughout the series, this probably is not uncommon.  With potentially no schooling, no ties to outsiders, and virtually little skills outside of fighting, the Slayer would be dependent on their Watcher in every way. 

          This ‘if they won’t cooperate with you, replace them’ mentality isn’t just restricted to the Slayers, either, but extends to the Watchers assigned to each Slayer as well.  When Giles wouldn’t cooperate, he was fired, and his circumstances after that fact showed that the salary in high school education was probably realistic.  It’s clear that preventing a healthy debate of opinion in the leadership is not the most efficient of setups, since it led to manipulative schemers such as Gwendolyn Post, but the Watcher’s Council is addicted to maintaining their position at any cost, regardless of what it costs the world.

          Even this amount of manipulative control pales next to the ultimate sign of their enforced command.  Perhaps it gets overlooked because they act against Faith (perhaps not, given that a lot of people love her character), but they have a Special Operations Team for their less-than-savory missions.  They were prepared to kidnap or kill a Slayer.  It’s not a huge leap to think that they might have had other Slayers killed before, particularly ones that hadn’t been identified at a young age and taken to be molded into the perfect, obedient weapons the Council desires.  Thus, if a Slayer resisted the Council’s insistence she be the “chosen one”, the Council would find ways of convincing her to change her mind, able to throw her out on the streets, penniless and without any kind of support, or simply kill her to replace her with a more obedient Slayer.  Since most were taken away from their parents and might not have any friends, it’s entirely possible they wouldn’t be missed.

          It’s only when Buffy manages to defeat the Special Operations Team that she manages to outmaneuver all their attempts at manipulation.  She also sees the situation for—at least most of—what it is, though characteristically labels it with understatement.  “Power.  I have it.  They don’t.  This bothers them.”  She can’t be threatened with their best assassin team.  She has a network to tell her that none of this attempt at control or abuse is normal.  She isn’t financially beholden to them, and if any of her friends are targeted there will be hell to pay.  They have no power over her, so while they might try to dress it up as a company doing the review for a troubled employee, when she realizes they’re nothing but words they’re powerless.  For once, she’s the one holding all of the cards, which means she can finally be the Slayer to choose her path, rather than being the Coerced Hero.  They try to gaslight her into thinking she has no power, but she’s unique.  She’s the only Slayer who can choose this path, the only Slayer who could choose to walk away, to say no.

          The Avengers aren’t as lucky.  (I’m referring to the script on Script Slug and youtube clips to refresh my memory.)  Apparently, to those who knew Nick Fury in the comics, his position as a bit of a manipulative bastard is not news, and it struck me as a bit wrong at the time, the way things went, but it’s only on further analysis that I realize exactly how cold and cruel his approach was.  “These people might be isolated, unbalanced even, but I believe, with the right push, they can be exactly what we need.”  Fury doesn’t comment directly on the accusation of not being in control, and during a fight I would bet he believes he’s in control—or at least has put in enough plans in place to try to ensure his control.

          Dr. Bruce Banner, or the Hulk, is probably the poster child of the Coerced Hero, since he has no motivation to use his powers to hurt others even to save lives and either has to be blackmailed into it by SHIELD or, in some cases, gets hurt and loses control.  In response to Natasha’s visit, he assumes that Fury wants the Hulk in a cage and gets mad that she’s lying to him.  Of course she is, and of course Fury is; that’s the point, they’re spies wanting to get the services of an asset, but Banner is intelligent enough (or perhaps just cynical enough, from years of dealing with General Ross) to see through the lies.  Given Stark’s visiting the General with the “we’re building a team” thing, there’s also the implication that SHIELD is what is keeping Ross off Bruce’s back, and they’ll continue to do that as long as Dr. Banner does what he’s told.

          You’d think that Captain America would have pure motivation, but even his inclusion is a little suspect.  I actually have an Idle Thought note I might still post if I forget to delete it from the list to post about Fury’s attitude toward Captain America being mostly “Stop having PTSD; it inconveniences me”.  He makes a seemingly friendly, even caring question about Steve Rogers’ sleeping, but Steve immediately dismisses that.  World War II was the time when the understanding of PTSD switched from being a personal failing to another injury of war.  I will note that, however, Steve might not have been in the most supportive environment (quick research says Patton was less than sympathetic and given that he had a lot of letters supporting his attitude the sentiment was probably widespread)—and also that, never mind the prevailing feeling in his general environment, Steve would take it as a moral failing, since he believed it was his duty to fight the Nazis and was willing to do anything, even undergo experimental treatment, to ensure he could.  He’s frustrated, still thinking about when he went down in the ice (or, y’know, having PTSD flashbacks, it’s not very clear), and given his remark (that he’s ‘had his fill’ of sleeping), he blames himself, sees his heroic act as a failure.  Never mind that the Allies won, never mind that the Nazis lost, he wasn’t there, he didn’t fight until the end, he didn’t stamp out Hydra.  Still very mission-focused.  Which, of course, Fury can use, and he doesn’t have to be mean about it to feed directly into Captain America’s feelings of guilt and PTSD.  (PTSD also makes his aggression toward Tony make sense—he’s angry that the man’s ‘not the good soldier’ and is uncharacteristically brutal about it.  Yeah, okay, angry-mind-altering powers aside, the PTSD gives them something to work with.)  Guilt is usually an intrinsic motivation, but with Fury stoking the fire, it’s not entirely his own anymore.

          The Black Widow’s past as an assassin can be swept under the rug by SHIELD just as long as she works for them.  Redemption is a big motivation for her, so I suppose you could argue she looked at the being a Coerced Hero as…yeah, okay.  (I could also see her having a very Russian ‘well of course they’re manipulating/blackmailing me, it’s just that I feel like going along with it’ attitude to it all, but we don’t get to see this because telling Natasha Romanov’s story [aside: it should be Romanova, since it’s Russian; I looked this up because it comes up for Ivanova and her father in Babylon 5, moving on] is not a focus for the movie.  Or the MCU.  Without information, though, I’m going to assume it’s like the comics/other media, let’s ignore that misogynistic conversation in Age of Ultron, moving on.)

          I don’t know if they ever really got into Hawkeye’s backstory in the MCU, so for all I know it’s different than the comics.  Reading the wiki, I didn’t realize the full story, but then, the versions I’ve seen (mostly animated) had the same beats—carnival kid, carnival (or certain carnies) committing crimes, Clint Barton joining in or being framed.  In general, though, his past is also checkered, and his motivation is pretty similar to Natasha.  He gets to have the extra motivation of making up for being mind-controlled and wanting to redeem himself for that as well as what’s probably revenge on Loki, plus he seemed to genuinely care about the other Agents, so…can you be both a willing Coerced Hero and a Reluctant Hero at the same time?  I don’t know how to parse this one.

          Interestingly, the only two on the team with their own motivations to be there are Iron Man and Thor.  Nick Fury lives up to his name when dealing with Tony Stark—he’s furious that the genius inventor won’t play along.  If Tony had just read the script as intended, he could perhaps have been blackmailed with his secret identity or even replaced by someone else with the suit if he got too uncooperative.  As it was, intentionally or not, Tony had managed to mess up that little scheme quite nicely, just like Buffy, rendering toothless any coercion Fury might have brought to play.  The only remaining card is preventing him from being an Avenger, but he ends up changing his mind—knowing, of course, that part of the reason Tony would accept is to keep an eye on them, and taking precautions to prevent, say, hacking.  Thor, meanwhile, sees it as his duty to stop his brother.  I’d call that being a Reluctant Hero, but he also genuinely enjoys being a hero the old-fashioned Norse way, so he probably just gets to be the Hero.

          Even in Age of Ultron, all the above still applies, with SHIELD/Fury pulling their strings, plus guilt/anger at their teammate for the need to clean up Stark’s mess.  Again, not a surprise if you’ve read the comics/seen Ultron in other stuff (for example, it came up in Iron Man: Armored Adventures, which actually did a really good job in depicting a teenage Iron Man and Rhodey among other things), but out of all the stories Whedon chose to tell from the comics, he picked that one.  (And, uh, chose to make two kids of a Holocaust survivor join up with a fascist organization, but people have already brought that up as a misstep and it doesn’t have a lot to do with this premise, so I’ll shut up about that for the moment.)

          I’ll briefly cover the other stuff from Whedon I’ve seen.  I’m not sure where I fall on my analysis of Dollhouse, in large part due to, well, it’s a difficult show to analyze, and partly because I’ve tried not to think about it.  But agency, especially of the heroes, is difficult to analyze by design.  That’s the whole premise of the show.  Ordinarily, I’d just mark it down as Reluctant Heroes, because bringing down the evil organization is largely a matter of survival for them, but there’s always the lingering question of what exactly is programmed making things murkier.  In Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, well.  Dr. Horrible is most certainly not a Hero, but I might call him a Reluctant Villain.  He seems pretty gung-ho about this whole Villain thing, full of plans and boasts, but when it comes to actually hurting other people, he’s reluctant until pushed to it by Captain Hammer.  Firefly has a rag-tag team of rebels who didn’t intend to be Big Damn Heroes but just kind of tripped into it.  The captain Mal would often rather cover his butt than do the right thing, and Jayne very possibly would shoot some of the crew members in the back to save his own skin, and at least at first Simon would do anything to save his sister, even hurt others.  Kaylee’s the only one who actually cares about doing the right thing, being the Hero, in other words.  Book might have been another moral/heroic compass, but as his motivations weren’t shown to be entirely altruistic (undercover operative maybe?) he’s not a full Hero either (but he’s also not quite the Reluctant or Coerced Hero, either, so good on him?).  I forget where Inara falls on the ‘do the right thing, of course’ or ‘do the right thing, reluctantly’ scale—she was pretty clear on where she stood on her profession, but I don’t remember how she dealt with the rest of it.  So, it’s not every character—but the Reluctant or Coerced Heroes show up enough for me to delve into this topic for far too many words.