Post by pieceofgosa on Nov 5, 2016 23:35:11 GMT
Those do seem to be familiar stories as of late. Maybe we all just have a bit of that deep rooted fear inherent within ourselves?
And sometimes, it seems as if some of those more selfish and hateful people actually turn into someone to aspire to. Just look at the redemption arc of Jaime Lannister.
If I might introduce a notion that, while not exclusive to, I believe is expressed most eloquently in the Assassin's Creed video game series. The titular Assassins have a creed:
Nothing is true.
Everything is permitted.
Everything is permitted.
The first part, "nothing is true" we shall not concern ourselves with as it is more a statement on the nature of reality than a guide to living. The second part however needs to be examined. As Edward Kenway in Black Flag asks, "if everything is permitted... why not chase every desire?" The answer he receives from Ah Tabai, the master assassin, is cryptic. "Why indeed ?" he asks Kenway with a smile. In days gone, men believed that they were created in the image of god, that god stood as the final judgement on your earthly actions and that any wrong done in his eyes could be atoned for and forgiven, or if a man's crimes were so heinous they would be punished in the life beyond. But as time has passed we have come to see ourselves less in the image of god and more god in the image of man. An uncomfortable realization has dawned upon us, what if there is no judgement beyond ? What if the only one we truly have to answer to is ourselves ? What if "everything is permitted" ? So we create stories with characters like Jaime Lannister or Helm Hammerhand. Figures that do not seek absolution from a god but seek to redeem themselves through actions in this world. They show us the true way to god, the god we all hold inside us.
Again, Brienne is always there to protect those that may not be able to protect themselves, isn't she? She might not be perfect, but her moral compass is absolute and always seems able to point her in the right direction.
She is the perfect human hero, desperately imperfect (book Bri, not D&D's Mary-Sue of Tarth, although I do love seeing her be a badass). She is naive and idealistic, she has weakness and she makes mistakes but she aspires. She aspires to an unrealistic ideal but her aspiration gives us inspiration. She (to borrow a phrase from Angel) "lives as the world should be to show it what it can be". It only just occurs to me now as I write this but, Brienne is a version of Don Quixote. She is "the greater fool" and long may she tilt at windmills.