Measure twice, shoot everyone. |
Most
humans are fragile creatures at the best of time. Any deviation from the norm,
and our body goes into shock to try to compensate, rendering us almost
completely non-functional. In college, while riding my bike, a truck cut me off
and I slapped into hood. I don’t really
recall landing, but I must have at some point as I’m currently
Earth-bound. What I do remember is
shaking pretty violently. If anything
else had happened, I would have been incredibly slow to react.
This
isn’t the case for story heroes. This is part of the reason we read books or
watch movies and television shows. For the normal person, sure—getting shot
anywhere, or having a bone broken, or heck even being punched a few times, and
we're down for the count. There are, though, rarer individuals, who have
suffered, or who can suffer, pain and discomfort on higher levels.
Michonne doesn't have time for broken bones! |
Add
training and experience to the mix, throw in some motivating factors—maybe
kidnap a child or murder a dog—flavor with a catch phrase and some custom
weaponry, bake until ready, and suddenly you’ve got a character who can bear up
under more incredible rigors.
Writers
take that individual—or a group of such—raise them up one more level and make
them a hero. Classic Greek and Roman characters often carried some divine blood
to help them along. These days we’ve removed much of that in favor of the Everyman/Everywoman
who can give as good, and better, than take. While a bullet in the arm (just a
flesh wound) or a dislocated shoulder is bad, it doesn't knock them out of
action completely. This isn’t without precedent. Peruse the US Congressional Medal of Honor rolls to see how far some people can go simply on adrenaline and
sense of duty.
The
trick is to set the world up so that your readers know WHY this individual can
shrug off a stab to the thigh because, she "doesn't have time to
bleed." Richard Morgan does a very nice job of this in "Altered
Carbon"—which the series writers did even better. Takeshi Kovacs starts
out a reasonably normal person, but with conditioning, training, and
experience, he becomes incredibly tough and motivated, even through all kinds
of injuries. Thrown into a situation
where mere mortals would be quickly and efficiently chewed up and spat out,
Kovacs instead bleeds a little, grunts a lot, takes a lot of punishment, but
generally triumphs.
Who is your favorite hero who can take a
lot of damage? Tell me in the comments below!
You are.
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