so, i was idly thinking about media.

[rmd]

charliegrrrl had a post on io9 about the new kirk and notes that the new kirk has a DESTINY.

which got me thinking... heroes with Destinies are pretty common now. annoyingly so at times.

they didn't used to be.

what happened? is this just mediocre storytelling tropes run amok? reflective of a change in social expectations of heroes? something else?

huh.

Comments

[laurenpburka.livejournal.com]

I think it's all the scifi reading and writing Aspies who don't fit in the real world and like to imagine that people from their planet of origin will pick them up, take them home, and finally give them the feelings of being loved and fitting in that they haven't quite got in their lives.

But maybe that's just me.

[catness.livejournal.com]

What lpb said. Heh.

CALGON, TAKE ME AWAY!

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

My guess would be the phenomenal success of the Star Wars franchise.

[i-leonardo.livejournal.com]

any correlation with the nationalities of the creators or their intended audiences ? it's a characteristically american fetish (going waaaaay back). also, are you distinguishing between a hero having a destiny and an author (or filmmaker) that just won't let you forget it for a single minute ? when i compare modern movies to ones from 15 or 20 years ago, they seem a lot more emo to me.

[catness.livejournal.com]

My only comment on charliegrrrl's article is that Kirk was given the nod to being a geek when he was chatting up Uhura in the bar, but they didn't flesh it out much. (Too many explosions needed to happen.)