Redeem Your Assholes

Yondu GoTG

Cultured Vultures spoilers

Let’s get straight to the point. I was watching Thor: Ragnarok a while ago and was distracted by Taika Waititi’s hilarious interpretation of the Executioner. He entered the movie as a sleaze, nearly getting Thor killed because the Executioner (from here on simply called Ex) was paying more attention to women than his job. It was an overhanded way to introduce his character, but it did the job. And in between the jokes, his little side plot lumbered along. Ex joins Hela – no surprise there, we all know jerks will save their own skin above all else. He spends the rest of the movie making dubious faces behind Hela’s back and realizing that he made a huge mistake.

And then, at the climax of the movie, he changes his mind and sacrifices himself. Wow! Who woulda thought!? The jerk realizes he’s a jerk and in order to show character growth, and writers opt for the most obvious way to show growth: death. There’s little that surprises me in movies anymore, but this was just disappointing. I’ve seen it a dozen times.

Why is it that we have to see someone sacrifice their lives to show character growth? It’s dramatic, to be sure, but there’s other ways to be dramatic. What’s important to the individual character that they could sacrifice? If Ex could’ve given up his power and rank, for example. If he’d shown humility, that would’ve shown the same growth without the predictable ending.

It’s not like Ragnorak is the first movie to do this. It’s a trope – the first time I saw it was Fellowship of the Ring. Boromir spends the whole movie being a noble jerk, stooping so low as to try and take the Ring. But then he redeems himself by taking the arrows for Merry and Pippin. In that moment, he’s redeemed. It made sense in that movie. Boromir had slowly spiraled into madness and his death not only showed the power of the Ring, but pushed the plot forward by solving several problems, creating genuine grief for the characters, and influencing the plot of books to come. Basically, his death was important.

What would Ragnarok look like without Ex? Basically the same. His dramatic sacrifice to give the refugees time to escape could have been filled by anyone – maybe Loki, who provided nothing but comic relief throughout the movie. That’s another asshole waiting to be redeemed. If Loki had sacrificed himself, that sort of selflessness would have shown tremendous growth. He wouldn’t have even have to die – demonstrating care for others means something to his character. Over four movies, Loki’s proven time and time again to be out for himself. Putting him in the spotlight during that pivotal moment in the film would have given his character some purpose. Instead, they used a one-off character and wasted Karl Urban on a disappointing side plot.

The other iconic use of killing off your jerk is Star Wars. But like Lord of the Rings, Darth Vader’s sacrifice was incredibly meaningful. After three movies of build-up, giving up his position (hint hint) to save Luke, even if it meant losing his life, was an emotional climax to a character we’d feared for three movies. He was already an iconic character, making a lasting impression with only 12 minutes of screen time total. His death meant something because we cared about what happened to him. That’s what it comes down to. Assholes are important in movies. They push the protagonist, either as main villains or simple jerks who get in the way. Conflict pushes the story forward, so you need jerks to come along and mess up your main character’s plan at every step of the journey. But if you want to redeem them, we need to care about them. If they’re a jerk and they die, we don’t care. Death needs to serve a purpose other than capital D Drama. Even though Darth Vader was the villain, his redemption meant something because the main character and Luke literally wouldn’t have been able to succeed without Darth Vader’s help.

This isn’t even the first time Marvel’s been guilty of killing off jerks. In Avengers, Tony saves the day by taking the nuke into space. We all know he’s the hero, but Tony’s character is the definition of self-centered jerk. When he gives up himself, it means more because we know what it means beyond a couple of selfish moves. Sacrifice proves he’s a good guy, but unlike Ex, we care about Tony because he’s shown us in the past that he has a good side. We get a glimpse of his good side when he refuses to kill the innocent woman, but even then it felt heavy-handed. I didn’t root for him because I didn’t care. And when he died, there was no sense of anything lost. Thor didn’t interact with Ex during the course of the movie and didn’t mention anything when he died. Nobody in the movie cared about Ex, so why should we? With Tony, other characters care about him. Pepper would notice if he went missing – Jarvis and Captain America actively try to talk him out of it. It’s dramatic because it has meaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsDwpF3uiZI

Earlier in 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 fell astray of the trope as well. Yondu was a villain in the first movie, a hilarious companion in the second, and a major character whose cheesy sacrifice still meant something. Yondu falls into the loveable jerk category, along with everyone in the Guardians movies. But Yondu especially fits the jerk description for his murder sprees and threatening to kill his own son. At the end of the movie, Quill finally realizes his biological dad is a grade A villain, so he falls back on Yondu and the ongoing theme of found family continues. The dialogue around Yondu’s death left lots to be desired. His death mattered to Quill, though, and the movie ended with a tribute to him.

I knew Yondu’s death was coming, but it still didn’t feel right. It felt like a cheap grab for drama, just like in Ragnorak. He saved Quill by jettisoning them both into space, but maybe the predictability of it all ruined the moment. Or it was the daddy line. Either way, his death felt trope-y and uninspired.

For the love of drama, do something other than killing off your assholes. Give them purpose, and meaning. Give them a reason to live, give them a reason to sacrifice themselves for the good of the plot. Make sure someone mourns them, despite their mistakes. After all, characters are only interesting if they’re imperfect.

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