Jerel Fields

Jerel Fields is a sophomore majoring in AEIM with a concentration in Film & Television. He was previously a marketing major for his first two semesters at Rider, but has since found a much better fit within the AEIM program, where he works with a diverse group of talented students. He is involved in the Aikido Club, Broncs Box Office, and Club Badminton, with E-Board positions also set for Aikido and Box Office next year. 

Within Film, the audience is shown all different types of heroes all with all different moral compasses and motivations that drive them. The Author of “The Thematic Paradigm” Robert Ray has organized these heroes within 3 different categories based on their moral principles as well as actions throughout the film. The 3 categories are the Reluctant Hero, the Outlaw Hero, and the Official Hero. An Reluctant Hero is someone who originally doesn’t want to be a hero and has the role forced upon them. An Outlaw Hero is someone that toes the line of villian and hero due to their moral compass being a lot less strict, allowing them to kill and be much darker and aggressive than someone who’d be considered an Official Hero. An Official Hero is a hero that stays on the straight and narrow: they follow the rules, don’t kill, and they are usually someone who sees the good in everyone and is willing to help anyone in need. Each one of these Heroes have their own unique individual stories, with a multitude of variations while still keeping the same archetype. A Good example of the most common and well known variation which is the Official Hero is “Captain America”, a hero who fought to protect and save as many people as possible with only a shield. 

Steve Rogers is the American hero known as Captain America from the Captain America franchise within the Marvel Cinematic universe. He is an perfect example of an Official Hero based off of what Robert Ray wrote “the official hero, normally portrayed as a teacher, lawyer, politician, farmer, or family man, represented the American belief in collective action, and the objective legal process that superseded private notions of right and wrong”(Pg 1). He would fall within someone who represents the American beliefs, therefore the name “Captain America”. He first represents this in his origin movie “Captain America:The First Avenger”. Before he had gotten his powers, he was a scrawny kid from Brooklyn, and despite this he would try to stand up for what’s right and help those in need, both successfully and unsuccessfully due to his stature, he would help them in his own way by subverting the attention of the attack or harassers to himself to protect those being victimized. Yet he wanted to join the fight in WW2 with all his heart, and he was able to do that after he was given “The Super Soldier Serum”, once he had the serum he dedicated all his new found power to helping the United States fight against the Nazi’s, yet when offered a gun, he opted for a Shield so he would be able to save and protect as many people as possible. With this act it shows his compassion and sympathy towards others, further representing another point provided by Robert Ray “the official heroes embodied the best attributes of adulthood: sound reasoning and judgment, wisdom and sympathy based on experience”(Pg 2.Line 54-56). And as the movie goes on he is taking down Nazi Fortress’s left and right, while saving hundreds of American Lives. Yet he wasn’t able to save every life because during a mission on a train the shield had gotten knocked down off the tracks leading to the alleged death of his best friend Bucky Barnes. Steve used this to motivate him to stop the man behind it: the Red Skull. Once Steve managed to discover what the Red Skull had planned he defeated him, and to save thousands of lives he chose to load up all of the explosives Skull had into a ship and flew it into the ice, doing the most heroic act of them all, sacrificing himself. However he would surprisingly survive and be put into a coma for 66 years, and would go on to do plenty more heroic acts, even saving the earth on multiple occasions. Steve followed a strict code of honor, and stuck to his morals, no matter what. However some other heroes have a different approach to their “heroic” duties; an example of this would be the Outlaw Hero Deadpool. 

Wade Wilson is a mercenary known as Deadpool from the Deadpool Movie Franchise, he provides an example of the Outlaw Hero as stated by Robert Ray “Embodied in the adventurer, explorer, gunfighter, wanderer, and loner, the outlaw hero stood for that part of the American imagination valuing self-determination and freedom from entanglements”(Pg 1). In which Wade embodies both a Gunfighter, wanderer and Someone that values self determination and freedom from entanglement. At certain points throughout his 2 movies he shows the traits of a loner despite being surrounded by others more often than not. Wade began his story as a simple Mercenary doing jobs and helping those in need, until he met a girl that rocked his world to the core and it was a nice time until he was diagnosed with late stage 3 cancer within his Liver,Lung, Prostate, and Brain. Once he learned about this he was pretty much guaranteed death, but a man offered Wade a chance at survival with an experimental treatment that may save his life, and with no options left he left a note in the middle of the night for his girlfriend explaining that he had left. After being taken to the facilities for the treatments he was horribly experimented on, they disfigured him and awakening his power of an extremely powerful healing factor which saved his life, at the cost of skin and freedom. He would manage to escape after an explosion and indirectly faking his death after battling the man that did all of this to him. He would then seek out an old friend to help him track down and kill those that did this to him while building up the name deadpool and getting more clues about the whereabouts of the man behind it all, Francis. While doing this he would enact these bloody killings with jokes and quips showing a common trait within outlaw hero’s which is a sense of childish nature, Robert Ray Says in page 1; “The attractiveness of the outlaw hero’s childishness and propensity to whims, tantrums, and emotional decisions derived from America’s cult of childhood”. After finally catching up to Francis he manages to finally get a chance to kill him, yet he is stopped by 2 Heroes Colossus & Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Leading to Francis escaping and Kidnapping Deadpool’s former girlfriend; she was out looking for him after he had gone missing and disappeared for a month. Afterwards, Wade reconciled with the hero’s and the team up to save his girlfriend. In an Epic Climactic Battle at an abandoned Helicarrier, followed up with a bunch of explosions they manage to save his girlfriend while violently killing Francis. After the battle is done, Wade finally reconciles with his girlfriend and shows her his disfigured face after the accident, and she accepts him for who he is and they then go on to Longinly and Romantically Kiss as the movie ends. Deadpool’s journey is filled with blood and comedy, making it the classic Outlaw hero story, and to follow up with the next example for the reluctant hero with another mercenary of sorts is the assassin Ladybug. 

Code Name Ladybug is an assassin and main protagonist of the movie “Bullet Train”,and  he shows the characteristics of an Reluctant hero based off of a quote from Robert Ray; “Reluctant Hero is an average “every man” who is thrust into extraordinary circumstances and becomes heroic due to circumstances beyond his or her control”(Thematic Paradigm Slide 11). Ladybug is an assassin who was assigned to a mission as a substitute for another agent due to illness. He was told by the organization that this was a small time assignment and that he just needed to retrieve a briefcase. After getting on the train he soon learns that there are a series of other assassins after that very same briefcase, and as the movie progresses he is confronted by several assassins. Within these confrontations, his unluckiness plays a factor each time leading to him accidentally killing several of them. While this is happening, Ladybug manages to get the briefcase and then loses it; he also attempts to leave the train, and then somehow ends right back on it in the end. Using a quote from Robert Ray, “At times, a Reluctant hero might begin as a selfish character, who is forced to set their own needs aside and pursue a greater good” (Thematic Paradigm Slide 11). Throughout the film, Ladybug is focused on getting the mission over with as soon as possible to the point where he tries to quit, but in the end he stays on the train till the end to inevitably confront the man behind both the case and the train. After he finally confronts the mastermind, he learns that this whole train, all the high jinks as well as those who were on it were all a part of one revenge plan to knock down two birds with one stone: to take out all those he had a personal grudge against. To Ladybug’s surprise, he learns that the original agent meant to be on the train was the one he wanted to get revenge on, and in a last ditch attempt to get himself out of the situation, he yells that it isn’t him. Before the mastermind can hear this, an explosion goes off, sending him right back into the train. After the train crashes, the mastermind, injured, attempts to kill Ladybug with his own gun, and then it ends up exploding in his own face due to it being rigged earlier in the movie. Ladybug ends up being the most accidental hero that nobody knew they needed. 
With that being said, Robert Ray the Thematic Paradigm shows a great representation of heroes within stories and how these three archetypes can be used to define a multitude of protagonists throughout the history of storied media. These three examples all follow completely different stories yet they all match perfectly with their given archetypes. Captain America truly represents an Official Hero with his iron will and drive to help and save as many lives as possible. Deadpool shows the brutal nature of the outlaw hero with his childlike attitude followed by brutality. Ladybug shows the unwillingness of the Reluctant Hero as he is thrust into a position to help those in need. The Thematic Paradigm perfectly defines heroes within stories and will likely continue to do so for generations to come.