Sunday 16 December 2007

Sighing after the bad boys...

It's true that there's a real appeal in the "bad boy"...the ones your mother always warned you about. I have to admit to this kind of dreamy eyed fascination myself throughout my adult life. Think of Heathcliff, for example. He really was a bastard if you look at him closely...but oh, what a delicious, dreamy bastard, at least as played by Sir Lawrence Olivier. Something about those brooding dark looks just got my engine running. :o) So yeah, I could totally see turning the bad boy into the hero in a romance. It would fulfill all those ideas that misguided women (myself included) have that they can somehow save these guys from themselves.

1 comment:

Ebony McKenna. said...

To paraphrase Frank Muir:. When a woman falls in love she thinks of three words: Aisle, Altar, Hymn...

We love a bad guy because we think we'll be the 'magic one' that changes him. He was only bad because he never knew the love of a good woman, etc.

In reality, we know it doesn't happen. The bad guy is likely to run screaming at the thought of commitment and don't even mention babies....

But this is fiction, let it rip!

For a bad guy to turn around, - like Sir Guy of Gisborne - he needs redemption. Even Darth Vader came good in the end because he stepped in and destroyed the emperor. Likewise Han Solo - bad to the bone, has a bounty on his head ... and I am old enough to remember the original version where HAN SHOT FIRST! (But I really need to get over that). At the end of the movie, Han's taken his reward money and cleared off, only to return at the last minute, shoot the baddies on Luke's tail and pave the way for the good guys to win.

Perhaps Robin Hood seems wimpy because he started good and has nowhere else to go? That means he has to turn bad, and then redeem himself.

I wish the writers of that show the very best of luck with that one.