Hybrid, Hope, Hero. Up until about 201?-now those words together would have meant nothing to me. When I was younger sure the idea might have looked neat, but it held no meaning. I’m not quite sure during which show I discovered that I liked the idea, but when I found it I loved it. There are three very specific, very different from each other tv universes that I’d like to discuss today.
First let us go into Supernatural’s Jack, as it is my favorite, and by far the most *er* complex story. Jack’s arc starts off as him,despite being the son of the literal devil, being a pretty decent, kind, and empathetic person. He goes through a bunch of stuff as a good guy ,and does a bunch of stuff as a good guy, and then he ends up evil to accentuate the point. Because the point is that no (well written) lighthearted hope comes without (at least a little) darkness coming first. Essently hope plays out pretty solidly (in my mind) because of the darkness he goes through before it. When he slides back into solid heroism (eventually) I was actually still kind of rooting for this bright (only somewhat as it turns out) promising future he had promised a couple of characters not long before his proper introduction (partially because of what he did ,and went through to get to that point). It turns out Jack did in fact (kind of) deliver on that becoming both a (sort of) hero again, and bringing into the world a little more hope (he literally became an embodiment of that universe’s light for peats sake) for his general universe (vaguely) and his family (definitely albeit in a weird sense). But this is just one of a few pretty great stories that demonstrate the heroic- hope bringing- hybrid as I like to call it.
Next Up is the Beautiful, amazing, smart,snarky,did I mention beautiful,(vampire, witch, werewolf) trybrid (it counts don’t at me okay) Hope Mikealson from the tvd-verse. Now she has the same sort of issues as Jack (darkness in their bio family lines, a dark middle/ beginning themselves, etc.). They also both have groups with conflicting views/hopes on who they’ll be when they come into their powers (which is to be expected). Look I could do a full on comparison,but I won’t for everyone’s sake (including my own). Because TBH most hybrid arcs (at least the ones I enjoy) seem to have similar parts to the others (albeit structurally the parts are in different positions in their arcs). Hope’s is also ultimately (mostly) one of great triumph, heroism (more heavy on this one than the first character), and of course the ever present hope for a better world. She represents hope for both her community (through existing and having a potential future of uniting the different groups), and her family (by bringing about things like metaphorical light, and as her father puts it for him specifically she made him whom was formerly nearly stone cold evil feel the unconditional love of family), proving she was aptly named. On to our final heroic character, and my gosh is he a doozy.
Steven Quartz/Diamond DeMayo/Universe ( human/ alien hybrid,from aptly Named Steven Universe) the savior of the galaxy,and all around friend maker and family fixer is probably one of the best hybrid hero stories I’ve ever watched (no not kidding in the slightest). Why, because I feel it’s the best at dealing with the consequences (though in my mind they all do a decentish job of this) of someone being the hope-bringing heroic hybrid in practicality (and I love me some good realism). Steven universe deals with this in the form of (what most fans I’ve seen call it) chosen one fallout. It basically asks (not that the other ones don’t it just does it better in my mind alright) alright you have saved your friends, your family, and the universe (in this case). So now what do you do with the rest of your hope inspiring life now that you literally fixed everything you could possibly fix(At least for the time being you had spread hope as far as you could). Well it turns out in Steven’s case that you (eventually) start trying to fix everything else (even when said thing doesn’t need to be fixed or help wasn’t asked for), and without a way to continuously do good without a way to continually fix things you crumble (hard). This plays out in different ways across the three universes, (with Jack he starts off feeling lost, and thinking that maybe he was meant to turn evil because he can’t seem to do the good his mom and original chosen guardian thought he could or any at all in his mind), (With Hope, at first she feels like a broken mistake because she can’t seem to be the hope bringer she’s meant to be for her family, and later her whole identity is based around the idea that if she isn’t the hero no else will and/or can be one). But I specifically love Steven Universe because it says we’re gonna deal with that fallout and the aftermath as properly as we can with the limited space we have left. In the end Steven hugs it out (cheesy I know, but it helps) spends a long time recovering from a monsterous rampage, gets a therapist, and eventually decides that he should move on, and move forward (the combination of all these aspects being why it’s my most watchable though not favorite arc of the three).
Heroic-hope bringing-hybrids are endlessly fascinating characters to me. While I listed off a lot of similarities, there’s also many admirable differences to explore with these character’s arcs. The best thing about these characters,however, is that whether you love them or hate them, you genuinely feel something (usually and only if you know about them) about these characters. They either make you mad as hell, or leave you in awe of them.I think in the end that is the point for writing good characters within a good story. Right?
Atlas Ez Poetry 