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ilienI’ve recently read a couple of opinions about how some of Nick’s actions lately have been less than perfect, and how the choices main characters have been making lately are unfitting for a hero.
I have something to say about it.
When we first see Nick Burkhardt, we don’t have any reasons to doubt he’s a hero. He’s a good detective who’s doing everything he can to keep his city safe; he’s putting some serious effort into doing what he sees as the right thing; of remaining a police officer despite being a Grimm, even when those two things contradict each other.
When we first see Sean Renard, he’s pretty obviously a villain. He orders someone killed (and not just that, his chosen killer is a very young person he’s emotionally abusing), he lies both to our heroes his own supposed allies, he’s got his own agenda that doesn’t seem to be good.
Then Nick starts breaking the law. First, he kills in self-defense; even the ones he didn’t see fit to confess to, are still self-defence. Then he kills a person under the influence - granted, it was supernatural influence, and Nick was willing to confess while his friends (lead by Renard) talked him out of it, but even under the circumstances it was rather questionable. Recently, we’ve seen him do a lot of questionable things: assist in a kidnapping, threaten witnesses, attack suspects (including ones that may be innocent), take part in an armed massacre. He has perfectly good reasons each and every time he does something morally questionable. Of course. But with times, his actions become more and more questionable, and if he keeps going down that path, he might end up doing something really bad while still completely sure he’s doing it for the right reasons.
Renard, on the other hand, begins protecting “the Grimm”. First, it seems like him working up to his mysterious agenda, but now it no longer looks like he had any agenda beyond “get on the Grimm’s good side”. As the show progresses, we see him getting less murderous and cunning, and more compassionate; I’m not sure the Renard we saw in season 1 would have cared for Trubel’s safety or taken a moment to make sure Wu is okay. He hasn’t gone as far on that path as Nick has gone on his, but he’s definitely not the villain we saw in early season 1.
They’re moving towards the same thing from opposite points of the “hero-villain” continuum. Nick isn’t really a hero anymore, and Sean isn’t a villain. They’re both (along with the friends they dragged with them) vigilantes, bordering on anti-heroes. I like this development, I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out.
I have something to say about it.
When we first see Nick Burkhardt, we don’t have any reasons to doubt he’s a hero. He’s a good detective who’s doing everything he can to keep his city safe; he’s putting some serious effort into doing what he sees as the right thing; of remaining a police officer despite being a Grimm, even when those two things contradict each other.
When we first see Sean Renard, he’s pretty obviously a villain. He orders someone killed (and not just that, his chosen killer is a very young person he’s emotionally abusing), he lies both to our heroes his own supposed allies, he’s got his own agenda that doesn’t seem to be good.
Then Nick starts breaking the law. First, he kills in self-defense; even the ones he didn’t see fit to confess to, are still self-defence. Then he kills a person under the influence - granted, it was supernatural influence, and Nick was willing to confess while his friends (lead by Renard) talked him out of it, but even under the circumstances it was rather questionable. Recently, we’ve seen him do a lot of questionable things: assist in a kidnapping, threaten witnesses, attack suspects (including ones that may be innocent), take part in an armed massacre. He has perfectly good reasons each and every time he does something morally questionable. Of course. But with times, his actions become more and more questionable, and if he keeps going down that path, he might end up doing something really bad while still completely sure he’s doing it for the right reasons.
Renard, on the other hand, begins protecting “the Grimm”. First, it seems like him working up to his mysterious agenda, but now it no longer looks like he had any agenda beyond “get on the Grimm’s good side”. As the show progresses, we see him getting less murderous and cunning, and more compassionate; I’m not sure the Renard we saw in season 1 would have cared for Trubel’s safety or taken a moment to make sure Wu is okay. He hasn’t gone as far on that path as Nick has gone on his, but he’s definitely not the villain we saw in early season 1.
They’re moving towards the same thing from opposite points of the “hero-villain” continuum. Nick isn’t really a hero anymore, and Sean isn’t a villain. They’re both (along with the friends they dragged with them) vigilantes, bordering on anti-heroes. I like this development, I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out.
