#hero analysis

I channeled my inner Deku to do this fake analysis on Mineta Minoru for my bakudeku fanfic: Ripple. My background in reporting and research came in handy! Note: All of the text here is a false analysis I made up for this character and visual drawing of said character is not mine! The text is not canon! Made for funsies!

Darlene Alderson is the deuteragonist of the series Mr. Robot. She is the younger sister of the protagonist Elliot Alderson and a fellow hacker in fsociety. In the beginning of the series, she remains much of a mystery but later we get to know a lot about her, especially her importance in the series, especially in Elliot’s life. (Spoilers and Trigger Warning)

Early Life

Darlene was born in 1990. When she was 4, she remembered watching a news report about E Corp being cleared in the Washington Township trial and seeing the lawyer Susan Jacobs become delighted about that news. Unbeknownst to her, Elliot was being sexually abused by her father Edward and Elliot tried to protect her from being his next victim. And when Edward died, her mother Magda began to physically and emotionally abuse her and Elliot, but Darlene got the brunt of it the most. She even adopted a kitten once named Moonpie and built a secret house for her. Her mother found out and forced her to drown it in the lake but Darlene ran away with it instead and gave it away to a woman.

At the age of 5, she was kidnapped by a woman during a family trip to an amusement park. Over there she was treated very nicely and like a princess and it made her feel special. Until the police came in and rescued her. Both her and Elliot’s favourite movie was The Careful Massacre of the Bourgeoisie, which they would often watch with their childhood friend Angela.

How we meet Darlene

Darlene is introduced as a typical rule breaker MPDG who takes a sudden interest on the resident broken bird Elliot, who is constantly freaked out by her advances at first. She is a fellow hacker working on a hack against E Corp. She slowly becomes Elliot’s sidekick and best friend. She helps Elliot restart the hack with the help of the Dark Army one month after the death of Shayla and as they both celebrate, Elliot accidentally kisses her and it is revealed that Darlene is actually his sister, which then leads to a reveal that Mr. Robot is actually Elliot’s split personality.

Taking control of fsociety

After Elliot ends up in prison for hacking into Lenny Shannon and taking Flipper, Darlene ends up taking control of fsociety and picks up from where he left off. She has taken over Susan Jacobs’ house as the base of operations. We even see her having multiple breakdowns, showing that despite having a brave facade, she hasn’t really gotten all of this figured out. She even makes a rousing speech to the members, which would also foreshadow her own position in the future episodes: “We are in a war, and we are on the losing side of it. We are on our knees with guns to our heads, and they are picking us off one by one.”

She even tries to make decisions for the good of the team and is shown to be extremely determined in taking down E Corp. From prison, Elliot helps her out and she recruits Angela to use her position in E Corp to hack the FBI and find out who killed Romero. Fsociety later uncovers the operation Project Berenstain and exposes the FBI for it. But things get out of control when Susan returns and Darlene kills her out of spite for what she did, causing Trenton and Mobley to go on the run.

Then it gets worse when the members get into an accident and get caught and arrested, with one of them escaping and taken to the hospital by Darlene and Cisco, and then as Dom finds them at a diner, A Dark Army shooter kills Cisco, which drastically changes Darlene. After Darlene tries to escape from answering Dom, Dom takes her to the board where she reveals the FBI knows everything. With no other choice, Darlene decides to give in and become a mole.

From badass leader to Dark Army’s prey

So how did this badass hunter become the docile hunted?

Darlene ends up becoming more paranoid for her life, believing the Dark Army is now after her. And side by side she even tries to help Elliot stop Stage 2. She even finds out about Angela gaslighting Elliot for helping the Dark Army, but in vain and realises that she has truly gone mad. She and Elliot then team up to undo the 5/9 hack and in the process tries to sleep with Dom to get the credentials but develops feelings for her in the process. And when she gets kidnapped by the Dark Army along with Elliot and Dom, this is when she becomes their constant prey/butt-monkey. 

In Season 4, Darlene seemed to get worser and weaker after Angela’s death when she became a jaded washout who took in drugs and alcohol to deal with her death, a complete opposite of what we used to see her as, with Elliot having to handle things on his own now. She later tries to get a hold of herself slowly as she tries to help Elliot with taking down the Deus Group and Whiterose, but Elliot constantly pushes her away, but he still lets her help him because he cares for her and is grateful for her.

“Not Acceptable” and “Request Timeout” is when her status as the Dark Army’s “personal butt-monkey” comes into play. First Dom tries to blow her brains off and then knocks her out, then Janice tries to blow her brains off but then Darlene wipes her phone, then she gets tied up with Dom and is about to be tortured with some tools before getting forced to watch Dom get stabbed by Janice. Wait. This doesn’t end there. Then she hears Janice’s tale about how she is so happy to be evil, then Janice makes her cry into giving up Elliot’s location, makes her cry again into thinking Dom’s family will be killed before Dom pulls a gambit and kills Janice and her men. Phew.

Breaking Out

When Elliot suffers from a mental breakdown thanks to the PTSD caused by Vera’s psychological abuse in 4x07. Darlene breaks out of her “butt-monkey” mould and decides to take matters into her own hands and steps up. She makes a new fsociety video doxxing the Deus Group and commits the biggest hack in the history with the help of Elliot and steals all of the money from the accounts of all the members, including Whiterose.

Elliot even acknowledges this when he tells her to complete the last phase of the hack: redistribution of the wealth as the hack is her win, not his. She is elated to celebrate her win with Dom and this is the first time we’ve seen her actually happy in a long time. She then tries to run away with Dom from the Dark Army, but when Dom decides to stay, Darlene becomes vulnerable and explains how she can’t handle on her own, before they part ways.

When Darlene tries to leave for Budapest by herself, she ends up having another panic attack. When a woman asks her if she is okay, Darlene decides not to go to Budapest after all and that she can handle herself.

Being a key to Elliot’s reality

I wanna talk about society, specifically it’s views on heroism.

Bakugou and Deku are products of their society obviously. But what I don’t think people see is that they’re meant to be different extremes of the same problem.

Hero worship.

The problem is that society has given a specific set of criteria that defines a hero... ie a Licence. It’s the whole thing Stain despised, the idea that a hero no longer can be defined by their deeds or who they save but by a government issued card for passing a test. It completely takes away from the concept of a hero existing for the people and turns it into straight capitalism.

There’s a quote that I heard and can’t remember where it came from that goes along the lines of ‘A villain can exist without a hero, but a hero cannot exist without a villain.’ Which I think is true, being a hero revolves around the existence of villains but that’s entirely ignored in BNHA’s world.

And those heroes are glorified. Put on a pedestal by civilians, and I’m not saying they shouldn’t be, they’re heroes but what it results in is expectations for the next generation to live up to. So children are encouraged to be like those hero’s and unwittingly the parents place value on children based on their quirks. They’ve internalised this idea that Good quirks = greatness. And it’s not something new, often times fiction is a reflection of reality, because reality gives context for the issues within that fictional world. You’ll always find things that remind you of the real world. Here this idea that what you’re born with biologically determines greatness reminds me of how Chinese family’s used to value male babies over female babies, simply because that’s part of my culture. Others might read into it differently. These issues are transcendental, that is why there can be so many interpretations.

Anyway, willingly or not, the adults perpetuate this idea of Good Quirk = Greatness, thus stigmatising No Quirk/ bad Quirk = Failure.

Deku is quirkless, he’s the opposite of what society wants and therefore suffers at the hands of hero worship. He’s pushed aside as the minority, and if you think about it that 20% of the population being quirkless is going to mainly consist of the older generation since quirks are genetically inherited so he’s really insulated, I wouldn’t be surprised if the first person he met his age who was also quirkless was Melissa (From The Two Heroes movie). His own mother telling him she’s ‘Sorry’ after he finds out that he’s quirkless only backing up this idea that he’s different and that he should be pitied. And we look up to our parents, so coming from Inko, Izuku was on the way to internalising that view also. And in some ways he has, I might be wrong about this but when he finds out that Melissa is Quirkless he apologises to her also, he’s doing to others exactly what had been done to him because that’s what humans do, we replicate behaviour.

Bakugou is exactly what they want and from the moment he’s gotten his quirk he’s not only been put on a pedestal by peers but by adults too, adults who should be his superiors are putting him above themselves, no wonder he gets an inferiority complex. He’s told he ‘will be a hero’. Unfair expectations to ever put on a child who hasn’t had the real world experience to decide his own career just yet. And so it manifests into an inferiority complex that the show actually admits to him having. He was never given any other option than to be a hero.

He was told for his whole life he’d be the best so to see someone who was always behind him move forward made him feel inadequate obviously, his lashing out isn’t excused by society’s involvement but can explain it. He’s working on it though. Working with Deku. Helping him improve. He’s shown character development. And it’s not just that, he’s driven solely by the idea of ‘winning’ which some might see as conceited but ‘winning’ is vague, it has no meaning, he chooses the challenge, he’s the only one who can define what ‘winning’ means to him. Some might think ‘winning’ means glory, or money or fame and he wants to be No.1 so there’s an aspect of that but it could just mean no casualties, everyone surviving, everyone being saved. Which I think is interesting.

Something else I think is admirable is that in his mind all opponents are just that, opponents. That’s why he goes all out when fighting Uraraka during the Sports festival, he said it himself. That it doesn’t matter that she’s a girl, she’s a girl that shouldn’t be underestimated. He doesn’t see her as weak. Even when the crowed and Present Mic got mad at him for being rough while fighting her. A fucking feminist Icon.

And he’s not just the typical 2 dimensional bully. He’s canonically got the best grades in the class, above Iida even. He goes to bed at reasonable times (8:30) most of the time. He studies, he even helped Kirishima. He works hard and it’s not just a natural talent which makes his character even better.

He feels guilt for being the catalyst for All Might’s down fall. They both idolised the hero and he felt like a fucking BURDEN. The self awareness he has is impeccable, understanding that he cannot control everything and being so angry about it, and why? Because he was told he could do anything he put his mind to, and he was discovering for the first time that that was a lie, that those adults were liars.

And when the villains kidnapped him he told them to fuck off. He was a hero through and through. He wouldn’t join them.

He’s a hero. A terribly misguided hero born from unrealistic expectations of children

He’s the epitome of gifted kid syndrome. He’s got a complex and major anxiety issues because of it. Imagine being told that they’re better than everyone else your age as a kid? You’ll believe it. Of course you’ll think you’re better bc the adults told you you were.

And it contrasts so well with Deku, Because their issues are due to the same societal pressure albeit different sides of that same scale.

That’s why ppl like him. He’s trying but just like Deku he was given an unfair disadvantage

As defined by Oxford Languages, a hero is “a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities”. However, in mythology and folklore, another definition of hero emerges, again defined by Oxford Languages as “a person of superhuman qualities and often semi defining origin, in particular one whose exploits were subject of Ancient Greek myths”.

So: Why is there a difference in definition?

As society expands and modernizes, people’s view on things often change. Something that was socially acceptable before is now a crime, but then again, there are old traditions that are lost to time. An example can be found in Ancient Greek traditions where even if your enemy was sleeping under your roof, you could not harm them. In theory, that principle remains today but under the umbrella term of murder, but, people still have the liberty to do it under their own roof without getting attacked by the gods from breaking the laws of hospitality.

That sounds really bad.. wait..

Never mind that, I hope what I’m trying to convey in understandable.

Yet, even if there is a difference in the definitions, all heroes go through the same cycle, some a little easy to detect than others. This cycle was first defined by Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero with a Thousand faces.

In simple terms, the cycle is as follows :

Preview of my two-page spread for @heroanalysisdekudition This piece had some hardships cause I tried a lot of different things, but I’m very proud of it! If you like Izuku Midoriya, please consider preordering this zine! The money will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Hero Analysis for the Future No. 11

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Basically, I did a hero analysis of Lucifer Morningstar from the hit show Lucifer on FOX. I was really upset when I was told that he wasn’t a hero and that I had to redo the assignment. (You can read it below) 

Lucifer Morningstar-

I admire him because, while being the Devil, he isn’t that bad of a guy. I sympathize with him (great song by the way -sympathy for the devil-) but I can also empathize in a way. He was cast down to Hell, and when he called out for help, everyone turned their back on him. Now after all of this time, he gets some fresh air in the city of angels, when his human friend (who sold her soul to him) gets murdered, and instead of being the devil and reeking havoc, he wants justice for the girl. Now at this part, he meets Chloe Decker and blah blah blah we know there will be some sexual tension as Lucifer has all the booze, girls and money anyone could ask for. Long story short the way Lucifer has evolved since the first episode makes me proud because I feel he represents the Devil (if he be real or not) in a better light, because, in the end, he isn’t making anyone commit sins, no that is on us, he is just the one punishing us for them. Adam and Eve didn’t have to eat the apple, the snake was there representing the want to rebel, and the bit in. I quote Mark Twain “But who prays for Satan? Who in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most, our one fellow and brother who most needed a friend yet had not a single one, the one sinner among us all who had the highest and clearest right to every Christian's daily and nightly prayers, for the plain and unassailable reason that his was the first and greatest need, he being among sinners the supremest?” [sic] and in simple terms, out of all the sinners there ever was, why has no one prayed for the one who is a sinner like everyone else. Lucifer isn’t a bad guy, he wants justice and happiness and love just like the rest of us, he has overcome stuff none of us can even comprehend, although not always honorable, he has his heart in the right place.

Picture--- Cullinan, Heidi. "Heidi Cullinan Recaps 'Lucifer' Episode 'St. Lucifer': And Now He's Naked, in More Ways than One." USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, 12 Apr. 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.

Elliot Alderson is the main protagonist of the series Mr. Robot. He is portrayed by Rami Malek. He is a cybersecurity engineer by day and a vigilante hacker by night. He then gets invited by a mysterious anarchist only known as Mr. Robot to an underground hacker group known as fsociety, whose goal is to take down the company ECorp, who is responsible for the death of Elliot’s father and redistribute the wealth. (Spoilers Alert and Trigger Warning for Child Sexual Abuse)

Early Life

From what we know so far, Elliot, along with his sister Darlene did not have a very good healthy family life. After the death of their father, their mother had gotten very physically and emotionally abusive of the both of them, but she mostly abused Darlene. And then in the later episode we find out that his father wasn’t a perfect saint as we thought, he was a monster who molested Elliot as a child, which physically and mentally scarred Elliot, which caused him to develop a plethora of mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, PTSD and DID. The DID even gave birth to the following split personalities of Elliot: Mr. Robot (The Protector), The Mother (The Persecutor), The Child, The Audience (Voyeurs) and The Mastermind (The Elliot we’ve been following throughout the series).

His Traumatic Journey

Throughout the series, we see him as a vigilante hacker take down men who are the worst parts of the society such as abusers, cheaters, rapists and pedophiles (a role which is usually filled by the “angry woman” vigilante). He then joins fsociety to help take down E Corp. But unfortunately, he goes through a series of traumatic events to achieve that goal, he loses his girlfriend Shayla when she gets killed by her psychotic ex, he finds out that Mr. Robot is his split personality and Darlene is actually his sister. Then we he went to prison, Mr. Robot psychologically abused him, he was then beaten up by prison guards, nearly raped by neo-nazis and when he got out, he was shot in the stomach by Tyrell Wellick just because he refused to be a part of something that would kill millions. He then was psychologically abused and gaslighted by his former best friend/crush Angela Moss and failed to stop a terrorist attack that cost millions of lives. He then tried to kill himself and almost lost his life at the hands of the Dark Army along with Darlene’s. Then he lost Angela to them, nearly overdosed on heroin, was stalked by the same psychotic ex of Shayla’s, who then forced him to find out about his childhood trauma. Then he was trapped in a nuclear meltdown, which he was finally saved from thanks to his hacking skills shutting it down, but unfortunately at the same time, he found out that he himself wasn’t a real person the whole time, he was just another personality of the real Elliot Alderson.

But what is so remarkable about him is that no matter how much he goes through, he always finds a way to stand back up and keep going no matter what life throws at him. While other characters in the series go through the similar things and easily break down, Elliot had it the worst but survives and is still able to live through it the best.

Subverting the Revolutionary Anti Hero trope

While Mr. Robot was first said to have picked up some elements from movies such as Taxi Driver (cynical narrator plot) and Fight Club (the season 1 plot twist), as the series progresses it completely subverts those narratives and makes the portrayal more humane, tragic and relatable. Travis Bickle and The Narrator represent the misguided and misrepresented trope of mental illness and masculinity and depict the “white male angered by the society” trope while Elliot completely subverts those tropes and gives a more human and humble perspective. He mostly represents the more “strong feminine” characteristics without being ridiculed or emasculated for it. As a poc man with mental health issues, he shows a more relatable struggle as he battles both his inner and outer demons and finally is able to prevail. While most white male anti-heroes would use their anger towards society for selfish and violent reasons, Elliot uses them for good reasons and to help others. His pro and con is that he cares so much for others and their needs but he forgets about his own safety most of the times.

Beauty Equals Goodness

One of the remarkable things about Elliot is also his beauty. He is mostly shown to be very pretty and gorgeous. TV Tropes defines “Beauty Equals Goodness”: “If a character is beautiful, then that means they must be a very good person.” Unlike Travis and The Narrator who are shown to be very average and entitled-yet-crazy and violent, Under his black-hooded figure, Elliot is shown to have extremely angelic beauty, which represents his kind-heartedness and selflessness towards others. He has innocent blue eyes which shows his innocence and naivete but doesn’t mean that he is not smart and clever.

Living in state of Victimhood

Most of the times, Elliot ends up being constantly victimized by anyone he comes across, even if it’s someone he knows. Tyrell ends up being obsessed with the idea of him and begins to believe 5/9 made them gods. Ray uses Elliot’s skills for his Dark Website and tells him how much he reminds him of his dead wife and calls him his saviour. Angela ends up psychologically abusing him and gaslighting him due to Whiterose’s machinations and Vera becomes disturbingly and instantly obsessed with him the minute he sees him. We do know that Elliot has a really good soul who has a gift for hacking and uses it for good reasons and is portrayed as a really beautiful and kind leader, but then there are a lot of people out there who begin to use and abuse him for their own selfish and personal gain, which is also one of the most heartbreaking aspects of his life.

Conclusion