Heroes, Villains and Morality

These are my notes on two videos by the writer Hilary Layne: Modern Heroes are Weak and Boring and Modern Villains are Pitiful and Impotent.

Both issues stem from the lack of objective morality in the worlds created by modern writers.

The concepts of Good and Evil in modern literature are based on how it makes the reader/writer feel. This makes them extremely malleable and ultimately meaningles.

Readers prefer anti-heroes because they are closer to the classical definition of a hero: “The main male protagonist of the piece”. Anti-heroes are closer to objective morality as they can act, whereas modern heroes can’t.