I didn't expect to get so many comments on this, sorry I haven't replied sooner - also, sorry if I offended anyone, I didn't mean to
though i still can't see Alex shooting someone (even an evil guy) in cold blood. he's only 14, imagine killing someone at that age?
See, this is what got me, cos AH was strongly implying that he *would* kill someone, otherwise why would he have written that he picked a gun up and intended to shoot with it? It struck me as something deliberately different from 'the norm' where if people have died around him, he's never *directly* killed them, you know? I suppose the question then is whether his intentions can be considered as important as his acts.. as in, if he
had killed, would that make him a 'worse' person than his just intending to. Hmm.
Fact of the matter is, all people have good and evil in them. It's the circumstances that make it come out. So it is quite possible for a general good guy to sometimes do evil acts, when the circumstances make them react so.
That's very true! It just seems more unusual to portray the main, good character (especially such a James Bond-esque one like Alex) as someone who would intentionally commit murder, and then just accept it as part of human nature. Personally, I would love it if Alex does start to get more tempted to resort to shooting etc because then we're dealing with a whole other personal aspect to the novels, directly in relation to him. But (generally) up to now Alex has been one-sided throughout, just the good guy, like you'd expect from books like these, that's why the sentence stood out for me.
I think the line was intended to show a character changing moment for Alex, that he is becoming "cold" about his job, but really... what would be so bad about killing Yu?
I definitely agree that he would have been killing for a good cause, and that's a good way of putting it, that he's becoming cold about his job. I'm just wondering what the implications are of him becoming cold are though, long-term - cos surely if, say, he is 'cold' enough to kill enough people, does that make him any better than the other, 'evil' people who planned to kill? It could make him someone else's 'villain' in the way that Yu was Alex's villain, if that makes any sense. Of course, it's all hypothetical anyway.
Alex went through a lot. I think that sometimes changes people and it is not that when you want to stop someone killing thousend of that your the bad gay now. I think everyone ones in his or her lives does something he or she regret later and only the people who never regret what they did, are evil.
Good point
I guess we don't know whether Alex would have regretted killing Yu or not! But then, if he hadn't regretted it, and even though thousands of people would have been saved, would he be the bad guy then?
how long did it take u 2 think tht up and then rite type it down? alex is the good guy
Nothing like discussion!
What is a good guy? Someone who does good all the time, someone who does some good every now and then, or someone who does something good once? I guess it depends on your opinion of good guy to judge whether Alex is a good guy...I think he is, though, because he started off good, and has done loads of good things, despite doing some bad things, too
(wow, I sound like some lecturer sometimes)
I didn't think of this! I guess I was going by the children's book, clear-cut definition of the superhero character who can't do anything wrong, but you've possibly hit the most feasible answer
Because like you say, he's always aiming to 'do good', meaning to save the greatest number of people, rather than harm them, which is the key difference between him and the villains. So maybe AH is just ignoring traditional stereotypes of good and evil and replacing them with his own versions.
