Heroes You Hate/Villains You Love

[Speaker to Animals]

Cortez doesn't fit. He's a hero you should love.

[DrYouth]

Ah well. I like Cortez, and I think if I were Spanish I wouldn't be ashamed of him, but I try to keep historical perspective when applying judgment.

Well he was also a fornicator who probably murdered his own wife... when she finally joined him after the conquista.... if you are looking for reasons to put him in the villain category...

But he was undoubtedly awesome.

Took on the impossible, faced ridiculous odds, somehow kept the loyalty of his men....

Hard not to like him.

[DBTrek]

I have to revise my stance on Serling after watching this interview (see the 5:44 mark). He talks about racial distortions in television (aka every black man being a banjo player) only to criticize the attempts to rectify the situation by creating distortions at the other end of the spectrum (every black man a nuclear physicist). He sees it all as exploitation.

Also, the bit Okeefenokee mentioned about most WW2 vets not making rank for shit is legit. I was looking at his low rank paired with eyewitness accounts of general listlessness, going AWOL, etc, to infer he was a shit soldier. Maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he was. But half the formula I was using to make that determination was flawed, so I’ll give ol’ Rod the benefit of the doubt.

He can be a hero I’m mildly suspicious of, rather than one I’d probably “hate”.