Hero Spotlight: Scar and Victor

Let's get this series back on track shall we?

So last time...way, WAY last time...we talked about the anti hero vs. the line between good and bad. You can give yourself a refresher here.

But today let’s take a look at two very interesting anti-hero examples: Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist and Victor from V.E. Schwab’s Vicious.

First, Scar. Scar starts out as an antagonist to our main heroes, the Elric Brothers, as he has set out to destroy all State Alchemists with his alchemy enhanced arms. However the motive of his revenge quickly becomes clear and its hard not to sympathize with him, considering that his people were destroyed by the military in a senseless genocide. 

Despite his initial villain role, Scar is often more on the hero side than he is on the villain side in both series, often having a soft spot for children and other down trodden folk.

Eventually, his bizarre alchemy becomes a cornerstone to taking down the main villain, and he puts aside his revenge to help the rest of the heroes destroy the real evil. He has a different impact in both series, but he plays an important role in each.

Scar starts out as a real threat of course, working outside the laws in every way since he’s… murdering people. But he also struggles with his own moral code, knowing that by using alchemy to destroy state alchemists, he has turned his back on the religion of his people. It leaves him to even leave behind his real name of which he doesn’t think he is worthy. It’s a lot of grade A internal and external stuff that makes Scar one of the most interesting characters in both series.

Then there is Victor, from Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Victor and his roommate Eli both gain supernatural abilities after near death experiences. But after something goes horribly wrong, they split ways in a bad way. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison to stop his crazy old roommate from killing everyone with supernatural abilities. However, while Victor is the less evil of the two, he is by no means a typical hero. Like Eli he is an arrogant genius, often time selfish, and he’s less motivated by the greater good in this book so much as settling the score with Eli. He’s willing to do plenty of non-heroic things to ultimately take Eli down.

However, despite this, Victor is still comparably better, and he does form positive relationships with some of his other super powered companions. This is still his story and his journey, and Eli is absolutely the villain in question. But Victor is just a twist on the typical super hero. He’s no knight in shining armor, but he still knows what needs to be done, making him a thoroughly interesting main character to follow.

That’s all from the spotlight this week! See you next time for our last week of the Heroes and Heroism Series. Until then, happy writing!