Tuesday, May 01, 2007

There's just something about a guy with a scar...

After watching Heroes last night, and doing a swift read-by of the message boards at Television Without Pity, it has been confirmed yet again that there is something incredibly sexy about a scar on a man's face. The Future Peter Petrelli has been described as all kinds of hot, and I don't disagree, although I'll say it's not just the scar, it's the attitude. Which kind of goes with the scar.

A scar means your hero's been seriously wounded, and survived. He's one tough cookie.

But the scar shows he's vulnerable, too. He might be acting all Mr. Tough-Nothing-Can-Hurt-Me Guy, but we can see that's not true.

More than that, surviving such a serious wound, and the receiving of it, should have caused some serious emotional trauma. He's a Guy With Issues.

That's one reason I wanted the hero of my first book to have lost an eye in battle. He's tough enough to survive, but he's far from unscathed, both inwardly and outwardly.

Why have him lose an eye? Because one of my earliest, most vivid memories is of my great-grandfather, who lost an eye dynamiting a tree stump. He never wore a patch, and I can still remember the wrinkled, empty eye socket.

A couple of other scarred heroes I like: Snake Plisskin, an eye-patch-wearing tough guy played by Kurt Russell in Escape from New York. I see Gerard Butler's going to be in the remake. Although I'm not keen on remakes, I'll be there.

Kurt Russell also portrayed another scarred hero in Soldier - and that guy's emotional scars were far, far worse than his physical ones.





I'll be going to see Spiderman III to see the scarred James Franco (so good in Tristan & Isolde!), and also because Spiderman's gonna go evil. I'm intrigued by those elements, and glad they aren't just going with another villain makes nasty, although I understand there'll be plenty o' that, as well.

2 comments:

Maureen McGowan said...

Totally agree with the scar thing. And I first saw Milo Ventimiglia on Gilmore Girls playing the only one of Rory's boyfriends I've even moderatlely liked. He was, you guessed it, a bad boy. But he was the only one the actress who plays Rory had any kind of chemistry with. The guy she's with now? She pulls away when he kisses her. Bad actress, but I'd be pissed too, if I was forced to kiss that guy instead of Milo.

Margaret Moore said...

Milo's a little too "slight" for me -- as in too thin and seems short to me. Actually, now that Isaac is dead, there's no real hunk factor for me there. But I love it just the same, mainly because I love the relationship between Ando and Hiro. I'm trying to think ...is there any other show that has a similar buddy relationship right now? I don't watch any CSI or medical shows, so maybe there, but I can't think of anything similar in the shows I watch. Well, maybe Earl and Yau-man on Survivor...and the Chas on TAR.