The Symbol of Peace

All Might reminds me why heroes matter, not the cynical hero, that does heroic acts knowing how futile they’re and doesn’t have hope in humanity. But the hero that looks for humanity with hope and inspire people to be not just their best selves, but their best selves with others; to believe in the purity of peace and justice.

When the word “hero” is used in a conversation. I often think in two types of hero. The natural hero, Those who are born to fulfill their heroic duty, their life has meaning just when seen by their heroic acts, the struggles they face are much larger than any human could endure and deals with themes greater than life. And the transformed hero, who gained the capacity to be a hero, balancing their heroic acts with their day to day life, facing struggles that speaks much closely with the human experience and with flaws much more human. But where i feel those heroes converge is the relation between what they are and how they act.

In both cases i feel like there’s little distinction between their internal selves and their external and internal selves. Tony Stark is a good example of that, he used to sell weapons that caused suffering for millions of people around the world, and after he realized how bad was the situation he created. He becomes the Iron Man and stopping selling weapons around the world. There’s a clear match between the internal and external self of him. The same logic follows for Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Ant-Man, Captain America, Thor… and the list goes on. There’s often a match between the internal and external self a hero.

When it doesn’t, there’s frequently a cynicism in those characters. Batman, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Wolverine. Their heroic lives is treated as burden, as thing no one should strive for, because a life like that is a result of trauma instead of sane actions. I mean: “Batman and Joker, two sides of the same coin”, because both of them represent a type of madness, isn’t it? Not that i think it’s bad those types of heroes existing. It’s great to examine our myths and put them to test. But if we start to think that everything we believe is silly and shouldn’t be taken seriously, and if taken seriously would led us to a miserable life. We start to become apathetic and cynical, fighting for nothing in our lives, or hateful and selfish, fighting just for what benefits us directly.\

That’s where i feel All Might is breath of fresh air. Because All Might is a person don’t simply inspire person accidentally, he active tries to do that actively. A good contrast i can think now is Captain America, That inspires people much more incidentally than actively: by being good, other people want to be good. But All might doesn’t act that, when he decided to be a hero, he knew society needed someone to hold them together, not by being good and nice and stopping criminals, but actively inspiring the young generation to be better and fight for peace and justice: to be the best person they can with others.

And where i feel hits me a way the feel characters can, is by putting him in a situation in which is hard to striver for that. All Might isn’t omnipotent, he’s dying and his days as a hero are counted. But he continues to move on because he knows he can inspire more people and perpetuate peace. All Might isn’t the number one because he was born number one, he is the number one because he strives for it, because he wants to inspire people. And that rings true to me, because you don’t need be perfect to impact people. You just need to try

That matters because it shows us that being a hero and inspiring others don’t simply because someone is good. It’s important that a person acts good. Because is very possible for someone being a good person and still do bad things. Heroic acts don’t come innately, you need to put effort to be good with others. And different from more cynical heroes may say, you don’t need to have a trauma do strive for things like peace and justice. You can fight for them simply because they’re things worth fighting for. And more important, that isn’t a battle that is won by being good, but is won by putting the effort of being good with others. You can be your best self with others