My
speculations is around the character Ciaphas Cain from the series of books revolving
around him as I find him quite radically different from many other “Hero” characters
from other similar books.
Cain is a commissar
serving in the military force “The Imperial Guard” in the far distant future of
year 40,000. A commissar’s job is to ensure that discipline and morale is kept
in a military unit and since they stand outside the regular chain of command
they are free to punish and execute anyone they see fit. They are usually seen
as fanatics and are truly detested by most soldiers.
But then we
have Cain, who is everything a commissar shouldn’t be; he does his outmost to
avoid battle and acts friendly towards the soldiers he is supposed to keep an
iron grip on, since he believes that most commissar’s die by “accidental
friendly fire” than from actual enemies. He is also quite selfish as he often
favors to save himself than those around him, at least that’s what he wished he
could do since he often get in situations where if he doesn’t help those in
need he loses the trust of those around him and he is forced to risk his life
regardless.
All Ciaphas
Cain books are portrayed as if they are written by Cain himself in his older
days and serve as his memoirs and are both a funny and interesting aspect to it
since it allows the author to insert how Cain really felt in certain
situations.
Cain’s
deepest wish was to simply avoid conflict altogether but fate has it that when
fleeing from a battle he actually discovers an ambush planned by the enemy and
thanks to that it is avoided and Cain is pronounced a hero. Cain, who is quite
the intelligent man, uses this “false” title to his favor to try living the
good life but more often than not he just ends up in deeper trouble thanks to.
So what
makes this character so interesting his how he really is the “reluctant hero”
and Cain sees himself as nothing but a selfish bastard who tries to live of off
others and save his own miserable hide but still manage to save the day over
and over again.
It really
brings a human factor the “hero” since he doesn’t set out specifically to be
this hero and neither is he “destined” to be one like so many other characters,
Cain merely do what he can to save himself which ends up with the comedic effect
of him more or less saving the galaxy on a regular basis.
But he is
never fully portrayed as a coward either, since being the intellectual man that
he is knows just what power reputation brings and regardless of how often he
tells of how he would “run screaming like a rambling idiot” to avoid what he
needs to face he still stands up to fight and do what is necessary.
