Speculations around character

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.