Modern Beowulf

Beowulf, a timeless hero (with traits some may not like) who in many ways is like the archangel Micheal, fighting for God in the war for good and evil. While not the first hero to be recognized for achievements such as killing Dragons, humanly beasts and their mothers, he is one that is highly read about and discussed because of his still modern connection to the Christian God. Along with this, one can argue the good and evil, justice and revenge, justifications of actions, and all that in this epic. There are some heroes, in fact many, that could be seen under same lights. Scott Pilgrim from the Scott Pilgrim series as well as Asukura Yoh from the Shaman King series are two examples that could easily fit under this.

Scott Pilgrim is basically a twenty-three year old who fights seven evil exes, each with inhumanly powers and abilities, of the girl of his dreams (quite literally). Basic, however there is more to this. While having to fight the seven exes, he discovers more about his "true love" and questions the justifications of wanting to fight all of them for her, who he learns is terrible during relationships. Risking his life, and learning about the justifications of his past actions are things he also learns through his journey. No where near connected to God, readers still learn the depth of this character and how "great" he is, how he never was really fighting for her, but more for himself, wanting to find a way to be happy, wanting to have pride in some sort of accomplishment. Just like Beowulf who did everything for fame, Scott did everything to be happy, not for money, not for the girl only, but for the pleasure of truly finding happiness when his life was all dung since the beginning. Love him or hate him, he redeems himself near the end, giving everyone he wronged proper closure, something his foil, Ramona Flowers, could not do, and being a true hero, even though he didn't care who he hurt in the beginning to get there, just like Beowulf did in order to beat Grendel.

 

Asukura Yoh is more of a different story. he is more connected to God, well the Great Spirit as they refer to in the series. He is meant to fight in order to control this great power and grant his true wish, to live the life where everything is good. While being completely different from Beowulf in terms of their willingness to kill,  he still has one thing that drives him to do things beyond the power of t humans, only being rivaled by those of a God. Throughout his story there are moments were there are questions of whether or not good should kill and still be considered good, or whether they're just as bad as the evil. These questions are asked alongside Beowulf's story, where it questions whether or not it is right for him to kill a mother who only wants her son's arm back, a person who's been outcasted only because of his blood line, and if him doing all this for glory still makes him a good guy. Yoh sees this more first hand without having to experience the way of killing, trying to keep himself calm and focused and not angry or bitter about situations. Yoh still has traits of a hero, but more so the positive ones than the negative ones that Scott Pilgrim and Beowulf both share.