Sweet Surrender to the Hero Complex

Official Destiny E3 — New Beginnings

Ah yes.  Catering to the hero complex in all of us.  Not just catering to it, but creating it.  That is what games do essentially.  They build a realm, real enough that it demands your devotion, but just beyond the real as well, just enough so as to stroke into a purring rhythm the heartbeat of your imagination.

Fantasy games are fun for this reason precisely.  They grant you an escape from the day to day meanderings of reality.  They grant you access to another world, defined by its own rules, defied by its own villains, decried or deferred to by its own heroes.  But they also grant you a position of rank, power and meaning within that world.  A position worthy of Destiny itself.

Which is precisely what this commercial does.  It begins by revolutionizing the ordinary.  Humanity’s search for new frontiers has become something of a specialized field, which the average yo-yo cares little for apart from the new and up and coming.  And probably that too only bears little weight in our already weighed down (by abundant and largely useless information) psyches, except when the new tidbit of cosmic revelation is immediately relevant to our infinitesimal existence caught up in series of insignificant orbits.  A case in point, the Facebook Page:  “When I was a kid, Pluto was a planet.”  Ah yes.  How these few words will resound unto eternity for an entire generation—the speed with which progress was made in our lifetime—the speed with which we became irrelevant—sigh—but I digress.

Back to the point:

It begins by revolutionizing the ordinary.  Planets, entire swathes of space charted.  The scientific beauty of navigation an allure in and of itself.  The mathematical mapping of the stars and the planets calligraphic in style.  Swirls and twirls, breaths of air, amidst hard, immovable points of location.  The cold facts of science donned in the glory of poetry.

Destiny beckoned from the far reaches of space to grant mere humanity the provision of significance.  “It was our destiny to walk in the light of other stars.”  The sun a mere star.  Our surrounding stars a mere happenstance of our fate.  Ourselves.  Apart from fate itself.  Destiny had enriched us with a purpose to traverse the landscape of fortune and claim its full force for ourselves.

What power there is in purpose.

The traveler has granted us this significance (propelled by Madame Destiny undoubtedly).  Given us knowledge and skills to traverse the landscape of space and, indeed, claim it as our own.  Life is thriving—Venus, Mars, Mercury—gardens in space.  The prospect of a fertile fate of an entity by definition a barren landscape:  Space.  A final frontier.   No more.  The terrain is no longer treacherous.  No longer unknown.  It is teeming with the mark of humanity’s endeavours.  “Human life span has tripled.”  Life. Immortality.  We are on the verge of godhood.

The soft glow of light:  Illumination.  Not revelation exactly.  No.  Illumination: a revelatory respite of a soft nature.  One that doesn’t elicit balking and excitement but awe and inspiration.  Science cloaked in wonder:  A rare combination–The highest order of illumination.

And the voiceover, soothing yet authoritative.  A Prophetic Voice.

And then the voiceover changes.  Retains still a soothing quality, but becomes more robotic in lilt.  The Prophetic quality fades, the prospect of peace fades with it.  Now it is technology that shall save us.  Technology that thrives in the face of an all-usurping onslaught.

For once the gaming universe is established, laid out for your admiration and adulation.  Once that breath of fresh air has hit you square in the face, its fragrance settled into the very pores of your being, then comes the threat.  The overwhelming, suffocating, all devouring threat (of course.  Why couldn’t life be simple?)

But the threat in and of itself is, without name.  Without allegiance.  Without intent.  Beyond that of its nature of course.  For the threat is nothing specific.  It is neither human nor other.  It is very simply darkness.  Just: Darkness.  The entity that seeks to annihilate the beauty of human light is simply the fundamentally opposing opponent thereof:  Darkness.

Who can’t get behind that cause?

(Notice, before the voiceover changes, the octopus like trailing serpentine formations that seek to suffocate the delicate, delineations of our star maps.  The battle isn’t just of darkness against light.  It is of intricacy and complexity against uniformity and obscurity—Lovely).

And then the hero complex hits full force.  “That was the end of everything.  That is.  Until I found you.”  “That’s why I’ve been looking for you for centuries.”  You are the one who bears the light of the traveler (whatever that is—sounds good though, eh?).  You are the one who can bear the burden of the fight.  Is destined to bear that burden.  Destiny marked you out centuries ago.  The veil of obscurity lifted to reveal Destiny’s intent.  You are a rare specimen, forged by time itself, tempered by fate herself.  You are:  Guardian of the Light.

And where would a hero be without a purpose?  Oh Ye Guardian, the trailer trumpets:  the darkness is encroaching.  Its sole aim to devour all that humanity has struggled and striven for.  Its sole aim to destroy what light there is in the Universe.  Its sole aim to devour humanity itself.  So.  Not only is our species implied to be the centre and light of the universe, which of course makes all human souls tingle with relief at our superb significance.  But to top it all off:  You.  Are.  The One.  The One who shall stand the final stand.  The fate of humanity lies in your hands.  (And/Or your X-Box—yup—the signia of Destiny is your control panel).  You must fight The Fight.  Protect the light from the darkness.  Fight for humanity—for all that it represents.  For all that it yearns for.  For all that it aspires to.  For all that it hopes for.  For all those who inhabit earth:  You are their sole deliverer.

So, ultimately, you, via a game consul and through a cognitive excursion into a phenomenally imagined and technologically riveting production of a universe, are vested with a responsibility and significance that eludes even the most successful people in reality.  For the promise of glory that cloaks your person isn’t a glory of wealth or power or success in and of itself.  It is above and beyond these things.  It runs deeper, demands greater devotion, is worthy of such devotion.  Your purpose is to fight and fight hard for a cause worth fighting for.  No ifs, buts, or grey areas.  Light against darkness.  Simple.  Take up the fight.  Fight hard in the name of the light.  For all that stands between the darkness and its usurpation of the light is you.  Destiny awaits you.

What an extraordinary and epic effort at creating the gem of a self-effacing celebrity.  For who doesn’t yearn for such significance in life?  Who doesn’t desire such profound purpose?  Such clarity in endeavor?

The world around you dissolves with all its clinging, meaningless, mundane problems.  You are a participant in a cosmic battle.  You are the participant in the cosmic battle.

BUT:  You know.  No pressure.

After all, it’s just a game.  Which is precisely why you seek its refuge.  Away from all that dulls you.  Away from the burdens that break you.  Away from demands that daunt you.

Glory rid of its political trappings.

Military might in its simplest, most evocative form:  Light against Darkness.

Join the fight.

I’m not a gamer.  But I’m a sucker for the promise of release from the mundane and immersion in the significant.  I might just go out and buy this thing:  Oh yes.  And Destiny. The pull of destiny is undeniable.  Who doesn’t want to believe that they are not just aspiring to greatness—but are destined for it?  Indeed: Destiny.  Become Legend.  The hero complex.  There is no sweeter drug than indulgence in the hero complex.  No sweeter marketing tactic than the promise of such sweet indulgence.