#it's always the same trifecta of don't lose hope for better days and don't become the people you're fighting against

[randomnameless]

I recently watched some TV and happened on Amazon's Fallout tv show -

I never played the games but I think ultimately it didn't matter that much since the series is pretty self-explanatory, but what I really liked is how the heroine, despite being backstabbed, betrayed and insulted for like, the majority of her time "outside" in the post apocalyptic world where people excuse this sort of behaviour as "doing whatever it takes to survive", she still remains the kind of person who upholds, whenever she can, the values from her sheltered life (lol) in a peaceful community of mutual aid and refuses - unless necessary - to behave like the people who mistreated her.

There's a scene where someone, who used her as a bait to lure a giant mutated fish, forced her to drink radioactive water and I think it's implied had her indulge in cannibalism, sells her to people who traffic human organs in exchange for some medicine - the heroine survives but when she sees her former captor on the ground, on death's door because of the lack of medicine, she still gives him some, because she still believe in the rule she was taught, to not inflict on someone the things you wouldn't want to be inflicted on yourself.

And I liked how this positive/naive way - at odds with the general atmosphere from this "post nuclear world" - is portrayed with shady group of people whom you are led to believe engage in human experimentations and want to keep a secret at all costs... but when the heroine discovers this secret and is found out, the shady group of people, far from executing her... just throw her out of their community, and give her food/drinks to survive outside.

Ultimately, when she meets the person who is the reason why she had to live her "shelter/vault" and venture outside, because that person kidnapped her father and killed people living in her vault - instead of killing her or planting a bomb in the, uh, thing she was supposed to exchange for her father, again, asks her to please return her dad in exchange for the "thing she brought".

Of course plot happens - but where I expected some "I had some life experiences and now I'm #badass and #jaded and #sweareverytenwordstoshowhowbadassibecame", I was pleasantly surprised when it wasn't the case.

Maybe it's just the first season and it'll change later on.

And I compared this to the few episodes of some random indian tv show where we follow two policemen dealing with terrorists setting bombs -

In true "early 2000" shows, the officers don't hesitate to, uh, break the protocol and use force to interrogate people - to the point of, when they have to interrogate a grandpa suspected of money laundering, they pick his grandson at school and bring him to the warehouse where grandpa is being interrogated, which makes grandpa talk, of course because the policemen brought grandson as a thinly veiled threat... - and I thought we were back in the era of "gritty" antiheroes who do "bad stuff" but for the "greater good" so they get a pass -

I still don't know if the writers intended to convey this message, but karma striked back when, one of the policeman has to corner a terrorist who, in turn, uses a kid as a hostage.

Of course, being a "nice" person, he puts the kid's safety above his own, much like the grandpa who talked to protect his grandkid, and the terrorist got what he wanted - the policeman was killed, much like the policeman got his intel after threatening grandpa - and didn't kill the kid afterwards.

If you use a kid as a hostage, what makes you think the same thing can't happen to you?

Coupled with the fact that his operation to arrest/corner the terrorists was mounted "outside" of the proper regulations and organisations, because they wanted to strike fast - meant they had no backup and ultimately ended up in a mess, with the death of one of the two policemen and the terrorist escaping - and this is a valid point that is, well, brought out by the female lead to which the surviving policeman has nothing to reply, because she's right.

(I keep my expectations low for the next episodes because of experience)

Anyways, watching those two series really lampshaded that I'm too old for the #dark and #gritty and #realism, and I'm maybe not the only one.

Being kind/nice hero is always harder than becoming dark/jaded antihero, but hey, at the end of the day, if you complain about murdered babies when you already murdered some, are you fighting for the "greater good" or are you just a hypocrite?