Post 123: Counterpoint - Hercules

I was trying to find plot holes for this series, and so many are truly impossible to fill. But this movie has a plot hole that I think with my background in Philosophy and old TV shows can be filled in no time.

Movie: Hercules

Plot hole: How was saving Meg what made Hercules a true hero when he had already risked his life on a number of occasions for more people who meant nothing to him. (i.e. when he went up against the Hydra to save the town's people even after they ridiculed him, when he saved Meg from the Centaur before he was interested in her, etc.)

Well, I think this goes back to my old TV show knowledge. ( Charmed ). More specifically the episode of Charmed on the Seven Deadly Sins. I don't remember the exact line, but it was something along the lines of "there is no selfless deed to pride".

Everything Hercules did before he saved Meg from the Underworld was towards his dream of becoming a hero, from saving her the first time to saving the town's people. It didn't matter that he risked his life or genuinely wanted to help them, because in the back of his mind every action was always attributed to his desire to prove himself a hero and gain glory. 

When he risked facing death to save Meg, it was fully selfless. He didn't think he would survive. He didn't care, so it was the first act where he was fully putting himself towards a selfless act. 

If he died, he would never be a God. But, even though it meant giving up on everything, he still put Meg before himself. 

So, I think that is what I have wrapped it up as. Not that what he did before wasn't heroic, but that because he only set off to be a hero and do heroic deeds to benefit himself and become a God, it wasn't until he made a choice that wasn't so much heroic as human that he was able to be truly selfless and prove himself a "true hero".

Post 115: Counterpoint - Mulan

So, as some of you may know, I have a series dedicated to finding the plot holes in things. In this post, I am going to be doing the opposite. I am going to try and fill the plot hole in.

The plot hole I am going to be working with today? Mulan. 

Recently, I stumbled across a post on a blog that was dedicated to the 7 biggest movie plot holes. Mulan was listed, because Mulan was sent home for not being able to keep up with the other men. It was pointed out that her father would not have done any better, he could barely walk without his cane and therefore definitely wouldn't have been able to run with them. 

Definitely seems like a big plot hole, so let's see if we can't fill it in. 

The best explanation I can come up with other than 'its just a movie, don't over think it' is seniority. Her father had a suit of armor just sitting in a closet. So, he had obviously been to war before. Mulan, or "Ping", was a new recruit who had never seen battle or been trained for battle. 

So, my guess is that her father would not have gone through the same kind of training. He would have more likely been recruited as an officer or general. Perhaps, he would even be responsible for some of the training. 

If he was of a higher rank, he would most likely not have needed to face the same tests - therefore, it wouldn't have mattered that he couldn't run, because they wouldn't make him run. 

I think this point is further supported in that none of the other people Mulan is training with are older. They are almost all relatively young men. So, my guess is that older men, were sent somewhere else to train.

Or did not need the same training as their younger counterparts. 

Either way, he would have been in danger because he would be leaving the safety of his own home to go out to where the battle was being fought. And since he handed his cane away, it might have implied he was the type to push himself too far and end up getting himself hurt just by not properly taking care of himself. So, Mulan's actions still made sense as a way of protecting her father. 

In conclusion, I say it was not a plot hole. Just something that went unexplained.