Trope talk and "realism"

I stumbled upon a youtube channel called Overly Sarcastic Productions that does a series called "trope talk". I watched a few of their videos that reference Superman. And wow – they really put some of my issues with "gritty" Superman stories into way better words than I have ever been able to. Particularly this one called "Realism" is great. 

This post isn't going to be much beyond just heavily quoting the video, but it was just so goood.

"Not to open a can of worms or anything, but let's take a tentative look at the DC cinematic universe, specifically their portrayal of Superman. This is a superhero who has never shown a motivation to protect humanity. It, honest-to-God, feels like the writers forgot to give him a reason to do what he does. In Batman v Superman, it's supposed to be a big thing that the people have turned on him and he loses his public favor, but we've never seen any evidence that he had public favor. We never see any ordinary people doing anything that had convinced Superman that they were worth his time. Everyone is a jerk! His parents tell him not to help people because the world's not ready for him, and then they tell him not to help people because they don't owe him anything. And frankly, all we see are people being angry and ungrateful for reasons the movie forgets to solidly establish."

Yes! This! So great to hear it put into words. It's one thing that they forget to establish a personality for Clark, and then there's the fact that he has absolutely no reason to be Superman.

Next, she talks about how Superman could have been portrayed as "continuing to be nice" even when everyone is a jerk. This isn't really the way I would handle it though. He's still a human (you know what I mean), and continuing to be a "paragon" through that much dislike and opposition just would be too unrealistic. 

"But because the reality of grimdark filter is so strong, we don't get that Superman. We get a grumpy, emotionally destitute bargain bin Batman–"

Oh my god, my thoughts exactly. If you want Batman so bad, write a Batman story!

"–who begrudgingly saves humanity with no regard for casualties and no motivation to protect humanity beyond his girlfriend. And that's another thing: one of the tenants of modern realism is that all motivations have to be petty. In Man of Steel, Superman travels the world looking for a purpose in life and finds one when he runs into Lois Lane. Sure, his alien dad tells him he was sent to Earth to guide its people, but that's not a motivation. It's a stated purpose. 'Hey, Superman. Why do you save people? Well, my dad told me to.' No! That's weak as hell!"

This is such a huge pet peeve of mine. Clark should make the decision to be Superman. Himself.

I feel like this was a bit of a problem in Smallville as well (though I'm not sure how well I remember that). Everyone keeps telling Clark that "he has a destiny". Clark does make most of the decisions to help purely on his own in that show though, but still. I feel like the character is only truly, properly "Superman" when it's his choice. That he just wants to help.

"A good chunk of [Watchmen] is devoted to showing us the failure of humanity, the dregs of the population, and all that nasty stuff. It looks like the pinnacle of modern grimdark, an onslaught of misery and realistic examinations of the dark face of humanity. BUT! The book is subverting this! Because in the middle of all the broad-strokes definitions of humanity is corrupt and cruel, you know, in between all these living gods' making decisions about humanity as a whole for the greater good, the book shows us little moments of the good amid the bad. It's a little thing but a very deliberate inclusion. Alan Moore, for all his love of gritty realism, very deliberately shows us some kindness in the lives of ordinary humanity. Kindness that Ozymandias and Dr Manhattan can't see, can't take into account because they don't exist on that level."

I'd love to see a Superman story that shows him travelling, experiencing the world, and while it sucks sometimes, he keeps seeing reasons to care about people.