noahspud

Your comments on Iron Man not doing enough for the world are very interesting. Tony Stark is, canonically, a futurist. He’s all about trying to predict the future so he can prepare for it. In business, it’s so he can offer a potential solution to a future problem or need and thus make profit from his ability to predict. As a superhero, it’s about anticipating the next big threat and preparing, in his case, suits of armor ready to protect him and the people he loves. This leads to PTSD in Iron Man 3, creating something he can’t control in Age of Ultron, a desire to restrict other superheroes in Civil War, and a general obsession by the time of Infinity War with taking on the big threat… himself!
This brings me to your point. Iron Man was very future-oriented, but a little too egotistical to think about passing the torch or even swallowing his pride for the sake of teamwork.
Of course, in the end, stories like these wouldn’t be nearly as effective or, to be blunt, profitable for movie studios if the main characters were quick to step down. They’re built with great heroic traits as well as personal flaws to work out over the course of their story arcs, and they need to remain in the spotlight for the sake of those story arcs.

Hello, everyone. In case you’ve read all the way down to this part of the page, you might be interested in this other Artifice article by Emskithenerd: https://the-artifice.com/byronic-hero/
Byronic heroes seem remarkably similar to villain protagonists, so it’s easy to confuse the two concepts. Indeed, many of the commenters on my article have made that very mistake. Read Emski’s article, and perhaps you’ll better understand the distinction.

Well done, Emski. For everyone who read my article about villain protagonists and tried to suggest example characters: this is the category most of those suggestions would belong in. And this article is a great addition to that discussion. (Shameless plug, I know, but most of what I would actually comment here is already in that article.)

Cool. I was a little confused because your first comment has nothing to do with a Biblical, Godly worldview. At all. But your second comment seems to suggest you’ve had a tough life that has colored your philosophy, and it’s good that you have God to hang onto throughout all that.
Also, you say you have no one to talk to about all this? Find a church. Many of them are full of people ready, willing, and able to love you unconditionally, do life with you, and help you understand the crazy parts.
Thoughts and prayers, Orion.

P.S. God loves you. It’s agape, unconditional love and interest for your well-being, although it’s also storge because he is very familiar with you and cares about you like a child. Consider making him your Father. You won’t regret it.

Ooooooh, friend. You are just asking for some kind of response with that comment. But how do I respond to that?
First of all: wow. You achieved what writers dream of; you made a character with a life and a thought process that you didn’t have complete conscious control of. You made an imaginary person who could tell you things you didn’t consciously know. That is awesome.
Secondly, the answer to all those questions you asked is God. If you don’t know God, it’s understandable you would come to this unusual conclusion. But you should really consider the Bible for answers. Here’s a rundown.
Your consciousness, with all its inexplicable parts unrelated or unsatisfied by the physical world – that’s called a soul. It was created by God. And yes, it is a unique, beautiful creation.
If you feel like a character in a story, that’s because you were once an idea in the mind of God, and he put you here to be a part of HIS story. We don’t get to know all the details of how the story fits together right now, but it will all make sense when our souls leave this temporary world and enter eternity.
(And if you trust in God’s Son as your savior your eternity will be awesome, but if you don’t then your eternity will suck big time.)
God’s plan for your life involves the other people in it. They are indeed real, just like you. Please don’t miss out on them. Enjoying fantasy people is okay as long as they don’t pull you away from the real world too much.
Thank you for the input. I really appreciate it. And by all means, reply again with more questions or comments.

Good point. Sounds like you might like the other article I wrote, about looking at stories from the villain’s perspective. These stories tend to make bad guys sympathetic and/or relatable and maybe even likable or lovable. https://the-artifice.com/antagonist-centered-stories/

What an interesting way to consider this issue. Well done.
Both X-men and AI are based on the idea that people are ultimately improving. Of course, the alternative is we were better when we started, several thousand years ago, and we’re just getting worse. But AI could be viewed through that lens, too. Just as humanity rebelled against our Creator, there’s a decent chance that any version of intelligent life we build will want to rebel against us. See also Ex Machina and Solo: A Star Wars story.