Heel Turn

I finally got around to watching some Avengers movies recently (there's a lot of them!) including Black Panther, Thor: Ragnorak, and Dr. Strange (all the new, cool flashy ones!) and have to admit they're quite good, and the addition of new characters adds new appeal to the series and allows us to enjoy their individual backstories before being thrust onto the big stage of something like Avengers: Infinity War. The problem, though, is that there's now too many superheroes! My main thing is, if these superheroes are so awesome, why do they need like 20 of them to fend off one bad guy! I get that Thanos is all-powerful and has the infinity stones and all that, but it kind of devalues the superheroes if they're getting whooped by this one guy, plus their abilities seem to be less "special" when they all get together, most of them having some sort of laser as a weapon, great athleticism, ability to recover quickly, etc., there's less differentiation (which is why I love Antman, flipping the script of the bigger the better around). If this was WWE wrestling, there would be a perfect solution to this: a heel turn. Make one of the superheroes turn bad, no matter if it's just temporarily or caused by some sort of disturbance in their life like loss of a loved one, etc. The audience loves dynamic personalities, and what's more dynamic than turning bad into good, or good into bad?


In life there's plenty of heel turns, and in sports my perception of certain sports teams and figures has changed significantly. I used to LOVE the Boston Red Sox in high school for some reason (despite growing up in suburban Chicago and having no affiliation to their team) due to the curse of not having won a championship, the movie Fever Pitch, the Green Monster, so much so I started trying to have a Boston accent in high school (I was a weird kid in high school) and wrote about loving Nomar Garciappara in my SAT essay portion. I reviled in the Red Sox's 2004 championship run, beating their archnemesis Yankees in epic comeback fashion en route to the World Series. But then..... the Red Sox became not so loveable anymore, having a championship. Then they won again in 2007. And 2013. They suddenly went from the have-nots to the haves, the underdogs to the hated favorites, the class nerd to the captain of the football team, the Red Sox into the......Yankees? (always winning). That's a very prototypical path of a heel turn: finally accomplish the goal that you were always gunning for so that there's no other path, become arrogant and cocky, people flock to someone else who is now the underdog.

To me, Conor McGregor has become that for the UFC. (I've become a fan of mixed martial arts recently, it's a stark contrast to the ball sports that I grew up watching, hand to hand combat is just such a different discipline with different stakes involved). People loved Conor because of his brash attitude on his way to the top and quick wit, striking daggers at his opponents with one-liners and a devil-may-care attitude. He finally won the UFC Featherweight Champion, and then the UFC Lightweight championship on top of that to become a double champion, and everyone loved him for it! But now, his antics of intimidating his opponents, wild antics, have been overplayed, especially since he put innocent people in danger with attacking a bus, constantly acting in his own best interest, not for the fans. Basically, everything that he used to do which people loved him for, now become what people dislike him for, mainly because he's already had the success, made millions of dollars. It's such an interesting study of two sides of the same coin, except for the part where they've accomplished their goals. People can resonate with people who have been oppressed and working uphill fighting for their dreams, but most people can't identify with those who have already achieved their dream, sadly because most of us won't be able to achieve our dream (it's always the chase that thrills us). For me, Conor McGregor is now the heel and the villain of the story, and I am rooting for him to lose tonight to instill some humility, and maybe, just maybe, make him likable again.



Another thing that's had a heel turn: my bladder. I remember being able to hold it and not having to go to the restroom for many hours; those were the good ol' days apparently! Nowadays I feel the urge much more quickly. I guess it's how life goes: pretty soon it'll be my hair, my knees, all different parts of my body. You talk about working to achieve a goal, my dream now is just to go the whole night sleeping without having to wake up to pee. It disturbs the sleep!

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan