On the Appeal of Daken
Apr. 17th, 2012 12:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
transemacabreDaken must surely be one of the most "love 'em or hate 'em" characters in comics. If you love him, you LOVE him (if not neccesarily admire him or make excuses for what he does; I've never known a fandom less prone to rationalizing their favorite character's evil deeds). If you hate him, he's a worthless psychopath who sets the portrayal of bisexuals in media back about twenty years.
This is not an apologia. This is just a discussion, from my viewpoint, of why I find Daken so intriguing as a character.
Daken is not a character you (universal you) is really meant to LIKE. And I'm not saying that in a "oh you plebeians can't ~understand~ the depth of his character" sense, I'm saying that he's a Complete Monster or very close to one.
That said, you really have to like the concept of the villain protagonist to be a Daken fan. Daken at his best is a fantastic schemer and its so much fun to see him play people like puppets on strings; but because he's also so nasty, when his plans go awry, as they often do, its satisfying to see him get his comeupance.
There's also the little matter of his sexuality. It's rare to see a male character wield his sexuality like a weapon in the manner Daken does; he's a male vamp. There's also the good old fashioned interplay of sex and violence that's so potent. One of the intriguing aspects to villainous characters is that they're inherently *pro-active*: they provide the passive heroes with a threat to move against. And as such, Daken is very aggressive and threatening, and that can be exciting to see.
It can hardly be overstated how much FUN it was to see Daken in the Dark Avengers. He hit on all his teammates. He thwarted Norman Osborn at every turn. When it all came crashing down, Daken abandoned them and escaped in style. I'd say most of Daken's fandom stems from this period.
Is there anything else to Daken than sex, mind games, and killing? Yes, its hard to find, but its there. Daken obviously has a soft spot for his dead mother, Itsu, whom he has never known. On a couple of occasions, we've seen him express something approaching sympathy or concern for young orphaned children (a state he knows all about). I'm not sure Daken is incapable of feeling real emotion other than hate, but I think Daken *thinks* he is.
This article brilliantly explains something about Daken's character that I have a hard time expressing. Dark romantic heroes are very appealing -- brooding, sexy, with wounded souls. They need salvation. There's also the hint of *danger* -- Edward Cullen is a vampire. Rochester is hiding a dark secret. But there's a reassurance to those stories because we, the readers, know that the heroine is their One True Love, that she will be the one to reach him. So there's implicit but never EXPLICIT danger.
Daken is the blackest version of the dark romantic hero. Everyone who meets Daken -- Mystique, Johnny Storm, his own father -- each and every one of them thinks, "I've got this guy figured out. I can handle this." And each and every one of them is WRONG. They can't handle Daken, they can't control him, and they can't change him. He's the dark romantic hero without a wounded soul to protect.
Daken is the EXPLICIT danger we all are fearful of in the classical dark romantic heroes. Rochester would never burn the house down with Jane in it and collect on the insurance. Edward would never pick his teeth with Bella's pinky bone. But Daken might very well destroy you. The only people he really cares about are himself and a dead woman. And as the article points out, there's always that potential in Daken, however slight, that he can be reformed, that he will meet someone who will get through to him. But knowing Daken, and knowing what he's capable of, would you want to be the person who THINKS s/he's The One... and turn out to be *wrong*?
In summation, Daken is not Made of Awesome nor is he a role model. He is, I believe, something quite special, and a great character to explore if you're intrigued by deviant psychology and villain protagonists.
This is not an apologia. This is just a discussion, from my viewpoint, of why I find Daken so intriguing as a character.
Daken is not a character you (universal you) is really meant to LIKE. And I'm not saying that in a "oh you plebeians can't ~understand~ the depth of his character" sense, I'm saying that he's a Complete Monster or very close to one.
That said, you really have to like the concept of the villain protagonist to be a Daken fan. Daken at his best is a fantastic schemer and its so much fun to see him play people like puppets on strings; but because he's also so nasty, when his plans go awry, as they often do, its satisfying to see him get his comeupance.
There's also the little matter of his sexuality. It's rare to see a male character wield his sexuality like a weapon in the manner Daken does; he's a male vamp. There's also the good old fashioned interplay of sex and violence that's so potent. One of the intriguing aspects to villainous characters is that they're inherently *pro-active*: they provide the passive heroes with a threat to move against. And as such, Daken is very aggressive and threatening, and that can be exciting to see.
It can hardly be overstated how much FUN it was to see Daken in the Dark Avengers. He hit on all his teammates. He thwarted Norman Osborn at every turn. When it all came crashing down, Daken abandoned them and escaped in style. I'd say most of Daken's fandom stems from this period.
Is there anything else to Daken than sex, mind games, and killing? Yes, its hard to find, but its there. Daken obviously has a soft spot for his dead mother, Itsu, whom he has never known. On a couple of occasions, we've seen him express something approaching sympathy or concern for young orphaned children (a state he knows all about). I'm not sure Daken is incapable of feeling real emotion other than hate, but I think Daken *thinks* he is.
This article brilliantly explains something about Daken's character that I have a hard time expressing. Dark romantic heroes are very appealing -- brooding, sexy, with wounded souls. They need salvation. There's also the hint of *danger* -- Edward Cullen is a vampire. Rochester is hiding a dark secret. But there's a reassurance to those stories because we, the readers, know that the heroine is their One True Love, that she will be the one to reach him. So there's implicit but never EXPLICIT danger.
Daken is the blackest version of the dark romantic hero. Everyone who meets Daken -- Mystique, Johnny Storm, his own father -- each and every one of them thinks, "I've got this guy figured out. I can handle this." And each and every one of them is WRONG. They can't handle Daken, they can't control him, and they can't change him. He's the dark romantic hero without a wounded soul to protect.
Daken is the EXPLICIT danger we all are fearful of in the classical dark romantic heroes. Rochester would never burn the house down with Jane in it and collect on the insurance. Edward would never pick his teeth with Bella's pinky bone. But Daken might very well destroy you. The only people he really cares about are himself and a dead woman. And as the article points out, there's always that potential in Daken, however slight, that he can be reformed, that he will meet someone who will get through to him. But knowing Daken, and knowing what he's capable of, would you want to be the person who THINKS s/he's The One... and turn out to be *wrong*?
In summation, Daken is not Made of Awesome nor is he a role model. He is, I believe, something quite special, and a great character to explore if you're intrigued by deviant psychology and villain protagonists.
