Why are martial art protagonists such jerks?

[The Cool Thatguy]

This seems to be the standard format of late, though I admit there aren't that many to choose from.

Danny Rand, for example, pretty much stole the most sacred/important weapon from the people who saved him, to run home and be an indecisive personal mess ruining the lives of his closest friends along the way. And probably getting the secret city that saved him, wiped out.

Sunny from Into the Badlands isn't as bad, but he's close. He follows a man he knows is insane, he allows the man to kill his girlfriend's parents, and stays loyal to him in an environment where Klingon Promotions are pretty much standard fair. He barely qualifies as an anti-hero, all things considered.

Lastly, we have Ah Sahm, from Warrior. Amazing show, and the most grounded of the three. Yet, when you step back, you see that he's easily the biggest douche of the three.

His arrogance forced his sister to marry a warlord who raped and beat her. She escapes to the U.S. and he follows to bring her back. After she makes it clear she won't return (and why should she? She's made a life for herself despite him), what does he do?

He joins her enemies, and stays with them despite multiple chances to leave. Hell, he holds a grudge from his fight with Li Yong, saying she tried to kill him when she begged him not to go through with the fight. His thoughtless actions forced her to marry a monster, and now he's actively trying to destroy her life after forcing himself into it.

And its not as if he's that loyal to Young Jun. His buddy has barely had a chance to settle in before Ah Sahm's debating replacing him as leader.

Finally, whupping Leary's ass might have done more harm than good, as he's the stand-in for the labor leader who got the Chinese exclusion act passed.

I'd bring up Johnny from Kobra Kai, but in fairness, him being a dick is acknowledged in the show and a part of his development. I just don't get why the rest are required to be such dicks.

Thoughts?

*Edit*

Just applying this to live action TV shows, not all genres, thanks

[CliffHanger2]

I don't know any of those chars except Rand who was a jerk. Outside of that most of them play nice guys who don't want any trouble till someone effs with them lol. Now how they are in RL that's a whole different story.

[basbash99]

Stephen Seagall always seemed like a jerk (well, at least his character did) in any of the movies i've seen with him.

But yeah, for the most part the trope is loner guy who tries to avoid trouble until they are forced into action

[80sbaby]

I don't know any of those chars except Rand who was a jerk. Outside of that most of them play nice guys who don't want any trouble till someone effs with them lol. Now how they are in RL that's a whole different story.

Well, Ah Sam kind of goes looking for trouble. It's one of his character flaws.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Stephen Seagall always seemed like a jerk (well, at least his character did) in any of the movies i've seen with him.

But yeah, for the most part the trope is loner guy who tries to avoid trouble until they are forced into action

Has that been the trope since Enter the Dragon, lol?

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I think it's a way to give them more characterization and make them less one note.

With Danny I think they wanted to deconstruct him but didn't really know what they were looking for. Which is a problem inherent to the comics. Danny never became a compelling solo lead and the show made it worse.

[CliffHanger2]

Well, Ah Sam kind of goes looking for trouble. It's one of his character flaws.

Yeah from what's been said about him. He sounds like a jerk.

[Killerbee911]

This seems to be the standard format of late, though I admit there aren't that many to choose from.

They aren't many martial art protagonists to choose from? This is incorrect the actual name of this topic is "why are martial artists on English streaming show about Martial Artist annoying to you". Now to the topic Danny Rand is stupid, not a jerk he is naively stupid. Sonny is not jerk, He was basically raised in a cult if remember correctly by the Baron all of his actions before he breakaways because was fully a part of the system.

Anyways this topic is bit of reach but they do have interconnect theme that honor or loyalty to code sometime leads to some counterproductive things. That is where you get your jerk stuff.

[Triniking1234]

This seems to be the standard format of late, though I admit there aren't that many to choose from.

Danny Rand, for example, pretty much stole the most sacred/important weapon from the people who saved him, to run home and be an indecisive personal mess ruining the lives of his closest friends along the way. And probably getting the secret city that saved him, wiped out.

Sunny from Into the Badlands isn't as bad, but he's close. He follows a man he knows is insane, he allows the man to kill his girlfriend's parents, and stays loyal to him in an environment where Klingon Promotions are pretty much standard fair. He barely qualifies as an anti-hero, all things considered.

Lastly, we have Ah Sahm, from Warrior. Amazing show, and the most grounded of the three. Yet, when you step back, you see that he's easily the biggest douche of the three.

His arrogance forced his sister to marry a warlord who raped and beat her. She escapes to the U.S. and he follows to bring her back. After she makes it clear she won't return (and why should she? She's made a life for herself despite him), what does he do?

He joins her enemies, and stays with them despite multiple chances to leave. Hell, he holds a grudge from his fight with Li Yong, saying she tried to kill him when she begged him not to go through with the fight. His thoughtless actions forced her to marry a monster, and now he's actively trying to destroy her life after forcing himself into it.

And its not as if he's that loyal to Young Jun. His buddy has barely had a chance to settle in before Ah Sahm's debating replacing him as leader.

Finally, whupping Leary's ass might have done more harm than good, as he's the stand-in for the labor leader who got the Chinese exclusion act passed.

I'd bring up Johnny from Kobra Kai, but in fairness, him being a dick is acknowledged in the show and a part of his development. I just don't get why the rest are required to be such dicks.

Thoughts?

He steals the Iron Fist powers in the Netflix version?

[The Cool Thatguy]

He steals the Iron Fist powers in the Netflix version?

He earned it, but when he was supposed to be protecting the entrance to Kun Lun, he decides to run off back home, leaving them defenseless against the Hand, because he had an early mid-life crisis

[Cyke]

I came here reading the title, ready to bring up Ah Sahm as contrary to the thread.

But nope, the logic above makes sense. I withdraw my objection.

[numberthirty]

Lemme see if I have this one straight...

Three completely modern examples really gives us any kind of a real idea of just who martial arts protagonists as a whole are?

I'm sure if we put a little collective effort into it we could find three protagonists who are jerks in most modern genres of film.

[Vakanai]

Clearly we need three martial artist protagonists to show them how to kick butt while being honorable and good - and we need it in one movie/series. That's right, we need to bring back the 3 Ninjas!

[The Cool Thatguy]

I came here reading the title, ready to bring up Ah Sahm as contrary to the thread.

But nope, the logic above makes sense. I withdraw my objection.

Yeah, Warrior is an amazing show on so many levels, but step back and Ah Sahm becomes an amazing douche.

Lemme see if I have this one straight...

Three completely modern examples really gives us any kind of a real idea of just who martial arts protagonists as a whole are?

I'm sure if we put a little collective effort into it we could find three protagonists who are jerks in most modern genres of film.

Actually, I meant to limit this to live action TV shows, not all genres.