Are Spooks not total heroes?

[lwhite53]

(21-01-2010 08:55 PM)bertowud Wrote:  I'd argue they're not heroes or anti heroes. They're people doing their job. Their job however requires them to risk their lives repeatedly, so they are heroic. They are like heroes.

Yes, they are definitely heroic -- imperfect people with all of their personal and professional baggage, trying to do an impossible job within a set of tightly defined guidelines that can sometimes limit their effectiveness, and doing the best they possibly can even when they cross lines that shouldn't be crossed.

Are they heroes? No, I don't think so -- heroes are those "white hat" idealizations that we posit exist, but really don't. Heroes are created to be perfect, so being that way isn't really hard for them. But the spooks crew aren't perfect by any stretch of one's imagination and were never meant to be.