Too much GAR?

Imagine this.

While the battle raged outside, and the blood of his comrades spilled the very ground – the dark man unhesitantly reaches for the tome. The dark codex, a demonic book filled with the malice of its infernal creators. He knew this. But he couldn’t stop now – he remembered the face of his beloved, his daughter, and the thousand years he spent in that hellish prison. All because a demon had tricked him – tricked him and destroyed everything he held dear.

Bolstered by the memory, he reaches for the book and opens it.

A great force suddenly erupted from the book, like winds echoing distant abyssal curses, promising thousands of painful deaths and tortures to the man. It struck him like a physical force, and instinctively he knew why so many people before him fell to this foul power.

“NO!!” he cried, “You will be mine! Nothing can stop me before I get what I want from you!” he challenged the book, and forced upon it his entire will, and just one tiny mistake and he will fall. “I’ve lived through centuries in the Ninth layer of hell, and none of your blasphemies scare me. I cannot be denied!”

“You’ve been watching too much GAR.” said the Gamemaster.

“Sorry,” I said. “Yes, actually… I’ve just been watching too much Bleach. But a GAR scene is just too cool to pass up.”

Yes, actually thats roughly how the gaming session went just a few hours ago. And it did make me stop and think – yes, actually I have been watching too much GAR. And for those unfamiliar with the internet memes, GAR is, for the most part, anything that is considered the epitome of manliness.

As Encyclopedia Dramatica succintly says… “GAR occurs when a man’s strength, courage, and all-round badass quotient are too high for ordinary mortals to resist.” Urban dictionary states that GAR is “a term used towards male characters and individuals who are so overwhelmingly manly that your own masculinity is absolutely *buried*, leaving you naught but a whimpering, swooning girl-child before them.” And my favorite complete with a Latin translation… Lurk Moar’s definition… “It has been described as a neologism of the Latin “virtus”, an ancient (and forgotten) Roman concept glorifying men who strive for a life of courage, self-sacrifice, cunning, overcoming the impossible and honoring those who die a worthy death.”

But its true, while a lean more into the cold and silent type of protagonists… whenever I actually watch I end up rooting for the hotblooded hero. The strong, sarcastic, sardonic hero that never show any weakness. Bishies, Emos, and the 90’s antiheroes were all yesterday’s news.

Now the biggest hero seems to be the GAR.

Kurosaki Ichigo of Bleach was GAR. Guts of Berserk was GAR. Ginko of Mushishi was GAR.

It even extends to non animes. Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man was GAR. Maximus the ‘Merciful’ of Gladiator was GAR. And just about everybody in 300 was GAR.

Also, it extends to other genres, and always these types of characters are the ones most celebrated by fans, and become fan favorites. Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid series (Video Games) was GAR. Artemis Entreri of Forgotten Realms (Roleplaying game/novel) was GAR – rare for an antihero, and Conan the Barbarian of the selfnamed group of stories has been GAR personified for decades, to the point of being one of the very first (if not the first) in recent history.

It’s amazing just how many from the silverscreen and off it that show up to adapt such a concept. While it seems to be a vague internet meme that not everyone would recognize, or perhaps even an ancient Latin tradition that is long forgotten… the epitome of heroism and awesomeness is just too great to ignore. Almost every director aims their heroes to be badass, but very few really reach it (Snipes’ Blade was a failure, but obviously trying to be GAR, and any Vin Diesel movie similarly failed in this regard.) – primarily because the power of GAR is to make the person human, yet become bigger than human. Those that come off as inhuman, or too cold, or too detached become somewhat lesser heroes, no matter how badass they can be.

The idea of GAR is dampening and strengthening, I have to say… because it both limits the human potential – making men cringe at the heroism displayed before them, and also to strengthen it – by proposing that men are indeed capable of such if they harness great courage.

A “Badass quotient too high for ordinary mortals to resist?” I think not. I am an idealist, and I believe real men can achieve such greatness if pushed. Unfortunately, I also believe man can achieve such depravity when similarly pushed in the opposite direction. I have to admit the concept of GAR has me interested… not only conceptually, but of its seemingly garish effect in the fiction industry.

BOY meets GIRL may be a universal truth… but someday within that line BOY may meet GAR. And who knows what’ll happen. Whatever it is, I’m sure someone out there would be swooning, whimpering, and sobbing uncontrollably in flush admiration. That’s just how it is to be GAR.