I hate untouchable protagonists, so why do I like Bastard!!’s Dark Schneider?
Because he's a joke
One of the tropes I hate the most is the invincible hero— wait, wait, I like Kenshiro and Golgo 13 and Shigeru Akagi and— You know, let me change that statement.
There’s a certain type of invincible hero that I can’t stand. They’ve got powers on powers, and they’ve manifest any power the author hadn’t thought of as soon as it is necessary. The opposite sex (or whoever they prefer) falls to their irresistible charms instantly. In fact, these heroes get everything they want, always win, and rarely face genuine hardship except for the kind of formative trauma that ingratiates them to the audience and justifies their actions.
In video games, this character is often the player, and I must add that I loathe narratives that treat the player like a god.1 So of course I can’t stand narratives derived from video games whose sole purpose is to elevate the main character to a position of godhood. This is a lot of words to just say I can’t stand the average isekai guy2, huh?
So all that said, why do I like Dark Schneider, the invincible, irresistible lead of the Bastard!! series?
Because he’s a joke
Dark Schneider’s heroic flaws, and his heroic appeal, lie in the fact that he’s a dumbass. For his thousands of years of life, he acts like a ten-year-old boy. For all his magical power, he blows it indiscriminately for the hell of it. For all his good looks, he’s so vain that he goes around everywhere naked.
Dark Schneider is hilarious, in other words. That’s why he works. There is a focus in Bastard!! on creating an impossibly powerful and untouchable hero. There is also a greater focus on making sure we are having fun, and that’s why the series works.
There is a lot of fourth-wall breaking and winking at the camera in Bastard!!. It’s fully open about being ridiculous, from the absurdly dressed fantasy babes to mages chanting the names of metal singers at each other to cast their spells. The character frequently says directly to the viewer that he is the handsome, cool hero who will win in the end, and he’s right.
That being said, it’s indulgent stuff, and the source material is 30 years old. I mentioned the “fantasy babes”, who are generally either wearing bikini armor or a bedsheet. Sexy peril is common, the “suck the poison out” trope is shamelessly overapplied, and certain episodes of the TV series veer into softcore pornography.
It’s worth noting that the overwhelming opinion from people familiar with Bastard!! is that the TV series didn’t go far enough with sex and gore! It’s just that kind of work, and if you’re sensitive to any of that you may want to pretend you never saw this recommendation.
If you’re not, well, the Bastard!! TV series is on Netflix and I had a great time.
I genuinely think that an entertainment medium that repeatedly tells its audience that they, personally, are chosen-one heroes, inevitably wound up warping some minds. Ever watch “I Am A Gamer?” I think of it pretty much every time a game calls me God. ↩
I like Natsuki Subaru from Re:Zero because he’s an overconfident, mediocre schlub who thinks things are going to be easy, and because the story creates real struggle, conflict and growth for him. Also, the scene where Emilia tells him off is the hard truth the audience doesn’t want to hear. ↩
