Motivation for Protecting Loved Ones.

One of the standard reasons for a hero to fight is for the sake and safety of those close to him or her; family, friends etc. It's a rather altruistic goal, but what if it somehow isn't?

The protagonist of one of my stories wishes to protect his family—-his mother, father, and younger sister—-as well as his friends, but not exactly for their sake. He doesn't want them to suffer, sure, but he also views them as his. No one is allowed to harm or hurt them, because that would be inflicting pain on him.

What do you think about such a motivation?

It's fine, I guess. Not the most heroic reason if the protagonist is saying that openly, but it's a good enough reason nonetheless.

Heck, I'll let you in on a secret: many of the seemingly selfless things we do are truly selfish and are only seen as selfless because we manage to present them as selfless.

Case in point, protecting loved ones. You can give whatever reason you want to the people around you, but in the end it always boils down to "I don't want to lose them". And the "I" is the most important part here. Because you aren't exactly doing it for their sake, rather it's because you don't want to see them harmed for whatever reason that makes you protect them, their decision about the protection be damned. And that makes it selfish.

Likewise, you may help people for no reward and say it is selfless, but you are truly doing it because you desire appreciation from others, because your selfish whim right then and there is to be appreciated and that is your way of achieving it.

Of course there are exceptions, yes. But those are exceptions rather than the norm. So for as long as the justification is decent, it doesn't matter if it's selfish or not ... well, outside of the PR it gives.


Heh, in my story, though the protagonist's party will generally do decent things, their reasons for doing good aren't exactly selfless: one does it for revenge, another to escape her family (not that she hates them or anything, but she certainly didn't think how they feel about it), another does it more or less to gain more power for himself, and one does it for honour (which takes us back to the second one of my examples)

edited 22nd Oct '15 12:06:51 PM by Kazeto

Thanks for the reply. I agree with you wholeheartedly about the "selfless" things people do. In fact, the story in question sort of became an Author Tract rant against the idea of altruism and a lot of the moral ideals present in society today. At least before I sort of scaled it back and returned it back to what it was supposed to be about, lol.

The protagonist doesn't exactly say this aloud; it's more something that he eventually admits internally—-he is afraid of losing the ones he loves and keeps them close because the pain he'll feel if they are hurt in any way. To be fair, this is part of his Character Development—his lover is suddenly and brutally murdered in front of his eyes and he develops this possessive attitude towards his remaining loved ones after this.