Having read both arguments, for and against, I say he qualifies for Jerk with a Heart of Gold. If he only wanted to reload and regroup, he wouldn't qualify, but even he can see a loosing battle, and tries to save his troupes rather than be blinded by revenge.
Might as well be, hope there's more character development in the next sequel, like Took a Level in Kindness perhaps? He's still not the nicest guy by any means. Just because he does care does not make him a hero and not a single life saved, and almost nobody survived Godzilla's attack as mentioned, heart of gold would just be stretching it.
Edited by trainhobovegas
Out of all the main reason why I deleted the trope is because I am hoping to debate about it or at least someone else change it with a better sentence. At least he didn't go full on captain ahab. After looking back on the Expy being similar to the latter, in the end at least he cares.
Edited by trainhobovegas
Personally, I think this page is way too rough on Haruo. There are arguably rational reasons for his decisions. Sure, they could have landed on the opposite side of the planet from Godzilla — but then it would've been just a matter of time before he found the settlement and destroyed it. They could have founded a colony on the moon, but then they'd still be vulnerable to the same resource shortages they faced on the ship. And that's before they found out that Godzilla's basically taken over the entire ecosystem! So I don't get why there's such a hate-on for him.
You're not wrong. I think it's because Haruo didn't exactly have the most-sympathetic introduction - threatening to suicide-bomb the ship; and Western audiences have long gotten tired of the angsty revenge-obsessed antihero archetype that spawned characters like Naruto's Sasuke Uchiha.
Maybe. But at least they're actually showing him paying a price for his revenge. Also, like I said, he's being somewhat rational in how he goes about it. That's a big step up from Sasuke in my opinion. As for the suicide bombing... he wasn't doing it for kicks and giggles, you know? He was trying to save the life of the man who raised him. Considering how much he'd already lost, I can see why it would have pushed him off the deep end.
I ain't gonna sugarcoat this,but billions may have died and billions may have survived the destruction from Godzilla Earth, while the story is mainly focused on Haruo, he isn't exactly the only who lost somebody he cared about while they're many others, but goddamn it; taking the fight to the Kaiju and dragging many soldiers and crew members with him, forgetting that it's their own lives they put into his hand, HIS HAND. He just technically killed them all, not surprised that in the second movie that a generic soldier just called him out on his reckless BS, which Haruo accepts it anyways and it's not very surprising that Galu-Gu is ok with his decision to deal with Godzilla and almost near the end Haruo pretty much get slapped in the face with He Who Fights Monsters speech "The moment you decide to defeat Godzilla, you're aspiring to become something that is no longer human."
Edited by trainhobovegas
Does Haruo really qualify for a Hate Sink? By definition, a Hate Sink has no redeeming qualities or sympathetic moments. Even in the first movie the story gives him both of those. He qualifies for a Jerkass, easily, and a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but Hate Sink seems a step too far. He even attempts a Heroic Sacrifice at the end rather than run for his life when he finds out Godzilla Earth exists. A real Hate Sink would have been the first one to abandon everyone. Same goes for the Trauma Conga Line entry. The worst things that happen to Haruo were thinks outside of his control; yes, he wanted to send everyone on a stupid revenge stunt. But his plan works, and the only reason things go south is because of something nobody knew about until the last five minutes of the movie.
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Things still go horribly south for him, though, and nothing on the Trauma Conga Line page indicates that the bad things that happen to the character have to be inside their control. Even the things that go right for him (i.e. returning to Earth, killing Godzilla Filius, getting a love interest in Yuko) end up going horribly wrong.
Yeah, that's more of a Failure Hero or This Loser Is You thing than a Hate Sink. If anything that makes it less likely he's supposed to be a Hate Sink because it's not supposed to be sad when bad things happen to them.
Haruo is a Failure Hero, not a Hate Sink. Haruo is clearly intended to be seen as sympathetic, whether the audience thinks of him that way or not.
I will agree that he is not really a Hate Sink. I mean Haruo gets at least a little better in the second movie.
While Mulu Elu Galu Gu did discuss with Metphie about planning to conspire against Haruo regarding their invasion plans to take over Earth after the defeat of Godzilla, didn't really sound anything immoral aside from being amoral. I just find it ambiguous.
I'd personally say Haruo qualifies as an example of Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He's hot-tempered and a little crazy due to his Freudian Excuse, but he does try to discourage Yuko from taking part in the final battle, warning her it would probably be a suicide mission; and when Godzilla Earth wakes up he orders an emergency retreat and was prepared to sacrifice himself distracting it so the troops could escape.
If Haruo truly didn't care he would have ordered everyone to attack Godzilla Earth instead of retreating, or abandoned them to escape by himself.
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