To Be Hero X Ep 3 Review: A Hero’s Responsibility
In episode 3, we continued on Lin Ling’s journey to climb the ranks of the heroes, and further discovering the truth about this society of “trust”. Once more, we meet a hero that might only show up in this episode, but his story is enough to move our hearts. In addition, we get another glimpse into a different type of “villain” in this episode.
If they didn’t explicitly state it, I would have thought the hero featured in this episode was inspired by Promare. Firm Man was a brave firefighter who protected a little girl: he held up a collapsing burning house and saved her life, and from that he received recognition and trust from the public. Ever since then, he became a monument of strength and resilience, a hero who never buckle under pressure. He is only rank 10 but his statue was erected in front of the Hero Association building to be a beacon for the public. Everyone trust him to always keep standing up for justice…and that has become reality…literally. Firm Man was bestowed with incredible strength, enough to hold up a building, but just as the public wished, he will never, ever, kneel again. His knee will not bend…physically as his armor and Trust Value will hold it up…until he die.
Imagine that! That’s pretty insane. The episode also show you how hard his life is with that “responsibility” and “expectation” placed upon him. His life was basically hell. So if the public expect you to do something, you have to comply to them. If they expect you to be like Superman – the Man of Steel – and shield others from bullets, you’ll spend your whole life being shot at from dusk till dawn. If they expected you to be appear whenever there’s a fire, you will live in an inferno for all time. This society is truly screwed up, and it took a lot fo “break free”, which also means betraying everyone’s expectation and go against them.
Imagine that! That’s pretty insane. The episode also show you how hard his life is with that “responsibility” and “expectation” placed upon him. His life was basically hell. So if the public expect you to do something, you have to comply to them. If they expect you to be like Superman – the Man of Steel – and shield others from bullets, you’ll spend your whole life being shot at from dusk till dawn. If they expected you to be appear whenever there’s a fire, you will live in an inferno for all time. This society is truly screwed up, and it took a lot fo “break free”, which also means betraying everyone’s expectation and go against them.
Which brings us to this episode’s “villain” – the Wolf Girl. She proclaimed herself to be Firm Man’s nemesis – but never actually committed any crimes that hurt anyone. Instead, she spread stories and images of Firm Man being oppressed, being sick of his responsibility and is not the hero people view him to be. With this “propaganda”, she aims to undermine Firm Man’s reputation and credibility, to reduce the public’s positive image of him. Ironically, she always stayed in the sewer, where Firm Man cannot reach. So, despite being nemesis, they have never faced each other even once.
Aiming to raise his rank, Lin Ling went in to find the girl. But the only thing he found is the Wolf Girl’s “work” – her “dream” of denouncing Firm Man. Later, it was revealed that she has setup explosives in the sewer in order to bring down the Firm Man’s statue, causing it to collapse. If his symbol fell down, the public’s trust in Firm Man will definitely be damaged substantially. However, Firm Man once again stand tall, holding up his own statue. But it can easily be seen that he is struggling with the weight, but even so, his knees cannot give out. He will continue to stand, even if it kills him. At that moment, Nice revealed the truth about Wolf Girl and her true purpose.
Aiming to raise his rank, Lin Ling went in to find the girl. But the only thing he found is the Wolf Girl’s “work” – her “dream” of denouncing Firm Man. Later, it was revealed that she has setup explosives in the sewer in order to bring down the Firm Man’s statue, causing it to collapse. If his symbol fell down, the public’s trust in Firm Man will definitely be damaged substantially. However, Firm Man once again stand tall, holding up his own statue. But it can easily be seen that he is struggling with the weight, but even so, his knees cannot give out. He will continue to stand, even if it kills him. At that moment, Nice revealed the truth about Wolf Girl and her true purpose.
The Wolf Girl took off her mask – revealing herself to be the little girl that Firm Man saved years ago. She knew that he was a brave man, however, he isn’t infallible and invincible. He also need support to be able to do what he did, and that during that fire, just as much as he saved her, she also gave him courage and motivation to keep holding up that wreckage. However, after the incident, the public trust in Firm Man made him unable to kneel or sit again, causing him to distant himself to his actual gentle self despite his rough exterior. Wolf Girl knows that he is suffering in secret and wanted to debase Firm Man’s reputation so he can escape from the chain that is “Public Trust”. All she wanted was for Firm Man to reach down and embrace her like a normal person. She firmly believed that heroes are also human – and the expectation placed on them are unrealistic and even though it gave them power to save others, it also dehumanizes them and turn them into a totem pole – with no freedom at all aside from serving their purpose.
The imagery in this episode was absolutely awesome, the red scarf on Firm Man was symbolic as hell. And I can tell you, I can tell who the Wolf Girl is right away during the flashback of Firm Man’s career. And the plot unfolds just like I expected, but it was done so well that the subversion works really well. It’s got a more positive “The Boys” vibe about it instead of just crude and gore in the latter. The sequence where Nice’s trust value went up during the streaming can also be seen as a parody of the current internet culture: the more followers someone has, the more highly regarded they are and the more people trust them. Many streamers have millions of fans and they hold sway over quite a few people, in turn they are empowered by their fans giving them support and assurance. The society in To Be Hero X is also similar. You can pretty much liken it to a survival game show – where a person is turned into numbers and the higher the number, the better they have it. But it also come at a cost of their normal life.
At the end of the episode, we saw the former Enlighter – now God Eye – has captured Yueqing and is threatening to expose Nice’s true identity. We’re 3 episodes in and we haven’t seen the rest of the “main” cast yet, but after Lin Ling get into the top 10, we might see more of them soon. Next episode, I really hope Yueqing came back to Lin Ling, but we’ll see.
=Aaron=
The imagery in this episode was absolutely awesome, the red scarf on Firm Man was symbolic as hell. And I can tell you, I can tell who the Wolf Girl is right away during the flashback of Firm Man’s career. And the plot unfolds just like I expected, but it was done so well that the subversion works really well. It’s got a more positive “The Boys” vibe about it instead of just crude and gore in the latter. The sequence where Nice’s trust value went up during the streaming can also be seen as a parody of the current internet culture: the more followers someone has, the more highly regarded they are and the more people trust them. Many streamers have millions of fans and they hold sway over quite a few people, in turn they are empowered by their fans giving them support and assurance. The society in To Be Hero X is also similar. You can pretty much liken it to a survival game show – where a person is turned into numbers and the higher the number, the better they have it. But it also come at a cost of their normal life.
At the end of the episode, we saw the former Enlighter – now God Eye – has captured Yueqing and is threatening to expose Nice’s true identity. We’re 3 episodes in and we haven’t seen the rest of the “main” cast yet, but after Lin Ling get into the top 10, we might see more of them soon. Next episode, I really hope Yueqing came back to Lin Ling, but we’ll see.
=Aaron=
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