Mr. T's APLAC Blog

Blog #1

Some may call last year the "year of the anti-hero"-we watched several spectacular examples in various forms of media, from TV shows such as The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, and Scandal, movies such as Elysium and Despicable Me 2 just to name a few. 2013 was also a happening year with anti-hero focused video games such as Bioshock: Infinite, The Last of Us, and the latest installment in the antiest-of-all-heroes series of Grand Theft Auto V. Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) offers three different criminal protagonists as playable characters. Out of the three, Michael De Santa is considered to be the main character of the story and exhibits several traits akin to Ichabod Crane from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Although both characters seem to live as good examples (Micheal left crime and his best friend to raise his family, and Ichabod is the instructor of his town's school and involved in the community), the two also exhibit rather despicable characteristics.

First and foremost, both Michael and Ichabod have quite a passion for money. Sleepy Hollow's school headmaster has his sights set on marrying the lone daughter of a rich, aging farmer for the sake of inheriting his estate. Mr. De Santa loathes his wife for not-frugally spending on his hard earned cash, and finds that returning to crime is the only thing he'll be good at to avoid bankruptcy. 

Gluttony is prevalent in both protagonists- in Micheal's case, he has a penchant for cigars and whiskey, much the chagrin of his health, yoga obsessed wife Amanda. Ichabod has quite an appetite for food. He manipulates one of his own students in order to enjoy a fine meal prepared by said pupil's mother when the boy gets high marks. Crane also dreams of sausage and pancakes a few times his story.

Pride and Wrath: The two exhibit a high sense of ego and defend it with a vengeance. Mr. Crane's dancing and singing ability are an important part of his vanity as is his teaching ability. Ichabod also uses corporal punishment with a switch on his students in the novel version. Michael gets egotistical with his family occasionally, and often expressing concern for himself over others when performing dangerous activity. He tends to say that "...I always thought I was the good guy," showing a sense of justice in denial. In one memorable instance, Micheal discovers his son's car is to be repossessed at an exorbitant rate-Mike has the SUV driven through the scammer's shop and calls the salesman "...nothing but a cheat..."

Wrapping up, both men are not "knights-in-shining-armor." They are inglorious, ugly, deceitful, and considered by some to be hallmark in the hall of anti-heroes. 

Credits:http://gta.wikia.com/Michael_De_Santa