http://colonel_green.insanejournal.com/ ([identity profile] colonel_green.insanejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] scans_daily,
@ 2009-04-11 10:21 pm UTC
Entry tags:char: conan the barbarian, creator: roy thomas, title: the savage sword of conan

Conan the Barbarian reminds us all what's important in life.



Right on, Conan!

From The Savage Sword of Conan #23.

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[identity profile] dr_hermes.insanejournal.com
2009-04-11 08:35 pm UTC (link)
Too bad for the hard-working honest merchants just trying to provide for their families, of course. They'll get their throats cut and their bodies tossed to the fishies while Conan and his pirates laugh and divide the loot.

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[identity profile] colonel_green.insanejournal.com
2009-04-11 08:50 pm UTC (link)
Thomas is pretty careful to always depict the people Conan's men rob as being jerks or unsympathetic. Even in this particular issue, which contains one of his more outright villainous actions (murdering the ship's captain to take his place; though, again, the ship's captain was an evil-looking dude).

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[identity profile] dr_hermes.insanejournal.com
2009-04-11 09:09 pm UTC (link)
Come to think of it, I think Robert E Howard used the same technique. Conan always seemed to be robbing a fat greasy merchant who was shown beforehand to be unscrupulous.. making Conan look better in comparison. When Conan was leading a band of pirates or hill bandits or whatever (he took over quite a few outlaw gangs in his day), there was mention of towns being pillaged and burned. But we never saw the innocent people begging for their lives, the girls being raped, the jewelry being yanked off still-warm bodies. It does make Conan seem romantic and dashing and devil-may-care. I suppose the glamorization of gangsters is nothing new.

You could make a case that the big Cimmerian is just acting according to the morals of his times, but that doesn't wash. All the farmers and blacksmiths and carpenters and innkeepers aren't doing these things.

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[identity profile] colonel_green.insanejournal.com
2009-04-11 09:18 pm UTC (link)
All the farmers and blacksmiths and carpenters and innkeepers aren't doing these things.

Only because they aren't as badass as Conan.

One of my favourite moments in SSoC is when Conan arrives in a city while a pillaging is in progress; he happens upon a thief killing some helpless merchant and stealing his jewels, then kills the thief, and keeps the jewels for himself, figuring he might as well.

In another instance, after saving a town from some monster (which destroys quite a bit of it), he purposefully vows to leave them alone to rebuild and head elsewhere.

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[identity profile] proteus_lives.insanejournal.com
2009-04-13 02:28 pm UTC (link)
Another one is when he kills some assassins that were attacking priests on the road. He then robs the priests. Hey, he needed a horse and some clothes!

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[identity profile] proteus_lives.insanejournal.com
2009-04-13 02:44 pm UTC (link)
You're right about the glamorization of outlaws. It makes much more sense if you read about REH's life.
Conan didn't rape or kill women/children but did he condone it? I remember several scenes where stopped such activity when he saw it but would he overly concern himself about the behavior of his men outside his view? I don't think so. Conan, (mostly under REH) is a mixture of rough morals and a view of "if they're strong they'll survive. If they aren't, they won't."
The character of Conan is complex, he can be viewed a lot of different ways.

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[identity profile] icon_uk.insanejournal.com
2009-04-12 05:31 am UTC (link)
Yeah, I got that vibe quite a lot in "Pirates of the Caribbean" too. Sorry, but being "pirates" does not automatically make you dashing or heroic, it makes you a PIRATE!

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