Bonnie & Clyde: Anti-Heroes As Dark Or Shadow Icons?
Picking up off of the recent ‘Dark vs. Shadow‘ post (as part of a mini-series starting with the ‘Light, Dark, Shadow’ post itself and related to the Hero archetype post on the blog let’s talk about anti-heroes a bit.
(Google); Anti-hero:
An anti-hero is a protagonist who lacks conventional heroic qualities like courage and morality, often exhibiting flaws, a morally ambiguous nature, or destructive behaviors. While they aren’t necessarily villains, they operate outside traditional heroic ideals and may have motivations that are selfish or misguided, even if they believe they are doing the right thing.
There are SO many examples of these anti-heroes with ‘moral grey areas’ in the movies; Tony Montana in ‘Scarface’
Lisbeth Salander in ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’
Deadpool, Michael Corleone in ‘The Godfather’, Wolverine, Jack Sparrow in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’
Snake Plissken in ‘Escape from New York’
Mad Max
Clint Eastwood Western characters, Rick Deckard in ‘Blade Runner’…
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So now let’s bring it into the LDS (Light, Dark, Shadow) lens and look at a primary example or 3 of anti-heroes and then look at a prime example with Bonnie ‘n Clyde. They are great examples of the anti-hero.
Anti-heroes are non-traditional heroes or heroine’s that smuggle illeg; wait, wrong heroin. They are non-traditional heroes that are really more centered in Dark and quite possibly Shadow.
A short-code for shadow is that which ‘takes away from life’ in ways (energetically, literally, psychically, etc.)
Bonnie & Clyde are famous and romanticized anti-heroes in Americana culture.
What’s interesting about that is the whole conversation around ‘glorifying violence’. What I think is actually happening is easier to process and finally understand through this LDS lens.
We all secretly love the concept of a ‘ride or die’ partner (and this would be the healthy Light and Dark).
See; in real life (IRL), Bonnie & Clyde were living from active Shadow…actually going around robbing, stealing and murdering people. That ‘sin’ creates a karmic debt including in the afterlife. So are people glorifying THAT? Not necesssarily.
But why do we idolize them as iconic ‘OUTLAWS’ (and you could also literally say ‘Pirates’) in pop consciousness?
I would proposition that this is because we are REMOVED from the shadow aspects entirely.
When it’s moved to story or movie format, we aren’t connected with the shadow aspects; we’re filtered out of it and instead we are valuing of and experiencing the LIGHT and DARK aspects of the Outlaw archetype (as well as how we want to interpret the story; after all THEY are the one’s paying their karmic debt).
And actually; PIRATE and OUTLAW are badass archetypes WHEN you remove SHADOW from them because then you have the healthy Dark and Light aspects of wild adventure, freedom, boundlessness bucking conformity and constriction.
I identity with the archetypal Pirate and Pirate codes but only the Light and Dark Shadow aspects (NOT the shadow b/c I don’t loot, pillage and steal) although most of ‘Pirate’ as an archetype of the collective is centered in shadow, when we REFINE the archetypes, they hold GREAT value and benefit.
In fact, PIRATE or OUTLAW is what maybe a lot of tepidly mundane middle-aged men (for example) could use in their life for a REFORMATION and REVIVAL.
(And we can do these Light and Dark embodiment activations without shadow by the way so men and women can embody more of the archetypal consciousness and presenced truth).
They may benefit from some ‘outlaw’ nature of Wolverine or ‘Logan’ (but purified from shadow) so that it’s not actually harming others.
Anyways; let’s go back to Bonnie ‘n Clyde.
And it’s worth mentioning that their anti-conformity is admirable with an L/D lens compared to how much constriction and conformity of ‘following the rules’ are and how that connects into the psyche of people wanting to live more in their Dark or with fantasies of shadow like killing their boss and ‘getting away’ as well as the concept of ‘retribution’ to pay for the collective shadow OF the police force that in some way they were making amends to.
Yet; it’s because of the Light and Dark aspects that movies bring that not only ‘makes it ok’ but even admirable, safe and therapeutic (although there’s a school of thought that blames movies for individual’s actions and violence; however, yes….media does have influence but the Colorado domestic terrorist who idolized Batman and brought a gun into a theater? HE COULDN’T OWN HIS SHADOW).
Is John Wick (a ‘Dark Hero’) justified in revenge killing after (spoiler alert) his dog is murdered?
Well…the STORY format purges us of actual karma and shadow in a sense to live vicariously through and movies like this with what would be like ‘pure Dark’ absent of shadow and karma ourselves.
It connects us to the grotesque and unthinkable aspects of consciousness to let us pay it service.
The ‘story’ of Hannibal Lecter and Silence of the Lambs is grotesquely fascinating even though the character is very centered in evil shadow…I’m sure fewer movie-goers are identifying themselves through or AS Hannibal (except for Halloween treachery maybe); rather like ‘John Wick’….experienced as a violently gratuitous escape felt as a story where we are safe.
This can touch parts of our psyche to balance out the shadow we’ve accumulated within to live in the healthy median.
‘YES; Kill the even badder guy! ‘GIT ‘EM’!! we proclaim…and we can feel ourselves actually balancing out our own imbalances safely as well as relieving stress.
Personally I think the John Wick movies are OVERLY violent, but it’s actually doing therapy for millions of people really and I would say PREVENTING them from doing more damage to others in a sense.
It helps them to own their shadow and the collective shadow. The movie concept of ‘The Purge’ itself is entirely centered around this principle of ‘owning the shadow’.
THEY don’t have to take similar actions or ‘seriously’ even thinkin bout it, because John Wick is doing it FOR them vicariously through their psyche.
Anti-hero and Horror movies as well can serve as therapy to allow us to balance out our own shadow by LETTING IT BREATHE and that can have the effect of re-activating our own healthy Dark general consciousness. I’ve had a thing for them for decades; I just have to be in the right mood and timing.
So back to Bonnie & Clyde as anti-heroes (and btw you can check out the new ‘Hero Archetype‘ post here) and outlaws;
The Light aspects includes a form of raw Freedom, Adventure & Boundlessness AWAY from the constrictions that law constructivism has placed on people. It also includes their apparent Love for each other and willingness to follow their Truth.
The Dark aspects are romanticized because with this format we are removed from the actual karmic that shadow itself creates. Clyde was ‘wronged’ in prison and was simply ‘taking revenge’ with his robbing and killing spree including against policemen (who were part of the system).
Actual shadow becomes filtered as DARK because we are safe from the karmic consequences.
Collective shadow dynamics; This is why violence is so befitting and popular in the West; also because we’ve got a lot of LIGHT in leading in innovation and technological advancement so it creates a lot of shadow and ‘safe violence’ allows us to balance shadow while just viewing it as DARK.
The REAL challenges only pop up from this dynamic when individuals themselves cannot own their shadow (like with the movie theater killer or the incel campus killer examples).
So; with that said, I think Bonnie & Clyde are EXCELLENT examples of anti-heroes and of specific archetypes but only when we can remove the shadow and view it from a purely archetypal lens, LDS lens or appreciate them as icons while being aware of what they actually did as shadow/sin while owning our own shadows.
Same with Captain Jack Sparrow;
We all admire the RAW purity of true ADVENTURE and the BOUNDLESS the Pirate archetype brings; just maybe without the karmic consequences that the sin of literal looting, murder and pillaging brings. Like it’s the distilled quality of Renegade against conformity and renegade against actual shadow and tyranny that could actually be very healthy.
I hope that helps bring further contemplation and even clarity for you.
Be sure to check out the x-teen minute read of the Dark Vs. Shadow Post here (I have no idea how long it’ll take to read but that sounds about right)
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