So I think we all know the saying "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see your self become the villain." Here is a clip in Batman: Dark knight where they say it. Spoiler: Da Clip For so long I was just confused about what this was trying to say. I struggled it for so long until now. I started thinking about situations in my life where I didn't die the hero(metaphorically), I became the villain. I started looking at all the situations, and trying to figure out what they had in common. There was only one common variable throughout every scenario, it is time. Yes that's right Time, when I started thinking about it everything made sense. Here is the deductive reasoning, so the definition of a hero is Spoiler: Da Definition As you can see they overcome there struggle with bravery, and putting aside there own personal concerns for a greater cause. This is often seen as good, honorable, and respectable. Now on to the villain definition Spoiler: Da oda Definition Now I want to focus in on 2 and 3. In 2 it says someone who opposes the hero, someone completely opposite of the hero. And 3 it says someone regarded as the cause of a problem/difficulty. Now we have seen the definitions back to the reasoning. The "Hero" is often seen as someone who does good play by the rules and is a stand up guy or girl. Here is the thing though we all know, no one is perfect everyone makes mistakes. What I Believe they saying is trying to say, is that you can only be a hero for so long without making a mistake, and when you do make a mistake, you become the complete opposite of what you were, you were once the solution, but now you become part of the problem, which makes you the villain. So do you think I deciphered the saying properly, do you have a different theory, let me know below. And as always thanks for taking the time to read this and have a nice wonderful day.
I don't think you got it entirely right tbh I believe it means that you have a set morale for what you believe is good. Most people at a certain time may agree with your morals, but things change. Laws change. People's views of you change. They begin asking questions. Then they begin making assumptions. Then they begin witch-hunting, which has now made you the villan in the eyes of the people Batman is a vigilante. X-men are freaks. Superman is all-powerful. The Avengers leveled cities. In all of these scenarios the public believed they were good at the start, but as they dove deep into what they are capable of, they realized there is real damage they can cause, and begin to reverse on the people they once looked up to The heros then turn on the public, or continue what they were doing anyway, or become self-righteous murders. Yes they are still doing what is best for the people, but not what is right by the people's definition. At least, not anymore (i.e. Captain America's side in Civil War, Superman in Batman vs. Superman where he is pictured as a god. Hell, it's even a plotline in Overwatch) This is what they mean by "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see your self become the villain."
but anyways I think it pretty much means what it says it means. You know, you either die a hero or you live to see yourself become the villain. It is a foreshadow to what happens next in the movie. Harvey dent doesn't die a hero, but lives long enough to see himself become the villain. We get so wrapped up in morality and we lose focus of what is truly good and what is truly evil. Perception is everything. Bad people often think they are good. Sometimes good people think they are bad. In the movie harvey dent doesn't realize that he is a bad guy. He becomes obsessed with a side of his personality, the side that judges others, and he can't let go of it.
Yeah the quote was said by Harvey Dent in a Batman movie, however I think the OP's post is more about the use of the phrase in general, as it has been repeated for the last several years in different cases. Thereby, we are looking for an adequate definition of the phrase rather than a singular example of why and where the quote originated from
Had a quick google search and found this response, A quote by Nietzsche, similar to what was said by Harvey Dent. Here's the source if you're interested. https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/10572/is-this-quote-originally-from-the-dark-knight
