What I Learned in the Three-fold Land

I don't know if y'all have noticed this, but comics are pretty popular right now. It's the age of the nerd. What was once discussed in hushed tones in brick basements has become a pop-cultural norm.

It's an exciting time, filled with all kinds of interesting discussion. The ethics and morality of our heroes is a constant subject of debate on comedy websites and philosophy courses. The reality of fandom is also becoming a subject of discussion, particularly with regard to questions of feminism and diversity. It's fascinating stuff, it really is.

What might surprise most of my fellow nerds, though, is how this is being appropriated in the fitness industry.

No, for real! This is totally a thing. I think I can point out to you almost exactly where it started happening, too.

Never you mind the fact that he was lean to start.

Everybody's seen 2011's Thor, right? Chris Hemworth's transformation was a jaw-dropper, from an aesthetic standpoint. He was one of the most recent actors to develop the physique, but he's also really the first one to do so in a post social-media world.

(An argument could be made for Christian Bale in 2005 with Batman Begins, but he's such a transformer that from an industry perspective, it's kind of mundane).

And it's not a dudes-only kind of thing. You're seeing a lot of it happening with females who act in these films. Jennifer Lawrence is a particular favorite of mine, given that she had to undergo some serious strength training to prepare for the role of Katniss Everdeen.

Off to undoubtedly do a thing involving strength

And you know, she's actually a good spring board for what I wanted to talk about. Comics are not the first place to draw inspiration from when it comes to physique and physical capability. You can find it in literature too.

I mean, look at Lord of the Rings. In The Two Towers, you have Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas running down a bunch of Uruks across the plains of Rohan. They not only run this distance, day and night, but are in shape such that when they catch the Uruks, they are prepared to fight and slay.

How badass is that?

Me, though, I didn't draw my inspiration from them. I drew mine from Robert Jordan's Aiel.

Go ahead. Say hello. Don't ask them to dance.

The Aiel, in case you didn't read the Wheel of Time series, are a sort of composite culture. Think a mix of Native American, Zulu, and Celtic Ireland. They were my first real badasses, and to this day I have a soft spot for them.

Which I swear has nothing to do with the fact that they're basically desert ninjas.

Beyond feats of superhuman endurance - running 20 miles a day faster than a horse, with energy left to fight at the end - what really stands out for them is their culture. They have a complicated system of honor and obligation that nobody can make heads or tails of. This is something that, as they become more a part of the rest of the world, generates much comment.

They are savage. They are weird.

As for me, I think there's something to be learned from in that.

So often, in the real world, we hear that we shouldn't worry about getting in shape, that we're 'fine as we are.' As if the norm is for us to become obese, insulin-resistant, dependent upon a flawed and broken system that is only interested in creating more problems so that it can solve them.

Forget that. If that's normal, I embrace strangeness, and the alien ideas that come with it. We are all of us made of sterner stuff than the broken culture tells us we are.

Still, I can't imagine I'm the only one who's ever read a book and thought, man, that was cool. So let me open this up for conversation: who are some fictional badasses that inspired you? What made them stick out in your mind?