I think Neo said this in Matrix before they assaulted the military complex where Morpheus was held, and some variant of this probably exists in just about anything with some kind of story. You have some guy who is probably somewhat underqualified assuring a bunch of guys that it is really a good idea to attempt what looks like an absurd plan. For some reason, I find this concept to be represented very poorly in things of Asian culture, but I don't have a problem with the similar concept in Western culture. Here I am completely ignoring the feasibility of the plan, so whether the plan actually makes any sense or not is not important. So I thought about this some more, and I think this is because of the prevalance of the 'unlikely hero' in a lot of Asian stuff. Now Asia hardly has a monopoly on the 'unlikely hero'. You can say Neo looks like an unlikely hero too. But even though Neo doesn't look like much of a hero and doesn't even act very well, from pretty early on it's established that he is The One, and it's pretty hard to argue against what The One thinks is a good idea. Besides, he's talking to a bunch of guys who basically see him as the Messiah, and given what's happened in the Matrix it's really not a stretch to say The One should be able to pull it off.
However, a lot of Asian hero counterparts don't have any kind of credential. Usually your hero is some random kid who may or may not even have a legend that foretold his arrival, and his friends are usually 3 random blokes you find that was crazy enough to tag along. Now I know just saying 'this guy is supposed to be awesome' doesn't mean you can convince the audience, but the hero is so unlikely that he often don't even have credentials like "the stars foretold this guy is supposed to be awesome". Now maybe it's okay that your guys trying to save the world don't need to have any accomlishment or credentials, but it seems like in Asian stuff all the characters are clearly aware of the Stormtrooper rule in effect (the less likely something is supposed to happen the more likely it will actually happen). The characters do not even question the guy making the improbable decisions and just go along with it. Wedge thought it was crazy trying to shoot a proton torpedo before the Death Star run, but you won't see any such dissent in Asian stuff, at least not from anyone who matters.
I know it's not the easiest thing to create a persona that actually sounds like he knows what he's doing against the impossible. Not every story has a Solid Snake or a Han Solo who makes the impossible look legtimately doable. Keanu Reeves doesn't come off as a Messiah type of figure, but at least he had help by being reminded constantly that he is The One. Sometimes I think Asian authors may have a hubris assuming that every character in their story is a Solid Snake whose name speaks itself and needs no justification. Even Gin Yong, who can be thought of as the Chinese Tolkien (though I don't think he's really that great), has this problem. There are characters in his story who do not appear to be attractive to woman in any remote way that nevertheless ends up with a harem-manga like production on the woman front. Take the least manly fictional guy you know of, and he's probably still twice as awesome as some of the characters that appeared in Gin Yong's novel who invariably ends up with between 2 to 20 hot women chasing after him. A lot of the time I feel that Asian stuff the main character is just an avatar of the author, so I guess the author assumes since he is so awesome his avatar also requires no explanation on why the world revolves around him. For Western stuff, at least I don't see how anyone is supposed to be George Lucas's avatar in Star Wars. Not saying Western creators don't let their personal bias get in the way, but at least I don't get the feeling some character is supposed to be the creator's avatar who can never do anything wrong.
However, a lot of Asian hero counterparts don't have any kind of credential. Usually your hero is some random kid who may or may not even have a legend that foretold his arrival, and his friends are usually 3 random blokes you find that was crazy enough to tag along. Now I know just saying 'this guy is supposed to be awesome' doesn't mean you can convince the audience, but the hero is so unlikely that he often don't even have credentials like "the stars foretold this guy is supposed to be awesome". Now maybe it's okay that your guys trying to save the world don't need to have any accomlishment or credentials, but it seems like in Asian stuff all the characters are clearly aware of the Stormtrooper rule in effect (the less likely something is supposed to happen the more likely it will actually happen). The characters do not even question the guy making the improbable decisions and just go along with it. Wedge thought it was crazy trying to shoot a proton torpedo before the Death Star run, but you won't see any such dissent in Asian stuff, at least not from anyone who matters.
I know it's not the easiest thing to create a persona that actually sounds like he knows what he's doing against the impossible. Not every story has a Solid Snake or a Han Solo who makes the impossible look legtimately doable. Keanu Reeves doesn't come off as a Messiah type of figure, but at least he had help by being reminded constantly that he is The One. Sometimes I think Asian authors may have a hubris assuming that every character in their story is a Solid Snake whose name speaks itself and needs no justification. Even Gin Yong, who can be thought of as the Chinese Tolkien (though I don't think he's really that great), has this problem. There are characters in his story who do not appear to be attractive to woman in any remote way that nevertheless ends up with a harem-manga like production on the woman front. Take the least manly fictional guy you know of, and he's probably still twice as awesome as some of the characters that appeared in Gin Yong's novel who invariably ends up with between 2 to 20 hot women chasing after him. A lot of the time I feel that Asian stuff the main character is just an avatar of the author, so I guess the author assumes since he is so awesome his avatar also requires no explanation on why the world revolves around him. For Western stuff, at least I don't see how anyone is supposed to be George Lucas's avatar in Star Wars. Not saying Western creators don't let their personal bias get in the way, but at least I don't get the feeling some character is supposed to be the creator's avatar who can never do anything wrong.
