Renegades: Heroes Vs Villains?

Hey everyone,

With the release of Marissa Meyer’s wonderful Renegades just around the corner [although I have seen some cheeky copies of it floating around my nearest Waterstones] Coffee Stars Books got offered some ARC copies and some bookish swag to celebrate the upcoming release. So I’m here today with my brilliant writer friend, Maddy to talk about some kick-ass heroes and some troubling villains. I read the book a few months back, so you can read a slightly spoilery review of the book here if you want to hear more.

Personally, I think the Anarchists [the villains] have a valid point. Maddy thinks the Renegade superheroes have the moral highground here. Capes at the ready, we decided to battle it out.

Maddy [AKA Captain Chemistry] on the side of the Renegades

Do you have what it takes to be a hero?

In Gation City, the Renegades are everything any young prodigy should want to be: fighting for justice, defending the weak and protecting the city. In short- heroes.

After the Day of Triumph over the rebel Anarchists, it was the Renegades who rebuilt the city on the smouldering remains of the old one, working tirelessly to heal the wounds that the villain gangs had left upon society. The Renegades provided shelter, created community gardens and agriculture when food in the city got scarce, they even set up schools to educate Gatlon’s children.

As the Renegades grew stronger, so did the city.

Maddy: The Renegades provided hope when the world had none, when everything was a pile of rubble. They alone stood against the villainous gangs. They alone came to the rescue. They cared. Their philosophy is to rebuild, to create; in short, they are heroes.

The Anarchists are there to destroy. To tear down. They created the Age of Anarchy, destroying society, destroying hope. The Anarchists laugh with each other, comparing kills, celebrating murder. They thrive on fear and death; in short, they are villains.

The Renegades don’t attack without cause. They work on proof and honour, within the law. They created order from chaos. People need order to thrive. They need structure and hierarchy and justice. People need hope.

So how could you question who the good guys are?

Kelly [AKA Caffeinated Chaos] on the side of the Anarchists:

We were all villains in the beginning.

For hundreds of years, prodigies spent their lives in hiding– hunted, feared and persecuted for their powers. Ace Anarchy changed all of that. He united the most powerful prodigies he could find and together they rebelled.

Prodigies banded together for the first time in history. Some full of resentment, others desperately trying to find an acceptance that never came. They demanded fair treatment and human rights and protection under the law, and in some countries, the panicking governments hastened to cater to them… but in other countries, the rebellions turned violent. They called it the Age of Anarchy.

But then, seemingly overnight… hope came, in the form of capes and masks. The Renegades.

Kelly: Except, of course, it is a false hope. First of all, despite the violence of the Age of Anarchy, the rebellions helped to stop many prodigies from being seen as monsters, it liberated them, gave them hope and offered acceptance.

The Renegades took that away. They still offer acceptance, but only to those who are deemed ‘worthy.’ The prodigies with the boring powers becoming laughing stocks, and only those who can show off end up being allowed to join the team of superheroes. That’s hardly fair, is it? It doesn’t even consider personalities either, just what a person’s power is– take Frostbite for instance. She’s a bully, desperate for power, but she’s still considered one of the ‘good guys’ because she happens to do something nifty. No thanks. And don’t even get me started on how the Renegades failed on their promise to keep citizens of Gatlan safe– they didn’t save Nova’s family when she cried out for help, but Ace Anarchy did.

So who are really the bad guys here?

Except, is it really all that simple? So black and white?

Because we agreed that’s one of the things Renegades does best, turns the hero and villain trope on its head and makes the lines between them all too blurry. It is easy to see the Renegades as the good guys, and the Anarchists as baddies, but it’s a lot more complicated than that when you start to think about it. Without the Age of Anarchy, the Renegades wouldn’t have risen from the ashes, prepared to rebuild Gatlan City into a shining beacon of justice. And without the remaining Anarchists, the Renegades wouldn’t be so much in the public eye, or so revered as saviours. Gatlan City isn’t really even a shining beacon– it’s problematic because people are so busy waiting for the Renegades to come and save them, either because they believe the Renegades can save everyone, or because they think they’re special enough to be rescued by a superhero, that they won’t stand up and fight for themselves. We’ve already argued that some of the people on the Renegades team don’t act heroic, they’re out for prestige and power instead of saving lives. And while some of the underground Anarchists are desperate to bring the city to its knees and destroy everything the Renegades have created. there are some who only want recognition and to be treated fairly. They live in a society where the Renegades are the police, but who is policing them? And what happens when those in power go too far in the name of protecting the city?

Will you choose justice or anarchy?

From Marissa Meyer, author of the Lunar Chronicles and New York Times best-selling Heartless cones Renegades– a high-stakes world of adventure, passion, danger, and betrayal.

Renegades is released on 5th April in the UK and is published by Macmillan Children’s Books.