*~*~*A Shrine To The Hessian*~*~*

"...The vessel of ... Rage, the talons of ... fury. He is the slayer, the mad man-wolf, Rage incarnate. Blood is his wine, war is his pleasure...[he] stands atop a pile of corpses and howls for more....[this] affinity for the inner Beast often leads...to an early, if glorious death, but pain can be a fine teacher... They do not fear death, but embrace it as a warrior's due....life is a battle-nasty, brutish, and short."
--Mark Rein-Hagen,
"Werewolf: The Apocalypse 2nd Edition" - warrior stereotype.


Yes, I'm just another Hessian Groupie! :) Tim Burton, Ray Park, Rob Inch and Christopher Walken did an excellent job of bringing the soldier to life, and with a definite sex appeal!


So many people have tried analyzing the appeal of this guy in the past, but it's nearly impossible. My guess is the fierceness and the entire appearance, which is just as much as any other admirer can tell you. Still, it's a big part. Next. It's the eyes. You haven't seen blue eyes until you've seen this guy. It's just...stunning, mesmorizing. Absolutely breathtaking.

Ok, there's still the same old, same old, question all villanous characters are put through ever since Burgess/Kubrik brought us "A Clockwork Orange". Can a guy count as a hero, even if he does some pretty nasty stuff in his life? As most Clockwork Orange fans are gonna say - Yes. In essence, the Hessian was not a horribly bad person. Many people are going at this point -"Huh? Sure he was!". No, he wasn't. At least, not really. This is getting complicated. ;)

Let's recount. He was a Hessian mercenary who came to battle because he loved the carnage. That doesn't make for a nice start, I admit. Like my friend Nina puts it - "Now, a real Hessian trooper might've had thoughts, conscience, etc. A Tim Burton, Hessian, however, is just gonna be a razor-toothed bloodlusty slaughterer." But aside from that fact (which is pretty damn hard to explain, ok? I'm trying, I'm trying!), this is WAR we're talking about. War makes different rules. Since war has always been the human way of slaughtering thousands, not putting the blame on anyone really and make it different from mass murder for some reason or the other.

So this is WAR. In war, people die. In war, people kill other people because otherwise they'll get killed themselves. That's what war is about. Kill as many others before you bite the dust. That's what he was doing. He was sold into a war (see the little descriptions of just what Hessians were if you got confused by that statement) and he was fighting in the war, that's all there is to it. Just back then, people couldn't kill countless others by just using one bomb, and just because he had the fighting capacity to wipe out so pretty much everything in his path, and he was ordered to do just that, it doesn't make him evil!

So, very well, in the movie, he gets barely any headed screentime, nor any lines for that matter, and that's why so pretty much everyone buys into the evil killing machine image. Sure, he was a killing machine, but sometimes it's evil things that makes villains appealing. I'm not trying to say he's a good guy. Ooooh no. He sure isn't. He just isn't a bad guy to the conniving evilness of Lady Van Tassel. Anyone who's seen the movie remembered his reaction to Daredevil's death, right? No evil mindless killing machine would spend valuable seconds which could've saved his life just to give that kind of a melodramatic silent goodbye!


Fast And Furious
My point -- The villain, the beast, the monster of the movie (the movie, that is, in the RPG Adrienne managed to convince everybody otherwise. ;), is the Lady Van Tassel, not the Hessian. In a sense, the Hessian is her sword, while she still strikes. She killed him in the first place, and is responsible for all the murders around the Hollow. (Well, except for Brom, but that was his own fault!)

Still not convinced? Consider this. He gets his head back, he's got Ichabod, Katrina and Masbeth right in front of him. Like on the metaphorical silver platter. Does he harm them? No. Could he? Hell yeah! And if he really were the evil, murderous, bloodthirsty monster the village elders describe him as, he would. I'm not suggesting he's a good guy, or that he's a pacifist. I quite strongly believe he was in the war and damn well liked it. But he's obviously has what all warriors have in the end - a sense for respect and forgiveness. (Well, except to people who first cause his death, then dig up his corpse, steal his skull and make him a slave. ;)

In the end, I suppose it's impossible to defend the Hessian's humanity in the long run. Maybe he is a carnage-hungry incarnate of blade, death, and fury. Maybe he is a cold-blooded killer. Maybe he is a bestial fighter. But you know what? Maybe that's just what makes him so appealing.... And maybe that's what draws me and many others to him.

Yes, well, all this analyzing and glorifying aside, A shrine should always have something personal (at least I think so...), both sort of giving personal feelings and responses, or giving personal reasons for liking the worshipped thing in question, even if alltogether, most shrines just sit there, wasting webspage (Which doesn't mean I'm taking mine down, no! -_-), but that's just the way I like 'em...So, without further ado, continues some personal stuff.

So why do I, I mean, me, in particular, like him so much? Aside his stunning looks and fierce heart? Because he's managed the impossible. He's done what nothing else could ever have managed. He made me proud of my heritage, he made me proud to be German. Not proud of the atrocities of World War 2 and the things around it, no. Definitely not. It was hideous and sickening.

What I mean is that he made me realize there is a history before and after the horror that the Nazi reign brought, that there is glory in the past, present and future. Not only did "Sleepy Hollow", and the Hessian in particular, brought a new jolt, a new hope and purpose to my life, but it finally managed to make me see myself as who and how I am, and accept what I see. That debt can't be paid back too easily. I owe him one.

There is one final reason for my love, of course. But like many emotions, it's impossible to put into words.

RETURN TO MAIN.