Pop Culture

One thing I've noticed is that we tend to support fictional characters who have a code, despite the fact that they might not be the best role models.  On the one hand, we have Superman, who always does the right thing, and on the other we have Batman, a dark vigilante who plays by his own rules.  Superman is seen as boring, while Batman is more sexy.  The popularity of shows like Breaking Bad, or The Wire, or Dexter also supports this.  The characters in these shows are arguably horrible people, and would be villains in any other circumstance.  But since each of them as some kind of code, some level that they wouldn't stoop too, they're the character everyone roots for.  Take Robin Hood for example.  He's a thief, and there's no arguing around that, but he only steals from the rich, so that makes it okay.  Arguably, he's only stealing the money that was stolen away from the rich to begin with, but still, stealing is stealing.  Having a code in pop culture seems to guarantee that anything you do is ok, so long as you don't break your code.