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The Braveheart Question

Posted on February 14th, 2011 by Staks

Sometime last year I promised a friend that this Valentines Day I would tell the tale of the Braveheart Question. This could be a tale of romance or it could be the tale of a demented psycho stalker. That, my friends, is the question.

The film Braveheart is now considered pretty old by some standards, so some of my younger readers might not have seen this film. But back in the day, before Mel Gibson went all psycho religious, anti-Semitic, homophobic, racist, and sexist, he was considered a very attractive actor and lots of women were way into him.

The film Braveheart is one of the finest films of that time and while I can no longer watch it due to Mel Gibson coming out of the closet as the before mentioned wacko, it really was a great film.

There is a scene early in the film where a young girl gives a flower to a young William Wallis (the character Mel Gibson plays as an adult) just after the funeral of his family. This event causes young Wallis to live with his uncle in a far away land.

Fast forward the film a bit and about 15 to 20 years later, William Wallis (now played by Mel Gibson) returns. He attends a dance and meets a girl. They have a good time and he asks her out on a date. After their first date, he hands her a white handkerchief and rides off on his horse. She opens up the handkerchief and surprise, surprise; it is THE flower SHE gave to him after the death of his family years earlier.

Here is the question, is this romantic or is it creepy?

I’m not going to comment any further on the real world applications of this question, but I found it to be an interesting issue when I was younger and have always wondered about the line between romantic and creepy. As a result, I asked many friends (both male and female) about this situation which has now been dubbed, “The Braveheart Question.”

Happy Valentines Day!