History Main / HeroicWannabe

* Mr. Furious in ''Film/MysteryMen'' cultivates an anti-hero persona; he rests his laurels on an exaggerated story where he lifted a city bus (he pushed it while the driver accelerated), and tries to lend himself mystery with false names like "Phoenix Dark," "Phoenix Dirk," "Phoenix Dark Dirk," and "Dirk Steel" before finally admitting his name is actually Roy. Subverted when faced with an actual crisis he does become superhumanly strong and agile when angered.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', most of Junpei Iori's motivation to help SEES is based on his desire to be a genuine hero. This desire causes him to [[IdiotHero rush into dire situations without any forethought]], become intensely jealous of the Main Character for his role as TheCaptain of the group, and even reveal his SecretIdentity to a girl to gain recognition (a move that later backfires horribly).

* In ''FanFic/MegaManDefenderOfTheHumanRace'', The Mega Crew are this, doubling as a shout out to ''Film/TheDarkKnight'''s Batman wannabees.

* TamoraPierce's Alanna is shown to have some elements of this when she first sets out to become a knight, but the earlier TortallUniverse books are a little threadbare in the character development department, so it's not really followed up on.

* Mr. Furious in ''MysteryMen'' cultivates an anti-hero persona; he rests his laurels on an exaggerated story where he lifted a city bus (he pushed it while the driver accelerated), and tries to lend himself mystery with false names like "Phoenix Dark," "Phoenix Dirk," "Phoenix Dark Dirk," and "Dirk Steel" before finally admitting his name is actually Roy. Subverted when faced with an actual crisis he does become superhumanly strong and agile when angered.
* The titular characters in ''MysteryTeam''

-->-- '''Col. John Konrad''', ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''

->''"You're here because you wanted to feel like something you're not. A hero."''
-->--Col. John Konrad, ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''

* Utena from ''RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' desires to become the saintly Prince who saved her as a child, and most of the series deals with deconstructing, subverting, and arguably playing straight this concept as Utena is essentially sent through Hell and back.

* Almaz in-game title in ''{{Disgaea}} 3'' is "Wannabe Hero" which pretty much says it all. Then Mao breaks the Fourth Wall to steal his title.

* Interestingly, it's strongly implied that [[DarkMessiah Lelouch Lamperouge]] of ''CodeGeass'' is this, as indicated by several in- and out-of-universe factors. For example, he's a fan of {{Tokusatsu}} and WordOfGod says that his voice actors[[note]]JunFukuyama, who is practically typecast as TheHero, and JohnnyYongBosch, best known for being a [[PowerRangers Power Ranger]][[/note]] were chosen in order to show that Lelouch is trying very hard to be something that he's not.

* BioWare did it again with poor foolish King Cailan of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', who walks straight into a trap set by his TreacherousAdvisor Loghain as Ostagar due to his desire to be a hero and dies when Loghain turns his back on him and abandons him.

* BioWare did it again with poor foolish King Cailan of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins.''

A specific form of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism and the WideEyedIdealist. A Heroic Wannabe is a person so intent on the idea of becoming a hero that they're willing to do just about anything, and they tend not to think about what being a "hero" really means or what you have to do to become one. Darker cases may suffer from BlackAndWhiteInsanity, or more seriously HeroSyndrome.

->''"The truth, [[spoiler:Walker]], is that you're here because you wanted to feel like something you're not. A hero."''
-->--'''[[spoiler:Col. John Konrad, or rather, Walker's own guilty conscience]]''', to '''[[spoiler:Capt. Martin Walker]]''' ''[[LeaningOnTheFourthWall and]] [[WhatTheHellPlayer the]] [[YouBastard player]]'', ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''

-->--'''[[spoiler:Col. John Konrad, or rather, Walker's own guilty conscience]]''', to '''[[spoiler:Capt. Martin Walker]]''' ''[[LeaningOnTheFourthWall and]] [[WhatTheHellPlayer the]] [[YouBastard player]], ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''

* Kamen Rider Taiga (of ''KamenRiderRyuki'') kills his mentor and his best friend, all to fulfill his delusional wish of becoming a hero.

* Boone from "{{Lost}}" is a particularly sad example. From his first scene in the pilot (giving CPR to Rose), he's constantly trying to be a hero....and failing miserably. [[spoiler: he does the CPR all wrong and Jack has to save Rose. He fails to save Joanna from drowning, almost drowns himself, and has to be rescued by Jack. He stands guard but falls asleep, allowing Ethan to kill Scott. Taken to the most tragic extreme, he climbs into the beechcraft in an attempt to radio the outside world, only for the plane to plummet off of a cliff, during which he sustains fatal injuries and eventually dies.]]

** The original Katsushiro qualified as well.

* Conrad Verner from ''MassEffect''. He's Commander Shepard's number 1 fanboy, but hasn't got the brains to recognize that he's not anywhere near skilled enough to follow his/her example and become a Spectre. It's up to the Commander to keep him from getting himself killed.
** [[VideogameCrueltyPotential Or not]].

* Reiner Braun from ''AttackOnTitan'' is hinted to be one, at least according to childhood friend Bertolt. He has strong ideals about how the strong should always protect the weak, and has a bad habit of rushing into danger as a result. [[spoiler: A ''very'' dark and tragic example, since he's actually TheMole and committed an act of mass murder at the age of 12 for the sake of his mission. The guilt over his crimes, and attachment to the humans he's gotten to know, causes him to go insane and begin [[BecomingTheMask repressing]] his memories so he can continue to believe he's a hero.]]

-->--'''[[spoiler:Col. John Konrad]]''', to '''[[spoiler:Capt. Martin Walker]]''' ''[[LeaningOnTheFourthWall and]] [[WhatTheHellPlayer the]] [[YouBastard player]], ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''

* Luke fon Fabre from ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss''. All it takes is [[spoiler:Van telling him that he'll be a hero to get him to completely ignore everything everyone else in the group tells him (even his long-time best friend and the one who practically raised him, Guy), split off from them when they're in a city infected by dangerous miasma, and then unleash a power he can't control when Van tells him to, resulting in the destruction of Akzeriuth and the deaths of hundreds of people.]] So basically, he goes from a Heroic Wannabe to NiceJobBreakingItHero all in one go. Yeesh.4
* Emiya Shirou from ''FateStayNight'' wants to be a "Hero of Justice", following in his foster father's footsteps. Pretty much everyone around him tries to warn him of just what a bad idea this is, but it becomes the most pronounced with [[BelligerentSexualTension Rin]] and [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids Archer]] in the Unlimited Blade Works route. [[spoiler:In at least one timeline he got his wish, but was executed as a scapegoat, and this is how we got Archer]].
** [[spoiler: He also gets his wish in the "Fate" or "Saber" route (as seen in the "Réalta Nua" epilogue) and presumably met the same end as Archer. Unlike Archer though, he doesn't regret it and he gets to be [[TogetherInDeath reunited with Saber after death]] so there's probably not a whole lot to regret. Also, Archer's regrets came as a result of his life as a Counter Guardian and not directly from how he lived as Emiya Shirou.]]

* Flynn from ''PowerRangersRPM'' in his childhood was a lover of comic books and wanted to help people. He went a little overboard - failing at being a cop (he tried to arrest the mayor's son), a fireman (caused water damage trying to save an old lady's goldfish) and in the Peace Corp (led a rebellion with the indigenous people). Unlike most examples, he actually gets to become a hero.

* Billy and the Alphas of ''TheDresdenFiles'' are somewhere between this, [[AscendedFanboy Ascended Fanboys and Girls]] and JumpedAtTheCall, as while they are basically a college D&D group, they became a pack of werewolves who are surprisingly good at what they do.