History Main / TheHero

The Hero is a character who overcomes adversity and challenges by performing great acts that demonstrate their strength (physical or mental), ingenuity, and valor. In modern works, heroes are also often the [[BigGood primary source of goodness]] in the story or will fight on its behalf against a BigBad. In contrast, heroes of classical works frequently engaged in heroics for what are now often considered petty, jealous, and self-serving reasons, such as protecting their honor, pride, and vanity, as past societies put much more stock into such values than many societies do today. In this classical conception, being The Hero was more about accomplishing some great feat against a worthy opponent, rather than upholding and protecting some noble intention.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/ANewHope https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/luke_skywalker_poster.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:He's Luke Skywalker. He's here to rescue you.]]

While The Hero is often TheProtagonist and TheLeader, these tropes are not the same. TheProtagonist is the principal character of the story who drives the plot forward. The Hero tends to be TheProtagonist (see HeroProtagonist) just because baked into the hero's definition is a forward-moving, basic narrative structure (hero faces some challenge and has to figure out a way to overcome it). TheLeader, on the other hand, is simply a character who sits at the head of some group or organization. Often times The Hero will be TheLeader because idealized versions of The Hero and TheLeader share many of the same traits (strong, resilient, righteous, noble, proactive, morally upstanding, well-liked, charismatic, confident, brave, etc.), making The Hero a logical choice in the narrative to also be TheLeader. That said, not all heroes are TheLeader and not every example of the TheLeader is also The Hero.

* ByronicHero: A troubled, brooding, sometimes selfish outcast whose passions and strive towards a goal cause drama.

The Hero is a character who overcomes adversity and challenges by performing great acts that demonstrate their strength (physical or mental), ingenuity, and valor. In modern works, heroes are also often the [[BigGood primary source of goodness]] in the story or will fight on its behalf against a BigBad. In contrast, heroes of classical works frequently engaged in heroics for what are now considered petty and jealous reasons, such as protecting their honor, pride, and vanity, as past societies put much more stock into such values than many societies do today. In this classical conception, being The Hero was more about accomplishing some great feat against a worthy opponent, rather than upholding and protecting some noble intention.