Basic Trope: The Leader is a Flat Character.
- Straight: Of all the members of the Five-Man Band, Hiro has the least personality quirks and has the least Character Development despite being the main character.
- Exaggerated: Hiro is a 30 year-old White Male Lead tasked with leading an exceptionally physically, mentally, and emotionally diverse cast. Nothing about his personality changes by the end of the series.
- Downplayed: Hiro is the Only Sane Man, but between his actor's skillful portrayal and the relative insanity of the rest of the Five-Man Band, it serves to make him relatable rather than boring.
- Justified:
- While undergoing Training from Hell, Hiro's mentor tells him that he'll need to leave his personal vendettas and strong displays of emotion behind him if he wants to be the best leader he can be.
- The Leader has that position specifically because he's better-adjusted than his teammates... he doesn't need to be a Dynamic Character in the slightest, since he's already gone through the largest portions of his Character Development.
- Inverted: Hiro begins the series an Idiot Hero with a Dark and Troubled Past which he routinely uses to justify grabbing ahold of the Conflict Ball. Through his adventures interacting with a cast of Flat Characters, he experiences enough Character Development to become an Messianic Archetype, albeit a flawed and very human one.
- Subverted:
- Hiro is supposedly a rather uninteresting person, but makes his first appearance as a badass in a black leather jacket wearing some wicked Perma-Stubble.
- It's revealed that under the surface Hiro is isolated because he has to hide his own internal conflicts in order to appear strong and emotionally balanced for those who follow him. In other words, he's struggling just trying to be the Standardized Leader.
- Hiro dies in the second episode, and Faye becomes the new leader.
- Double Subverted: It's then revealed he was dressed up for a costume party, after which he ditches all of these features and spends the rest of the series a rather boring Flat Character.
- Parodied: In a gag episode, we are told Hiro's actor was not available and that his role with be played by a cardboard cutout of a white silhouette of a man with the words The Generic Guy written on his chest.
- Zig Zagged: Hiro has a Dark and Troubled Past... yet it never seems to bother him. Hiro's commanding officer chews him out for being such a
Chaotic Good Jerk with a Heart of Gold... except it's an Informed Attribute since he's a Nice Guy who doesn't make waves. - Averted: Hiro is equally as flawed, quirky, and dynamic as the other members of his Five-Man Band.
- Enforced: The story is a video game told from first person perspective, and the player is expected to consider him or herself in the lead role. In order for the player to do this, the player character is forced to be a Featureless Protagonist.
- Lampshaded: Lance: "Of course the new guy gets promoted to leader on his first day. None of that silly business like experience or personality to bog him down."
- Invoked: The government watches Hiro from birth, ensuring that he is raised in an ordinary middle-class home and surrounded by ordinary folks in order to prevent a dead little sister incident and shape him into a Standardized Leader.
- Exploited: The Big Good deliberately sends Hiro on a solo mission, thus granting the the main character more screen time in a solo subplot, not because he's the main character but because his lack of disfunction and hangups make him the ideal candidate for the job.
- Defied: Hiro is offered a leadership position, but the prospect of becoming this causes him to reject it.
- Discussed: "That leader of ours is an utter bore. Why not let me lead?" "Okay, so Hiro isn't the life of the party. At least he won't get us killed pursuing some irrelevant vengeance while being emotionally manipulated because of all his hangups, unlike you mister Tall, Dark, and Snarky."
- Conversed: "I made this chart with personality traits per character, and, uh... well, lets just say Hiro is the lightweight."
- Deconstructed: Hiro not having much of a personality makes it hard for his teammates to attach themselves to him, which leads to increasing frustration when they start having to take orders from somebody they still haven't found many good reasons to trust. Eventually, the team disbands, or at least abandons him.
- Reconstructed: There might not be much to Hiro, but he knows what he's doing. The team might not trust him on a personal level, but he can still give tactically sound orders.
- Plotted A Good Waste: The Big Bad separates Hiro from the Five-Man Band, and an arc is spent developing Hiro on solo adventures that showcase and develop his character. He then has to reassemble the band since they weren't able to function well without him and split up.
You can go back to Standardized Leader, I guess, but there are so many cooler tropes out there.
