What makes a hero?

We are all aware that sacrifice or rising from the ashes makes a hero, but personality wise, what attracts you to someone enough to call them a hero??

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I think it depends on the definition of hero because many people see themselves as heroes of their own story. Just look at Thanos from Avengers: he didn’t think of himself as the villain because he was trying to do the right thing since the universe was overly populated and resources were scarce. He didn’t want everyone else to suffer what he went through. That’s what makes his morals more defined than someone murdering you because they’re jealous of you.

Same thing can be said for Robin Hood. Is he a villain because he’s a robber? Or is he a hero because he gives the money he takes to the less fortunate and not use it on himself?

The question mostly lies with their values, in my opinion anyway. Are they doing so and so for the good of heart, or is it for selfish reasons like if they saved someone are they only doing it for the fame and fortune? But then you want to think of what they’re doing is a good thing since you can sometimes have options. Wiping half the entire universe isn’t necessarily a good option to take and how he approached it also wasn’t good either.

Robin Hood (and I’m just going off the simplistic version of what he did—I’ve never actually read the story so I don’t know what happens, etc.) may be a hero because he’s doing a good deed. But how he approached the problem isn’t good either because stealing is bad. There’s other options to help the poor besides that.

But it always comes back to their values, their beliefs and how they execute them. Take Aang from the Avatar: the Last Airbender for example. He’s a pure hearted hero because his beliefs are true and good. He doesn’t believe in violence unless absolutely necessary, and he didn’t even want to kill the Firelord despite everyone telling him that he had to. He found a way around it when his options were slim. Instead of killing the Firelord, he took away his powers and therefore, won the battle and restored peace among the nations.

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Heroism.

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They are selfless to an admirable degree

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I’d say self sacrifice for the benefit of others, especially complete strangers is a sign of heroism. Not necessarily self sacrifice to the point of death, but giving up things that would potentially benefit you for the good of other people. I watch and read My Hero Academia (if you don’t know what that is, it’s a manga/anime about a world where most people have some sort of superpower, and being a “hero” is a profession) and one of the overarching themes of it is what it means to truly be a hero. There are a variety of characters, and many of them do heroic things, but whether or not they’re a hero is debatable. For example, there’s a character who’s a hero by profession who saves an insane number of people over and over, and yet he severely abused his children and wife because the only thing he’s doing any of it for is power. By contrast, there’s another character who’s a high level villain, he’s done terrible things, and yet he genuinely just wants to help and take care of his friends and the people he cares about, and is willing to sacrifice massive things for them. Are either of them heroes? They both do things to help some people and harm others. I’d say that it ultimately comes down to a character’s intentions for me. Yes, a character can be perfect and heroic in every way, but I have a hard time seeing them as a true hero if they aren’t invested in helping people without needing anything in return.

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This was such a great insight, thank you!!! It definitely is a perspective thing and morals are blurred when it comes to choosing between right by the current law or sincere good for the people.

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Loved this!! And I do like a flawed hero; they really can’t do their end goal without someone else baring a price.

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Flawed heroes are amazing! I always like the interesting contrast between their actions and their motivations!

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Depends on how you’re defining “hero”. It’s that broad

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