History Main / EternalHero

* ''CaptainPlanet'', as the anthropomorphic personification of Gaia, probably counts.

* As of ''WhateverHappenedToTheCapedCrusader'', Batman definitely counts as a multiversal version. The idea, manifestation, and embodiment of Batman is inevitable in any timeline. It's implied that all the Batmen in different universes have or will reincarnate into each other.

* In the ''KamenRiderDecade'' movie, [[Series/KamenRider Kamen Rider 1]] claims that for as long as they are needed, there will always be Riders to fight evil.

** Cohen and his henchmen ''do'' fit the trope. At the end of ''Discworld/TheLastHero'', they suffer a huge explosion that should've killed them. But Death doesn't come for them. Why? Because of this trope.

* The various incarnations of Lorkhan/Shezzar/Shor in TheElderScrolls games. These Shezzarines always appear at moments of great need as champions of Humankind, often fighting against the Elves. The best example (apart from the god-emperor Talos) is Wulfharth Ash-King, who has died and come back to life at least three times.

* Parodied in Craig Shaw Gardner's ''TheWanderingsOfWuntvor'' series- Wuntvor, former apprentice to the great wizard Ebenezum, evades the AnthropomorphicPersonification of Death so many times, Death begins to think he is "The Eternal Apprentice", and gets really annoyed about it, the more frequently it happens.

* At the end of Greg Bear's ''City at the End of Time'', it's revealed that [[spoiler: Daniel is actually Sangmer, the legendary missing-presumed-dead hero that the characters in the scenes set several trillion years in the future read stories about. When [[CrapsackWorld the entire multiverse started to unravel]] during his lifetime, his demiurge EternalLove Mnemnosyne regressed him to childhood and sent him to be a KingInTheMountain in a PocketDimension. Eventually he is released, with his memories of being Sangmer suppressed, as a human fate-shifter (someone who can jump between parallel universe versions of themselves to avoid bad luck). He then starts from the beginning of human history, journeying to the recent past, where he has shifted into the identity of Daniel, who in turn shifts between multiple Daniels until he ends up in a universe where he is a beggar called Charles Granger. It turns out that this is because [[FromBadToWorse Daniel died as a teenager in this universe]], so he ended up in the nearest equivalant. He then transfers his consciousness into the body of theoretical physicist Fred, his best friend in his home universe and married to the late Daniel's sister in Granger's world. He does all this, as well as being a ManipulativeBastard and TheSociopath, because his suppressed memories are driving him forward to the point where he can stop the multiverse's destruction and reunite with his love. Because she's a demiurge and he's a far-future descendant of humanity, they don't really care how many human identities he sacrifices to succeed.]]

** [[Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena Utena Tenjou]] is the Rose Prince of [[Manga/MagicKnightRayearth Cephiro]], a recurring office given to winners of the rose duel tournament. While the Pillar of Cephiro holds the world together and keeps it peaceful by will and prayer alone, the Rose Prince is a roving correction mechanism whose fate is to always be a champion for people in need. She plays a large role in the defeat of the [[Series/{{Babylon 5}} Earth Alliance and Psi Corps]]. I don't think she's actually immortal yet, but given her close relationship with the [[NorseMythology Aesir]], it's bound to happen eventually.

* All of the protagonists of Kim Stanley Robinson's TheYearsOfRiceAndSalt go through serial reincarnation down through the history of an Alternative Universe Earth from the moment it branches off from real history to the AU's 'present'.

* TerryPratchett parodies it in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/TheLastContinent'', where Death speculates that Rincewind is a counterbalance to this, the "Coward with a thousand retreating backs". Discworld also gives us another parody, the octogenarian warrior-hero Cohen the Barbarian, who "[[BadassGrandpa has a lifetime's experience of not dying]]". Discworld also plays the trope straight with BadassGrandpa Lu-Tze, who's a 900-year-old member of a monastic TimePolice. Also perhaps Sam Vimes since ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'': his possession by the [[EldritchAbomination Summoning Dark]] and his resulting special abilities seem to be turning him into an eternal policeman, which can be seen in ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}''.

* In GuyGavrielKay's ''TheFionavarTapestry'', Lancelot and Arthur are set up as eternal heroic archetypes who appear in all the worlds of the Weaver's Tapestry, playing out the same roles of the Noble King and the Knight Who Betrays Him in as many guises and names as there are worlds.

* MichaelMoorcock's The Eternal Champion series (''TheElricSaga'', The Books of Corum, Von Bek, Count Brass, et al) is one of the main modern literary examples. It's an epic series covering over 40 books and almost as many individual incarnations of the titular champion and moves between straight {{High Fantasy}} and {{Science Fiction}}.

* TerryPratchett parodies it in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/TheLastContinent'', where Death speculates that Rincewind is a counterbalance to this, the "Coward with a thousand retreating backs". Discworld also gives us another parody, the octogenarian warrior-hero Cohen the Barbarian, who "[[BadassGrandpa has a lifetime's experience of not dying]]". Discworld also plays the trope straight with BadassGrandpa Lu-Tze, who's a 900-year-old member of a monastic TimePolice. Also perhaps Sam Vimes since ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'': his possession by the [[{{EldritchAbomination}} Summoning Dark]] and his resulting special abilities seem to be turning him into an eternal policeman, which can be seen in ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}''.

* ZigZagged in ''Maurauders of {{Gor}}''. Torvald, the legendary founder of Torvaldsland, is said to be sleeping in his tomb and [[KingInTheMountain will awaken when a warrior comes to him in a time of crisis]]. The protagonists find the tomb only to find it empty except for a War Arrow. They realize that [[ItWasWithYouAllAlong it was a metaphor, that they themselves need to help themselves]]. But then after the battle Tarl finds himself talking with a man from near the mountain, who volunteers to return the War Arrow back to the tomb, who is named Torvald. It is possible that this man really is the thousand-year-old king, given that on Gor they have "stabilization serums" which is basically a cure for the aging process.

Many cultures have the idea of an eternally recurring hero. Not a KingInTheMountain, just a hero who keeps coming back for more. Maybe it's one hero with multiple identities. Either they're immortal, or there's an element of returning from being [[NotQuiteDead apparently dead]] or seeming way [[OldMaster too old]] to fight. The reason both are included is that this trope is as old as mythology, and in its early era the concepts of {{immortality}}, [[BackFromTheDead resurrection]], and [[LongLived absurd longevity]] were fairly interchangable.

A character could become an EternalHero for many reasons. Maybe, like the Irish legend ''Osinn in Tír Na nÓg'', the hero ends up in a time loop or Neverneverland that allows him to return to Earth centuries later without having aged. Maybe he's just unkillable. Sometimes, a deity or other force of nature embodies itself as this character whenever the world needs it. For the Norse, {{Tolkien}} argues that it's Sigurd/Siegfried. For the Celts, it's the many permutations of Fionn and the Fianna and the Red Branch Knights.

* Sometimes a superhero keeps coming back in different guises, even when apparently dead. For example, Hector Hall/Silver Scarab dies and becomes the Sandman, but in ''{{Sandman}}: The Doll's House'' he is revealed to be a ghost who has been manipulated into taking on a persona that's erstaz version of Dream of the Endless. Dream returns from captivity and kills him. Despite ''[[UpToEleven being dissolved into his constituent atoms by the immortal, older than time itself, anthropomophic personification of dreams and the imagination]]'' he returns as Dr Fate.
** ''{{Sandman}}'' also provides an extreme example, where the death of one of the Endless automatically means the nearest suitable human turns into them. Not to mention the immortal Hob Gadling, or Death's assertion in ''Dream Country'' that gods and mythologies "live on in a kind of dream country" long after humans have stopped believing in them

* In Archibald Mac Leish's ''PrinceOmbra'', an eternal champion and his evil counterpart are reincarnated to fight periodically. Last time [[WeDidntStartTheFuhrer it didn't go so well for Good]].
* At the end of Greg Bear's ''City at the End of Time'', it's revealed that [[spoiler: Daniel is actually Sangmer, the legendary missing-presumed-dead hero that the characters in the scenes set several trillion years in the future read stories about. When [[CrapsackWorld the entire multiverse started to unravel]] during his lifetime, his demiurge EternalLove Mnemnosyne regressed him to childhood and sent him to be a KingInTheMountain in a PocketUniverse. Eventually he is released, with his memories of being Sangmer suppressed, as a human fate-shifter (someone who can jump between parallel universe versions of themselves to avoid bad luck). He then starts from the beginning of human history, journeying to the recent past, where he has shifted into the identity of Daniel, who in turn shifts between multiple Daniels until he ends up in a universe where he is a beggar called Charles Granger. It turns out that this is because [[FromBadToWorse Daniel died as a teenager in this universe]], so he ended up in the nearest equivalant. He then transfers his consciousness into the body of theoretical physicist Fred, his best friend in his home universe and married to the late Daniel's sister in Granger's world. He does all this, as well as being a ManipulativeBastard and TheSociopath, because his suppressed memories are driving him forward to the point where he can stop the multiverse's destruction and reunite with his love. Because she's a demiurge and he's a far-future descendant of humanity, they don't really care how many human identities he sacrifices to succeed.]]

* Lampshaded and parodied by T.H. White in the last volume of ''TheOnceAndFutureKing'', where Merlin (who was born an old man at the end of the universe and lives his life backwards in time to an eventual death as a baby during the Big Bang) devotes a couple of paragraphs to [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall confusing Arthur by criticising future retellings of his legend]], [[GenreSavvy mercilessly savaging White's version ("Imagine, beginning with the Normans and ending with the Wars of the Roses")]] for using ComicBookTime to allow Arthur and the others to [[MindScrew live through centuries of history while simultaneously only living for normal human lifespans.]]
** This scene starts with the duo meeting a young boy [[NoFourthWall who turns out to be called]] ThomasMalory...
* The Dragon from the WheelOfTime is example. He's reincarnated once an Age to do battle with the Dark One. Also in the WheelOfTime are the Heros of the Horn, who reincarnate more frequently and form much of the mythology and legends.
* PerryRhodan: an interstellar hero who became immortal during his adventures.

* As of WhateverHappenedToTheCapedCrusader, Batman definitely counts as a multiversal version. The idea, manifestation, and embodiment of Batman is inevitable in any timeline. It's implied that all the Batmen in different universes have or will reincarnate into each other.
** In fact, that entire comic is pretty much one big depiction and analysis of this proposed trope, as a side affect of trying to be the end-all be-all summation of Batman in all his forms. (It was written for when Batman died in canon, so it's a eulogy of sorts)

->''"Death is as powerful a weapon as it is an easy escape. Heroes can pass in to legend, Legends into myths, Myths fuel new heroes."''

* ZigZagged in ''Maurauders of {{Gor}}''. Torvald, the legendary founder of Torvaldsland, is said to be sleeping in his tomb and [[KingInTheMountain will awaken when a warrior comes to him in a time of crisis]]. The protagonists find the tomb only to find it empty except for a WarArrow. They realize that [[ItWasWithYouAllAlong it was a metaphor, that they themselves need to help themselves]]. But then after the battle Tarl finds himself talking with a man from near the mountain, who volunteers to return the War Arrow back to the tomb, who is named Torvald. It is possible that this man really is the thousand-year-old king, given that on Gor they have "stabilization serums" which is basically a cure for the aging process.

* About half of the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters huge cast]] are Detian, which means that they've taken the Omega-2 retrovirus which gave them TheAgeless with a moderate HealingFactor. Began as heroes whose deeds included saving the [[{{Transformers}} Autobots]] from destruction and leading a revolution on the planet [[NinjaHighSchool Zardon]]. They then were scattered by the BigBad's BatmanGambit, and went into exile for 100 years. They came back and reconstituted the Wedge Defense Force in the 2380s, just in time to save the whole of the Perseus Arm of the galaxy from coming under the rule of the [[Anime/BubblegumCrisis GENOM corporation]].
* [[Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena Utena Tenjou]] is the Rose Prince of [[Manga/MagicKnightRayearth Cephiro]], a recurring office given to winners of the rose duel tournament. While the Pillar of Cephiro holds the world together and keeps it peaceful by will and prayer alone, the Rose Prince is a roving correction mechanism whose fate is to always be a champion for people in need. She plays a large role in the defeat of the [[Series/{{Babylon 5}} Earth Alliance and Psi Corps]]. I don't think she's actually immortal yet, but given her close relationship with the [[NorseMythology Aesir]], it's bound to happen eventually.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Latter-Day Saints believe that the Archangel Michael, who defeated Satan during the War in Heaven, is the same being as Adam, the first man on Earth after its creation. Adam being his mortal name and Michael being his heavenly name.
[[/folder]]

!Indices: {{Heroes}}, ThisIndexWillLiveForever

{{Supertrope}} for ''TheHeroWithAThousandFaces'', the KingInTheMountain and the LegacyCharacter as well as many [[{{Heroes}} heroic archetypes]]. SisterTrope to {{Immortality}}.

* Sometimes a superhero keeps coming back in different guises, even when apparently dead. For example, Hector Hall/Silver Scarab dies and becomes the Sandman, but in ''{{Sandman}}: The Doll's House'' he is revealed to be a ghost who has been manipulated into taking on a persona that's erstaz version of Dream of the Endless. Dream returns from captivity and kills him. Despite ''[[{{Up to Eleven}} being dissolved into his constituent atoms by the immortal, older than time itself, anthropomophic personification of dreams and the imagination]]'' he returns as Dr Fate.

* [[{{Mouse Guard}} Mouse Guard: Fall 1152]] references this at the beginning of Chapter 4 with a quote attributed to the Black Axe:

* {{Michael Moorcock}}'s The Eternal Champion series ({{The Elric Saga}}, The Books of Corum, Von Bek, Count Brass, et al) is one of the main modern literary examples. It's an epic series covering over 40 books and almost as many individual incarnations of the titular champion and moves between straight {{High Fantasy}} and {{Science Fiction}}.
* In Archibald Mac Leish's ''{{Prince Ombra}}'', an eternal champion and his evil counterpart are reincarnated to fight periodically. Last time [[{{WeDidntStartTheFuhrer}} it didn't go so well for Good]].
* At the end of Greg Bear's ''City at the End of Time'', it's revealed that [[spoiler: Daniel is actually Sangmer, the legendary missing-presumed-dead hero that the characters in the scenes set several trillion years in the future read stories about. When [[{{CrapsackWorld}} the entire multiverse started to unravel]] during his lifetime, his demiurge EternalLove Mnemnosyne regressed him to childhood and sent him to be a KingInTheMountain in a PocketUniverse. Eventually he is released, with his memories of being Sangmer suppressed, as a human fate-shifter (someone who can jump between parallel universe versions of themselves to avoid bad luck). He then starts from the beginning of human history, journeying to the recent past, where he has shifted into the identity of Daniel, who in turn shifts between multiple Daniels until he ends up in a universe where he is a beggar called Charles Granger. It turns out that this is because [[{{ItGotWorse}} Daniel died as a teenager in this universe]], so he ended up in the nearest equivalant. He then transfers his consciousness into the body of theoretical physicist Fred, his best friend in his home universe and married to the late Daniel's sister in Granger's world. He does all this, as well as being a ManipulativeBastard and TheSociopath, because his suppressed memories are driving him forward to the point where he can stop the multiverse's destruction and reunite with his love. Because she's a demiurge and he's a far-future descendant of humanity, they don't really care how many human identities he sacrifices to succeed.]]
* TerryPratchett parodies it in the {{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/{{The Last Continent}}'', where Death speculates that Rincewind is a counterbalance to this, the "Coward with a thousand retreating backs". Discworld also gives us another parody, the octogenarian warrior-hero Cohen the Barbarian, who "[[{{BadassGrandpa}} has a lifetime's experience of not dying]]". Discworld also plays the trope straight with BadassGrandpa Lu-Tze, who's a 900-year-old member of a monastic [[{{TimePolice}} time police]]. Also perhaps Sam Vimes since ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'': his possession by the [[{{EldritchAbomination}} Summoning Dark]] and his resulting special abilities seem to be turning him into an eternal policeman, which can be seen in ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}''.
** Cohen and his henchmen ''do'' fit the trope. At the end of ''Discworld/{{The Last Hero}}'', they suffer a huge explosion that should've killed them. But Death doesn't come for them. Why? Because of this trope.

* In {{Guy Gavriel Kay}}'s {{The Fionavar Tapestry}}, Lancelot and Arthur are set up as eternal heroic archetypes who appear in all the worlds of the Weaver's Tapestry, playing out the same roles of the Noble King and the Knight Who Betrays Him in as many guises and names as there are worlds.

* Lampshaded and parodied by T.H. White in the last volume of ''TheOnceAndFutureKing'', where Merlin (who was born an old man at the end of the universe and lives his life backwards in time to an eventual death as a baby during the Big Bang) devotes a couple of paragraphs to [[{{LeaningOnTheFourthWall}} confusing Arthur by criticising future retellings of his legend]], [[{{GenreSavvy}} mercilessly savaging White's version ("Imagine, beginning with the Normans and ending with the Wars of the Roses")]] for using ComicBookTime to allow Arthur and the others to [[{{MindScrew}} live through centuries of history while simultaneously only living for normal human lifespans.]]
** This scene starts with the duo meeting a young boy [[{{NoFourthWall}} who turns out to be called]] [[{{ThomasMalory}} Thomas Malory...]]

* [[{{TheNthDoctor}} The Doctor]] in Series/DoctorWho is an archetypal example of this trope. It helps that he has a [[TimeTravel time machine]] that can go anywhere in time and space, so he literally can reappear at any time. His [[TheNthDoctor regeneration]] may make him a slightly different person each time, but he's always a hero.

* Most ancient mythologies have an EternalHero. In {{Ancient Grome}}, it's those heroes who are semi-divine, like Heracles. For the Norse, Germans and Anglo-Saxons, it's Siegfreid and his {{Expy}} son/alter-ego Sigurd. The Irish have Oisinn, Fionn and Cuchullain. In other words, this trope is very much OlderThanFeudalism.
* In ''TheHeroWithAThousandFaces'', Joseph Cambell discussed the use of the archetype of the eternal hero in different ancient mythologies, positing that they might all be facets of a single ur-hero and ur-myth.

* In the LegendOfZelda games, various boys called Link across three alternate versions of the same universe take up the mantle of the hero Link to save the world. However, they're not [[{{LegacyCharacter}} Legacy Characters]], they're different incarnations of the same eternal hero.

* Then there are the Heroic Spirits from ''{{Fate Stay Night}}''. They are heroes (such as Heracles and Cu Chulainn) whose legend transcended time, so they can be summoned to any point in the world timeline.

* WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender:There's a detailed description on the {{Reincarnation}} page, but in a few words:
** The world of Avatar is based around four elements: water, earth, fire, and air. The world is roughly divided into four countries, each of which corresponds with a particular element. Certain people from each country can manipulate (or "bend") the element associated with their culture. These people are known as benders; bending gives them abilities significantly above and beyond those of normal people, but nobody can ever bend more than one element.\\

* CaptainPlanet, as the anthropomorphic personification of Gaia, probably counts.

[[/folder]]

!Indices: {{Heros}}, ThisIndexWillLiveForever

!Indices: {{Hero}}, ThisIndexWillLiveForever