Chronic Hero Syndrome / Literature

People with Chronic Hero Syndrome in literature.

---

• For all of Rob’s internal claims in An Outcast in Another World that survival is his #1 priority, he’s extremely willing to risk his life to save people, ranging from his best friend, to acquaintances he’s known for two weeks, to people that until recently have openly despised him.
• Isaac Asimov: This is an obvious consequence of the First Law of Robotics: "... or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."
• The Hero's Blessing in Banished from the Hero's Party induces it, whether the Hero wants it or not. This nearly got the person carrying the Hero's Blessing killed as a child, as Ruti couldn't not go out to help search for a missing child despite being a five-year-old with no useful skills at the time, and nearly got herself nommed by a monster that was out of her weight class, but she literally couldn't run from.
• Bakemonogatari: Araragi Koyomi will do whatever it takes to help anyone, whether they are his friends, a stranger who wants his help, a stranger who refuses his help, or someone who intends to kill him. Deconstructed at the end of the second season, where Kaiki tells Araragi that he cannot do anything to help Nadeko, and in fact, his insistence on trying to help her is holding her back more than anything. Araragi seems unable to accept this idea.
  Kaiki: Sometimes love makes people stronger, and sometimes it makes them useless. Senjogahara has grown a bit stronger thanks to you, that's true, but if you continue to associate with Sengoku, she will become useless. You are not the right person to help her.
• Bazil Broketail:
  • Relkin often ends up in situations where someone is in dire need of help and is always eager to act, consequences be damned. Examples include him freeing Miranswa Zudeina in Ourdh or coming to king Choulaput's aid when the latter and his retinue are attacked by assassins.
  • This is what got Evander into the whole mess in the first place. When he visited the town of Port Tarquil, cursed by evil sorcerer Gadjung of Batooj, he intervened and saved its mayor when — under the influence of Gadjung's dark magic — he tried to choke himself to death with a scroll he held. The sorcerer did not take it well.
• The Beasts of Clawstone Castle: Madlyn is the very soul of kindness, so of course she has to help every miserable person that she sees. Deconstructed when she has a little breakdown due to the pressure.
• Beast Tamer: Rein will put himself on the line to protect others, even knowing it won't be in his own interest to do so and even if he doesn't actually want to do it. This is demonstrated when Arios tries to recruit him for help with the Lost Forest despite having kicked Rein out of their party. Rein clearly doesn't want anything to do with them, but Arios's party is trying to stop a threat to the entire world, so Rein agrees. Within the Lost Forest itself, Rein offers to help Sora even though she's already given them what they came for and they have no other reason to remain. Tania tends to chide Rein as being "too good of a person" because of this, while Kanade realizes it's due to Rein's village being destroyed in his childhood. He doesn't want to see someone else suffer that same kind of tragedy.
• Bret King Mysteries: The gang sometimes delay their investigations to help people in need. In The Comanche Caves, they do this to help some tourists whose car is stuck and a family whose house was damaged by a hurricane.
• The Case Files of Jeweler Richard: Seigi is teased about his name meaning "justice" because he is entirely committed to the cause.
• A Certain Magical Index:
  • Touma Kamijou just can't contain his tendency to save people. Even if he just met them, he will go out of his way to help them even though he will gain nothing from it and will usually end up in the hospital. All of Touma's stories involve him saving someone in some way, and without even realizing it he amasses a collection of people across the globe on the science and magic sides who would throw themselves into a war for his sake (whether it be out of gratefulness or romantic interest). In a bit of Fridge Brilliance, after the first novel Touma loses his memory and the only thing he knows is that he saved this girl. Then in the next book/arc, he has to save another girl and just figures that this was a common occurrence.
  • To a lesser extent, Shiage Hamazura. Lampshaded by Birdway later in the series, as she points out that Hamazura may not want to help her out, but his nature means he's going to anyway.
  • Mikoto Misaka is also a sufferer of Chronic Heroine Syndrome. Deconstructed on a personal level — when it's her who really needs Chronic Heroes to solve her situation (such as during Sisters arc), she won't let anyone jump into it. A more mundane example is her friend Saten Ruiko, who is Chronic Muggle Heroine.
• Almost a defining trait of wizards in The Chronicles Of Tevenar. This is heavily implied to be one of the things the Mother chooses wizards based on, much like the Heralds of Valdemar below.
• Date A Live: Shido Itsuka always insists on helping anyone in danger and doing the right thing, even if there is nothing for him to gain. Sometimes, it can push him into borderline martyrdom. The standout example of this is his interference in the fight between Kurumi and Kotori which very nearly led him being vaporized.
• Deconstructed in Discworld.
  • In particular, Thief of Time has Susan angrily call the protagonist "you... hero!" for going back to help his wounded mentor rather than saving the world; he at first takes it as a compliment until he recognises her tone. It should be remembered that Discworld heroes aren't exactly the brightest of people — many jokes are made throughout the series along those lines — so Susan, a teacher and great believer in common sense, won't think highly of them.
  • Indeed, most of the genuine "heroes" of Discworld, like Granny Weatherwax, Sam Vimes, Susan Sto Helit, and Moist von Lipwig are highly cynical and jaded people. More traditionally heroic characters are usually treated as fools (with the possible exception of Carrot Ironfoundersson, who manages to have it both ways). And then there's Rincewind....
  • Cynical though they are, they are genuinely heroic. As in many other aspects of Disc life, people who aspire to the trappings and appearance of heroism are mocked; the ideal is someone who sets his head down and helps those in need without grandstanding or need for recognition.
    Vimes: Tell me while you helped Brick. Why should you care about a slushed-out gutter troll?
    Mr. Shine: Why should you care about some dead dwarfs?
    Vimes: Because someone has to!
    Mr. Shine: Exactly.
• Derek Huntsman of the web-novel Domina is perfectly willing to risk his life to save a man he's known for less than an hour.
• Don Quixote: Subverted and played for laughs; the protagonist is afflicted with this syndrome. The rest of the world reacts in the way we would expect them to in real life. The book not only lampshades this syndrome when Dorotea, (a beautiful woman impersonating a princess who really is trying to send Don Quixote home) but uses a temporary cure: the Damsel in Distress must simply ask The Hero The Promise:
  "Then what I ask," said the damsel, "is that your magnanimous person accompany me at once whither I will conduct you, and that you promise not to engage in any other adventure or quest until you have avenged me of a traitor who against all human and divine law, has usurped my kingdom."
• In Dragon Bones, Ward suffers from this, but he's smart about it most of the time. He deliberately goes to where a hero is needed, as he reasons that if he returns as war hero, the king will not be able to get rid of him so easily. He then travels through several villages that were destroyed by bandits, and solves all problems he encounters on the way. As the crimes are connected, this works to his advantage. He puts himself at a disadvantage by rescuing some individuals, though — Bastilla, a slave he "saved" turns out to really be a slave, but one who is happy and likes inflicting pain on the enemies of her master. Unfortunately for Ward, he is a member of that group ...
• The Dresden Files:
  • Harry Dresden. Dresden has it bad. And he's savvy enough to know and admit it — and then still do it anyway. Just ask him about a Damsel in Distress.
    • In Grave Peril, Harry attends a Villain Party and is given a very interesting party favor, a gravestone and perpetually open plot. The inscription on the stone reads "He died doing the right thing." A few minutes later, he is given the choice between walking away and risking his life to save one innocent, which will also destabilize the vampire/wizard truce. The gravestone wasn't an insult, it was a hint. He does it anyway, with repercussions still being felt ten books later. After suffering thoroughly and horribly for that bit of heroism, he is once again given the same choice: walk away, in which case the villain in question will allow him to live and Harry won't start a war, or fight to force the villain to release the newly half-turned Susan. He refuses to leave her.
      Bianca: "You would flirt with chaos, destruction — with war. For the sake of this one wounded soul?"
      I smote my staff on the floor, reaching deep for power. Deeper than I've ever reached before. Outside, in the gathering morning, the air crackled with thunder.
      Bianca, even Ortega looked abruptly uncertain, looking up and around, before focusing on me again.
      "For the sake of one soul. For one loved one. For one life." I called power into my blasting rod, and its tip glowed incandescent white. "The way I see it, there's nothing else worth a war for."
    • In Turn Coat, Lara can tell he is sheltering Morgan because that's what Harry does: people in trouble come to him, and he helps them.
    • In the short story "Warriors" he attempts to bill an Archangel: even if he's working for Good, he's got to eat. He threatens to not come next time he hears the call. The Archangel immediately laughs at the implausibility of Harry turning away from those in need. Worth noting, the Archangel heavily implies that the entire theft of the sword was allowed to happen, just to put Harry near people who needed his help.
    • When we finally see his formative slugging match with He Who Walks Behind, after Harry's foolish actions resulted in He Who Walks Behind killing a normal guy whose only crime was being nearby Harry:
      It.
      Wasn't.
      Right.
      No, it wasn't. But the world wasn't a fair place, was it? And I had more reason to know it than most people twice my age. The world wasn't nice, and it wasn't fair. People who didn't deserve it suffered and died every single day.
      So what? So somebody ought to do something about it.
  • Michael Carpenter, Knight of the Cross serves God's Will and regularly leaves home to help the helpless and damned be saved. He will drive across the nation on an instinct that he needs to be there, somewhere, and help any who comes across his path. He looks at the people who have taken up a Fallen Angel in their heads as victims of the Fallen's lies, regardless if the person has committed great evils. His job is to save them. In Skin Game, even after retiring five years ago, and being too crippled to fight, when his friends are in danger of dying on his own front lawn, he bargains for their lives by offering to walk out and face Nicodemus. Even when Archangel Uriel appears in to state this isn't his fight anymore, Michael gently calls the angel of the Lord his friend and states it is his choice. Uriel accepts this, and his job is to respect Freewill, but even then makes the one choice he can: Help a mortal with a choice he has already made. His only action available is to risk Falling when he grants to Michael his Grace of God so Michael can walk out back in full form.
• In the Geronimo Stilton book The Mouse City Marathon, Geronimo is continually waylaid from running in the eponymous marathon because he keeps stopping to help people: getting a lost mousling back to his mom, stopping a purse-snatcher, even jumping off a bridge to rescue a fellow runner who fainted. Yet he still manages to come in first!
• Goblin Slayer: As long as there are goblins raping women or slaughtering villages, Goblin Slayer cannot consider retiring to his childhood friend's farm, or becoming an instructor for new heroes, or even going on more prestigious and exciting quests. He will keep hunting goblins until either he dies or the goblins are driven to extinction.
• The Gone series. Brianna, or "Breeze". She spends most of her time rushing off to impress people with her powers and will, whenever trouble arises, blindly try to take out the threat herself — which nearly gets her killed several times. This is deconstructed during her POV chapters in Fear; the "stain" means she will not be able to use her powers, and she's afraid of being a disappointment to Sam if she doesn't kill Drake before that happens.
• Aziraphale from Good Omens. As the narration puts it, "Aziraphale couldn't resist an opportunity to do good."
• Harry Potter: Harry.
  • Lampshaded in the fifth book when Hermione points out that he has a "saving people thing" and that he could be walking into a trap. He's furious about that comment, pointing out that they didn't see an issue with that when he saved their lives before. Deconstructed when his hurry to save Sirius leads to the death he was trying to prevent.
    Hermione: You… this isn't a criticism, Harry! But you do… sort of… I mean — don't you think you've got a bit of a — a — saving-people thing!
  • Voldemort himself sums it up in Deathly Hallows:
    Voldemort: Neither of you understands Potter as I do. He does not need finding. Potter will come to me. I know his weakness, you see, his one great flaw. He will hate watching the others struck down around him, knowing that it is for him that it happens. He will want to stop it at any cost. He will come.
  • Also brought up during Goblet of Fire during the Second Task when Harry is charged with rescuing the person who is most important to them at the bottom of the school lake. Harry insists on trying to take back every hostage, even those that weren't his, misunderstanding that Dumbledore had taken every precaution necessary to ensure that no one gets hurt during the Triwizard Tournament. Harry gets high marks when it was decided that his insistence to save everyone was based on chivalry. Hermione specifically cites this in the aforementioned conversation in Order of the Phoenix.
  • It's significant character development in Deathly Hallows when Harry knows exactly what Voldemort is up to and where he's going — and for once deliberately doesn't move to stop him, despite Voldemort gaining a valuable magical artifact in the process. (It works out for Harry in the end.) Also, Voldemort is right about Harry sacrificing himself, but he's not entirely correct about Harry's motivations. Harry has motives other than simple altruism: Harry himself has a fragment of Voldemort's soul within him, making Harry a de facto Horcrux. He is making the sacrifice to protect his friends, though — the same way his mother protected him.
  • At one point his enemies successfully pick him out in a sea of doubles simply because he's the only one suicidal enough to put in the extra effort to use disarming spells in a real battle when everyone else is fighting for keeps (admittedly, it was against a Brainwashed and Crazy friend of his, he shows no problem with letting a Death Eater fall to his death). It's also, again, a bit of Right for the Wrong Reasons—the Disarming spell has, rightly or wrongly, gotten a reputation of being Harry's "signature" spell because of Harry's famous use of it against Voldemort.
  • The public face of Gilderoy Lockhart is this (at least as far as his fanbase are concerned). A man who tours the world fighting monsters and criminals that threaten innocent people and finding cures for horrible afflictions out of the goodness of his heart. Given how he is still answering fan mail at St Mungo's, it seems that he is still a living legend to many people.
• Heralds of Valdemar:
  • Deconstructed with the magical sword Need before she awakens to full sentience. Nasty things happen because the stupid bloody thing will NOT allow its wielder to let a woman come to harm, no matter what. Nasty for the wielder, because the sword has no concept of things like "impossible odds" (or "paying job"); occasionally nasty for the rescuees because it has no concept of "disproportionate response". And also that "no matter what" includes enemy women who have their own swords and are busily trying to hack Need's current wielder into pieces.
  • More normally, one of the qualities common to those Chosen to be Heralds is at least a little Chronic Hero Syndrome, and if they don't already have it when they're Chosen, they're all but guaranteed to develop a case along the way. They have Psychic Powers and normal people don't, so they have to use them to help those people, goes the thinking. Vanyel especially had it bad: as the most powerful Herald-Mage of his time, and eventually the only one left, no one else could protect the kingdom the way he could.
  • Healers too, substituting Healing Hands for Psychic Powers. This version's only a real problem if a Healer comes across a plague or such beyond her resources, and attempts to fight it anyway rather than leave to get help.
• Honor Harrington: Her major character flaw is her lack of self-assertiveness. She spends most of the series nigh-incapable of prioritizing her own needs over those of others, and it is used to the advantage of her political foes when they figure it out.
• Breq in Imperial Radch suffers from this. Right at the start of Ancillary Justice, she saves the life of a former officer of hers, Seivarden, whom Breq claims she never even liked. Turns out Seivarden has not improved one bit, still self-centered and arrogant despite the fact that a thousand years have passed, and she steals from her at the earliest opportunity. When Breq then tries to leave the planet without her, Seivarden follows, and gets herself in danger right before Breq's eyes... which means she has to save her again, risking her own life in the process. Breq herself wonders why it is that she just cannot let the officer die, as rationally, she's hindering her in her actual quest.
• The Infernal Devices:
  • Will Herondale. According to Jessamine, Will thinks he's Galahad. And it's true.
  • Jem Carstairs. Also, according to Jessamine. Not as much as Will, though.
• Bertie of Jeeves and Wooster suffers badly from this. He'd do anything to help anyone, friend or enemy, no matter how little sense it makes or how much others may take advantage of it. As a random example, in Thank You, Jeeves he decides to help his friend Chuffy, who likes a girl but won't make the first move, by kissing the girl in front of him to instigate Operation: Jealousy. He fully expects to be beaten senseless by Chuffy for doing so, but this doesn't matter to him as long as his friend ends up happy.
• The Journey to the West would not have taken nearly so long if Xuanzang didn't insist on helping everyone they met along the way. Although we find out at the end that the Buddha commands that they go through one more trial before reaching true enlightenment because they were one shy of the true ordained number.
• Knight Errant Michael Sevenson from the Knight and Rogue Series has a problem with this, and will on occasion put himself in harms way to help those who'd much rather see him in harms way.
  • It's more that he consciously tries to do this, because it's how a Knight errant should act. Several times per book he is shown demonstrating that he's naturally much more clever and subversive, but has to kick himself into it. This is the inverse of his sidekick, who tries to be a criminal and is good at it, but is constantly slipping and doing heroic things without thinking, and kicking himself for it afterward.
• The Knight in Rusty Armor at first is this, particularly about saving princesses and going to crusades (he does go to knight tournaments with as much enthusiasm, however). Rather than heroism, he does this to prove his courage and goodness to others.
• Yaegaeshi Taichi from Kokoro Connect. It gets to the point that others actually get pissed off at him for trying to save everyone.
• Shinkurou from light novel/manga/anime series Kure-nai exhibits this. It literally is his job.
• Yuuri Shibuya of Kyo Kara Maoh! not only goes all out to save random strangers but also people who have outright tried to kill him!
• Annie from The Magic Tree House suffers from this for people and animals alike. Her brother lampshaded it as early as Lions Before Lunchtime— "You can't help EVERY animal in Africa!" Not that she didn't try.

• In the Parrish Plessis series, the titular character has a bad case of this. Unfortunately, as a Doom Magnet living in a Crapsack World, her efforts to help backfire more often than not.
• From Predator things of the Century by Strugatski Brothers: "I'll get crazy for this. So many people — and I'm alone. I'm exactly like you, people — except I want to help You, and You don't help me..."
• Mike from the Psmith series, generally at his own expense. Psmith sums it up nicely in the second book.
  'This habit of taking on to your shoulders the harvest of other people's bloomers,' he said meditatively, 'is growing upon you, Comrade Jackson. You must check it. It is like dram-drinking. ...'
• Safehold: Merlin Athrawes of the series has a severe case of Chronic Hero Syndrome, which is subsequently lampshaded. Merlin himself notes that it tends to cause more problems than it solves. In particular, Merlin's actions have the potential to catastrophically effect his efforts to bring technology back to Safehold because the far above-average abilities he uses to do things like wrestle the biggest sea predators the planet bare handed to save random children can be interpreted by foes as demonic involvement. Fortunately for Merlin, because he acts to save people at these times, it only confirms his allies' trust in him.
• In Skwoznyaki by Tatiana Lewanowa (The title can be translated as "Worldhoppers") it is strongly implied (though not outright stated) that being this is a prerequisite to become a Worldhopper. This also sems to explain why there are practically no alult Worldhoppers. The only one we see is there to look for his son, and still helps others despite being in a bad shape. Masha, the main heroine, constantly gets into mortal danger for trying to solve other people's problems, yet never thinks twice about getting involved again.
• In A Dance with Dragons from A Song of Ice and Fire Tyrion suggests that Danaerys has this. Consequently, he recommends that Aegon, instead of showing up on her doorstep asking her to marry him, invade Westeros. He can't win, so she'll have to go to rescue him. This would not only put her own indefinitely delayed invasion plans back on track, but is also more likely to make a good first impression.
  • Jon Snow definitely has a case of this as well, especially after he is elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. He repeatedly goes out of his way trying to save everyone, no matter how unlikely the chances of it working are. In addition to his humanitarian reasons, he justifies it as also being pragmatic: the more who die beyond the Wall, the more undead join the approaching Other army — but he only uses this argument once. Still and quite frustratingly, none of his fellow leaders see this side of it.
  • That said, Jon's plotline is also deconstructing the idea of a leader with Chronic Hero Syndrome, in that the refusal or inability to make potentially heart-wrenching decisions and focusing on saving literally everyone is often detrimental to the leader's overall responsibility (which in Jon's case is to prevent mankind's extinction). Saving starving wildlings and rescuing "Arya" from Ramsay may be heroic actions, but it also risks losing men who are of more value guarding the Wall, puts a strain on their already-dwindling food stores, and antagonizes threats to the south. In this light, being a heroic leader may ultimately mean being a poor leader.
  • His little sister Arya Stark is also a case of this in early books. One of her first major chapters has her taking on the Crown Prince to stop him hurting her friend, a butcher's boy. As with Jon, because this is the ultimate Crapsack World she ends up in disgrace and the boy is killed anyway. Even after things go to hell for her and she's posing as a commoner she keeps it up. Notably when the Night's Watch recruits she's travelling with are attacked she spends the battle saving a little girl and risking being burned alive to free some trapped prisoners. This lessens as the books continue and her Break the Cutie arc gets steadily worse, especially once she ends up training as an assassin. But even then she struggles with killing people as random assignments not for delving out justice or punishment, coming from a "kill those who deserve to die" mindset.
• Paladins in the Spells, Swords, & Stealth universe absolutely can not run when faced with evil or the knowledge that innocents are in danger, essentially making this trope a requirement. Since Thistle is paladin to Grumble, the god of the minions, he briefly wonders if that rule might be more lenient in his case, since minions are not known for their courage. Thistle gets proven wrong when he's pinned to a street in the town of Briarwillow for several hours until he promises to find out what's behind the evil presence there that's made the townsfolk vanish. The tabletop players in the first book prevented Tim from making a paladin precisely because this trait would interfere with their preferred playstyle of threatening, killing, and/or looting everything they came across.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • In the Hand of Thrawn duology, Mara Jade accuses Luke Skywalker of occasionally suffering from this.
    Mara Jade: You didn't think. You reacted, eager to save the world and to do it alone.
  • Later in the New Jedi Order series, Mara goes out of her way to explain to Anakin Solo how Luke (now her husband) hasn't exactly outgrown the mentality and even infused it into many of his students.
  • In Kenobi, Ben's mission is to watch over Luke Skywalker (still an infant at this point), but he can't help himself from getting involved in the problems he sees in front of him, to the point that he has trouble maintaining his anonymity. He eventually starts to think of Obi-Wan, the Jedi who needs to help people, and Ben, The Hermit who must stand apart, as two separate parts of himself.
• The Stormlight Archive: Kaladin has a major case of this syndrome, he's always trying to save people and gets horribly depressed when he can't save/protect everyone, to the point of very nearly being Driven to Suicide several times.
  • The Windrunners, an order of the Knights Radiant which Kaladin ends up joining are basically defined by this. Each order of Knights makes Oaths to gain powers, and thus far the Windrunner Oaths are all directly related to protecting others.
  "I will protect those who cannot protect themselves."

  —The Second Ideal of the Windrunners
  • Interestingly, Oathbringer indicates that the Fourth Ideal of the Windrunners is the opposite of this trope. In order to reach that stage, one has to fundamentally accept and make peace with the fact that they cannot save everyone. This seems to be the only way to acquire the Windrunner version of Shardplate.
• Kirito of Sword Art Online has a massive complex of Survivor's Guilt, which renders him unable to stand still when he sees someone in trouble or danger. This often happens with girls who quickly fall for him when he rescues them.
• Witt in The Thin Red Line volunteers for each and every available mission, because he believes that his presence may make a difference for the better.
• Conrad Nomikos in This Immortal. At first, he tries to prevent Myshtigo's murder because protecting the latter is part of his job, but also because he sees no reason to let it happen until he's found proof otherwise. He also tries to protect everyone, even Hasan the Assassin, when the group is caught by cannibals by offering himself to fight the Dead Man, and tries to save Myshtigo from a boadile even though letting the animal eat the latter would solve many problems.
• Tortall Universe: Keladry of Mindelan in Protector of the Small... she can't help but do exactly what the series name suggests, completely unable to turn down a cry for help from anyone smaller or weaker than herself (protecting animals as often as human beings), much to the exasperation of her friends and colleagues who feel obligated to help her.
• In The Unexplored Summon://Blood-Sign, Kyousuke suffers from this. He literally cannot refuse to help someone who asks for help, to the point that he calls "help me" his cursed words. This tendency stems from a past mistake that caused countless deaths and from receiving the emotion of love from an Eldritch Abomination.
• Vampire Academy:
  • Rose Hathaway. Her protective instincts tend to overwhelm her reason. For example in Blood Promise she goes to check up on a random homeless woman and in the process separates herself from her group, going against her own rules not to break ranks for safety reasons. That is how Dimitri the Strigoi ambushes her.
  • Dimitri Belikov. His protective instincts tend to overwhelm his reason. In Spirit Bound, the royal guard attempts to arrest Rose as a suspect of regicide. Dimitri does not know what is going on but faces twenty elite guardians to protect her. At the time his own life is in the balance, as the Council is trying to decide whether to execute him or not. This act of defiance does not help his case.
• Wagons West: Toby Holt keeps meaning to stay at his Oregon ranch to run it, but whenever requested to do so he ends up all over the country to right wrongs.
• Wandering Djinn: The main character of the anthology seems unable to not try to save people.
• Since we've mentioned Merlin from Safehold and Honor Harrington from her own books, we might as well finish out the Weber trilogy with Bahzell of The War Gods. Everyone who meets the hradani instantly recognizes it. The entire series starts off when he can't ignore a servant being raped, even though he knows his intervention could mean war and tries to argue himself into why he should just walk away.
• Firestar in the Warrior Cats series. As a warrior this manifests as him breaking the rules to help other cats and do the right thing, such as feeding an enemy Clan after a flood, or going behind his leader's back to prevent a war. As a leader, his frequent desire to help results in the other Clans considering him nosy and meddling, and turns his old friend Onestar against him because Onestar's naysayers think he can't stand on his own paws as leader without Firestar helping him.
• Drew Carter in Wars of the Realm has a particularly nasty case of this syndrome. He gives up his social standing in high school to protect Ben, the class nerd, from bullying. Later, when he's hiding out in the ghettos of Chicago (looking for Ben, incidentally), he gets sidetracked using his superpowers to beat up gangbangers and protect innocent civilians.
  • You kind of have to feel sorry for Drew when you consider that his Chronic Hero Syndrome is actually hereditary:
  Drew: "What they did was wrong, and it's wrong to do nothing when you have the power to do something." Those were words his dad had spoken, and he never forgot them.
  Ben: "There's a lot of wrong going on... I think you're in for a tough life."
• Hope in Marion G. Harmon's Wearing the Cape. During the series, it is pointed out many times — particularly when someone observes that she had her breakthrough (gained superpowers) not when she was trapped by falling concrete but several minutes later, when she realized that people needed to be rescued.
• White Indian: the second Renno should be tied down to the Seneca village as he is their chief, but throughout the various novels he ends up going to the Yucatan, England, the Caribbean, and even Africa just to right wrongs.
• The Witch of Knightcharm: Emily Holland, the protagonist, fits this trope perfectly. Even after she flees Knightcharm and infiltrates an evil Wizarding School, where she knows she'll have classes with lots of powerful, evil witches whom it would be foolish to antagonize, she can't stop herself from standing up to bullies in her class to protect those who are weaker than herself. She even blocks the necromancer twins from killing another classmate during her first hour or so at the school, even though she knew that would just make the necromancers her enemies.
• Worm:
  • Skitter tries to save people, even when it means going up against a gang leader who can literally turn into a dragon. She keeps this trait even after she becomes a supervillain.
  • Scion spends all his time doing nothing but this, mostly because he's literally got nothing better to do and is following Kevin Norton's orders while trying to figure out his purpose.
  • Eidolon also suffers from this, saying outright that "I live for this." In his case, though, the eventual realization that he may be (unconsciously) responsible for the creation of the Endbringers, which have killed hundreds of millions of humans over the last couple of decades hits him so hard he's left in a Heroic BSoD that he never recovers from.
  • In the sequel Ward, overcoming this trope, learning to take care of herself from time to time, and finding a way to do good without constantly putting her body and psyche on the line is at the core of protagonist Victoria Dallon's character arc.

---