"Nausicaä is the thread that joins us all together. Us, the Doroks, even Kushana and the wormhandlers. Without Nausicaä, we would only quarrel and splinter."
Amuro Ray in Mobile Suit Gundam Chars Counterattack sacrifices himself to save people from an asteroid and show them "the light" helping them to gain hope. Lampshaded in the video game Gundam Dynasty Warriors 2 where Amuro claims he is "no Messiah" before this storyline. His rival, Char Aznable, is pretty much a Dark Messiah in the film.
Rurouni Kenshin's titular character is known for helping others and avoiding massacres. A friend of him thinks in one scene that he will save him life even if didn't want his help since there are several people in Japan who need him. Ironically, most of Kenshin's rivals tend to be Dark Messiah.
Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon, though she started as The Fool. Not only that, she actually gets called the Messiah later.
It should be noted, though, that Usagi is more of The Messiah in the anime than in the manga, where despite still being very compassionate and a good person, she's much less forgiving of those who hurt her loved ones.
And if you want to know how much of a Messiah Usagi is in the live-action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, look for signs from the second episode. You've definitely got a Messiah in play when, in the middle of a fight, she's hanging by one arm off a balcony and trying to convince the next senshi-to-be not to become a senshi if she doesn't want to, using lines like "Don't worry, it'll work out somehow!"
Mistress 9 is The Antichrist to Usagi's Messiah, unless of course you want to be comprehensive and cover the other seasons, and then it's Chaos.
Shinya from Watashi No Messiah-sama accepts his duty to save the planet of his beloved by defeating the Big Bad, but refuses to harm anyone, including the Big Badeven after having ripped his heart off and being left off to die.
Earlier in the series he fires a lightning at himself to make Hime, who was trying to kill him, to back off without harming her.
And when Sariel, one of the Dark Messiah subordinates, merely puts Hime to sleep, Shinya snaps, fights and actually manages to bruise him. Did we mention the fact that Sariel, being the Angel of Death, can see the future, wipe out armies by himself and is Nigh Invulnerable?.
Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket. Kind to everyone, forgives even the most evil, saves everyone with her love.
Kintaro from Golden Boy. He is a pervert, but he has morals, and is very sensitive and kindhearted
And their counterparts from the Nanto Roku Seiken; Rei, the Star of Justice, who must live and die for others, and his best friend Shu, the Star of Benevolence, who sacrifices himself for the sake of one hundred innocents.
Kikyo from InuYasha before her supposed betrayal and murder at the hands of Inu Yasha, who was really Naraku in disguise. Even after being revived from the dead, she is frequently seen helping weak and helpless people, although her personality undergoessignificant change.
Kagome. As the reincarnation of Kikyou, she has the Jewel of Shikon sealed inside her, and once she comes into Inuyasha's era she tries to help all the people she can while searching for the Shikon shards. A great example is her interaction with the very angry Cute Ghost Girl Mayu, who died in a fire and is full of anger and pain at her grieving mother; Kagome singlehandedly turns Mayu back to the side of good and saves from being thrown into Hell.
Bleach: Orihime Inoue. When she's captured by the Arrancar, she refuses to hurt them, shows them love, resurrects their dead even after they were trying to torture her, and helps one of the most emotionless of them to discover what the heart is before he dies. In the Nestle to Night novel, also, she heals and saves Harribel and the girls of her Amazon Brigade. On the other hand, once her Messianic tendences were used massively against her: she shielded a guy who had just tried to attack her, Shishigawara, from his boss who was all "You Have Failed Me" mode with a badass Go Through Me... but it turned out that while Shishi survived, his boss Tsukishima did it as a way to go past Orihime's defenses and attack her. The resultsweren't pretty.
Also, Ichigo Kurosaki. Despite his protests on the contrary, he's the one who gives hope to others and saves them, and his main motivation is to protect the people he loves and cares for. And he's also another case of using one's Messianic nature against someone else... again courtesy of Tsukishima, who has brainwashed his friends and family (including ) and renders poor Ichigo incredibly pissed and almost desperate.
Naruto, to the point where it makes you wonder why he had such an abnormally hard time making friends prior to the start of the series (although it can be because nobody wanted to truly meet him after all).
Kakashi: Naruto has a mysterious power. Everyone who meets him becomes his friend, no matter how little contact they have beforehand.
Hinata, Shikamaru, Temari, Neji, and Gaara all note that he has the power to influence people. It's worth noting that Naruto tends to get off to a bad start with most of the people he befriends, and they're often completely dismissive of him for reasons typically unrelated to him having the fox inside him. Unlike many of the other examples, he's not always civil in response, but his determination and honesty cause many of these people to see him, and often themselves, in a new light.
Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage, counts as well. Even as a child, his fondest wish was to bring an end to the constant fighting and dying that plagued the world by forming villages where kids could learn and grow instead of being slaughtered on the battlefield. When he was head of the Senju Clan, he was constantly trying to convince the Uchiha Clan to stop the fighting and join him, eventually succeeding. When he and the other previous Hokage are brought back with Edo Tensei for Sasuke to question, Hashirama immediately realizes that Sasuke needs help, and proceeds to sit the boy down and talk to him. He ends up proving his messiah-ness by succeeding where Naruto failed: with mere words and wisdom, he convinces Sasuke to pull a Heel Face Turn. Dude earned his Hokage credentials, that's for sure.
Vash from Trigun often has to be prodded into shooting the bad guys instead of trying to reason the virtues of life with them. Even then, he refuses to kill humans, even if it means bandaging up the people he just took down.
Wolfwood occasionally seems to see Vash in this light, and well beyond his Technical Pacifist stance above he will do anything to save people. From diving into blows that carved the scars all over him to stripping naked and barking like a dog to get a hostage free to training constantly so that his skills are up to pulling off his signature miracles. His whole identity is tied up in saving people.
And he's the primary defender of the human race on his planet, and main proponent of the creed that everybody can theoretically live in harmony. Even his True Companions aren't a big help—Millie has a good measure of Incorruptible Pure Pureness but doesn't do abstracts, Meryl tends to be a realist, and his best friend is an Anti-Hero. And a mercenary assassin. And The Mole.
Too bad he's got an opponent who's sole mission is to break him thanks to this, and who eventually succeeds, if only temporarily.
In a similar vein is Tendou Rushuna from Grenadier, who is a bit more Martial than Vash, but has likewise never killed anyone, even in the face of them apparently killing a new friend of hers. Even her name is a play on this: Rushuna is a play on a Rushana Buddha, a statue exemplifying the essence of the Buddha, while her surname, Tendou, translates to "Heavenly Path."
Mai Tokiha from Mai-HiME is an interesting case. She spends much of the series struggling to come to terms with her feelings, and is capable of expressing a wide range of negative emotions, ranging from mere disgust to violent rage. In spite of this, she seems to be the type who wants to see the best in people, and never seems to be able to bring herself to feel actual hatred towards anybody, even those who have tried to hurt her. Furthermore, despite her claims that she doesn't have "the time or energy to deal with other people's problems," when push comes to shove she's just not the type of person who can abandon others when she has a chance to help them. In the end, it's her love that allows her to save her possessed best friend/veritable little sister Mikoto, as she chooses to meet Mikoto's berserk rage with open arms and hope that her feelings can reach the other girl.
It's worth mentioning that the Nanoha fanbase uses the term "befriend" as a synonym for "beat the hell out of". She does, however, possess an astounding success rate for turning villains into lifelong allies.
Not only that, but in the closing theme music of season 3, she walks on water, and then flowers bloom all around her. Subtle much?
Also subverted with Iron Maiden Jeanne, who's believed to be The Messiah but is more of a Knight Templar.
Belldandy of Ah! My Goddess! also generally falls into this trope; even her (astoundingly rare) bouts of anger are more likely to result in her forcibly healing the soul of whoever she's fighting, rather than actually harm them.
When she's drunk (on cola), she goes around causing small miracles to help animals, children, the elderly, stray animals, demons, inanimate objects, and pretty much anything else she lays eyes on.
Ginji Amano from Get Backers is even referred to by this moniker several times in the anime and manga, and is very much loved and respected by his allies as a result of his Love Freak tendencies. But when his Super-Powered Evil Side kicks in (partly because he's the kind to want to take on others' pain and suffering), you'd never be able to believe it...
Misaki of Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer; not only her core circle of friends but everyone she's ever fought comes to every one of her matches, cheers for her to win (even the ones that hated her at first) and tries desperately to find out what her opponent's secret is, even though she can't accept any help during the match.
Judai Yuki of the Post ModernYu-Gi-Oh! GX. Originally used straight and frequently noticed and discussed by characters like Sameshima, Saiou, Asuka, Ryo, and Edo; but then deconstructed by Season 3, when the pressure of being everyone's source of strength and inspiration is finally too much for him. His True Companions' dependence on him was actually the key the next Big Bad used to kill them, and Judai's heartbreak at his failure to live up to being this character contributed to his fall to The Dark Side. And it took him a lot to pull himself back from the despair.
Kambei from Samurai 7 inspires great loyalty with words alone, and he forgives and sees worthiness where no one else would. Just in case all that's not clear enough, he also sports white robes and a distinctly Jesus-like haircut.
He's also given up on life, and largely on people. Broken Messiah? Messianic Archetype but not The Messiah? The Messiah isn't supposed to find young enthusiasm like Katushiro's so irritating and naive.
Dr. Kenzo Tenma from Monster. This is both a large advantage and similarly a large disadvantage to him because of the complex location on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism that Monster inhabits.
This is epitomized by his decision in the ending: rather than returning to private practice, Tenma signs up with the MSF, proving that he's willing to take bullets to help complete strangers. All this after a sociopathic Manipulative Bastard devotes himself to putting him through hell and showing him that this is a Crapsack World.
Alphonse Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist generally is considered the level-headed brother who always looks on the bright side of life. He has also converted two chimera soldiers to his cause just by showing them that they are still human.
'course, Ed got two by a similar attitude and fighting until he collapsed, and Roy is A Father to His Men and it always works. Lots of that going around; Al is just the only sweet one.
Gon Freeccs from Hunter × Hunter. He is extremely nice and forgiving, and has a tendency to make people like and admire him. He is also The Fool to an extent, mostly because of his brute strength and dumb luck.
Kazuki Muto from Busou Renkin. Declares the intention to protect everyone, and will defend people who've been trying to kill him if he thinks they're redeemable. One of them immediately turns around and offers her own life to save Kazuki from her brother — so it works.
Not only that. He's nice to everybody, he tries to save everybody, and even helps people who were killing him not five minutes before, even people who were killing him five minutes previously, then stop, then betray the truce, he'll still help them!
Sora Naegino from Kaleido Star, despite being bullied by some of her companions and having to face Training from Hell to compensate for her lack of training compared to others, actually manages to win the hearts and respect to even her most bitter rivals.
Sophie also has some elements of this, being a kind yet determined White-Haired Pretty Girl who alongside her brother Leon works hard to fulfill her dreams. Too bad she's also the Sacrificial Lamb.
The Digimon leads seem to have an element of this, more often than not. Masaru manages to pick up where his father Suguru left off as far as reaching out to Digimon and trying to create the world where Digimon and humans can live together. Daisuke, Takato, and Takuya also have their moments.
Taichi's younger sister Hikari plays The Messiah role straight in Adventure, but subverts it in 02. Her Crest of Light helps her channel spirits, reach for others and all, to the point of making her a borderline Purity Sue at times. However, in 02 Hikari shows huge emotional damage as she's much less able to handle the stress, to the point of having two serious Heroic BSODs that Takeru and Miyako have to pull her out from.
D.Gray-man's protagonist, Allen Walker. Sure he's got a freaky deformed arm, but he's intensely dedicated to destroying Akuma, and by gum, he'll save everyone doing it.
And not just the people; his Empathic Weapon is powered by his will to fight for both the well-being of the living and for the salvation of the Akuma's souls, who systematically try to kill him and all of his friends. Without the will to save both of them, the weapon won't work. In fact, it pretty much showed him getting an epiphany and coming to the realization that he loves both humans and Akumas alike.
Nana "Hachi" Komatsu from Nana can turn even the toughest punk rocker into silly putty just by smiling cheerfully.
Kato in Gantz. The twist? He's not the main character. The resident Jerk Ass is. The Jerk Ass gets better though and becomes a Messiah himself in the Dinosaur arc.
Although a very minor character in terms of screentime, Mary Magdalene from Chrono Crusade otherwise fits all of the requirements to a T. Gentle and constantly smiling (almost a little too much), Mary shows kindness even to the demons who kidnapped her, becoming like family to them. She even willingly helps them when a prophetic vision revealed to her that she would be killed by one of them. In the anime, they decided to make it obvious who she is by giving her stigmata, as well.
Clannad series has got a lot of characters who can be classified as such, including:
Nagisa Furukawa fulfills this role, especially in the original game and the movie. She gets it from her mother Sanae, who seems to support emotionally almost everyone who has problems.
Kotomi is another example. She doesn't seem to hate anyone, especially after she gets rid of her fears.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: A constant inspiration to others? Check. Never seems to express genuine rage even during combat? Check. Group starts to fall apart when he's gone? Yep. This may sound slightly insane, but that sounds a lot like Kamina. After his death, the role is debatably shared by Nia and Simon.
Further cementing things is Kamina getting a final Crowning Moment of Awesome from beyond the grave when he rescues the trapped Dai-Gurren Brigade from the Anti-Spiral's inescapable Lotus-Eater Machine, allowing them to save the day.
And just in case you weren't sure, a) kami is the Japanese word for "God" and b) Jesus' best friend was called Simon Peter, who eventually took over the role of leadership. The spear through the side was probably a bit much after all that...
Also, as more fuel to the fire, the part of Giga Drill Breaker where the enemy mechs are immobilized is remarkably similar to crucifying... and Kamina died during that.
The titular character from Galaxy Fraulein Yuna is a prime example of this. An 9-year-old out-of-control android girl, Ayako, is destroying a hospital in a temper tantrum, and all the characters (almost all former enemies) are trying to contain the destruction and destroy the android. Not Yuna; she admonishes "You're going in to fight an enemy, I'm going in to make a friend!" And she does.
Yuna's title, the "Savior of Light," can also be translated from Japanese to mean "Messiah of Light".
Jiyu Nanohana from Jubei Chan. She's the reincarnation of one eyed Ninja Yagyu Jubei, and she turns into a powerful swordswoman when she put on a magic eye patch she becomes a bad ass, busty version of her predecessor. Jiyu, who is nicknamed Jubei-Chan by her father who ghostwrites samurai novels, doesn't want to hurt anyone and hates turning into Jubei. She is pressured into it when she discovers that the Ryujoji clansmen who keep trying to kill/challenge her as Jubei end up living happier lives after she defeats them, because her Healing Shiv frees them from the magically-enhanced hatred that dominated their (after)lives. Jiyu fits this archetype well; not only does she go to great lengths to avoid hurting the people who are trying to fight her, but everyone loves her — even opponents she has defeated will go to great lengths to protect her.
Gundam Wing: Relena Peacecraft. Although by Endless Waltz she has abandoned the doctrine of total pacifism as unrealistically idealist, she certainly tried to make it work, and went on to become an ambassador of peace. More importantly, she plays a large role in bringing Heero around from the emotionless "kill whoever it takes to accomplish the mission" mentality brought on by his implied Training from Hell into someone capable of sympathy.
Quatre also counts a lot toward this, being the Apologetic Attacker and kind heart of the 5 Gundam pilots. Unlike others, however, he does have his limits: when his father dies, his favorite sister is injured and he's betrayed by his colony, he goes violently insane under the effects of the ZERO System and doesn't recover until a friend makes a borderlineHeroic Sacrifice. Then he reaffirms his Messiah-ness by making what he can to atone and slowly but surely maturing into The Captain of the Gundam pilots, keeping the group together. And snapping the aforementioned friend out of his Easy Amnesia.
Negi Springfield of Mahou Sensei Negima!starts looking like one of these, but as the manga progresses, he starts becoming more painfully aware of his own weaknesses, and is willing to use questionable means to combat them. His motivation is pure as ever though, and he still falls into Honor Before Reason a lot.
His father Nagi is a more straight example; he more-or-less saved the world singlehandedly, ending a world war in the process, and he's one of the most popular people in the magic world. So of course, he had to go MIA right around the time Negi was born.
And then the manga has another example: Princess Arika, Negi's Missing Mom. She was accused of being exactly the opposite, as well as tried and apparently executed, but the common people didn't buy it because she was genuinely kind to them.
Albert from Gankutsuou becomes something of this at the end. The Count destroys his family and his life, murders his best friend who loved him, and tries to kill him in front of his father. However, instead of wanting revenge, he readily forgives The Count and uses the Power of Love and Forgiveness (along with a kiss) to save the day.
Note that everything Albert ever does goes wrong, not entirely because of the Count's machinations. Even when he saves Edmond, he can't save him because the end of Franz's sword is still in his heart. The only people he actually manages to save are Eugenie, and that's really all Peppo's doing, and Haidee. And the world from whatever Gankutsuou would have done with Edmond's body, but I don't think that was even on his radar.
Fernand's bombing of Paris is treated rather leniently compared to his sale of a princess into slavery.
And Albert is in great pain, and nearly-alone in a shattered world at the end. The most you can say is that he survived, without really ceasing to be himself. Which is something, but Incorruptible Pure Pureness maybe, Messiah no.
Isaac, Miria, and Jacuzzi from Baccano Isaac and Miria are the clueless type who unwittingly tend to spread joy and inspire people (ie. Eve, Ennis, Jacuzzi and Czeslaw) whereas Jacuzzi is the type that proactively (and almost suicidally) goes out of his way to help even complete strangers...unless you hurt his True Companions. In that case, you're fucked.
Shibuya Yuuri of Kyo Kara Maoh transcends this trope. He doesn't even kill the Big Bad. He befriends dragons, breaks down race walls, has managed to overturn every foreign policy his country ever had in less than a year in favor of world peace, and trusts and loves everyoneeven after he's been betrayed by them twice, then used as a Person of Mass Destruction to wipe out an entire naval fleet. It gives his bodyguards migranes and is driving his fiancetoward an aneurysm.
Susannah Julia Von Wincott, Yuuri's previous incarnation is the absolute embodiment of this trope. Yuuri is said to have inherited many of her former traits.
In fact, apparently God engineered him through several reincarnations for this. Soushuu states that Yuuri himself was required to put the final seal of worthless mediocrity on his perfect vessel, but Shinou wanted him to outright surpass him so as to defeat Shoushuu.
Akira from Aoi Hana has some of this, since she has the ability to be friends with most other girls. Later she is surpassed in that regard by Haruka, who drags everybody along by sheer enthusiasm.
Marin from Umi Monogatari is prone to randomly hugging people and saying that she loves them. Kanon, her sister, a giant turtle. It doesn't matter. The girl's got plenty of love to spread around.
Both Garrod Ran and Tifa Addil in Gundam X. Garrod, because he managed to subvert almost any of poor Tiffa's horrendous visions and help humanity Screw Destiny; Tiffa, because her kindness let her reach for Garrod and show people what was needed to get the peace they all needed. No wonder they fall in love and get together in the end.
Yuuto Amakawa from Omamori Himari is an example. While demon hunters and ayakashi are generally depicted as being very violent towards each other, Yuuto refuses to have anything to do with demon slaying, and strongly believes that demon hunters and ayakashi can live with each other in peace-and was willing to step into a fight armed with only his belief in Shizuku's ability to let go of her past and return to a peaceful life.
Lute, the older brother of Flute and the son of Queen Horn in the Violinist of Hameln.
Lelouch's half-sister, Princess Euphemia vi Britannia: always chipper; loves everyone; doesn't get angry even when people threaten her with death, which happens more often than you might think. To the annoyance of her family, she takes bolder and bolder steps to fight anti-Eleven (that is, anti-Japanese) prejudice, and eventually she even sacrifices her place in the royal line of succession to give herself the leverage to make an attempt at lasting peace between Britannia and Japan / Area Eleven. (Naturally, things don't go well for her.) She also places herself in danger for the sake of others on no less than three key occasions.
Shirley Fennette. Unlike Euphemia, Shirley generally avoids discussions of politics and current events, but like her, she actively and bravely opposes prejudice and cruelty whenever and wherever she sees it; she feels tenderness toward pretty much everyone; she can't bear to see anyone get hurt; and she's nearly always chipper — except when jealous (back to that in a moment) or when things are going really, seriously wrong. Admittedly, she gets upset whenever she suspects her beloved "Lulu" of liking another girl more than her — which is often — but even then, she's never mean, just, at worst, sullen and gloomy. Shirley is a bit how Euphie might have turned out had Euphie not been stuck as a princess of the world's greatest superpower. (Naturally, things don't go well for her, either. Then ... things don't go well for her, all over again.)
Princess Nunnally, Lelouch's younger sister and reason for living — and, though she has no idea, for killing. Like her older half-sister Princess Euphemia, she's always chipper, always ready to think the best of everyone. Unlike Lelouch, she has no interest in revenge against her family (or anyone else) for the many ways they have wronged her; she just hopes the world will become a nicer place, where Britannians and Japanese can live side by side in peace, and she can return to the family that has betrayed her. (You can probably guesswhere this is going.)
Rule of Three indeed, though, since ultimately Nunnally comes to rule over Britannia and remake it into a good nation.
Red from Pokémon Special. He accepts old foes (that practically tried to kill him) through Enemy Mine situations a little too easily. His Messiah-ness is most prevalent in the FLRG arc, where he readily accepts Deoxys since it shares his blood, even though it nearly massacred his team.
Dia shows some messianic traits, as when he calls out Cyrus for trying to destroy all of existance with a simple yet very heartfelt speech, Dialga and Palkia decide that they'd rather listen to him than Cyrus and earlier his own courage inspired Regigigas to fight Team Galactic as his teammate! His actions are so moving that they convince Cyrushimself that the world was a beautiful thing as it is, provoking a Heel Face Turn. This incredible feat is shared by the below-mentioned Hareta (who admittedly is his AU Counterpart).
Hareta in Pokemon Diamond And Pearl. He apparently feels little-to-no hatred toward anyone and cares for everyone. Your best friend's life was made miserable by these guys, she's probably dead due to being Driven to Suicide, and this guy plans to destroy the whole world? Pff, no problem. Hareta just sheds some Tender Tears-Manly Tears and brushes it off.
Kenji, after his return, becomes a messiah in 20th Century Boys. He saves the world by travelling around singing a song (which in turn makes legions of people idolise and follow him), kills no one and apologizes to the Big Bad for a past misdeed.
His attitude is much more Be All My Sins Remembered and somewhere between bemused and irritated that people are looking to him to save the day.
Kanna also becomes a messiah as well as the story progresses.
Toboe from Wolf's Rain. He's about the closest thing a predatory animal can get to a Friend to All Living Things, and, as a clincher, he's willing to protect and die for the guy who's actively trying to exterminate wolves!
Nao from Liar Game, who is incredibly selfless and honest and willing to use the money that she has won to pay off the debts of people who had previously schemed, lied and tricked her. Her reason for continuing in the game is to essentially save everyone in the game.
Nausicaa, from the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga/anime quoted above, fits this trope to a T. An example: In a scene near the beginning of the manga she meets a cute squirrel-creature. It bites her hand, but she just smiles at it as it gets the biting out of its system, then feeds it. And the next thing you know it's her cute animal companion.
Yusei from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds is this even more so than his predecessors, despite his quiet and more mature nature. Hs father named him after a particle that bonded other particles together, because he wanted Yusei to be able to bond people together. And he did.
Mayoi Neko Overrun's Otome Tsuzuki. She brings in stray orphans, travels around the world, and is generally a force of derring-do and near impossible feats.
Ouran High School Host Club's Suou Tamaki is an exceptionally compassionate, friendly, and forgiving person with an often annoyingly optimistic outlook on life. All the Host Club members have him to thank for some of the positive changes in their lives. He's extremely genuine and can find the beauty in even the most ordinary thing or person—his compliments toward the girls he hosts or runs into are all honest. Despite his grandmother's verbal abuse toward him he remains motivated to earn her acceptance of him.
Ayase of Okane Ga Nai. He forgives everyone, he cares for everything and everyone, and he will do anything he can to make someone happy.
Kira "Jesus" Yamato in Gundam SEED. His girlfriend, Lacus Clyne, combines this trope with Guile Hero for interesting results. As for Chairman Durandal...? He thinks he's this trope, but in truth he's more of a Dark Messiah.
Kyrie from World Destruction fits this to a T. Kind, gentle, and not wanting to fight anyone, he's always trying to find a way to talk things out instead of going on killing sprees like Morte wants to do. He thinks of everyone around him before thinking about himself (which Toppi lampshades this in the manga that Kyrie would give him the water bottle despite the fact he was thirty AND wandering the desert for three days straight.) Enforced and deconstructed in the manga where when he leaves the group, everyone splits up with Toppi and Naja going with him and leaving Morte and Agan behind after Morte crossed the Moral Event Horizon by blowing an entire village up with innocent people.
Haruka, the main character of the manga Agape. It's explicitly said that her "talent" is unconditional love for everyone, even criminals, demonstrated when she immediately forgives and even comforts a man who had just killed her father. For this reason she is sought out by a special negotiations team.
Noelle from Tenshi Ni Narumon is pure beyond pureness, loves everyone (especially Yuusuke) and in the end saves everyone, especially the two most troubled individuals who caused her a lot of problems.
Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica gave her existence to save the soul of every witch in time and space who fell.
Misaki of Junjou Romantica spends his entire life caring and looking out for other people and will do whatever he can to help someone in trouble. This backfires more than once for him. The one character in the entire series who actively dislikes (and bullies) him, he thinks is his own fault. By the time he's finished his university course he discovers that he's spent so much time looking after everyone else that he has absolutely no idea what he wants to do with his life. ... Until someone suggests that he gets a job where he spends day after day looking after highly volatile authors and managing their fragile psychological health while trying to extract from them some sort of publishable artifact that could somehow be construed as a piece of prose - i.e. become an Editor.
Kamijou Touma from A Certain Magical Index, who just wants to protect everybody. Also, Orsola Aquinas, who forgives everybody.
One of Kotetsu's defining characteristics in Tiger & Bunny is that he cares about the safety and wellbeing of everyone — to the point that he'll be shaken even by the death of some nameless Asshole Victim.
The titular character of Cardcaptor Sakura seems to be this trope. She has a kind and cheery demeanor, she simply loves everyone—and it's stated several times that theyloveherback. She appears to be a firm believer in The Power of Friendship, and is also quite a bit of a Reluctant Warrior when she is forced to battle rather than befriend. She also has quite a streak for granting second chances, defrosting several ice kings, and wanting the best for her loved ones even if at her own expense—as illustrated by her actions toward Yue, Eriol, and Yukito in particular.
Mighty from Bomberman Jetters is perhaps the nicest person to ever grace any form of media ever. According to his grandmother, she could never figure out his likes and dislikes because of how selfless he was. Despite being regarded as a remarkably powerful and calculating being, he has almost never shown anger to anyone, responds to a death threat from his enemy with a serious polite greeting, and despite his power, tries his hardest to never resort to violence except as a last resort. To top it all off, after seeing his younger brother playing one day, he was convinced that he wasn't kind enough.
Tomoki from Heaven's Lost Property is either a parody of this or a more humane one. While a complete pervert and having many, many flaws both in character and belief; he is the most loving, caring, compassionate being in the entire Verse and ready to put his life on the line for his friends and those in need without a second thought, to the point that nine out of ten CMOA and CMOH are done by him in the series.
Mon Colle Knights has the eponymous Knights Mondo Ohya and Rokuna Hiiragi. Bonus points to the latter, since she is an empath and feels others' emotions. Shiru would also count, for being able to forgive Zaha and hope for his redemption when there was reason enough to believe that he had already crossed the Moral Event Horizon.
Yuichi Aizawa and Ayu Tsukimiya from Kanon. The former goes out of his way to help the girls he befriends with their problems, and the latter is the one who gives everyone a chance to live happily (aside from Makoto, who is already dead, but implied to have been reborn as the fox she used to be).
Popotan has a few, such as Ai, who sees Daichi as a son-figure and never gets angry even when she has a good reason to, except for at Keith, after he tried to kill a then-fully-grown Daichi; Daichi himself, who seeks to make others happy (namely, Asuka, by finding proof of ghosts being real); and Mii, particularly when she assumes the guise of "Magical Mii, the Girl of Love", and sees it as her duty to "help those in need".
Behoimi from Pani Poni Dash! Main character Becky even asks her to ask herself if she really believes herself to be a Magical Girl or just wants to help others.
In Trinity Blood, Abel Nightroad is more of a Broken Messiah. After all, he does kill vampires who have done harm to others, not to mention some problems with losing control with his powers. However, Esther fits better thanks to character development. She starts out as a vampire hating sister who even kills someone, but she eventually learns the truth behind the man she blamed for losing her mother figure and decides to join the church and find a way to help vampires and humans co-exist. Eventually she becomes a queen and starts this process, which is where the anime ends. The notes from the original novel author before his death paint a bleaker picture, however.
Miyuki Takara from Lucky Star. Always remains the voice of reason among the four mains. Case in point: When she visits Kagami when she's sick during the first episode, Kagami explains to her some stuff that Konata said moments earlier. The way Miyuki interprets it leads Kagami to wonder if she's a saint.
Nanami Momozono from Kamisama Kiss. She starts out with Chronic Hero Syndrome and than gains actual divine powers early on in the story.
Romeo from Romeo X Juliet. This becomes obvious when he is assigned to rule over the mine his father created to punish miscreants. Through his gentle nature he manages to befriend all the miners (despite their initial mistrust of him) and later he manages to start a farming village with not only them but also their former guards.
Ditto Wonder Woman, who in addition to being one of the strongest warriors, is a walking avatar of love and peace. This is particularly emphasized during the Blackest Night miniseries, where her love for all things in existence, as lampshaded by both Aphrodite and Star Sapphire Carol Ferris, leads to her being recruited into the Star Sapphire Corps.
Shazam as well. In fact, kind, sensible, utterly selfless and cheerful Billy Batson just might be an even bigger example of The Messiah than both of the above
At one point Magneto tried to erase his mind of all prejudice towards Mutants. Problem for Magneto: Captain America has no prejudice towards anybody.
Spider-Man is unarguably considered to be this, as he is ultimately the one most lovable human beings in Marvel and is pretty much the prolific easy going superhero. Throughout the entire Marvel community, he has teamed up and allied with almost every character based on his modesty, compassion, his sense of humor, and his devotion for being responsible.
Plus, most stories about him when he's all grown up (considering even the main continuity Spidey, the oldest mainstream depiction, is still only about 24) depict him as the most "the greatest hero of all".
Flycatcher, the frog prince of Fables, is universally kind and universally loved for it, and he's the only character who had no sins to absolve or remit under the Fabletown Amnesty. The Messiah Syndrome really kicks in when he receives a purity-powered suit of armor that allows him to resurrect the dead, defeat massive armies without spilling blood, and establish the completely peaceful "Kingdom of Haven" in the middle of enemy territory.
Death of the Endless is quite possibly the friendliest, most compassionate entity in the DC Universe. She loves you, no matter who you are or what you've done.
Zayne Carrick from Star WarsKnights Of The Old Republic is a good example of a fool who is actually an embryonic messiah. Initially a failing Jedi Padawan whose only power seems to be literal good luck (as in, he spent an hour trying to catch a petty thief for the half-dozenth time, and thus arrived late to what should have been his own murder), over the course of the series he saves first himself; then a junk scavenger and his adopted daughter; then a bunch of captured Jedi; then several million people from an orbital nuclear bombardment; then he tries to save one of the Jedi masters who were trying to kill him. As one of them says:
"You...You... would save me?"
Luke Skywalker in In the Shadows of their Fathers, part of Star Wars Rebellion. He goes to Jabiim to help against the Empire, but the Jabiim people were abandoned by his father as tactically unwise during the Clone Wars, and a number of them immediately want him dead◊. After he's locked up some taunt him and try to beat him up and he's rescued, the idea that his father was a monster seems to hurt◊ worse◊ than the beating... and when the Jabiim are attacked, he fights to defend them without hesitation despite their hostility. Later he tries to stay with them when it would be extremely unwise for the Rebellion, because he is not his father. The Jabiim commander agrees◊(beware the Art Shift), basically telling Luke that he's not as tactical but vastly more humane, and they need him more out there.
Saint Walker of the Blue Lanterns, specifically referred to as the Messiah of his homeworld. The worldwide hope that he inspired on his dying world was enough for him to be selected as the first to wield the Blue Light of Hope.
Christopher Rudd in Lucifer: He's a damned soul in Hell who manages through skill and luck to become one of Hell's nobility. What you guess he does then? He teaches demons compassion and kindness, gets them and the damned to get along, and finally leads their army to save the Silver City and conquer it in one fell swoop in the name of justice.
Chubby Huggs from Get Fuzzy, he begins every day with hugging his pillow and thanking it for being so soft, and continues in the same way. Needless to say, Bucky is scared to death of Chubby Huggs.
Po from Kung Fu Panda is another great example he is an idiot, a fool and a chosen one, but what really makes him a Messiah is that he doesn't hate anybody, Not even Shen Who killed his parents, and trying to kill him, and yet he still forgave by telling to let go of the past.
Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon. Believing that humans and dragons can co-exist will definitely make him this.
Moses from The Prince Of Egypt. Even after learning that his adopted family were responsible for killing and enslaving his people, he still didn't hate them. He wanted to believe that Ramses could change. He beg him to stop enslaving the Hebrews or the Egyptians and his son will be killed by the Plague. Which happened. Also even when Ramses betrayed him by going to kill all of his people, and had no choice but to close the Red Sea on him, Moses was still worried if Ramses was still alive.
Films — Live-Action
Victor Laszlo in Casablanca. It says something about him that the only person in the entire movie who isn't in complete awe and admiration of the utterly heroic and saintly resistance leader and doesn't think he's the greatest thing since the invention of bread, sliced or otherwise, is the Nazi officer who has been sent to capture him, which is a ringing endorsement if ever there was one. He's so noble that he doesn't even hold a grudge that his beloved wife, believing that he was dead, has fallen in love with another man, and his example is so powerful that that other man is eventually quite willing to sacrifice his one chance at happiness by convincing her to stay with him.
Sergeant Elias K. Grodin from Platoon which makes his dramatic death scene all the more powerful.
William Wallace from Braveheart. At first he wanted revenge for his deceased wife, but when other Scotts decided to fight with him, he knew that important thing wasn't not revenge. It was freedom. He inspired not only Scotland to fight for freedom, but other countries as well. And even after his death his leadership and having faith in others were still kept alive.
Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line has this in the character of Pvt. Witt, a kind-hearted, wise, philosophizing soldier. (It should be said that he was noticeably less saintly in the novel.) Curiously enough, he's played by Jim Caviezel, who would go on to star as Jesus in The Passion of the Christ.
Poppy from Happy Go Lucky. It was half the point of the movie.
Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. Expanded Universe may differ, but consider that upon discovering his father is a Sith Lord and one of the galaxy's most ruthless killers, he decides—against the advice of everyone—that Dad can be saved from the Dark Side. He turns out to be right.
For the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Luke was this in the early years, but not since the Legacy era, where he is even seen advocating for torture. The Messiah mantle seems to have been passed on to his son Ben, who wants to redeem people who his father would rather just kill. Ben's Sith girlfriend even explains to Luke how he's Not So Different from them.
Bobby from the Pendragon series. He seems to be able to make friends with all of travelers in every world in a matter of minutes of meeting them. And, it was said on more then one occasion he would be the only one to beat Saint Dane. He does.
Rama, in Ramayana. When a plot causes his rightful throne to go to his brother Bharata, Rama is delighted for his brother's good fortune, without any concern for his own loss of status. When he's exiled by this same plot, he has to talk the entire country (including Bharata) out of coming with him. He collects allies everywhere he goes, just by dint of his goodness. Rama and Sita are supposed to be the great lovers beyond time and space, but the effect is more that Rama loves everyone, everyone loves Rama, and Sita is a member of "everyone".
Andy Dufresne, the main character of Stephen King's story Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption is The Messiah of the story, which is remarkable considering the near hopeless circumstances that he finds himself in (one might even interpret him as The Woobie). There are several symbolic parallels between him and Jesus Christ which shape the entire message of the book, that "hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies".
Alyosha, the third and youngest of The Brothers Karamazov, loves all and is loved by all. Dostoevsky uses an entire chapter to illustrate how it would be impossible to not trust him. Everyone—and we mean everyone—in the book confides in Alyosha, and at times these discussions seem to resemble a priest taking confession. The story in the Bible of Jesus Christ being tempted in the desert by the devil has its parallels in some of Alyosha's discussions. For bonus points, he starts off as a novice monk in the nearby monastery. This was almostSubverted, however: Fyodor Dostoevsky intended to write a full-length version of The Gambler with Alyosha (= Alexei) in place of Alexei Ivanovich, followed by a third novel redeeming him.
Again from Dostoevsky: Prince Lev Nikolaievich Myshkin from The Idiot is a much darker interpretation of this character type. Myshkin himself is, of course, kind and full of love for humanity—which leads most everyone he meets to assume he's a fool and try to take advantage of him. Then Myshkin himself ends up hurting Aglaya when a climactic Moral Dilemma forces him to choose between his love for Agalya and his pity for the fallen Nastasya.
Everybody in The Land except Thomas Covenant, the bad guys and the Bloodguard is, personality-wise, The Messiah.
In Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy, Jaenelle is the most recent (and implied to be the most powerful ever) incarnation of Witch, essentially born from the collective dreams of the races who facilitates their reconciliation and eventually nearly kills herself in order to save her people.
In The Lord of the Rings, Both Frodo and Aragorn's attachment to the other members of the Fellowship, as well as a large number of people they encounter during the books, qualifies them for this trope.
Adil, one of the main characters in Sahar Khalifeh's Wild Thorns. A Palestinian who works in Israel (the book was written in the 70s') to support his nine family members, and always looking out for his fellow workers. He's more than once described as trying "to solve the Middle East conflict all by himself." Even his cousin who considers him a traitor for working in Israel cares strongly about him.
Eriond in The Belgariad and The Malloreon. He's a small child in the former, although he is very trusting and generous. (He's been raised to be a complete innocent, so that he can handle The Orb, which tends to destroy anyone who touches it with less than completely pure motives.) By The Malloreon he's grown into the position. He's very mild in temperament, and even when he gets very angry (at one point they're in a Temple of Torak and a major sacrifice ritual (human, of course) is going on all he does is put out the temple fires — since if the hearts can't be burned, there's no way to continue the sacrifices.)
Finny in A Separate Peace, who never sees anyone as an enemy, and believes that "when you really love something, then it has to love you back, in whatever way it has to love." Many readers (and English teachers) see him as a Christ figure.
Goldmoon in Heroes of the Lance, a Dragonlance book.
Luke Skywalker, in Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor. Nick Rostu, who was previously mind-controlled and begged Luke to kill him - but was instead saved - has the chance to blow away thirty-some innocent mind-controlled men and women to rescue Luke and return the favor, and he hesitates
because he had an overpowering intuition: if Luke Skywalker thought he might save thirty innocent lives by sacrificing his own, he wouldn't hesitate. Ten innocent lives.
One.
"Or, hell, one not-so-innocent life," Nick muttered. "Like mine." He flipped the carbine's power setting to stun. "I hate Jedi."
Throughout that book, even when Luke is struggling with despair and mental trauma, he's consistently kind and compassionate to anyone not currently attempting to kill him. When someone is expressing their claustrophobia, he's completely sympathetic to them despite believing he's been through far worse himself. At the end, when to save the day he needs to destroy a mind-control device knowing that doing so will kill the fifty thousand enemies being mind controlled, he does so, but in the Force he stays with all of them to feel them die, so that they won't die alone. And because it's all he can do for them.
Another Star Wars example is Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Clone Wars Gambit novels. Obi-Wan is quite the shining example of the Jedi philosophy of unconditional, unpossessive love, although he is a bit of a downplayed example. His messianic tendencies are usually hidden by his sarcasm and tendency to be less vocal about saving people than Anakin, but his actions speak louder than his words. He nearly kills himself healing the people of Torbel, despite having no training as a healer, simply because it is the right thing to do.
Sorahb in the Farsala Trilogy is supposed to be this, but the trope is subverted in that he never actually shows up- the person everyone believes is him is actually an ordinary man named Fasal.
Tavi definitely wants to be this in Codex Alera, though he does his smiting less with brute force and more with Crazy Awesome strategy and adaptation. If he were the son of a deity it undoubtedly would be a god of chaos. Actually, he's just the son of the First Lord, which winds up giving him near-godlike furycraft. From a near-godlike fury.
Richard Rahl lives and breathes this trope. He's deeply moralistic (at least early on), believes strenuously in the freedom he's fighting for (to the point of not leading armies because they're fighting for him, not for freedom), and everyone he meets falls into lockstep with him, even bitter enemies.
In fact, there are only a few select groups of people that permanently reject him. Darken, Drefan, and Oba Rahl, the Sisters of the Dark, the Blood of the Fold, the Imperial Order leadership, the Slide, and the Anders. Over 10,000+ pages.
For everyone else, the books go to great effort to repeatedly remind the reader that everyone likes Richard and that he unites people simply by being Richard.
It also helps that he's the Chosen One and a hilariously-powerful wizard, and the Seeker of Truth (with all of the combat prowess inherent to the position).
As the Imperial Order's evil becomes more and more of an issue in the series, Richard actually becomes more of a militant leader and less of this.
Uncle Tom from Uncle Tom's Cabin, who sacrifices his own chance of freedom several times, and eventually himself, when assisting two female slaves in escaping. When he dies, he prays for his torturers, and eventually converts them to a better life.
Flash Gordon from the Sci-Fi channel TV adaptation is very much The Messiah, whose idealism and altruism inadvertently manages to bring together several tribes of highly eccentric crazies (including multiple members of the Big Bad's faction), who've spent decades hating each other.
Constable Benton Fraser from Due South makes himself something of a local hero in the slum neighborhood of Chicago he lives in, unwittingly and unerringly winning the hearts of nearly everyone around him due to his constant, unwavering kindness to his fellow man. His partner, Ray Vecchio (and later Ray Kowalski), his friends, and even his boss are fiercely protective of him when danger arises. His lack of street smarts and general naievete can cause problems, though, and they sometimes wonder about his sanity.
Fraser: You mean you're using some promotional ploy to get something for nothing?
Ray: Welcome to the United States of America, Fraser.
Despite being an atoning petty criminal andJerkass, and a Book Dumb hick, the titular character of My Name Is Earl has a real knack for getting along with people, is actively working hard to become a better person by righting all his past wrongs, in the process making his town a better place, and is willing to make great sacrifices for the people he cares about. Sometimes he relapses, but he brings up some interesting questions on morality and what makes a good person.
Fred Rogers is famous for being one of the nicest people ever, both on his show and off.
Abby Cadabby. Her faith in Oscar the Grouch's heart is unshakable.
Hakuya Ryouga / AbaRed of Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger. He was immune to the mind-screwing abilities of a Monster of the Week specifically because, in his niece's words, "he doesn't hate anyone or anything." Naturally, evil Ranger Nakadai Mikoto does everything in his power to crush the idealism out of him, but Ryouga never stops believing that Mikoto can be redeemed - and he's proven right.
Gentaro Kisaragi, Kamen Rider Fourze, who in his introduction stated his goal to befriend each and every single person in his new high school. This includes forgiving someone for throwing away a girl's love letter, and being nice to the Jerk Jock "king" and Alpha Bitch "queen" of the school despite their harassment (both verbal and physical).
He'll even do it with the Monster of the Week. You have to be really bad for him to not make a serious attempt at getting a villain to amend his ways. Pyxis, the guy who is the reason Fourze has a Nightmare Fuelpage is the only person he's not extended a hand of friendship to.
He even extended his hand to several people who would probably be the last people to receive his handshake, such as the man who killed him, The Dragon who put two of his friends to the Dark Nebula and threatened death to the rest of his friends, and finally the Big Bad. This is the same Big Bad that killed his best friend Kengo Utahoshi.
Leslie Knope is such a generous, thoughtful, hardworking person, and so beloved by her friends and co-workers, that she might as well be characterized as the Messiah from Pawnee.
The lead singer of a rock band is sometimes played this way. Roger Daltrey of The Who was arguably the Trope Codifier for his role in Tommy, with Pete Townshend speculating that Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin and Jim Morrison of The Doors were influenced by him.
Religion and Mythology
Baldr from Norse mythology was the original Mary Sue. A Bishōnen, all-loving fertility god, he was such a nice guy that even physical weapons refused to harm him. A favourite pastime of the other gods was to throw weapons at him and watch them bounce off because even the weapons liked him too much to harm him. Then along came Loki, the god of mischief, who finds one thing that can harm Baldr: a sprig of mistletoe. One prick from it and Baldr's dead. But then everyone in creation wept for him, even the nasty mistletoe that had done the deed: everyone of course, except Loki who was doomed to be chained to a rock and tortured by a snake until the end of time for his trouble.
Tabletop Games
Nurgle of Warhammer and Warhammer 40000 holds a deep, paternal love for all living things. Unfortunately for said living things, he thinks infecting them with horrific diseases is the best way to express that love, and considers their cries of anguish and despair a form of thanks for these "gifts."
One thing: bacteria, parasites - the things that cause diseases ARE living things. Nurgle loves every living thing equally and can't just kill those couple thousand bacteria that live within a sick person. That would be Something-cide!
Similarly, both Devils and Deceivers in the third edition of Nobilis explore why loving absolutely everything is not necessarily a virtuous trait, or one that leads to the other traits of The Messiah. The Devils love the laughter of children and the beauty of a sunset... but they also love cancer and genocide. In fact, they love cancer and genocide more, because who else is going to love them? As for the Deceivers... to make a long explanation short, let's just say that love doesn't have to be sane or healthy.
Video Games
Link from The Legend of Zelda will help those around him, no matter what. Affiliation, race and different dimension mean little to him. To him helping is helping. This is quite possible why he’s the chosen of the Triforce Of Courage. It takes true courage to be willing to help so many people without a second thought for your safety.
Super Mario Bros: Mario and to a lesser extent, Luigi. They are unarguably seen as the paragons of heroism and goodness across the Mushroom Kingdom. Whenever Bowser causes trouble, they will always stop him. The Paper Mario games emphasize Mario's status as a Magnetic Hero.
Terra Branford form Final Fantasy VI is a clear example of this late in the game. In the World of Ruin, she ends up caring for orphans whose parents were murdered by Kefka and eventually Terra finds her purpose. To fight to protect those who need it as well as ensure a better future. Love drives her.
Celes Chere could also fit this trope in the World of Ruin portion of the game.
Zidane Tribal from Final Fantasy IX is an example, despite the fact that he is a lecherous thief. His line in the game's character montage is "You don't need a reason to help people". In fact, multiple characters throughout the game actually complain about how kind Zidane is to everybody that he meets.
Final Fantasy X has Yuna. Every summoner has to have this to some degree to go on their pilgrimage in the first place, but Yuna takes it to a whole new level, never speaking harshly to anyone, while still exhibiting a quiet, subtle strength that keeps her going even after the church of Yevon brands her and her party traitors, once the truth comes out about the nature of the Maesters. Her speech to Yunalesca breaks it down perfectly.
Arguably, Serah Farron develops into this over the course of Final Fantasy XIII-2. At the start of the game, her main drive is to find Lightning and prove that she's alive. By mid-Episode 3, Serah has decided that saving the world should be their goal first and foremost, it becoming her main motivation (but finding Lightning is still very important to her). By the end of Episode 5, she's even prepared to save the world despite the knowledge that doing somight doom her to die.
Lloyd from Tales Of Symphonia. He eventually transforms everyone in the party (and the world) for the better. He gives corny speeches explaining that everyone has the right to live freely, and inspires comments from his circle of friends on how softhearted, kind, strong, etc. he is.
Mithos, the legendary hero from the game's back story, was also a messiah. With his three companions and a belief in The Power of Friendship, he saved the world from a magitek war. What subsequently happened to him is revealed later on in the game, and it's not pretty.
Captain Brenner/O'Brian from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin commands the remnants of a military unit in a post-apocalyptic earth, held together by his own leadership ability and charisma, and uses it to unconditionally rescue survivors and help people. After The Plot Reaper is through with him, main character Will/Ed picks up the torch as well.
Kyle Hyde of Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is something of a messiah who never planned to be. He only goes to the titular hotel on business with his company, Red Crown, and possibly to get a lead on the man he's been pursuing for three years, Brian Bradley. It turns out that all the other patrons of the hotel all have big problems tied to the hotel, Bradley, and the art theft organization he joined, Nile, including manager Dunning Smith, pining for his kidnapped daughter; Jeff Damon, who ran away from home with money and a gun after getting sick of his father's shady legal dealings; Kevin Woodward, trying to get his head around his malpractice suit and his wife somehow (through Nile) producing the money for a settlement; Helen Parker, searching for her lost son who loved to frequent the hotel; Martin Summer, who plagiarized that son's text for a novel and led to his disappearance and others. Through the course of one night at Hotel Dusk, Kyle Hyde manages to "take out [all of their] garbage" with evidence, questioning, and occasional tough love, and give them the strength to keep working to resolve their problems. He doesn't even want to arrest the person he's looking for despite what he did, he just wants to ask him "why?".
The Main Character of Persona 4 can qualify if played properly. In addition to helping almost all of the individuals he meets to overcome their crippling emotional and psychological issues, he employs the Power of Friendship with the following means:
Ion from Tales Of The Abyss. Luke eventually too, but to a lesser degree.
Talim from Soul Series. It's most obvious when you play as her as protagonist, but in any case, she actually doesn't like violence and tries to find peaceful solutions, fights unreservedly for what's right when she has to, and can usually be counted on to help her opponent up, full of concern for their well-being, when the fight is over. It's arguably enough to make you wish the plot were a bit deeper.
Yggdra Union has three. Yggdra, the titular character, becomes a wise and loving monarch over the course of the story; the main antagonist, Gulcasa, is one to his own people to the point of dying trying to save them in a really twisted and tragic way; and then there's Nessiah, Gulcasa's friend and tactician (and fallen angel, let's not forget), who is actually something of a fallen messiah figure—he was the real deal once, but he essentially had the idealism and love for all living things tortured out of him when he was thrown out of Asgard for refusing to fight in its wars.
It's questionable how pure they are, however, when it's stated and shown outright that all three of them are willing to kill any innocent standing in their ways to their "justice" or rightfulness just because they're on an enemy's side.
Jaina Proudmoore in the Warcraft series. She's probably the most basically decent person (that doesn't go crazy and try to kill everyone) in the entire series, even helping a race she was raised to hate kill her father for peace and to genuinely honor the bond that Theramore acquired with the orcs. This even carries into World of Warcraft where it seems everyone has taken a level in jerkass/incompetent.
Anduin Lothar was either this or Too Dumb to Live in Warcraft II, where he tried to negotiate peace with the orcs (who were still Always Chaotic Evil back then).
Prophet Velen also counts, considering he basically sees into the future and to alternate universes in order to guide his people
Erana from the Quest for Glory games is a powerful mage whose pure and loving influence has remained throughout the different lands even after she is gone, exuding peace and harmony, planting flowers and generally encouraging selfless good deeds. Also, she sealed away an Eldritch Abomination by sealing herself away with it, forever locked inside an icy tomb in order to ensure that the evil being never returned to the world. And you learn all this without even meeting her.
The Pikachu of PokéPark Wii. So cute and friendly, he unites the Pokemon with such love and friendship that it prevents a floating island from crushing their home.
Oror from Drakengard 2. So good, he might have been a Mary Sue-type if he hadn't been dead for three years at the beginning of the game.
Dragon Age: Origins is notable as an exception, while there are usually 'right' options (getting Zathrian to let go of his hate and release the werewolves from their curse, destroying the Anvil of the Void and allowing Caridin to depart from his doomed existence, going out of your way to ensure that Eamon, Connor, and Isolde all survive), almost every choice is in the grey area and many seemingly 'right' decisions (backing the honest, honorable dwarven lord over the fratercidal tyrant of a Prince, helping a dwarven girl go off to study on the surface) have far-reaching and negative consequences ( destroying dwarven civilization, setting the stage for a Chantry crusade against the dwarves).
One of the saddest parts of Dragon Age II is no matter how much of a Messiah Hawke ends up being, he/she still looses his/her family, tears Kirkwall apart twice, and sets the stage for Thedas' first world war.
Shing Meteoryte from Tales Of Hearts is a perfect example of this. He even goes as far as offering Creed, the Big Bad, a second chance.
In the backstory, the member of the Twelve Crusaders who fits the most is Blaggi the Arch bishop, who not only has a Holy Weapon able to resurrect the death (the Valkyrie Staff) but shows kindness even to the members of the Lopto Sect.
Fire Emblem Elibe has four straight-up examples, only one of them being a main character.
Princess Lilina from Fuuin no Tsurugi is always kind and compassionate, able to melt the hearts of everyone - even the brutally cynical Garret. She's specially sweet to Oujay and Gonzales, the second being an extreme Gonk who was hated by everyone.
Nino from Rekka no Ken not only managed to defrost her best friend and prospect husband Jaffarby nursing him back to health instead of killing him, but she's also unfailingly sweet and gentle to whoever she supports with, and cries when she has to face her adoptive family. The only person who doesn't get this privilege is Sonia, but well... thisisSonia we're talking about. And Nino did seek her approval until she learnt the truth about her.
There's also the main character, Eliwood. He goes through incredible hardships and not only he manages to retain about 80% of his idealism, but he refuses to hate the Big Bad even after he kills his father Elbert and causes the death of his prospect love interest Ninian and constantly shows sweetness to his troupe.
And in the backstory, the Seven Heroes of the Scourging have their own Messiah: Saint Elimine, their Magical Girl Warrior and Church Militant. She even founded both her own nation (Etruria) and her own religion (the Elimine church — which still goes strong after centuries)!
To drive the point even further, Fuuin mentions that according to her legend, Elimine never died. Once she believed her mission in life was over, she walked up to the top of a tower in the Etrurian capital of Aquleia and calmly ascended to a higher plane of existence. Said place is now known as the Tower of the Saint, and it houses her spellbook (Aureola) and her healing staff (Holy Maiden).
Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones gives us the almost unfailingly plucky, kind and sensible Princess Eirika of Renais. Even when her naivete sometimes gets the worst of her (like when Fomortiis in Lyon's body tricks her into giving him the Stone of Renais), Eirika keeps being sweet and gentle and willing to fight for the sake of Magvel. She also shows a spiritual side when talking to the local Badass Bookworm, Saleh, and comforts Princess L'Arachel when she gets depressed over the death of her parents when she was a little girl.
The aforementioned L'Arachel claims to be The Messiah and has been raised as a Church Militant, but she's more of a Love Freak. She does show genuine Messiah traits when she helps Eirika get over the Heroic BSOD caused by the Lyon/Fomortiiis incident described above, though.
Fire Emblem Tellius has one of its protagonist, Micaiah the maiden of dawn. The storyline spends quite a bit of time exploring the trope's negative sides, as the pressure of leading her country's army no matter her personal opinion weighs heavily on her shoulder. On top of that, her ennemies have an entirely different opinion of her, as they face her fanatically devoted soldiers that are ready to hold their ground no matter how hopelessly outnumbered as a result of their faith in their miraculous commander...
StarCraft Tassadar who has ascended to this by the Protoss. Both figuratively and literally.
Mithra from Asura's Wrath, who has shown no contempt for her imprisonment and immediately forgives her Uncle Yasha for going along with the plot of the Seven Deities.
The Good Hero of Fable. At first he simply smiles and is liked by others, but at max morality, entire cities cheer as you walk by, and you gain a halo and an aura of butterflies. You can also begin to look like Moses.
Visual Novels
Deconstructed in Fate/stay night's "Unlimited Blade Works" route. Shirou is a Messiah who lives by the creed of 'I will save everyone!' while Archer, a Dark Messiah, points out that even Shirou knows you can't save every single person, so Archer will help the maximum number of people possible... Throwing innocent people to the wolves when necessary to prevent a larger crisis. Archer is also Shirou's future self, so he knowws better than anyone that Sirou won't be able to cut it. Basically, you can follow the ideals of the Messiah but it's going to totally screw you up inside if you're not careful or don't have a clear reason to do so, and in any case it simply doesn't work if you follow the ideal exactly.
The biggest part of the deconstruction is arguably Shirou's psyche. Basically, his personality and reason for existing was shattered when his parents and his entire life was destroyed in the fire ten years ago — being saved by Kiritsugu made his entire being revolve around that event, to the degree that Shirou has no sense of self and can only define himself by helping others, even if the recipients neither want, appreciate nor need his help.
Masayuki in A Profilerefuses to see the bad in people and places. People don't really know how to treat him because of it. One the one hand, it's kind of admirable, but on the other it's very difficult to understand or, in some cases, to tolerate.
Mary Clarissa Crhristie in Shikkoku No Sharnoth, who will even cry for the monsters trying to kill her and beg M not to kill them. She's pretty tough when it comes down to it, though, but that attitude only strengthens with time.
Dangan Ronpa is a very dark game with lots of death, murder and despair. Enter Makoto Naegi, who after being accused of the first murder, decides to fight back against this bleak world. Just look at the last trial in Chapter 6, if you don't believe it: he delivers some lines about hope and love and refusing to give into the despair crafted by Junko aka the Big Bad that would make Sailor Moonproud. In fact, finishing the game and getting the good ending has you-as-Naegi returning their hopes to the other living students, screaming 'You Must Not Lose Hope!! atop of his lungs, among other things. Kirigiri implies that this trait may mean that he may actually be Super High-School Level Hope instead of Super High-School Level Good (Bad?) Luck.
Even more so: in Super Dangan Ronpa 2, Naegi returns alongside Kirigiri, Togami and Alter Ego. He's as messianic as ever, and as a member of the Future Foundation he wants to save all the students who were the remnants of Super High-School Level Despair.
And then we have the What If? side story Dangan Ronpa IF, where Naegi, having recovered his memories way before the others, tries to save The Mole Mukuro and gets severely wounded.. but this not only prevents the first death/execution (saving Sayaka and Leon), but it causes Mukuro to have a Heel Face Turn. Yeah, kid is THAT messianic.
He probably gets that from his Mother, who is/was the sweetest, kindest person in his hometown
John from Homestuck. In a comic with some prettyheinousvillains - and some prettysketchyheroes - he stands out as the most cheerful, affable character, always willing to give people the benefit of the doubt.
Karkat starts out as John's foil, being perpetually angry, derogatory, unforgiving, and just plain mean to everyone. Then it turns out that he's actually a decent guy who cares about others, was the only thing keeping the trolls all working together instead of killing each other, convinced villains to work in his best interest, and is ultimately the least threatening or dangerous member of his group. Played completely straight when he stops a rampaging murder clown with the power of hugs and it's revealed that his Ancestor was a literal Christ figure.
John's replacement in the post-scratch universe overshadows those two in pure symbolism. Let's start with her name, Jane Crocker.
Web Original
The Dragon Emperor Prometheus in The Chronicles of Utopia Volume II is a messianic figure who cares deeply for all people and actively works to bring all sentient beings, even evil ones, on his world into the light, though he will fiercely defend those under his protection.
Shandala from Broken Saints fits this to a tee. Hell, pretty much all the tropes used in the description at the top of the page apply to her. Of course, when in the course of the story, it comes time for Break the Cutie, things get really ugly...
Phantasia herself, exceptionally so after the reboot. At least, she presents herself this way.
Neil Sinclair of Survival of the Fittest V3. No matter how many times he is knocked back by more cynical or pessimistic characters, he keeps on trying, time and again, to gather as many students he can in an attempt to escape. His hugely idealist approach includes but is not limited to inviting a classmate into the group who had previously killed one of the other members of his group - S.A.D.D. And now, his group has fallen apart after his death.
Western Animation
The leading ladies in Disney movies usually fall into the trope, when they aren't portrayed as action girls (and sometimes even when they are).
Optimus Prime. There's a reason why the Autobots look up to him and want him as their leader.
Initially, Katara from Avatar The Last Airbender, especially obvious in episodes like "Imprisoned," "The Desert," "Crossroads of Destiny," eventually reaching what was assumed by some villagers as literal messianic levels in "The Painted Lady." Then the Scale tipped toward closer to Cynical, and The Lancer passed the Idealistic baton to its proper character, The Hero, Aang. Katara, meanwhile, slid some towards Well-Intentioned Extremist territory...
Aang himself is also one because not only he is destined to savior the world or look as a God like figure, he offered Big Bad Fire Lord Ozai a chance of redemption by telling him to he has the to end all of this during Sozin's Comet
Wonder Woman (to villain, who has seemingly just killed Superman): I'm going to punch a hole through your head. Flash: We don't do that to our enemies. Wonder Woman: Speak for yourself. Flash: I'm trying to speak for Superman.
The above is a fine example. A better one would be the fact that his death causes an alternate-Superman to decide to try on the Knight Templar boots...and disintegrate Lex Luthor. For starters.
Lazlo from Camp Lazlo. Consider this line from the episode "Burpless Beans":
Edward: Lazlo, why do you hate me?
Lazlo: I don't hate you, Edward. I love all creatures, even whatever you are!
In Ben 10 Alien Force, Ben Tennyson has borrowed not only Sailor Moon's Transformation Sequence but her steadfast refusal to sacrifice lives and her power to heal the villains' victims with the Empathic Weapon. He even once instantly handed over the MacGuffinwith no hesitation to save his captured friends, just like Sailor Moon once did for Molly/Naru.
Rex from Generator Rex, despite his rebellious phase, and his sarcastic attitude, he is willing to risk his life to cure people with E.V.O, save people even when White Knight is going to kill them because they can't be cured Rex attacks instead. he helps people even pricks that he doesn't like. He even shows sympathy towards Anti-Villain Garan-Set, because he feels sorry.
Waffle from Catscratch. He (a cat) even befriends a dog that hates cats.
Stickin' Around is noteworthy for having two messiahs as opposed to one. In this case, Stacy and Polly. Even if they have their moments of getting even with those around them (especially true for Stacy in regards to Bradley), these two are some of the more nicer girls you'll see in all of western animation, if not animated cartoons period.
In Regular Show, Rigby's brother Don is overwhelmingly nice to everyone, even Rigby, who hates his guts for overshadowing him and unintentionally stealing his friends. When Rigby comes forward with his disposition towards his brother Don becomes upset because all he wanted was his brother's acceptance. Still, it is undebatable that Don would do anything for his little big brother or anyone else.
T.J., Mikey, Gus, Cornchip Girl, and Miss Grotke from Recess
Hey Arnold!: Arnold. For that matter Lila, although she came off as an intentional parody.
Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter, counts as well, given that this is the real reason why she got her cutie mark (the party thing is merely her bread and butter), exemplified by her I Am Song in "A Friend in Deed".
And last but not least, Twilight Sparkle. She's more cynical and grouchy than the norm, but fills this role in the places that count, moreso than even Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. She's the wielder of the Element of Magic (aka Friendship), the most powerful of the six; in the two-parter episode "The Return Of Harmony," she is the one who manages to break the others free of Discord's Hate Plague by reminding them of the friendship they all share; in "A Canterlot Wedding", she is able to see through the fake Cadance because she knew the real Cadance so well; and in "Magical Mystery Cure," her knowledge of friendship reaches the point that she is deemed worthy to be transformed into an alicorn and crowned a Princess of Equestria.
Peri from Spliced. When the Wunny Sharbit, supposedly the most dangerous creature in existence, tries to eat him, his first reaction is to try and befriend it. And it works. For a while anyway.
Max from Capitol Critters is ridiculously nice to pretty much most people he meets. A cat was threatening a girl, he saved the girl at the cost of the cat beaten up. What does he do when the girl's family congratulates him? He starts crying because he thinks he killed the cat. Although he can be a Deadpan Snarker at times, Max has a very pure heart and is one of the sweetest cartoon mice ever created.
Real Life
The book Strong Willed Child Or Dreamer? describes a personality type, dreamers, who are idealistic, sensitive, creative and empathetic. The Messiah seems to basically a dreamer taken Up to Eleven. This explains it nicely.
As mentioned above, Fred Rogers. Despite all the cruel and completely untrue rumors going around about him on the web, the man you saw on TV was exactly who he was in Real Life. Patient, optimistic, and kind-hearted. Despite being an ordained reverend, he never brought it up on his show or as a status symbol, and when asked to denounce homosexuals or other groups people didn't like, Mr. Rogers would politely decline, replying that "God loves you just the way you are."
