The Messiah - Television Tropes & Idioms

"Nausicaa is the thread that joins us all together. Us, the Doroks, even Kushana and the wormhandlers. Without Nausicaa, we would only squarrel and splinter."

Asbel's thoughts on Nausicaa (actual manga dialogue).

Not to be confused with Messianic Archetype, though it often is (we need to choose these names better).

The main character, simply put, loves everyone. A deep, spiritual love that means they will shake heaven and earth, destroy gods and planets, bring nations to their knees, etc. for the person they just met yesterday. They will believe the best of everyone, and constantly give someone a second chance (though they will destroy the Big Bad). They repay cruelty with kindness and anger with calm. As long as the attacks are only against them—they're not forgiving of harm done to others. Most people think they're insane, but somehow they pull it off. Even Mary Sue and Marty Stu are impressed.

The Empathic Weapon trusts them completely, as does every animal they meet. Their circle of friends are in awe of them, if not somewhat in love with them. (Male and female alike.) They'll even attract an Anti Hero or two who will stick around so they can at least figure out what drugs this person is taking — and where they can get some.

This includes shojo and shonen alike, though each will have different ways of showing it.

The Fool is sometimes the embryonic state of The Messiah doubled as the Idiot Hero.

On the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism, The Messiah is a heavily idealistic character. In the hands of a bad writer, the character can easily be mutated into a Mary Sue.

Contrast with the Dark Messiah. Opposite to The Anti Christ. For the character who only thinks they're The Messiah, see the Love Freak.

Examples

Anime

Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon, though she started as The Fool. Not only that, she actually gets called the Messiah later.
Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket.
Goku from Dragonball.
Hikaru Shidou from Magic Knight Rayearth.
Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach. (Despite his protests to the contrary.)
- It would seem that Orihime Inoue is more qualified for the title now, as recently captured by the Arrancar, she refuses to hurt them, shows them love, and resurrects their dead even after they were trying to torture her.
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.
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.
- 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."
Arika Yumemiya from Mai-Otome. She initially takes on her newfound powers with relish, but after she learns about what an Otome's duties truly are, she tries to keep up her vow to change the system in order to save the lives of her friends.
- She likely picked these qualities up from Mai Tokiha from Mai-HiME (except for being a Friend To All Living Things), who similarly refused to fight anyone but the "bad guys" when she learned the truth behind the HiME legacy, helped one of her new friends open up about her emotions, and saved another from The Dark Side through The Power Of Love.
Both Kanade and Rino from Gokujou Seitokai, but the latter is also The Fool.
Nanoha from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha; this becomes especially apparent when you see how she and her friends met.
Nagisa Aoi from Strawberry Panic.
Milfeulle Sakuraba of Galaxy Angel has many aspects of The Messiah, along with the ones that clearly qualify her as The Ditz and The Fool.
Yoh Asakura from Shaman King.
Belldandy of Oh 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.
Lucia from Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch.
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 Modern Yu-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 Nakama's 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.
The titular protagonist of Madlax somehow attracts the affection of everyone she meets, despite being a killer with a three-digit personal body count.
Subaru Sumeragi from Tokyo Babylon and X1999. A subversion occurs when it doesn't work and without losing his kindness and compassion he loses everything and becomes the opposite of what he used to be.
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.
Kenzou 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 World Half Empty.
Yuko Okonogi from Dennou Coil.
Alphonse Elric from the manga version of 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.
Gon Freeccs from Hunter X 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.
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.
Ginji Amano from Getbackers. Kazuki actually says "he was like the messiah."
Sawada Tsunayoshi from Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
The Digimon leads seem to have an element of this, more often than not. The Nakama is in utter shambles after Taichi gets sucked back into the real world, eventually splitting up and becoming easy prey for PicoDevimon; four seasons later, Masaru manages to pick up where his father 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.
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.
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.
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.
Basara from Macross7... who is an odd mix of Messiah and Jerk Ass.
Nagisa Furakawa from CLANNAD fulfils this role, especially in the original game and the movie.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: A constant inspiration to other? 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.
This is being rather horrifically subverted in the Berserk manga; the people of Midland are suffering. The plague is decimating the populace. Bandits groups - the remnants of mercenaries left without livelihood because of the end of the Hundred Years War - are preying on the people. The heart of Midland, the great capital city of Wyndham, itself has been assailed by the horrible demonic Kushan Empire. The Demon Emperor Ganeshka of the Kushan Empire has the Queen Charlotte captive, and intends to marry her to legitimize his conquest. However, a dream is had in common every night by the entire nation, of the Hawk of Light, the White Hawk which burns away the darkness, and is acknowledged as a miracle and an omen even by the Holy See. When the White Hawk finally does arrive, he is both beautiful and powerful, rescuing the princess from the Demon Emperor of the Kushan Empire, and saving the forces of the Holy See from being utterly annihilated with his great Band of the Hawk, which consists of both Apostles, superhuman soldiers which can each destroy legions single-handedly, and of the common men. The heroes and the common people both support him, for his deeds are both kind and miraculous. One problem though; the messiah is really Griffith, now named Femto, a demon demi-god, and it was established earlier in the manga that he is going to save the world just to drop it even further into darkness (if that is even possible). To make it even worse, it's implied that he is the legitimate Messiah as well.
- Guts, however, is becoming a straight example. Farnese decides to follow Guts after seeing his strength of will during the events at Albion, where he fought off a horde of demons while everyone else simply panicked. Isidro admires Guts' martial skill and strives to be as much like him as possible. Schierke grows a crush on him and her experiences with him change her misanthropic viewpoint that humanity is not worth saving. Even Serpico, who is initially a rival of Guts', slowly grows to admire him.
The Prince Of Tennis offers two characters that mix Messiah and different shades of Jerk. Ryoma Echizen from Seigaku is a Bratty Half Pint with dashes of The Wesley, Seiichi Yukimura from Rikkaidai unites Messiah with Magnificent Bastard and Knight Templar.

Comic Books

Deeply subverted in Johnny The Homicidal Maniac, in which the title character seems to have a psychic 'Kick Me' sign on his back. It turns out that his destiny is to absorb all the bad vibes of the universe.
It is common for Superman to be portrayed in this fashion a lot of the time.
- To quote Grant Morrison: "Superman loves you, and he's more proactive than God ever was."
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.

Film

Nausicaa from Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind. Though in this case, she is in fact an actual messiah figure (the Blue Clad One).
Also from Hayao Miyazaki, Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke fits this trope perfectly (in fact if he didn't, his curse would kill him).
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 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.
WALL-E.
Lady In The Water features as a secondary character a writer who, it is revealed, will in the future become The Messiah by writing a work so universally beloved and inspirational that it will inspire world leaders and ordinary people alike to work towards making the world a better place, and who will eventually die in order to save us from ourselves. By itself, not that bad. However, writer-director M Night Shyamalan chose to cast himself in this role. This caused eyebrows to be raised.

Literature

Carrot Ironfoundersson from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. He gets an idea in his head and is able to drag the rest of the world around to his viewpoint. Even to the point that he's able to arrest a dragon which had previously been terrorizing the city. His love affair Constable Angua (an Action Girl), and Commander Vimes both remark upon this ability of his. In Carrot's case, it may be because he is the true and lawful heir to the throne of Ankh-Morpork.
Rama, in The 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 novel 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.
- And as for Crime and Punishment... Sofya, anyone?
Paul Muad'dib from Dune. They even have a book called "Dune Messiah".
Thomas Covenant is an inversion: He's an Jerk Ass / Flat Earth Atheist. Everyone in The Land treats him like the Messiah, due to thinking he's the reincarnation of their other Messiah. Even after his crossing of the Moral Event Horizon should've gotten him castrated, the people still ~~grit their teeth and~~ love him.
- By that logic, you could say that everybody in The Land except Thomas Covenant, the bad guys and the Bloodguard is, personality-wise, The Messiah.
J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter (becoming especially blatant in book seven).
Richard Rahl from the Sword Of Truth series, at least to anyone not from the Imperial Order or sympathetic to the Order. Or, y'know, people who have a problem with genocide.
In Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy, Jaenelle is Witch, the promised saviour of the world. Unfortunately, she is also a Mary Sue.
In the Lord of the RingsAragorn's attachment to the other members of the Fellowship, as well as a large number of people he encounters during the books, qualifies him for this trope.

Live Action TV

Daniel Jackson in Stargate and Stargate SG-1. No surprise that later, by the end of the fifth season, he evolves into a Messianic Archetype as well.
Dr. Molly Clock in Scrubs.
Peter Petrelli of Heroes embodies this to a point that's almost Genre Blindness or even Idiot Ball. He's so sweet and trusting that he'll even cast his lot in with the villain if he has a convincing enough sob story.
Flash Gordon from the Sci-Fi channel TV adaptation is very much The Messiah, whose idealism and altruism inadvertantly 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.
The Doctor from Doctor Who and Angel from Angel have elements of this trope. Neither is universally loving or even all that nice, but they will go to any lengths to right a wrong that they've just stumbled on. Further, they both have a powerful draw on everyone else. Evil characters obsess over them; good characters leave their lives behind to join them, and often end up making even bigger sacrifices.
- One quote from the episode "The Last of the Time Lords" makes this painfully clear about the Doctor. "You wouldn't listen. Because you know what I'm going to say... I forgive you."

Video Games

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.
- Colette arguably fits the description even more, but due to Lloyd's main (and player) character status, she gets much less of a chance to shine.
- 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.
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.
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.
Sora from Kingdom Hearts, who has friends all over the multiverse, and seems to hold them all in the same high regard. He even has an Empathic Weapon that runs on The Power Of Friendship. How savvy of you, Square Enix!
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.
Ion from Tales Of The Abyss. Luke eventually too, but to a lesser degree.
Gordon Freeman doesn't quite fit the trope, but gets an honorable mention for being hailed as a messiah by La Resistance. And even more so by the Vortigaunt, whose entire race he freed from slavery (even though he killed some of them before reaching their then-master).

Webcomics

Rikk from Fans!.
Grace from - all together now - El Goonish Shive.

Web Original

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.

Western Animation

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, is sliding towards Well Intentioned Extremist territory...
The Flash, from Justice League Unlimited. Don't believe us? Look at what happens when he's not around.
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 the Knights Templar boots...and disintegrate Lex Luthor. For starters.
- Flash is even nice to his VILLIANS. He plays darts with the Trickster, and can get him to go to jail just by asking. And knows every single person in his city and is willing to do mundane chores them in between superheroing.
Starfire in Teen Titans is said to be the "heart" of the team. Just like Flash above, things aren't pretty if she disappears.
Ma-Ti in Captain Planet And The Planeteers, who's supposed to hold the group together with his "awesome" power.
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 everybody!

Real Life

Fred Rogers. His car was once stolen; when the thieves discovered whose car they had stolen, due to the publicity around the case, they returned it.
Christ Jesus. Like many other examples on this list, he was more than just a nice guy though. Though most often remembered as "The Lamb of God," prophecies also named him "the Lion of Judah." His first visit here, he died for us. His next visit here, he's kicking Satan to the curb and taking back the world, while riding a white horse, commanding a huge army, wearing a Badass Longcoat, and laying opposing forces low with a word.
- Where in the scripture does it say He'll be wearing a Badass Longcoat? My friend, I don't know what version of The Bible you're reading, but send me a link!
Sean Hannity and other talk show hosts joke about Barack Obama being portrayed this way in the media. Chris Matthews said that a tingle ran up his leg when Obama was giving a speech, and Oprah Winfrey called him "The One", so maybe Hannity wasn't so far off in his comparison.

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