Basic Trope: The Hero denies being a hero.
- Straight: Bob single-handedly saves the passengers of an out-of-control train. When the news reporter calls him a hero, Bob utters this trope.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob single-handedly saves everyone on the planet from certain death from a meteor. When the news reporter calls him a hero, Bob goes on a long rant explaining why he's not a hero.
- Bob insists he's not a hero, but when people don't listen he decides to make his point by insulting and/or violently assaulting anyone who keeps calling him a hero after he's repeatedly asked them to stop.
- Bob calls himself nothing even remotely close to a hero, or possibly even a full on Card-Carrying Villain.
- Downplayed: Bob single-handedly saves the passengers of an out-of-control train. When the news reporter calls him a hero, Bob says that it's because he has the competence to do so and it doesn't come out as boasting.
- Justified:
- Bob is a Humble Hero.
- Bob's heroics were accidental and he knows it.
- Bob is a beta- or even omega-type guy.
- Bob doesn't like the responsibilities that will inevitably come to heroes.
- Bob doesn't like the attention that will fall upon him when people start calling him a hero.
- Bob caused a great deal of damage in the process of the rescue and feels too guilty to call himself a hero.
- Bob is an Anti-Hero and he does not consider himself worthy to be called a hero or he prefers his more accurate denomination.
- Bob had legitimately self-serving motives for his seeming act of heroism, and spells them out in no uncertain terms. He didn't care if a bunch of complete strangers lived or died as a result of his actions.
- Inverted: Bob is caught dooming the passengers to a burning trainwreck. When the torch-and-pitchfork mobs come at him, he say "No, I'm not a villain. I Did What I Had to Do." The other option was endangering the lives of people on the route of the train.
- Subverted:
- "I'm not hero, I'm a SUPERHERO. Write THAT down in your newspaper!"
- When Bob rescues Alice from her kidnappers, Alice calls him a hero. Bob tells her that he is not one, and then takes her back to the kidnappers telling Alice that he: "warned her".
- Double Subverted:
- "...is what I'd like to say, but I guess anyone will do what I do if they were in my position. Think Nothing of It."
- Bob is really the local deity and claims to be an arrogant mortal because he's embarrassed by worship.
- Parodied: "I'm not a hero, I'm just a social reject with no job, no money, no hope for the future. This is just a momentary flash of altruism in the infinitely cold darkness that is my life. Now if you will excuse me, I'll cut myself."
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- No one acts like a hero, no one can praise them, and thus no one can deny the claim.
- "You're a hero, Bob!" "I... guess I am, aren't I?"
- Enforced: An Aesop, either about humility, or about being proud of your achievement.
- Lampshaded: "You don't seem to be the flashy type."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: The reporter lowers Bob's confidence further, because she's a minion of Dr. Evulz.
- Defied: "I'm not a hero, I'm-" "He's the hero, folks! Give him an applause!" "Yeah! Bob is the man!" "...Guess I'm the hero."
- Discussed: "I suppose I'm have to say I'm not really a hero even though I slew thirty dragons singlehanded and rescued the World's Most Beautiful Woman from the Evil Overlord. That's what every other hero does."
- Conversed: ???
I'm not a hero, I'm just a link back to the trope page.
