It's more like a Shallow Parody of Space Opera heroes. It's considered a Shallow Parody of characters like Buck Rogers, John Carter and Flash Gordon, which are perceived to be handsome and hypercompetent military men fighting aliens-as-a-metaphor-for foreigners with the help of an Earth military might. But, outside the few straight examples (that come with a few asterisks), the parodies miss the mark because actual sci fi heroes from the Raygun Gothic era don't fit the mold: They don't have military backing, are "average men", don't rely on weaponry as much as portrayed, and aren't necessarily conservative - considering how pulp novels were often on the fringe of cultural norms.
So the big difference between conventional space opera heroes and "straight" Captain Futures would be the fact that the stereotypical Captain Future is a military man on a mission, as oposed to being a rogue agent trying to do what's right.
Are we allowed to mention old straight examples like Dan Dare and Captain Video?.
a.k.a. Malco
So this means that the main character can't be female, I guess? Otherwise Atomic Betty would've worked.
My Deviant Art account. There might be art there. Sometimes. Hide / Show Replies
I don't think this is gender specific but the description is not terribly indicative.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
I'd seriously question whether this really is a Dead Unicorn... yes, in the respect that the parody versions are a more substantial trope in their own right, does not detract from the fact that an awful lot of early Sci-Fi WAS paternalistic and formulaic
Other (serious) examples from literature: Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter; CL Moore's Northwest Smith.
Hide / Show Replies
Northwest Smith isn't a traditional space opera hero or parody of such in the slightest. He was a space cowboy created in a time when those characters were already staples of the pulps, but was notable for having his own series. Really, he's more of an antihero than anything else.
As for John Carter, he's definitely a straightforward classic hero, but doesn't fit into the mold described in the trope page.
"But Go-wuh, it's mah play!" —Gore Vidal quoting Tennessee Williams
So, I'm having trouble identifying the exact specifics of this trope. The definition of it appears a little circular. Admittedly this has to do with the trope almost never being played straight, but it seems the precise definition of it is "the kind of space opera protagonist who's always parodied".
What would the difference between a hypothetical straight example of this trope and a conventional space opera protagonist be?
"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence" Hide / Show Replies