Markup View

Author: crazysamaritan

Feb 8th 2014 at 11:09:05 AM

There's a saying that "everyone has a story to tell".  The Background Hero is a character whose heroic actions and mysterious background are potentially a very interesting one to hear.  But they're not in ''their'' story.  They're in someone else's.  Someone who has their own conflicts and relationships, that don't always overlap with the achievements of the Background Hero.

The Background Hero is not one of the MainCharacters.  They're a Secondary Character at most, possibly acting as a DeusExMachina, and may only be an extra in the story.  The main {{Plot}}, the driving {{Conflict}}, and most of the PointOfView are being covered by other characters.  In many ways, the role of the Background Hero is to just ''exist'', making the world of the story more interesting by having it take place with them in it.

The Background Hero doesn't have to be more powerful than the main characters, either.  The BadassNormal, in a MeaningfulBackgroundEvent, rescuing the residents of an apartment building destroyed by Franchise/{{Superman}} is also a Background Hero.  If the perspective was switched, and the story focused on the rescue with Superman's battle as the MeaningfulBackgroundEvent, then ''he'' would be the Background Hero.  As long as the character performing the heroics is not central to the conflicts of the story, they are considered part of the background.

Contrast MilesGloriosus and TheAce, whose heroic actions have often already taken place, and whose immediate arrival overshadow the Protagonists like a SpotlightStealingSquad.

Compare and Contrast HeroOfAnotherStory, where the characters are entirely ''offscreen'', not even in the background of the mmain story.  Also Compare and Contrast LowerDeckEpisode, where the main characters are the ones running around offscreen and in the background, while the characters who are usually in the background are Protagonists for their stories. 
----
How's that?