History Main / UnlikelyHero

* Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's new series, ''{{Bakuman}}'' has the two main characters being told that the problem with their manga is the utter lack of ''special'' main heroes, and that their series' tend to suffer from average people as heroes.

* {{Scott Pilgrim}} the fact that he was played by {{Michael Cera}} in the movie doesn't help either

* All {{Doraemon}} TheMovie have the FiveManBand (Or just Nobita) doing something just to justify their want with Doraemon's gadgets. Thus making them end up having to save the world or PlotDevice creatures for countless time.

* Joe in [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099892/ Joe Versus the Volcano]].

* Tavi in CodexAlera. The whole series started because he was looking for some lost sheep, though eventually it becomes apparent that [[spoiler: he was actually the heir apparent to the entirety of Alera.]]

* Richard of the SwordOfTruth considers himself this for the first book and part of the second. He finally accepts his powers and heritage, and the responsibilities that come with them.

* Droopy, in about half the TexAvery shorts in which he appears, plays the DesignatedHero to Red, who's often victimized by Wolfie, Butch or Spike. [[BewareTheNiceOnes Then they wind up pissing Droopy off...]]

[[caption-width-right:240:Whaddya mean "he's a little young"?[[hottip:*:Well, at this point, he ''should'' be in his friggin' twenties...]]

[[caption-width-right:240:Whaddya mean "he's a little young"?]]

See also WeirdnessMagnet. Compare ActionSurvivor.

* Ash Ketchum from ''{{Pokemon}}''. He has come back from the dead thrice, been TheChosenOne of countless legends, is one of the few that can manipulate aura, saved the world countless times, and has helped more people then you could possibly imagine. [[DudeWheresMyRespect There's like maybe three people outside of his friends who respect him in some fashion.]]

* Droopy, in about half the TexAvery shorts in which he appears, plays the DesignatedHero to Red, who's often victimized by Wolfie, Butch or Spike. [[BewareTheNiceOnes Then they wind up pissing him off...]]

* Droopy, in about half the TexAvery shorts in which he appears, plays the DesignatedHero to Red, who's often victimized by Wolfie.

** Now that this troper thinks about it, pretty much every Pixar character embodies this trope.

What would happen if you replaced a MarySue with a well-written RidiculouslyAverageGuy without changing the plot? This trope is a character who gets involved in all sorts of craziness in defiance of all reasonable logic. Basically, they can't even take a vacation without becoming TheChosenOne or saving the world. Whereas to a MarySue, its all in a day's work, this character often finds all the craziness surrounding them annoying and must rely on the remainder of the cast to keep their life from becoming [[FinaglesLaw an even worse]] [[LoserArchetype disaster]] [[StatusQuoIsGod than it already is]].

->- ''Unlikely Hero'', by The Hoosiers.

-->I like everybody,
-->But not everybody likes me, ohwoah.
-->My love's not an island,
-->It's the tip of a volcano, ohwoah!
- '''TheHoosiers''', ''Unlikely Hero''

* Gordon Freeman of ''HalfLife''. Just an average everyday theoretical physicist until that fateful day, [[spoiler:he ended up fighting off hordes of aliens while beating back those pesky black ops trying to keep him quiet, then ''goes into the other dimension to fight the creatures on their own turf, culminating in defeating their all-powerful overlord to prevent the entire earth from being invaded by the things.'']] And all this with a magical satchel of fairly common weaponry with the occasional science fiction import.

** Of course if you really want to stretch a point, it's SMEAGOL that saves the day...

* Tavi in CodexAlera. The whole series started because he was looking for some lost sheep.

* Tavi in CodexAlera. He's actually well ''below'' average for the first half of the series or so.

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Compare ActionSurvivor.

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<<|{{Heroes}}|>>

* Surprised nobody has mentioned Gordon Freeman of ''HalfLife'' yet. Just an average everyday theoretical physicist until that fateful day, [[spoiler:he ended up fighting off hordes of aliens while beating back those pesky black ops trying to keep him quiet, then ''goes into the other dimension to fight the creatures on their own turf, culminating in defeating their all-powerful overlord to prevent the entire earth from being invaded by the things.'']] And all this with a magical satchel of fairly common weaponry with the occasional science fiction import.

* Ash Ketchum from ''{{Pokemon}}''. He has come back from the dead thrice, been TheChosenOne of countless legends, is one of the few that can manipulate aura, saved the world countless times, and yet this MartyStu tendency is exactly what the fangirls love about him.

* DesignatedHero Ash Ketchum from ''{{Pokemon}}''. He has come back from the dead thrice, been TheChosenOne of countless legends, is one of the few that can manipulate aura, saved the world countless times, and yet this MartyStu tendency is exactly what the fangirls love about him.