History Main / UnlikelyHero

** Invoked verbatim in [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1230.html #1230]], when Elan calls the early team "a ragtag bunch of unlikely heroes with [[DarkAndTroubledPast unresolved issues]] who [[TeethClenchedTeamwork didn't see eye-to-eye]]".

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''. Seriously. These guys are all mid-level, mildly incompetent half of the time, make dubious after dubious strategic choice, break every doomsday device they encounter, and they get over-shadowed by any paladin or arch-nemesis that crosses their way. How come they have their own webcomic, and it's such a hit? Lampshaded in comic [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0901.html #901]] by the [[MinionWithAnFInEvil Monster in the Darkness]] even, when trying to convince Xykon [[spoiler:not kill the people he recognizes as O-Chul's friends.]]
-->'''[=MitD=]:''' Think about it. Which of these sounds like the hero you need to worry about: The last paladin of a conquered city, beaten but never broken, sworn to stop the evil lich who wiped out his holy order -- or some random fighter guy you already snuffed once?

* All ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'' movies have the FiveManBand (or just Nobita) doing something just to satisfy their wants with Doraemon's gadgets. Thus making them end up having to save the world or PlotDevice creatures countless times.

* Gordon Freeman of ''VideoGame/HalfLife''. Just an average everyday theoretical physicist until that fateful day, 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.

* Harry Mason of ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'' is an example. A writer in his early thirties is thrown into a situation of trying to find his loved one after a car crash by searching the creepy town from Hell which is full of monsters. The manual even states that he has no experience of using a firearm.
** All of the main ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series games invoke this trope with two exceptions. Harry Mason is followed by James Sunderland in ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'', a clerk. Heather in ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'' is a teenage girl with no particular skills. Henry Townshend of ''VideoGame/SilentHill4'' is probably a photographer. Travis of ''VideoGame/SilentHillOrigins'' is just a truck driver. ''VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming'' introduces the first possible action-oriented hero, ex-Spec Ops soldier Alex Shepard, except [[spoiler:Alex is an insane teen or young man who is deluded about being a Special Forces soldier, and the game gets most of the military details right ''except'' when it comes to Alex acting and looking like a green beret]]. ''VideoGame/SilentHillShatteredMemories'' brings back Harry Mason, and ''VideoGame/SilentHillDownpour'' introduces our second possible exception to the rule, Murphy Pendleton, an escaped violent convict. So to wrap up, we have a clerk, a photographer, a truck driver, a [[spoiler:schizophrenic young adult]], a convict, a writer, and a teenage girl, and most of them [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Punch Out Cthulhu]] at least once.

* In ''VideoGame/BadDayLA'', the protagonist is a homeless man that was once a Hollywood agent. He was just trying to survive when shit hit the fan in Los Angeles.
* In ''VideoGame/GabrielKnight'', Gabriel is just a sleazebag, poor bookseller who suddenly becomes the one who will save the world from a supernatural-oriented cult

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': Bolt becomes this in “The Baseball Game,” when he is pressed into playing duty while serving as honorary team [[{{Mascot}} mascot]]. He scores the winning run as a pinch runner for an injured player, and later clinches victory when he pulls off a triple play manning second base despite lacking a glove and the ability to throw a baseball properly.

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* Torg from ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' is just a normal ([[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} if kind of ditzy]]) guy, but just keeps stumbling (sometimes literally) into situations where demon lords or {{Mad Scientist}}s or supervillains are threatening him, his friends, or the world at large.

* The English pop band The Hoosiers had a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa1T7SdkDXE song]] named this that played with this trope. Not to mention [[EarWorm it was rather catchy]].

* Also from a Creator/SimonPegg movie, ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'''s Gary King is an unemployed, [[spoiler:suicidally depressed]] ManChild trying to relive the glory days of his youth by going on a drunken bender with his former friends. He and his friends (well, [[spoiler:two of them]]) also fight off and survive a horde of body snatching robot duplicates and he's eventually the one to tell [[spoiler:the Network]] to fuck off an leave humanity to its own devices. All of this during the aforementioned bender. [[spoiler:He becomes a more conventional hero AfterTheEnd by fighting for the now [[FantasticRacism discriminated-against]] Blank versions of his friends.]]

See also WeirdnessMagnet and ItBeganWithATwistOfFate. Compare ActionSurvivor. If the character seems more likely as villain than hero, but ends up on the side of good anyway, they might be a NominalHero. If the hero is 'unlikely' due to not being selected by destiny but heroing on anyway, they are TheUnchosenOne.

Compare TheRealHeroes where ordinary people deserves credit for their good deeds. See also StumbledIntoThePlot.

Compare TheRealHeroes where ordinary people deserves credit for their good deeds.

* Joe in ''Film/JoeVersusTheVolcano''. [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099892/]]

Often, the character has [[TheSlacker little interest]] in ever becoming a {{hero|es}} and is basically happy being a RidiculouslyAverageGuy as long as they get a better job / win the contest / get a date with the hottie / etc. Typically, the character is either a KidHero who would rather play video games, or a DeadpanSnarker who has become slightly jaded and GenreSavvy after saving the world 12 times last year. Often PlayedForLaughs.

[[Live-Action TV]]

* Nabooru of ''Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. She's a thief and the second-in-command of the Gerudo tribe, ruled by the main antagonist Ganondorf. Yet even she is surprised to be called as one of the Seven Sages who help restore peace to the world:
-->'''Nabooru:''' "...Isn't it funny? That a person like me could turn out to be the Sage of Spirit!"

* Nabooru of ''Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. She's a thief and the second-in-command of the Gerudo tribe, ruled by the main antagonist Ganondorf. Yet even she is surprised when she is called to help restore peace to the world:

* [[VideoGame/GitarooMan U-1]] is a really unlikely hero. Basically, he came back to his house after getting beaten up, which prompts his dog to teach him how to Gitaroo. ''Right after'', a demon with an axe threatens to chop U-1 in half, and the next thing you know, he's actually from a bloodline that automatically makes him the ChosenOne for a faraway planet. I don't get it either, just go with it.

* Rick Jones from MarvelComics has elements of this. He is more of an Unlikely ''Sidekick'', though. He's just a normal guy who has ended up being the sidekick to a number of heroes from [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk the Hulk]] to ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, usually because he stumbled onto the wrong place at the wrong time.

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