When ever the Cosmic Balance Between Law And Chaos is threatened, there will be an incarnation of the Eternal Champion to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
That is, if they can pause from whining about their terrible fate long enough to do so, hopefully without destroying the world in the process this time. Some possible incarnations include:- The Security Officer (and by extension Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh and hundreds of others!)
- Master Chief John-117 (possibly same as above)
- Shinji Ikari
- Neo
- Buffy Summers- in fact, The Slayer is the form which the Champion takes in the Buffyverse.
- Harry Potter (the final chapter shows one of the few 'respites' which Sepriz mentioned to Flamadin/John Daker)
- Rincewind - oh, the irony
- Himei Shoutan
- Ash Williams - because even the EC can't be Emo all the time. Besides, a chainsaw is so much cooler than some rusty old sword.
- Samurai Jack
- Paul Atreides
- Cerebus the Aardvark
- Dominic Deegan - pretty explicitly, in fact
- Anne Onymous, who hasn't been doing it long enough yet to get really depressed about it - give her time, sooner or later Cerebus Syndrome will catch up with her
- Baugb the Elf from Elf Life/Bookelfs
- Reuben Flagg from American Flagg!
- Elric of Melniboné and anyone else explicitly labeled as an incarnation of the Eternal Champion in the works of Michael Moorcock, obviously.
- Mr. Game & Watch, who'll do it without any whining. He's too damn cool for that.
- The Crow
- Kamina, who, in turn, incarnates in Simon
- Or more likley, was a botched incarnation that split the champion's power in half, and only with the death of one could he become complete once more.
- WALL•E, the little guy worked 700 years to clean up a defiled planet, then instilled free will to robots and man and helped found a new age of peace. Nice work.
- All incarnations of The Avatar. Including the ones from Ultima and Fire Emblem.note
- Link...Kind of a given.
- Rand al'Thor
- The Doctor, of course!
- Italian Spiderman
- Harry Dresden. Saved the world three times and counting.
- Sam and Dean Winchester. The Archangel Michael claims it's in their bloodline.
- Noel Vermillion
- Commander Shepard. No more needs to be said.
- The Prince of Persia
- The Belmont Clan
- Emma Swan
- The Skywalker clan.
- Max Payne
- the Dragonborn
- Holgen Carlsen from Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson, which were Moorcock got the order versus chaos thing.
- Nick Burkhardt
- Ichabod Crane
- Razgriz, and by extension all of the Ace Combat protagonists (and Monarch).
- The Armored Core protagonists. Named examples include Leos Klein, White Glint, and Strayed. Armored Core 2 and for Answer provides two rare examples of one Champion (possibly) facing off against a previous one.
- Dogmeat. He is eternal, His essence immutable. Drawn to young heroes in skin-tight blue jumpsuits, he is fearless and unfailing even in the face of The Great Enemy: Doors.note