I like all three of the bullet points.
Calling someone a pedant is an automatic Insult Backfire. Real pedants will be flattered.You have my complete support in all three ventures. ^_^
Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.That's good, but here is the tricky part: What is The Hero supposed to be, as a supposedly highest-level Super-Trope to the various kinds of Heroes?
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.I completely support replacing The Hero in the Five-Man Band with The Leader.
Please help out our The History Of Video Games page.Lemme give it a try for a laconic:
A hero is a type of protagonist that faces danger courageously for a noble cause.
Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.Protagonist isn't required for a hero. Archetype might be a better fit there.
Villian Protagonist, all those tropes about having a character that's a secondary character as a protagonist instead of The Hero, it's not the right fit.
edited 9th Mar '12 1:53:19 PM by shimaspawn
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. DickOkay, how about:
A hero is a character archetype that faces danger courageously for a noble cause.
Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.There's lots of ways of marking the hero, since there's several things the hero can be doing:
- The person who moves the story, the person who the story is about (The Protagonist; can be different from the POV Character)
- The person who is on the side of good, or whatever the work believes is good, in a Good vs. Evil setup (the distinction in Villain Protagonist / Hero Antagonist)
- The person who the audience is supposed to admire and aspire to be like (hero as Wish Fulfillment or Moral Example)
edited 9th Mar '12 2:07:22 PM by lebrel
Calling someone a pedant is an automatic Insult Backfire. Real pedants will be flattered.I think Lebrel nailed it. We have at least a couple of different ways the word "hero" is used here.
- A character/personality type: "character archetype that faces danger courageously for a noble cause." A character who acts in a heroic manner.
- The main character of the story, whether he's heroic by the first definition or not; as in <X is the hero of the story>.
Those are the two very top-level definitions, I'd say. Most other uses can be slotted in under one or the other.
In the case of Five-Man Band, I think we intended it to be used in the second sense, going on the assumption that the leader of the band is usually also the main character. I think that assumption is deeply flawed.
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The first one is exactly how The Protagonist is defined, though. See its article and laconic.
edited 9th Mar '12 2:03:50 PM by MarqFJA
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
You are correct. I misused protagonist. And apparently we don't have an article for "POV character". Bah.
Perhaps we need to define it as the other definition but specifically point people looking for the Protagonist to The Protagonist.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick![]()
I was pointing out how lebrel was apparently under the impression that The Protagonist was something else than his first definition.
That would be fine by me. The Hero's article already notes that it's not synonymous with The Protagonist, anyway.
edited 9th Mar '12 3:05:55 PM by MarqFJA
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.I think it's "A character who acts in a heroic manner, with a very large Internal Subtrope where such a character is also the main character. Another Internal Subtrope (to a somewhat milder extent) has them be The Leader of the good guys."
edited 9th Mar '12 3:32:54 PM by Ekuran
Defining a hero as someone who acts heroic is rather a circular definition, since heroic is defined as "having the characteristics of a hero".
Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.The Hero as a trope should mean exactly what the word means in English.
I'm going to quibble. I think the common usage is pretty evenly divided between the two meanings. The difference in common usage between "the main character" and "a noble person who behaves in a heroic manner" can be encapsulated in which article is used with it. Generally if it's being used in the first sense, he's "the hero". In the second he's "a hero".
edited 9th Mar '12 9:40:57 PM by Madrugada
Crown Description:
What would be the best way to fix the page?

A recent line of discussion in the Trope Description Improvement Drive
has revealed that The Hero's article has serious problems:
Proposed solutions (not mutually exclusive):
EDIT: Correcting incorrect letter case of shimaspawn's handle.
edited 9th Mar '12 1:15:15 PM by MarqFJA
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.