Merge or fix? Chronic Hero Syndrome vs. Samaritan Syndrome

Courtesy links: Chronic Hero Syndrome vs. Samaritan Syndrome

I couldn't find any explaination on the Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions, and the descriptions for both tropes only briefly mention the other in passing, and so I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out why these two aren't the same thing. Both tropes cover characters who are obsessed with helping people, both tropes talk about possible emotional backlash from failing to do so, both tropes appear to tread pretty much the same ground.

About the only difference I can find is that Samaritan Syndrome tends to be applied to super-powered characters and are more prone to guilt, but isn't that really a matter of how the tropes are applied in a work?

Or maybe I'm just missing something because the trope descriptions need to be updated to make them more distinct. At the very least, it seems like there should be something on the Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions.

Thoughts?

—R.J.

The way I see it, Samaritan Syndrome involves superpowered people who realize that they have the power to stop crime and junk, so they're obligated to use it for those ends. Chronic Hero Syndrome is about people who just can't leave people in danger. It's a arbitrary difference. I say Merge and use Samaritan Syndrome as a redirect.

The difference is more in the motivation than anything else. A hero with CHS almost has a compulsion to help out, he just can't say no or tolerate any injustice from a deep personal conviction.

A hero with Samaritan Syndrome on the other hand doesn't necessarily want to be the guy to answer The Call, but he realizes no one else will. In other words, conviction versus responsibility.

Is the distinction worth keeping the tropes separate? I'm torn on the merge-or-fix decision myself.

—R.J.

I've grown to be more pragmatic than ideological in when to fix/merge/delete things. While I think the distinction should be enough to merit two tropes, enough confusion or missuse merits a merge.

So I'm just going to go through the examples and see how many are duplicates:

• Superman
• Spiderman
• Empowered
• Incredibles
• Kingdom Hearts

Wow, that's less than I expected. I don't have enough time to go through the example writeups in greater detail (class in a few minutes) but I'll give them a read through and see if there's much confusion in the written ones.

Still, this bodes well for keeping them separate.

Okay, I've read through the descriptions and examples, and I'm going to amend what I wrote earlier to this:

• Samaritan Syndrome: A Super Hero feels obligated to help because with great power Comes Great Responsibility. They may not be a very altruistic person otherwise, and could even be cynical, but help because the guilt from not doing so would be too great. Also, this doesn't mean he's stupid, he may willingly ignore someone's pleas if a bigger emergency comes up. A normal person may be guilted into this by being the only person on hand who can help, but otherwise this trope as written seems Super Hero-centric.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: The hero (no Super necessary) feels very deeply that he must help anyone in peril, even to the point of Honor Before Reason. He will stop mid-quest to topple the Evil Overlord to get a kitten from a tree. This strong altruistic streak may be due to feeling responsible for the welfare of others, but he isn't by any means the only one capable of helping out in a given situation.

With that said, Samaritan Syndrome has 112 wicks and 179 inbounds, and CHS has 362 wicks and 579 inbound. So I'm dreading going through those looking for misuse.

Honestly, I think they can both stand separate as Sister Tropes, but the distinction may be too subtle to keep casual tropers from confusing them as interchangeable (if someone knows CHS or SS and not the other, they'd likely not bat an eye at using it in both situations). I'm going to sit the fence on this one for now.

edited 10th Dec '10 5:52:13 PM by Earnest

How is Samaritan Syndrome any different from Comes Great Responsibility?

edited 10th Dec '10 5:54:40 PM by KingZeal

Comes Great Responsibility is about not abusing your powers. It's to avoid the slippery slope of "I use my Super-Strength to win a small wrestling bet" to "I use my super strength against regular opponents to become a super star".

Now, a character who believes CGR will likely also develop the idea they should use said powers responsibly to help others, but basically it's "Don't use your powers for personal gain". If he or she is the only resident super and/or also won the Superpower Lottery then they will likely take it Up To Eleven and develop Samaritan Syndrome.

For context, someone with Chronic Hero Syndrome probably believes CGR reflexively— he would never use his powers for personal gain, only to help others.

edited 10th Dec '10 7:56:23 PM by Earnest

I like Earnest's writeups for being brief yet descriptive. They definitely help to spotlight the difference between the two tropes.

—R.J.

I thought the key feature of Samaritan Syndrome, based on the trope namer (I know, but the tale of the Good Samaritan doesn't take it Up To Eleven like that story does), is that the hero feels they can't take any time for their personal life because that time would directly translate to people they could have saved dying. Especially when it's a hero like Superman who has both the ability to sense everyone, everywhere who's in trouble ever and the ability to get to it 24/7.

By contrast, Chronic Hero Syndrome is more situational, more local, less global: they keep running into situations by coincidence that they can help, and no matter how good it would be for them, they never back away. It's not the choice between patrolling the city/world for crime and going on a date, it's running into a crime while going on a date and deciding to leave your date to stop it.

edited 10th Dec '10 11:13:27 PM by Haven

Clocking and bumping for resolution or lock.