We Could be Heroes

This is just me noodling around, trying to make sense out of tangles of thought in my head.  This is not work, but it is tangential to all my work.  Well, almost all my work.

Heroes, and why they become that way.  There is a kind of a line that makes all heroes the same - call, refusal, allies, road of trials, katabasis, blahdy blahdy blah, and it's kind of nice that someone did some work on bringing that cycle to light, but I think it really only describes one type of hero.  

Today, I am looking more at motivations and the internal engine of the heroic, and the things I have been thinking about, they are fluid, and a hero might shift from one to another over the course of a narrative, but for now, I just wanted to list out the ones I see and see if anyone is interested enough to join in:

1) The Chosen - Luke Skywalker, Peter Parker, Frodo Baggins, et al.  Something made them heroes, something external; the whole "becoming a hero" was totally out of their hands and the conflict was what they did with it.  This is Campbell's hero, Call, Refusal, blahdyblahdyblah.  That's not to say the story isn't interesting.  It's really fucking interesting, but I don't think it's the only one, so I am not sticking around for this one.

2) The Paladin - Steve Rogers, Diana Prince, et al.  When the Call came round, there are some people whose first words are "what took you so long?"  Steve was standing up to bullies and getting his ass kicked all up and down Brooklyn before becoming Captain America.  Diana entered that whole Amazonian contest in disguise to get a look at these Nazis who were, apparently, worse than Hercules.  This is a different sort of motivating force than one the chosen hero ends up with - granted, Diana got made all special by Hera, sure, and was, by far, the best Amazon for the job, and Luke Skywalker was planning on defecting to the rebels the first chance he got out of the Imperial Academy, but Peter Parker would have probably been a research chemist and a quiet sort of dude but for that radioactive spider and Steve Rogers would have eventually ended up shanked in an alleyway standing up to some jerk, no matter what.

3) The Prodigal - Bruce Banner, Sarah Connor.  People who literally cannot live normal lives, no matter what, not because of external forces, but internal ones.  Dr. Banner turns into the Hulk when he gets angry, and the only constructive thing the Hulk can do is fight against things worse than him.  Sarah Connor saw Judgement Day, and knows her child has to fight in the time after.  In MFP, Gem is like this, in a lot of ways.  She's a tuned instrument of violence who isn't sure exactly how much control she has over it, just yet, and so she's kind of stuck with her skills being adventure and/or murder.  Chances are, and I am hoping, she gets to resolve that and transition over to some other type of hero, even as a couple of her companions kind of transition in to this one...

4) The Avenger - Bruce Wayne, Eric Lenscherr (okay, well, not a hero, usually).  I suffered an experience, and now I want to make sure no one ever suffers the same thing.  It's a pretty common, basic, often poorly executed, and deeply problematic handling of the heroic impulse.  As I am typing this, I am thinking of all the ways Batman and Magneto are the same guy, only one of them has a much narrower band of people he wants to protect.

5) The Idealist - Clark Kent.  Got a vision for the world, works to make that vision a reality, with the strength at their disposal.  Definitely a difficult road to follow, since my example's arch-nemesis is exactly the same, just willing to hew more closely to his ideals rather than let things take the long route towards getting better.  I don't know, this one is still a little unformed.  Is it that different from the Paladin?  Kind of.  The Paladin is more reactionary.  There's bad in the world and I want to stop it.  The Idealist is more proactive, though, again, proactive heroism is a really tricky thing to manage, and puts the would be hero dangerously close to villainy.

6) The Caretaker - Samwise Gamgee, Lucy Pevensie.  Okay, these guys get put into supporting roles, usually, but here is another one of those things I would like to write someday - a story with this sort of person getting the top billing they deserve - yeah, Frodo carried the fucking Ring.  Sam carried Frodo.  Peter and Edmund (and Susan in the movies - Lewis might be turning in his grave, but on the subject of Susan, I have only a resounding FUCK YOU for the man, and she kicked some ass with that bow) get all the cool fight scenes, but who is it who runs and fetches Aslan and saves her siblings?  Yeah, Lucy.  Who fights a rear-guard guerrilla war against the Death Eaters when the chosen trio are camping?  Ginny, Neville and Luna.  The heroic impulse here is to help people, protect and strengthen the people around them, and I think that's really powerful.

Ah, this helped a little.  Noodling about.  The cats are waxed, the chores... well, actually, I need to do the dishes and sweep the floor!  Heavens, how did I let that get by me.  Then writing.  Yeah, then.