Fictional Heroes I Love (+ Character Traits I Think We Need More Of in Christian Fiction)

Hello everyone! I decided to take a break from my trope series. One, I've been studying hard this week and haven't had a lot of time to work on the next trope I'm going to feature; two, the next trope up is miscommunication, and it's my least fave trope of ALL time, so if I can push it off for two more weeks, I'll be okay. Finally, I wanted to talk about some of my favorite fictional heroes - from books, movies, comics, TV shows, etc. Is this my time to show you guys all of the fandoms I've immersed myself in? Of course. But this is also a case study into character traits that I want to see more in Christian fiction, and especially in Christian speculative fiction. So without further ado, let's get to it!  #1 - John Watson from ​The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Name: John Watson
Occupation: doctor/detective/writer
Noble Quality: strong moral code
Fatal Flaw: undying loyalty
Fandom: ​Sherlock
Something I don't see very often in speculative fiction of most varieties is a hero with a strong moral code. Watson, on the other hand, has a strong moral compass. In the books, it's indicated that Watson may have been a believer (I hope so, even if he is a fictional character XD); we see glimpses that he won't stoop to murder, breaking and entering, and other questionable activities that Sherlock entertains doing/has done on a case. There are also instances when Watson will try to save the lives of criminals (see The Illustrious Client). I absolutely love that shows like Elementary and BBC's Sherlock have kept this quality of Watson in their renditions of his character. I think we need more fantasy and dystopian ( especially  dystopian) characters who have a moral compass that stops them from crossing lines, even when saving lives like Watson and Holmes do.  #2 - Barry Allen/The Flash from The Flash​ Name: Bartholomew "Barry" Allen 
Occupation: forensic scientist for Central City CSI
Noble Quality: his determination
Fatal Flaw: his temper
Fandom: Arrowverse
Grant Gustin's Barry Allen is one of my favorite on-screen superheroes of all time, Marvel or DC ​, because of his grit. If you know your DC history, then you know that Barry's been through a lot. This Flash character's mother was killed in front of him, and his father was falsely thrown in prison for her murder. Barry wants to see that his mother's killer gets true justice, and once he gains his speed powers, his desire for justice branches out to helping other "metahumans" and making sure that the metas that use their powers for evil are stopped. A lot of heroes in both secular and Christian fiction have a certain level of determination, but they're usually a tad single-minded when it comes to channeling that determination. Learning to multi-focus their energy/grit/courage can help fictional heroes experience more character growth and make them better problem solvers.
#3 - Dick Grayson/Nightwing from ​Batman Name: Richard "Dick" Grayson
Occupation: police officer/vigilante
Noble quality: leadership
Fatal flaw: fear of failing/helicopter mom mentality
Fandom: DC/Batman
My favorite Robin of the comics and movies and spin-off shows is Dick Grayson. He fits the oldest sibling role very well, which gives him peak leadership skills. But it also gives him the feeling that he has to be his siblings' second mom, which causes rifts between him and Jason, as well as the occasional argument between him and Damain (Tim Drake is such a middle child, I think Dick forgets he exists sometimes XD). "Fear of failing" oldest sibling representation is something I'd like to see more of in general fiction, Christian or otherwise. I know this isn't a noble quality on Dick's part, but it's a realistic sibling dynamic I think we need to see more of.  #4 - Prince Caspian from The Chronicles of Narnia Name: Prince Caspian X (the Tenth)
Occupation: king/occasional seafarer
Noble Quality: nobility/justness
Fatal Flaw: headstrong
Fandom: Narnia
Okay, okay, I may or may not have a crush on Ben Barnes in middle school. Name one female homeschooler that didn't. Anyway, I've always admired Caspian's justness as he led the Narnians and Telmarines in the movie. I've also thought he was an incredibly noble guy, through and through. Think about it - he still respects the Pevensie children as royals, even though he technically is the rightful king (via invasion from thousands of years ago, but still). To the viewer's knowledge, he bears no will towards his uncle's council members, his aunt, or her child, even though the baby was part of the reason Miraz went after Caspian. I only know of a handful of heroes in Christian fiction that resemble Caspian (one of them being Azaziah from Katja Labonté's A Noble Comfort , which comes out this Tuesday and you guys need to read it), and I think that's sad. Let's write some noble heroes, guys! #5 - Merlin Emrys from Merlin​ Name: Merlin/Emrys
Occupation: Arthur's manservant/wizard
Noble Quality: loyalty
Fatal Flaw: also loyalty
Fandom: Merlin
Merlin was rated poorly by critics and conservatives everywhere, and it certainly has its (many) rough spots (I say, having watched too many YouTube clips and snippets of the show from Tubi). However, one thing I need we can take from this show is how loyalty can be addressed in drastically different ways. (I don't like that several of these characters are loyal to a fault; it makes this post sound like a broken record. Anyway...) On one hand, Merlin is undyingly loyal to Arthur, and not just because he's supposed to help Arthur unite the kingdoms of Albion and become Britain's best king - he begins to respect (and, in a purely platonic way, I think) and love Arthur for the kingly person that he's trying to be. On the other hand, Merlin's loyalty to Arthur puts him in danger ALL the time (according to the fandom's wiki, he's actually the most often injured character in the series; the second is Arthur, of course), and it makes him extremely vulnerable to manipulation and to putting Arthur in danger (they are always together, and Merlin seems to accumulate quite a few enemies). Too often, we see the good side of loyalty, which is very important. But I think we need to be shown the flip side of this - what happens when a character is too​ much of a good quality? 
#6 - Jason Todd/Red Hood from ​Batman Name: Jason Peter Todd-Wayne
Occupation: resurrected vigilante/anti-hero
Noble Quality: at the risk of repeating previous qualities, justness and a desire to see justice served
Fatal Flaw: ... we could literally be here all day for this, but I'm going to go with questionable ethics for now
Fandom: DC/Batman
I hesitated at putting Jason Todd on this list because, by all rights, he's not exactly a hero. Todd grew up in a broken home on a broken street and was an intelligent but morally ambiguous child when Batman took him in. His death as Robin at the hands of the Joker and resurrection via Ra's Al Ghul made him even more volatile, and he took on the moniker of Red Hood and become a distorted version of Gotham's Robin Hood - killing the corrupt out of a sense/need for vengeance. But if the fandom wiki page is any indication (I've clearly been doing some top-tier research for this post XD), Jason's gotten a lot better. And while he still has to control that sense of violence (and fails miserably a lot of the time), his desire to see justice delivered to the criminals of Gotham and Gotham-adjacent cities is admirable, if nothing else.
We're getting better at it now, but there isn't a lot of struggling hero representation in Christian fiction. Jay is obviously not a believer, but that doesn't mean we can't copy and paste some of his struggles into Christian fiction. Maybe your hero is saved, but he did a lot of wrong things in his lifetime and now he's picking up those pieces. Sin is a very real thing, and forgiveness is always a powerful theme in Christian fiction - so let's show our readers how Christians overcome the pain and sin in their lives, and ask for/accept forgiveness.  What do you think? Do you have certain fictional heroes that you like for their character qualities? I was initially not going to post this on my blog, but almost all of these characters are seen as "poorly written", and I wanted to set the record straight for some of them. And like I said, there are qualities in each of them that I think we can add to our own writing. 
Would you like to see a female version of this? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 

Until next time,
~Cate