H is for Hero

I���ve been thinking about the subject of this post for quite a while���ever since last August in fact–when the Starz Channel began to broadcast the excellent Outlander series. The day the series premiered, I passed the time until it aired watching two other films with amazingly strong heroes. These two movies, actually presented to me back to back and leading to Outlander, caused me to��wonder what exactly were the qualities each of these swoon-worthy heroes possessed that made them heroes.

The first movie was the 1992 version of Last of the Mohicans with Daniel Day-Lewis starring as Hawkeye. Swoon-worthy indeed. Following right on its heels was Mel Gibson in Braveheart. Again, a hero���s hero. And finally Outlander with Sam Heughan as Jamie Fraser.

OMG! Talk about wallowing in testosterone for an entire afternoon!

But as I thought about these three very different characters, they all still felt the same to me, as though they were brothers under the skin, so to speak. So I began to analyze them, try to figure out what characteristics they had in common that would make me think of them as similar. Here are some of the similarities that I think they share:

1) They are all masters at fighting���I���d hate to have to face them with a sword or pistol in their hands.

2) They are all strong-willed���you���re not going to deter them once their minds are made up.

3) They are all very intelligent���they are supreme strategists in battle and all of them speak more than one language.

4) They are all willing to sacrifice themselves for the ones they love. (William Wallace doesn���t actually sacrifice himself for Maren, but he avenges her and then some. He also refuses to accept a pain-killer before his death, which counts as sacrifice in my book.)

5) They all show compassion toward others���Nothing is as sexy to me as a man showing compassion for another person or animal.

6) They all have personal codes of honor they follow���goes without saying in a hero, but I thought I���d mention it anyway.

And I didn���t want to point out that they���re all played by terribly��handsome, sexy men. You don���t have to be handsome to be a hero, but it never hurts. LOL

What other qualities or characteristics to you like to find in the heroes you read?

 

 

Filed under: Alphabet Posts, Historical romance, Jenna Jaxon