Young Writers Society

When people talk about qualities/traits that heroes have (no matter fiction nor the real world), there's a classification of these five main things that heroes have.

Now the lists always look a bit different but the best one I've seen so far goes:
1. Courage
2. Selflessness
3. Humility
4. Patience
5. Caring

This list is a little bit farther out there than what the standard heroic traits might be. Like courage, bravery, skill at fighting?
This list comes from an article that talked about true heroes and who can be a hero. So this is something to think about as you work your way through character roles this #NaNo season.

So I guess all that's left to ask is: "What's your favorite hero trait?"

My favorite is courage, because that means the hero is facing a great threat and choosing to stand against it, rather than backing down in the face of danger. Courage is not the absence of fear, but action despite fear, and that's something I greatly admire.

My favorite hero trait will always be caring. A hero should definitely have all the traits listed above, but it's the people who care that stand out to me the most. They're the ones who understand what the other people around them are going through, and can use that understanding to do incredibly kind things. Even in a fantasy story set in a foreign world, a character's kindness will always be more important to me than their ability to remain standing in a fight.

Personally, I think a hero should be flawed. There are so many perfect heroes out there and I'm frankly tired of it. I want a hero that has feelings and traits about themselves that are flawed, but that's okay. That's why I love My Hero Academia: many of he characters are very flawed, but are heroes anyway.

@zaminami even flawed characters can have good traits, and good traits can be flawed!

A courageous character might not know how to back down from their position. A caring character nought not be able to take a step back. A selfless character might have no self worth. A humble character might not be able to stand up for their beliefs when they need to. A patient character might not know when to act, or might do too little too late.

It's SO FUN to use good traits as flaws tbh.

@Vervain yeah, that's what I was trying to say lol

I think patience is the most important because a book often reads as a condensed version of a life, just the dynamic parts with nothing in between. A hero with patience can be refreshing, and adds a layer of reality that applies more to life.

I'd say selflessness, because if a hero is selfless, they will strive to be patient, humble, caring, and have the courage to sacrifice their safety and well-being for others.

Also, a hero's trait is often what they become at the end of the story. During the story they overcome their hardness, selfishness, impatience, pride, and fear to become caring, selfless, patient, humble, and courageous. Like others have said, flaws are important. The best heroes are the ones who start out as nothing important or awesome at all. The best stories are about those "nobodies" overcoming whatever they struggle with.

I enjoy seeing a selfless hero because it's easy to write their flaws. A perfect, perfect, golden example of a flawed but selfless character would be Boromir from The Lord of the Rings. He was selfish at first. He was also hasty and even afraid in some instances. But look what happened in the end. He showed care for those he loved, humility to admit he'd done wrong, and the courage and selflessness to lay down his life for his friends.

I may or may not have started crying when I wrote that. Carry on.

I'mma vote caring because my favorite character to write for these days is a loveable, extroverted, extremely insecure goof. The reason he's so much fun to write for is because he does care about the people around him, even if he barely knows them (which is usually the case because lol he's going to try to talk to everyone). He can be hilariously inept about lending a helping hand, but he persists in spite of the mess that was/is his childhood and perception of reality, and there's something nice about that.

I’m torn between humility and selflessnes, because I love characters who value others’ lives above their own, and who do not seek their own gain. But personally I think to be truly selfless, you’ve got to be humble first. So uh, yeah. Humility!!!

I wish there's a resourceful/wise option. :/ It would be nice to have a hero that doesn't rely on brawn or the capacity to love, and instead use his brain to do the right thing.

My second choice is caring. Being caring is a must for my hero. I understand if he lacks courage, abnegation, humility, or patience, but it's kinda hard to believe he doesn't have the capacity to care.

I picked humility, cos it's easy to get tired of self-described heroes. I mean, I'm naturally drawn to charismatic egotists, but they're normally more likable as side characters than protagonists, it's really hard to balance them so that they're more on the funny side and less on the annoying side.

I like heroes who balance being humble with having a decent sense of self-worth. I particularly love heroes who are humble who don't have a great sense of self-worth, but develop one over time, being a good example of how to balance healthy self awareness and love with humility and selflessness.

That's something that I find to be really inspiring in a way that speaks to me personally, and it's something that I feel very attached to when I find a good example of it.

Arrogance. Because it's often a good sign of competence. But otherwise, closest to it is courage maybe?

Traves wrote:Arrogance. Because it's often a good sign of competence. But otherwise, closest to it is courage maybe?

I'm going to have to disagree with this a tad - arrogance is a mindset that can just as easily be born of mistaken assumptions and incorrect perceptions, and doesn't heavily correlate with competence (which is less of a mindset and more ability-based). Impostor syndrome is a thing, and the Dunning-Kruger effect might be too (though it's more disputable).

Courage is definitely a nice trait to fall back to, as Raye explains.

TheSilverFox wrote:

Traves wrote:Arrogance. Because it's often a good sign of competence. But otherwise, closest to it is courage maybe?

I'm going to have to disagree with this a tad - arrogance is a mindset that can just as easily be born of mistaken assumptions and incorrect perceptions, and doesn't heavily correlate with competence (which is less of a mindset and more ability-based). Impostor syndrome is a thing, and the Dunning-Kruger effect might be too (though it's more disputable).

Courage is definitely a nice trait to fall back to, as Raye explains.

Hmm I guess I've gotten bored of underdog humble heroes. Perhaps I should've used some other opposite of humble than arrogant.

I also find arrogant/rude/brusque people to be more real, (and arrogant competence is most of the times better than humble competence in characters because they can afford to be arrogant only if no one can take them down a notch, i.e. I'm side stepping the DK effect). Mindset matters a lot too, which anyone with any competence in any field would tell.

Even otherwise, "fake it till you make it" is the other side of the imposter syndrome, and also allows for some subversion, comic or otherwise.