First let me come out and say this. I find that most Heroes suck. Yes, superman included. They are all goodie goodie two shoes and perfect like they were born that way, they have little or no flaws, and probably shit rainbows. Wow, that was remedic (If this a real word? Well it should be).

Now how do you create a Heroic protagonist that Pamela will not hate?

First, who is a hero? According to Merriam Webster a hero is a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability, or an illustrious warrior, or a person admired for achievements and noble qualities, one who shows great courage. But According to me, a hero is a person who overcomes challenges in a way that does not kill innocent people. So you can be the king of assholes as long as you don’t kill or rape or steal from good people. We are good. Now let's get down to business:

1. Wash away the mentality that the hero is a saint and for him to be acceptable as a hero he must be as pure as Jesus (Again Superman makers are you hearing me?) Your story is being told to humans and when last I checked most humans are sinners. Even the good ones have flaws, they are liars, or self-righteous, or indecisive, or pick pockets, or annoying preachers. So wipe out that flawless, saintly, victim heroic mentality from you head and you are on the right part to creating the world’s most awesome hero. From here on you can skip some of the below tips. If you want your readers to empatise or Identify with your hero give them flaws that humans have, like naivety, anger, pride, and let their flaws pose as an obstacle to them.

2. Now give your hero an ideal, a philosophy, that sets them apart from every other character, give their ideals a back story. E.g. if your hero believes that with great power comes great responsibility, and this ideal drives him to be heroic, make me as a reader empathize with his ideal by showing me it’s origin or hinting it, like Stanley did with spider man. Spidey is also a goodie goodie two shoes but I empathize more with his reason for goodness than with a certain flying man in cape, whose goodness is as a result of his parent’s strict morals and who convinced himself to become The America’s savior, (apparently America is the world).

3. Give your hero a determined Spirit: Every Otaku knows this, this character, the never say die character, the character that never gives up until the last breath, the character that his hair grows longer just before he beats you up for kicking him to his almost limit, the character that you beat to near death then they preach to you about their believes after beating you to your own limit up and then you kill yourself. Do I need to mention the name of the anime characters. Give you hero this determination, make it part of their personality from the start of the story, this way we understand why their ideals never change, and why they do not give up on fighting the bad guy.

4. Decide what type of character your hero is, the hero who tries to change the world or the hero who just wants to save it in this particular time for his personal reason.

5. Give your hero a sense of seeking salvation, don’t make them salvation personified. No matter how bad the Antagonist is the hero should not resort to evil deeds to destroy the antagonist, if they do so then they will become Anti heroes. While they should not seek to take justice into their hands and kill the Antagonist, they should also not stupidly let him go scot-free and unpunished, or drop him in a cell that they know he will escape from, OR SAVE him/her from being killed by a trap they set or by nature. or stupidly give him 70x7 chances to become good, Like a certain somebody does. (Of course this tip is optional).

6. Make your hero weaker than your villain: This will intensify the conflict and not make me wander why the hero did not just kill the villain when the villain announced his plan to destroy the hero’s world. Let the hero go through a journey that strengthens him for his/he final confrontation with the villain. The villain does not need to be physically strong, he/she may be a manipulative tricksters skilled in the art of deception.

7. Avoid the use of Deux ex machine: Do not let their victory be determined by fate or an act of luck this can make your reader loose interest in your story. rather, let fate work against them to give them more challenges.

And lastly:

8. Remember that you can always create an antihero (a hero who does bad/nutty things, or has bad characters), an idiotic hero (one who is an hero by mistake), a misguided hero (A hero whose intention is good but is on a fast/slow course for hell), a tragic hero (a hero who fails at the end). There is no law that states that your hero must he the heroic type.

Hope this was helpful, oh yes this was also an Anti Superman rant. I'm just one of those fans that Supes can never please.

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