Representation

In this blog post I will be writing about two different types of characters, writing about what that certain type’s entails and what character fits into this character type.

The first one I will be writing about is the Reluctant Hero. A Reluctant Hero is just an ordinary man and could have a number of faults or something of a troubled past which he is then pulled into a story reluctantly or could be brought into doing heroic acts, throughout the story he eventually rises to the occasion, he could end up doing this by destroying a strong enemy, or avenging someone he knows. But in the story the reluctant hero would question at points in the story whether they could make it as a hero. Their doubts or their mistakes could end up adding to the satisfactory part on a tense story.

During movies or games the hero would normally be portrayed as just an ordinary person which could be labelled as “An average Joe” are one of the term used for someone like this, the hero is then thrown into extraordinary situations that would require the hero to rise to become a true hero or someone with inhuman abilities who ends up enhancing to use his or hers special powers in order to benefit other rather than himself. A reluctant hero doesn’t originally go looking for the adventure or seek the opportunity in which to perform good acts, their selfishness could drive them into the genre of an anti-hero. In some stories the reluctant hero is portrayed as having periods of doubts after their first real foray into being a hero. This could be brought up by some of the negative actions of being a hero. This will then leave the viewers wondering if they will ever return back and become a true hero at moments when he or she are needed the most.

An example of a reluctant hero could be from the movie Pitch Black, where a crew are shipwrecked on an alien planet with deadly nocturnal inhabitants. When the planets suns go down the crew must survive with the help of an escaped convict who was also on the ship called Richard B. Riddick who has very unique eyes which enable him to see into the darkness, Riddick is a good example of the reluctant hero because he is thrusted into saving the crew , Riddick also does not particularly seek the adventure or even becoming a hero, in the movie he is faced with choices whether to save the crew or not, which he does ends up doing as he forms a bond with some of the crew.

An example of this in a game could be Monkey from the game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, your character, Monkey who is quite brutal and athletic who in manages to survive in a world that has been decaying world around 150 years into the future populated by men and then overrun by mechanical machines which have basically become like the wild animals of the present day. As the game begins Monkey finds himself captured on a ship and held in a prison cell. A girl who is called Trip manages to escape which sets off a chain reaction in the ship which then Monkey can break free. He then clings onto an escape pod that has Trip inside it, the pod crash lands into the ruins of a decaying New York City. Monkey awakens only to find that he is now fitted with a slave headband by Trip and the device will end up killing him if Trip dies, Monkey must ensure Trip survives in order to send her home and remove the collar.

This is a perfect example of a reluctant hero as he isn’t forced into becoming a hero, he kind of ends up walking into it by accident, throughout the game he protects her, suggestions he could only be doing it because he wants to get the headband removed rather than actually wanting to keep her alive, looking at the back story of the game though is seems that Monkey has spent much of his life on his own, so some form of companionship with Trip would end up being a positive for him and he eventually warms to her in the game.