what is a hero.

[Sualtam Lugh]

What is a Hero?

According to Webster's dictionary, a Hero is A man of distinguished valor; the person who has the principle share in some exploit or in a play or novel. I think this meaning sucks. It's to generic, and hero's don't have to be distinguished. Case a point? Riou. Some random kid, who happens to be the adopted grandkid of a war hero....kinda. No one actually knew the name Riou (for a name's sake) Genkaku.

So what's a hero? A hero, should be redefined, as someone who does something to help benefit others, in a manner that helps towards the greater good, like ridding the world of any kind of uncalled for chaos, and doesn't expect anything out of it. Riou fought to be able to go back home. But he also fought for freedom of a country. Stampede said, in another topic, that Riou was Shu's mouthpiece (aka, Riou was the
figurehead, and Shu was the leader). This is true on the point of view for winning battles. But all the choices were up to Riou. Making new friends, whether to make an attack, and what to do next. Shu never went behind his back and created different plans. Riou was the one who brought everyone together.

Why am I focusing on Riou? I'll change the person of highlight.

Tir was a hero because he had to put his status on the line to help the country in an overall fashion. He saw the corruption of the Empire, and knew something was different. Albiet he didn't work alone, he knew something needed to be done. Also, his friend was in danger, and he wanted to help him. Through his actions, he started and finished a civil
war which helped the country greatly (Although some strategical flaws hurt the country in the future a bit, but that worked out in the end). What did Tir get out of it? Freedom. He was able to comfortably walk anywhere without disruption, and no one thought "Oh look, It's McDohl's son" They thought "Look at that man. He fought for our country, let's leave him alone".

Firemen are heros. Doctors are heros. Teachers are heros. Sure, for different things. Firemen save lives, as do Doctors. Teachers....teachers probably take the most shit out of any legitimate job dealing with children. Teachers create the workers of the future. Without them, no one would know basic things like counting and such, and we would be in a shamble, if we didn't know things. They don't even ask for much in return, except for decent wages of living. Seems heroic to me. Not in the same way as....say....being in the army, but that depends of what being a hero means.

So lets go back to what I said before and change it up. I said "A hero, should be redefined, as someone who does something to help benefit others, in a manner that helps towards the greater good, like ridding the world of any kind of uncalled for chaos, and doesn't expect anything out of it." Something is still missing. We got war heros, regular jobs, but what about kids. Imagine this scenario, as odd as it sounds.

Boy A doesn't have any friends, because he's kind of weird. All the kinds laugh at him at lunch time, and he's new to the school. Boy B is kind of popular, and is kind of average. Boy B knows the kids don't really like Boy A, but Boy B was taught that everyone deserves a chance. Boy B asks Boy A to play with him, and they become good friends. Soon enough, Boy A becomes friends with more people, and Boy A is a happy kid. Is Boy B a hero?

According to what I said, yea he is. He helped someone in a time of need, and he didn't benefit from it. He was doing the right thing.
Now, someone in another topic....I forgot your username if you're reading this. Sorry, I'll burn in hell, I promise. Anyways, you said that the trinity system in 3 works really well because you get to see each angle of a situation, and you can see the right thing isn't always the right thing, and that the choices that were made weren't always the ones the characters wanted. And that was crucial, because thats how the world works.

We all think differently, and we all get affected by actions differently. Case and point. The NHL playoffs. Someone likes the Flames, and someone likes Tampa. Calgary wins? Tampa guy is upset, and vice versa.

Tir suffered, he lost two of his best friends, and his father, to a war that would bring freedom to the country. Yea, Gremio was revived from his actions (Gremio is also a hero. Bring able to give up your life for something you believe strongly in is heroic. Yes, even the Terrorists who caused 9/11 and died are heroic. Not in our eyes but in the eyes of the people who believed that was an attack of freedom.

(Argue those terrorists being heros with me, and you're an idiot. Because I'm sure you'll say there are such things as war heros, therefore you would be a hypocrite. Just because you disagree with what they did, doesn't mean they weren't following a legitimate belief to their culture. You'd also be racist, because you would be saying they are wrong, and their culture is wrong, but that's not something I want to get into. Oh, and don't get the wrong idea, because I'm sure someone reading this might think it. I'm white, "Roman Catholic" and I live in Canada. The fact that I would think to have to present that hurts me, and it hurts the Middle Eastern people. Just remember, this only applies to those who disagree with my single statement. Feel free to destroy anything else written here).

Riou is another example, as Rheo said (He inspired this topic by the way.) he was almost forced to keep fighting even though he witnessed his sister "die" in front of him.

I'm starting to ramble, and when I can say that something is wrong....where to go from here. I suppose I should finish. Everyone is a hero, in a different way. Blue Moon here is a hero for providing us
with things over the many years, working at Suikosource, and now on Suikox.com. Yuber, he's a hero to me in a more personal way. I suppose in some way I might be a hero to someone, although I doubt it. The thing is, how do we know when we have done something heroic?

Final definition: A hero is someone who's actions help someone, or something positive happen. As little as that action may be, it is still signification. May it be defending someone verbally, or physically. Helping someone with math notes, for a big test. Taking out a splinter from their hand. Freeing a country from a civil war, or bringing together a country to fight off an external country (Odd name, but think of it this way. External means outside of the boarders, internal would be inside the borders, but that they would have their own borders (Vatican City, inside of Italy.) or Creating peace in a land of constant war. That's what a hero truly is, to me.

[Sualtam Lugh]

Oh yea, sorry about the poor paragraphing. I can't type in a make topic box, runtime errors, therefore I used notepad and that doesn't have margins, so I estimated, and it came out bad, so I tried to fix it and it was decent.

[Elc]

[Vextor]

Hero means "demi-god" in its original language--Classical Greek. In fact, that is where the term is most popularly used. Hercules, Achilles, Perseus, Jason, etc. These are all heros in the true sense of the word, as they are born between Grecian deities and mortal humans.

Of course, the meaning of the word has changed significantly since then, but it still carries the meaning of "a person with superhuman strength or courage." A hero also has something to protect or defend. A hero can only exist when there is something of value that can be lost and requires protection. That is why a hero must face "obstacles that are normally beyond the capacity of one person to conquer."

A hero often has a "fatal flaw" in literature as well, such as Achilles and his heel, superman and kryptonite, and Chiang Yu's inability to trust others. These all make it possible to tell a story by forcing heros to go through "trials." All heros must go though trials, or hardships--a quest. Hercules had to complete his 12 labors, Jason had to fetch the golden fleece, Beowulf had to slay Grendel, and Yamato Takeru had to slay Yamata-no-orochi.

Those are intrinsic qualities of heros, and all Suikoden protagonists qualify for these. Personally, I think the word is overused and often misapplied in the United States.

[TheStrategist]

I think there's a huge difference between the fictional hero and the reality hero....If I were to ask someone who their hero was, it would probably take that person at least ten minutes to think of someone that they think is a well-respected person to others, but not themselves....In my definition of a fictional hero (such as in Suikoden, b/c that's all that matters :)), plain and simple. a hero is just a person who has in some way libertated his followers and peers without the determination to be famous, but the will power to do what is right for all-kind. The hero doesn't have to be loved by every person on the planet, but should be respected as a leader throughout all cultures, all races - friend and foe...

[Sualtam Lugh]

[Kobold]

The meaning of Hero can hardly be justified in a game like Suikoden. Heck, the innkeeper of Kyaro can be the hero of Suikoden 2 and have more personality than Riou.

Why can't games justify a hero? Because it is a game. Especially games like Suikoden 1/2 where the hero only speaks less than 20 sentence in the entire war. Hardly shows anything does it?
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Kobolds are great!

[tekknopirate]

A hero is someone who protects what he believes in. And is willing to stand against any force without fear. That is a hero. I guess to me.

[Sualtam Lugh]

[Aurelien]

Which technically means that "you" are the hero instead of Tir or Riou. If I remember correctly, Konami purposely made them to be mute so that the personality of them would be based purely on how the players played them out. Just an example, Riou could end up as the president of Dunan or someone who ran away in the middle of the war. But which one is he really? No such thing because he could be either of the two. If he ran away in the middle of the war, is he still a hero?
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[sybillious]

by your definition, anyone doing an act of kindness could be a hero; that kind of makes heroism mundane, rather than extrodinary.

heroism is extrodinary; simply befriending an unpopular kid doesn't qualify-it's an act of kindness at most. a person has to achieve much more than that to rate as heroic in this day.

while we may not see them in this light *yes this will be an unpopular statement,* terrorists are heroes to those who follow their cause; yes, the cause is sick, twisted and destructive, but from their point of view, the acts terrorists commit put them in line with saints and martyrs. by their definition, extremists view terrorists as heros.

the definition of hero is different for each person, given this, however, it doesn't change the fact that qualifying acts need to be more than just random or specific acts of kindness or merit.

can you honestly say that the kid that befriended the unpopular boy rates the same meriting as a person who helped save several people from death by fire/flood or other disaster? i sure hope not...that would mean that you think of almost anyone as a hero, setting a rather low standard for that title.

[Jurhael]

It's hard for me to say what a hero is because to me, it just doesn't exist. Yea, people do good, brave, extraordinary things, but I've never called them heroes. Maybe when I was younger, I did, but now, I most certainly don't. Could be cynicism or maybe it could be that I just don't get easily impressed anymore.

Maybe SARS is right. The word has become so overused that it no longer has any meaning. I just think that it's relative. When someone does something that people like, they're heroes, but when someone does something others don't like, they're not. So, it's easy for me to shrug off the concept.
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Let's waste time chasing cars....

[Kobold]

Really, we don't get much choices. Riou and Tir are MADE to do all that in the game. What i'm saying is that their personality are not there to make them seem like true heros. The only thing that can justify them as a hero is what happens in the game, which is all pre made to happen this way.

In a story kind of thinking, lets say Riou didn't get to become the hero of the story, but somehow, some random youth brigade soldier aside from Jowy had enough brains to realise that the forest would prove to be an ambush, and decide to run back to find their Captain, and then subsequently jump off the waterfall and stuff, Riou would be well... Dead...

So what i'm trying to say is, a game cannot justify a hero because Riou is just a character that so happens so luckily stumbles upon all that and thus gets forced to be a leader and stuff. Any other person with a little bit of leadership skills being thrown into his situation can become the leader as well.
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Kobolds are great!

[Sualtam Lugh]

[sybillious]