Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-25266931-20161112032800/@comment-25266931-20161114040556

What I look for in a hero is maturity and decisiveness. It's okay to have doubts and times when they need rest from the task at hand. But they should be seldom and brief. An ideal hero would hear that they are the chosen one, and question it but usually say something like "Even if I'm not the chosen one, I'll still try my best to save everyone." And they should do this because it's the right thing to do. Innocent people about to suffer, cue character with compassion trying to help them. Why? Because they give a shit about people other than themselves.

What a hero shouldn't do, IMO, is be immature and try to avoid or tune people out when they try to give them this responsibility. Avoiding the problem won't change the fact that the world is still ending. Someone else trying to do the job likely won't help since they're not the chosen one. And hesitating usually gives the villains more time to creep ever closer to their goal.

I find that you get less hesitation and whining with an older cast. I don't like the elderly characters so much, but a nice middle ground of a character around 25-33 is ideal. Characters in those age ranges tend to be more mature and less fixated on juvenile stuff like relationship drama, and fitting in, and popularity, and those "I don't want to be a freak" moments. That said a forward-thinking writer can write about a kid who was forced to mature as a child. It's not impossible for a kid to be really mature for their age (wise beyond their years). And when this is done, it's pure gold.

FMA's Edward Elric had his share of issue and immaturities, but he was definitely wise beyond his years. And I saw him more as a free-thinking artist. He was never afraid to do different things that people would insult him about or write him off as abnormal over. He also never shyed away from fighting the good fight to save the world. Dante of DMC3 was also never afriaid to rise up against countless demons swarms. He was a young adult in DMC3 (prequel to DMC1) and though he wasn't always mature and could sometimes be careless and sexist, he still showed growth in a way that never once shows him running from his problems or hiding from the truth of what he was or what he had to do.