What Makes A Perfect Hero?

Short answer: his imperfections.

But which imperfection? Which flaws make us love a hero most? And which redeeming qualities
make our hearts go pitter-pat? 

Is it the dark brooding hero who finally learns to love? Or is it the bad boy with an engaging sense of humor? The aloof arrogant fellow with a secretly sensitive heart? The wounded beast who risks everything for the woman he loves?

Undoubtedly, the answer is different for each of us.

We could talk about hero archetypes. But I prefer not to use archetypes in my writing. There’s nothing wrong with them and in the end I suppose we could squish most characters into one archetype or another. But for me it spoils the fun of developing a character. Just as I don’t categorize my real live friends I don’t want to pigeonhole my characters. I enjoy the surprise of unraveling a character’s psyche as I write the story. So just for today let’s ignore archetypes and talk about what specific characteristics makes us fall in love with a hero.

Let’s analyze a couple of the fictional heroes we love...