This is a good time to talk out a habitual weakness I think has harmed fiction and especially the fantasy genre as a whole.
The “hero” who is just kind of along for the ride rather than an active participant in his own story. 1

https://twitter.com/Dragon_Samurai0/status/1649808679779041282

The setup of fantasy-adventures simply lends itself better to inborn specialness and outside forces conspiring to compel the main character along with no agency or real action of their own. 2

It’s that latter part that’s the issue. Nothing wrong with a character suddenly being thrust into adventure. It’s what they do that’s the real problem.
But it’s a heck of a lot harder to have this setup in a western, thriller, etc. 3

No magic to save the day and a lot more justification is needed for why the reluctant hero is reluctantly on an adventure.
‘Guy goes to the dangerous frontier’ or ‘only one man can stop the shadowy terrorists from winning’ doesn’t lend themselves nearly as well to that kind- 4

of passive hero as ‘magic happens to make this guy super special’.
To a large extent, I believe the ‘Hero’s Journey’ template is responsible as well. Some people believe a hero has to be reluctant rather than it being one option. 5

Fantasy also, unfortunately, has seen a shift thanks to some ideologues. @jdcowan has written quite a lot about it so I won’t retread ground he’s covered better, but it is important to note.
wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2022/07/new-re…
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To be clear you can have a main character who isn’t a hero but more an observer (call me Ishmael or Kino from Kino no Tabi). But that’s a very different role from the hero, anti-hero, or other such protag who is supposed to be a main participant in an adventure. 7

Nor does a character have to start or stay strong, weak, or anything else. What they must do though, is act rather than be only be acted upon and throughout rather than at the 11th hour only. Their role as the hero of the story must be justified or they’re just not as fun. 8

Here's a free example.
This character might be an anti-hero, but note that once he comes onto the scene he actively changes the whole game. He’s not a passive observer or pawn. His entrance to the story heralds huge changes for the setting. 9

For characters who are like that in a more ‘magical thrust into adventure’ setup you can look to superhero comics, especially of the older variety.
I’m not a superhero fan personally, but classically a superhero normally got their powers by freak accident-
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For characters who are like that in a more ‘magical thrust into adventure’ setup you can look to superhero comics, especially of the older variety.
Flash got thrust into a position of power. He actively worked to be a real hero from then on. 11

A variation of the problem shows up a lot in Eastern media, especially the isekai subgenre. Where a character is setup to be ‘the ultimate hero’ is given all the power and harem one could dream of… and is still fundamentally a passive loser... 12

Again, the setup lends itself but isn’t the problem. Compare and contrast standard isekai trash protag with John Carter of Mars. Both get superpowers. Ones a hero. Who’d you rather be compared to or become a bit more like? 13

The setup lends itself to the problem, but it fundamentally isn’t the problem. What is a problem is when you have this weird in-between when a non-hero or loser MC is supposed to be a great man of valor because things happen to him rather than him actually doing things. 14

In the west, they're often not even allowed to be theoretically cool until the very end at most.
Compare the charts in this tweet. Which is more believable for a hero? Which is more common in recent media? To ask is to answer. 15

https://twitter.com/Dragon_Samurai0/status/1643692357378887680

We’ve all heard the cliché that a hero is only as good as the villain he fights (would’ve been news to Conan though it has an overstated point) but people miss the reverse is a greater truth. 16

If you don’t have a hero, even your best villain ceases to be entertaining in an adventure story. He will overshadow and often make people wonder ‘why are we rooting against him?’.
You don’t have to search far to find someone claim ‘villains are more interesting’. 17

This isn’t a rule. Though it’s often sadly a pattern. By trying to make heroes more ‘relatable’ they’ve made them uninteresting.
The reason you never see the ‘game’ chart above in such media is because that’s the natural way a heroic character would go from weak to strong. 18

They’d see a problem and work towards a solution, overcoming obstacles along the way as they actively worked towards the good.
To follow that chart a character has to have some level of perseverance and a goal in mind. Someone just reluctantly along for the ride never will.
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TLDR if you’re writing a hero they have to be an active participant in the story from beginning to end. It is *their* story after all.
A hero will be heroic, no matter their circumstances. It might not be obvious in all, but they're never not active in their own tales. 20 fin.

#WritingCommunity #writingtips #writingadvice #writers That's all for that rant. Want an anti-hero with a strong sense of justice whose active throughout? First shot's free.
m.yonderstory.com/titles/70