One of my favorite tropes (at least I think it's a trope. Not sure how common it is) is the “unknown hero”.
It's when a character who's known to us, the audience, maybe very well, and is at least somewhat important to us.
The character dies and we see a newscast or interview with police or whatever that calls the character “an unidentified individual”.
Again, I'm not sure how common it is - the big example that comes to mind happened in the show SUPERNATURAL -
—————-spoilers for early seasons of Supernatural—————————-
The father of the main characters doesn't appear in the show very often, but looms large in the series, as
an important figure in the brothers' lives.
When he dies early in season 2, the news reports the body as “an unidentified man”. Perhaps he's identified later; I don't remember.
What I DO remember is the powerful impact it had on me. I guess it's because he was my favorite character, and was important to the world in ways very few ever knew about. The fact that the general public and the establishment institutions had no idea who he was added to that importance for me. The private funeral the brothers had for him was very powerful as a result.
—————————–End Spoilers!———————————————-
A heroic character need not be famous, or recognized for what they do. I think the elements of 1. A liked character, 2. Being heroic and sacrificing themselves, and 3. Not being recognized my most is an effective combination for me.
I'm blanking on other examples of this. Spmething that's similar but different is in Terminator 2, when the police show Sarah Connor pictures of the Terminator during the police-station attack from the first movie.
This is NOT a heroic example, and the character IS consequential, but the fact that there's cctv footage of this robot from the first movie, and that nobody has any idea who it is – i don't know, it hits a cool tone with me. Gives it a certain realism plus raising the stakes.
Anyway, I'm not sure if it's just me but this is really cool and something I'd like to work into a story sometime when it fits!
See you next time!
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No One of Consequence
Banes at 12:00AM, July 13, 2023
6 likes!
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bravo1102 at 5:07AM, July 14, 2023
There's an old DC war story I want to do a tribute too called "real heroes" or something similar. It's about a big comic book geek showing as a replacement in an infantry unit. The dogfaces tease him and he comes right back about how they don't measure up to what he's reading about superheroes. Superman is a hero not a bunch of dirty dogfaces. Then they have to take that hill. The geek inevitably gets hit and those unlikely types rescue him and take the hill. The totally unlikely and unknown heroes because you know in all the fighting they forgot who patched him up and rescued him. They don't want recognition just to live to see the end of the war. The geek tosses away his comics because he's surrounded by the real heroes. It was inspired by the recollections and award recommendations for the soldiers involved.
hushicho at 3:07PM, July 13, 2023
The unknown hero who comes and goes is a trope known the world over, from samurai film to westerns to Bollywood productions. They certainly don't have to be killed off during the story, though it does often feel belittling to even involve a completely tertiary perspective, if not handled well. In the case of Supernatural though, despite being pretty horrible, John I guess handled his affairs well enough that his family at least didn't constantly have to clean up after him. But he certainly didn't do anything to warrant him being regarded as a hero by anyone who didn't know him, and most people who did probably also wouldn't regard him that way, if they still liked him at all.
Jason Moon at 8:34AM, July 13, 2023
I'm someone of consequence. Your consequences! ;)
bravo1102 at 6:39AM, July 13, 2023
This trope shows up in war stories when someone extolls the great heroism of someone and they just shake their heads and say something like "I'm just a regular Joe doing my job. "
PaulEberhardt at 4:23AM, July 13, 2023
I think it is a trope, and a very cool one. If a hero just plainly said, "I don't do this for money or fame, but because it's right." he/she could still mentally add "but I'd like some anyway - here's my hat to pass around, and woe betide you if it's only coins..." And it could be taken that way, too. Same with "I don't want to suggest I'm cooler than you." ("But I won't mind if you do.") - Granted, in some cases "I'm no one of consequence." is so exaggerated humilty, that it could come across like that as well ("but worship me anyway if you like, as long as you don't forget to buy my merch"), but generally it sounds much more sincere, like an actual attempt at keeping his/her person completely out of it. If this hero is a good team player in other scenes, it probably is.
bravo1102 at 12:36AM, July 13, 2023
And it's nearly always "but he's supposed to be dead!" It was an unidentified corpse everyone assumed was him...
bravo1102 at 12:34AM, July 13, 2023
"No one of consequence " is my tag line. Lone Ranger was a big one for thus because it always ended with "who was that masked man?" The original Fugitive series did it a few times where he'd help someone and its an "unidentified man" and then he gets identified as the fugitive. The original Incredible Hulk series used that too. Just an inconsequential nobody but there's this big secret about them that could be revealed any second and then the fireworks begin.