Chronic Hero Syndrome: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

While certainly admirable, this can have some negative side-effects on the hero and those around them. Such heroes tend to [[Samaritan Syndrome|wear themselves out]] in their attempts to help ''everyone'', or to become distraught and [[It's All My Fault|blame themselves]] for the ''one'' time that they're unable to save the day. A particularly bad case of this may develop into a full-blown [[Martyr Without a Cause]]. May also be a thin veil over the [[In Harm's Way]] trope.

 

Interestingly enough, as ''[[Don Quixote]]'' lampshades, this syndrome was noticed by [[Chivalric Romance]] writers and they devised a temporary cure: The [[Damsel in Distress]] must simply ask the hero to not to engage in any other adventure until he has [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|finished on hers]]''.

 

 

A related disorder is [[Samaritan Syndrome]], where the hero bemoans that their duties leaves them no free time for their personal affairs.

 

See also [[A Friend in Need]]. Completely different from [[Hero Syndrome]], which is pretty much the [[Evil Counterpart]] of this trope.

 

* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]''

** Ash Ketchum. ''Every'' [[Character of the Day]] with a problem that he encounters gets his help.

** ''[[SD Gundam Force]]'' has Captain Gundam.

* Every ''[[Super Robot]]'' series protagonist ever.

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]''. Every episode, Spike and crew wander into some situation that really isn't their problem and has nothing to do with the main story, and yet they feel compelled to help. It's justified for Jet, what with him being a retired cop, but there's no excuse for Spike. They even get {{spoiler|three new crew members}} this way.

* ''[[Trigun]]'''s resident pacifist Vash the Stampede. To the point that when someone kills a spider to let the butterfly it was going to eat go free, he flips out at them: "I wanted to save them both!" Played for '''''VERY''''' dark laughs in later episodes as this former [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]] with [[Improbable Aiming Skills]] gradually becomes incapable of saving anyone.

* Ichigo Kurosaki in ''[[Bleach]]'', especially in the early arcs. He insists that he will only kill hollows that threaten his family, but still manages to get involved in many, many problems. Whoops.

** Actually, it crops up in just about every arc.

* Deconstructed in ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'', where {{spoiler|Dios}} feels compelled to save ''everybody''. This is taken to such an extreme extent that he utterly ruins his relationship with his younger sister by constantly neglecting her in favor of everyone who "needs him", and physically exhausting himself almost to the point of death.

* Suzaku in ''[[Code Geass]]'' has this, due to his status as [[The Atoner]]. Lelouch also has elements of this where his friends (and ''especially'' [[Big Brother Instinct|his]] [[Knight Templar Big Brother|sister]]) are concerned. Euphemia could be considered an example of this trope as well.

* ''[[Inuyasha|Inu Yasha]]'': Kagome has it bad, except instead of a compulsion to help people in danger, she has a compulsion to persuade [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|Inu-Yasha]] to help people in danger. It always works.

* ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'': It has been shown in at least one chapter that he has a compulsion to do ''anything'' for ''anyone'' who needs help. 1,000,000 yen for an apartment for two days? After paying off ''other people's'' loan sharks, broken vases (by a child who shouldn't have been carrying something like that anyways) and literally helping every single person he comes across with the money, he's stuck with nothing and considers sleeping on a bench. Hayate IS this trope.

** Ranma has this as well, even going so far as to help his enemies like Happōsai or Herb. He also has difficulty turning down requests from crying women. His many fiancées figure this out to manipulate him.

* ''[[Digimon Xros Wars]]'' has Taiki Kudou, who tends to overexert himself while helping out random clubs. When the story starts, this compulsion has reached a point where his friend Akari follows him around with a bag full of energy drinks and [[Crazy Prepared|a cushion for him to land on when he faints from exhaustion]]. Later on it's revealed that this compulsion stems from an incident in his childhood where {{spoiler|he offered help to a boy who was sitting on the side of the street and cradling his head, but was rebuffed. After Taiki took that at face value, it turned out that the boy had been injured in a football game and had to be hospitalised for half a year.}} His catchphrase, "I just can't turn my back on him/her!" (or ''Hottokenai!'') is based from this personality, and that even other people and Digimon (Wisemon and {{spoiler|Nene}}) soon caught it.

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'': Usagi Tsukino, the title character. In fact all the Sailor Senshi. After the Dark Kingdom arc when everyone but Usagi has been returned to their normal lives, all of them happen to be at the same location when a monster appears. Even though they don't have their powers, even though they don't even ''remember'' being Sailor Senshi, they all leap into the battle.

* ''[[Bakemonogatari]]'': Araragi Koyomi will do what ever it takes to help anyone, whether it be the aloof [[Sugar and Ice Personality]] he just met, the demon-possessed Yuri {{spoiler|who also wants to kill him}} who has been stalking him or even the Vampire {{spoiler|who also tried to kill him and currently lives off his blood}}.

* Kotetsu T. Kaburagi/Wild Tiger from ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'' takes his job as a superhero more seriously than any sane man ought to. Not only does he do borderline suicidal things to protect or save others (running into a burning building to save a single man while unpowered and unarmored, insisting on joining the [[Fan Nickname|Girls' Team]] in taking back Sternbild while still internally bleeding, {{spoiler|[[Taking the Bullet]] for Barnaby}} etc.), but he preoccupied with it enough that his boss has to ''order'' him to use his vacation days so as not to violate the city's labor laws.

* ''[[Naruto]]'': Naruto Uzumaki. If there's a cause, Naruto will fight for it. The guy refuses to give up his quest to save Sasuke, despite Sasuke stating he wants to ''kill'' him, was willing to forgive the man who killed the closest person he had to a father figure, {{spoiler|and -- fortunately for the Shinobi Alliance, as it turns out -- refuses to stay out of the war, despite being placed in hiding, because he can't bear the thought of his friends dying to protect him while he's hidden away in a safe place. Once on the battlefield, he sends clones to help ''every division'', despite the risks it presents to his health, and has basically taken it upon himself to win the Fourth Ninja War. Itachi actually calls him on this.}}

* Quon of ''[[Towa no Quon]]''. He has to save every single Attractor that he can, and is distraught whenever he fails to do so.

* Yugo Hachiken of ''[[Silver Spoon]]''. To the point he become "The guy who won't refuse you."

 

== Comic Books ==

* [[Empowered]], despite the fact that nearly everyone treats her like a joke. Any time she finds out about a problem, she ''will'' get involved, without fail, even if she ''knows'' she's in over her head.

* [[Batman]] shows this too. Sometimes he may be an overly pragmatic jerkass or just accept that lives will be lost, other times he will NOT give up on saving everyone and everything, even at the cost of his own life. In ''[[Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?]]'', two stories like this are told. In one, he passes a baby to Harvey Bullock and then is swept away by flood waters and drowns, and in another he throws a bomb and himself into Gotham River to explode so no one else is hurt.

* Patoruzu and Patoruzito are the most blatant Argentinian examples of this trope. The tagline of his comic book goes: "Courageous to the point of fearlessness. Altruist to the point of sacrifice. Brave to the point of heroism. But modest to the point of sainthood, and hilarious to the point of comedy."

 

== Fan Works ==

** In fact it is ''because'' of this that things aren't as bad as they could be - Ichigo's helping hand has gathered an eclectic bunch of unlikely allies all who will follow him, [[True Companions|no]] [[Ship Tease|matter]] [[Ho Yay|what]].

 

* Mr. Incredible from ''[[The Incredibles]]''. The fact that he's [[Super Registration Act|forbidden by law]] from engaging in vigilante heroism is a major source of stress for him. His desire to go help a mugging victim eventually leads to a disastrous confrontation with his boss at Insuricare. In the DVD special features, the National Super Agency's file on Mr. Incredible lists this as one of his weaknesses. In the opening scene, as he rushes to his own wedding he has to stop to help in a police chase, then while on his way to do that he stops to help a woman get her cat out of a tree. Fortunately, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|said tree also came in VERY handy in stopping the car the criminals involved in said police chase were driving!]]

* ''Mr. Nice Guy'': The title chracter had absolutely nothing to do with the main plot until it stumbled across him.

* George Bailey in ''[[It's a Wonderful Life|Its a Wonderful Life]]'' systematically sacrificed every dream he had to help the people of Bedford Falls, and it ended up being all for naught when his uncle misplaced the money needed to keep George's business afloat. {{spoiler|And if you think that's the end of the story you need to watch more movies.}}

* ''[[The Fugitive (film)|The Fugitive]]'': Richard Kimble gives himself away by ensuring a misdiagnosed boy gets the proper treatment when posing as a janitor at a hospital. He's not caught, although the sighting does tip off the US Marshals who are following him... and hints to them that he's a nice guy really.

{{quote|'''Thug''': What the fuck is wrong with you, man? You'd rather die for some piece of shit that you don't even fucking know?

'''Kick-Ass''': Three assholes laying into one guy while everyone else watches, and you wanna know what's wrong with '''me'''?! Yeah, I'd rather die! [[Bring It|NOW BRING IT ON!]] }}

* This is the fatal flaw of Daniel Rigg, the protagonist of ''[[Saw|Saw IV]]''. In fact, his tests are designed explicitly to try and cure this. The first of them tells him to walk away from a woman in a trap, only for his attempting to save her anyway to, first, ''start the trap'', then upon freeing her, she attempts to kill him because ''her'' instructions were that the police officer who tried to save her would put her in prison for the rest of her life. His ultimate test goes so far as to ''invert'' [[Just in Time]], {{spoiler|in that busting in at the last second [[Big Damn Heroes]] style was the absolute worst thing he could've done.}}

* [[Die Hard|John McClane]]'s tendency to be the [[Right Man in the Wrong Place]] leads to this - and this hurts, hurts, [[Made of Iron|hurts]]. He even discusses this on the fourth movie.

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'': Harry.

** Lampshaded in the fifth book when Hermione points out that he has a "'saving people' thing" and that he could be walking into a trap. He's furious about that comment, pointing out that they didn't see an issue with that when he saved their lives before. Partially deconstructed when his hurry to save {{spoiler|Sirius}} leads to the death he was trying to prevent.

{{quote|''"Neither of you understands Potter as I do. He does not need finding. Potter will come to me. I know his weakness, you see, his one great flaw. He will hate watching the others struck down around him, knowing that it is for him that it happens. He will want to stop it any cost. He will come."''}}

** In ''Grave Peril'', Harry attends a Villain Party and is given a very interesting party favor, a gravestone and perpetually open plot. The inscription on the stone reads [[Lampshade Hanging|"He died doing the right thing."]] {{spoiler|A few minutes later, he is given the choice between walking away and risking his life to save one innocent, which will ''also'' destabilize the vampire/wizard truce. The gravestone wasn't an insult, it was a ''hint''.}}

** In ''Turn Coat'', {{spoiler|Lara}} can tell he is sheltering {{spoiler|Morgan}} because that's what Harry ''does'': people in trouble come to him, and he helps them.

** In the short story ''Warriors'' he attempts to bill an Archangel, since if he's working for good, like any other client they should be billed. He threatens to not come next time he hears the call. The Archangel laughs since he knows Harry can't. Harry takes a drink since he knows he can't either...

* ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]''

** Healers too, substituting [[Healing Hands]] for [[Psychic Powers]]. This version's only a real problem if a Healer comes across a plague or such beyond her resources, and attempts to fight it anyway rather than leave to get help.

* From ''Predator things of the Century'' by Strugatski Brothers: "I'll get crazy for this. So many people -- and I'm alone. I'm exactly like you, people -- except I want to help You, and You don't help me..."

* Deconstructed in ''[[Discworld]]''.

* In the ''[[Geronimo Stilton]]'' book, "The Mouse City Marathon," Geronimo is continually waylaid from running in the eponymous marathon because he keeps stopping to help people: getting a lost mousling back to his mom, stopping a purse-snatcher, even jumping off a bridge to rescue a fellow runner who fainted. Yet he still manages to come in first!

* Keladry of Mindelan in [[Tamora Pierce]]'s [[Tortall Universe|Protector of the Small]] quartet... she can't help but do exactly what the series name suggests, completely unable to turn down a cry for help from anyone smaller or weaker than herself (protecting animals as often as human beings) much to the exasperation of her friends and colleagues who feel obligated to help.

* ''[[Wandering Djinn]]'': The main character of the anthology seems unable to not try and save people.

* In the ''[[Parrish Plessis]]'' series, the titular character has a bad case of this. Unfortunately, as a [[Doom Magnet]] living in a [[Crapsack World]], her efforts to help backfire more often than not.

* ''The Knight in Rusty Armor'' at first is this, particularly about saving princesses and going to crusades (he does go to knight tournaments with as much enthusiasm, however). {{spoiler|Rather than heroism, he does this to prove his courage and goodness to others}}.

* Since we've mentioned Merlin from ''Safehold'' and Honor Harrington from her own books, we might as well finish out the Weber trilogy with Bahzell of ''[[The War Gods]]''. Everyone who meets the hradani pretty much instantly recognizes it. The entire series starts off when he can't ignore a servant being raped, even though he knows his intervention could mean war and tries to argue himself into why he should just walk away.

* Bertie of ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' suffers badly from this. He'd do ''anything'' to help ''anyone,'' friend or enemy, [[Honor Before Reason|no matter how little sense it makes]] or [[Taking Advantage of Generosity|how much others may take advantage of it]]. As a random example, in ''Thank You, Jeeves'' he decides to help his friend Chuffy, who likes a girl but won't make the first move, by kissing the girl in front of him to instigate [[Operation: Jealousy]]. He fully expects to be beaten senseless by Chuffy for doing so, but this doesn't matter to him as long as his friend ends up happy.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** The Doctor, the Doctor, dear GOD the Doctor. And boy does he suffer for it. Again and again and again, in every single [[The Nth Doctor|reincarnation]].

** The [[Cool Spaceship|TARDIS]] itself could also qualify, since it's an intelligent machine that always seems to plunk the Doctor down exactly when and where he's needed most, whether he wants to be there or not.

** When The Doctor {{spoiler|thinks he's destined to die soon}} he decides to give up his [[Chaotic Good]] heroism, and become [[Chaotic Neutral]], {{spoiler|devoting his last remaining days to himself}}, but he's really bad at it. When he realises people need help, he walks towards the TARDIS, repeatedly reminidng himself it's not his problem, as soon as he reaches the door, he turns around and heads off to save the world. Realising that being a hero is {{spoiler|what really made his life worthwhile}}.

* ''[[Scrubs]]'': Dr. Percival Ullyses Cox. Examples [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIXBYZzBgus here], and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkd047HjRMM&feature=related here]. In case the [[Steven Ulysses Perhero|name]] didn't tip you off. At one point he tells J.D. that this is a slippery slope, because you start blaming yourself for deaths that aren't your fault. {{spoiler|Later in the same episode, he succumbs to that very fate.}}

* ''[[Dollhouse]]''

** Echo. Her desire to save the world, fight injustice and/or rescue the innocent is so deeply ingrained it survives repeated applications of [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]].

** Also, Agent Paul Ballard, combined with [[The Dulcinea Effect]]. Perhaps why they make such a good couple.

** Malcolm Reynolds will steadfastly deny this to his grave, but deep down he suffers from a near-terminal example of this disease, to the point that it ended up with him on the opposite side of a psychotic crime lord and the Alliance's Operative.

* ''[[Angel]]'''s title character.

* Gary in ''[[Early Edition]]'', who has made it his mission to prevent ''every'' tragedy spelled out in the magic newspaper. He spends his time charting his day's activities for maximum efficiency, so that he can squeeze a coffee break between missions.

* Despite being a [[Cute Ghost Girl]] [[The Ditz|occasional ditz]], Annie from ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'' winds up saving people a number of times. She saves the humans that the vampires were using as a food supply, and {{spoiler|saves Mitchell and George from their assailant at the end of the second season. She doesn't even care that whoever is in charge of the afterlife is angry at her for doing so, she wants to make sure her friends are safe}}. A slightly less impressive (but still valid) moment would be when she and [[Non-Action Guy|George]] go to save Mitchell from the vampires, using a lot of screaming and flailing to take down one vampire.

* All [[Power Rangers]] get this the first time they morph and don't lose it until at least they stop being rangers, and perhaps longer. There's an [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|awesome]] scene at the end of ''[[Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue]],'' where the villains are beaten once and for all and the team is preparing to go their separate ways... when a fire truck goes by. Our heroes look at each other, grin, and run after it, not even stopping to reclaim their morphers (their chief is behind them yelling "Hey, you forgot these!").

** In ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]],'' several of the former Rangers aren't letting their lack of powers stop them from doing what they can. One doesn't even let ''being dead'' stop him.

* ''[[Primeval]]'''s Nick Cutter {{spoiler|runs into a burning building to rescue his wife Helen. Not so unusual, but the building is on fire because she blew it up in an attempt to kill him and everyone else. He saves her after all that, and then she kills him.}}

* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'''s Sam Winchester has this whenever he's [[Despair Event Horizon|not]] [[Psycho Serum|otherwise]] [[I Let Gwen Stacy Die|occupied]].

* ''[[Sliders]]'': Most plots in the first few seasons are driven by Quinn Mallory needlessly rushing to the aid of anyone in earshot, only to embroil himself and his friends into the troubles of whatever alternate reality they're in.

 

== Music ==

* "The Weight", by The Band, notably covered by many including Joan Osborne, is about this trope.

 

 

* Every single knight in [[King Arthur|the Arthurian myths]] seem to suffer this. "Questing" was all about going out and looking for trouble.

** For example, at one point the knight Yvain has to be at a very specific location tomorrow in order to rescue a damsel, Lunete, from being burned at the stake. With plenty of time, he stays at a castle the night before, only to discover that the castle is being held to ransom by a giant; if no one can slay the giant, the next morning he will kill all the lord's remaining sons and have his minions rape the lord's daughter in front of everyone. Yvain ''tries'' to say "look, I do have this prior appointment and an innocent will die if I don't get there, so I'm afraid this isn't actually my problem"... but he turns back out of guilt, kills the giant, doesn't stay for congratulations, and runs off just in time to save Lunete... effectively pulling off ''two'' last minute [[Big Damn Heroes]] moments in a row.

* In some versions of their myths, some Greek heroes are like this. It varies, though. Perseus comes out all right, and most of Heracles's moments of [[What the Hell, Hero?|jerkiness]] are Hera [[Mind Screw|invoked]], but Theseus [[Victim Falls For Rapist|has a way with the daughters]] of the bandits he kills on the way to Athens, at one point [[Kidnapping Is Love|kidnaps Helen when she was a young teen]], tries to help a friend [[Too Dumb to Live|kidnap Persephone]] and also abandons or banishes a large number of other women. Odysseus is a little bit better, given that he is kept by women rather than forcing himself on them, but he is still a pirate (granted, that was normal for the time).

 

* [[John Cena]], in spades. Whether it's saving a Diva in distress, turning the tide of a three-or-four-or-10-against-one battle, or chasing bad guys off, John is your man. Probably the only reason he doesn't show up in every single segment to battle the villains and right the wrongs is that he gets too distracted chasing whatever bad guy caught his eye first.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* One of the pitfalls of a high Compassion virtue in ''[[Exalted]]''. Indeed, the rulebook's example of a circumstance that requires you to make a Virtue roll is a high-Compassion character falling victim to a mixture of this and [[Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help]]. Even worse, failing to satisfy this urge may drive up the character's Limit and trigger the [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|Great Curse]].

* The Charity Virtue in the ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' encourages you to act like this in exchange for Willpower. The sample blurb for the virtue discusses a woman who's investigating a ritualistic [[Serial Killer]]... and who stops to pick up a hitchhiker with a broken arm (in real life, a favorite trick of Ted Bundy), even though she ''knows'' it could be a trap, because she fears he could end up a victim.

 

== Video Games ==

* Some of the more [[Wide Open Sandbox|Open-worldy]] sort of games allow the player to choose for themselves, either helping out every poor bastard who's dropped a ring in a sewer grate, ignoring everyone so you can get on with your business, or killing the asker for daring to ask for your aid. Realistically, this third option tends to cause problems, but if you can kill the people who have a problem with it too, the problem eventually evaporates. Possibly along with every living being.

* ''[[Final Fantasy]]''

** Yuna of ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'', as [[Lampshaded]] by Shinra after Yuna gets the Gullwings involved in yet another third party's request for help: "Hero. Summoner. Doormat." In fact, the other characters just love to lampshade this about Yuna, so much so that it pretty much becomes a [[Running Gag]].

{{quote|'''Lightning:''' But going out of his way to help someone? That's Snow all over.}}

** Ramza from ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' is a [[Reconstruction]]. He's determined to help the common people, even as said people believe the propaganda that Ramza's a heretic and traitor. By contrast, his friend Delita is an [[Anti-Hero]] / [[Anti-Villain]] who [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|backstabs his way to the top.]] {{spoiler|Delita ends up king, Ramza ends up blown up and his companion gets executed for trying to tell the people Ramza saved the world. But the epilogue indicates that Ramza survived, shows Delita getting a severe [[Was It Really Worth It?]] moment, and the true story gets out four hundred years later.}}

** Open Hand Spirit Monk in ''[[Jade Empire]]'' meddles in people's lives for the better, most of the time. Closed Fist Spirit Monk is much less helpful.

** The Grey Warden in ''[[Dragon Age]]'' can fulfill this trope to such a degree that [[Black Magician Girl|Morrigan]] will complain about it.

* Samus Aran from ''[[Metroid]]'', particularly in the Prime series. Outside of the Prime series, though, she's usually working for the government, which probably helps how she never has time to bounty-hunt.

* Fox from ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star FOX]]'', [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|a mercenary group that doesn't seem terribly interested in money]]. Only two games mention anything about payment, and the later starts out with the Great Fox in such a state of disrepair that it seems the team has just been waiting for another opportunity to play heroes, with the exception of Falco, who left the team.

* Marona from ''[[Phantom Brave]]''. Oh so very much.

* Yuri Lowell from ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'' is an odd version of this trope. It's both shown many times and stated many times that Yuri ''cannot'' ignore a innocent person in need. Of course, it's also been both stated and shown that [[Vigilante Man|he takes it]] [[What the Hell, Hero?|a little too far]]. Not that those on the receiving end of Yuri's Justice didn't deserve it [[Moral Event Horizon|after what]] [[Complete Monster|they did]]...

* Anyone in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' with the Loremaster achievement. Requiring 2,843 quests to be completed ("only" 2,705 for Horde players), you're not only helping anyone who needs help with anything, you're hunting down every last person who might need so little as a mug of ale from a nearby brewery.

* ''[[Guilty Gear]]'': Ky Kiske. One of the reasons why the Post-War Administrative Bureau find him so easily manipulative is his overwhelming sense of justice that he feels the need to save everyone he can. Still, he's a very nice guy to have along as a friend. Just gullible. [[It Got Worse]] in the Drama CD as this one trait... got him killed.

* ''[[Golden Sun]]'': Both sets of protagonists have this in spades. In fact, the games [[But Thou Must!|pretty much require it]] in several places. And in ''Dark Dawn'', it gets lampshaded:

{{quote|"How did we arrive in this situation, exactly?"

"Because Matthew can be talked into anything, that's how." }}

* ''[[Fire Emblem Jugdral]]''

** Sety. In his own words, he simply cannot turn away when he sees someone in trouble, and boy does he get in problems due to it. And for better/worse, when Celice helps him whack the [[Distress Ball]] away in Chapter 8, he beats himself up due to not being able to rescue all the kids caught in {{spoiler|the child hunts.}} "I'm no hero, sir. I'm a coward, if anything".

** Hawk, being Sety's expy/replacement if Fury has no kids, suffers of ''exactly'' the same [[Fatal Flaw]].

* ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'''s John Marston can be this if going for high honour. The game even keeps track of how many people you help. Everything from rescuing women and stopping thieves to stopping a carriage robbery in between trying to capture his former outlaw brethren. In fact, a late-game mission plays with this; {{spoiler|during the Beecher's Hope ranching section of the game, while John is busy tending his new herd of cattle, a train races by under attack by outlaws, and John must choose whether or not to stay with the herd or intervene.}}

* ''[[Doom (series)|Doom]]''

** Although [[Word of God]] asserts that he's an [[Featureless Protagonist|AFGNCAAP]], the Marine has Chronic Hero Syndrome in both ''Doom II'' and ''The Plutonia Experiment''. In the former, he volunteers to lead the strike force ([[One-Man Army|consisting of only himself]]) to recapture Earth's spaceport and evacuate the planet's remaining citizens, ''and then'' he voluntarily dives '''back into Hell''' to reverse the invasion. In the latter, he cancels his hard-earned vacation just so he can be the point man to retake another captured spaceport.

** Inverted in ''TNT: Evilution'', where in the second secret level he returns to Earth in the middle of his [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] for a vacation, thinking [[Someone Elses Problem|"Maybe someone else can kick Hell's ass next time around."]] Unfortunately for him, [[The Call Knows Where You Live|Hell had already sent some demons to the same tourist trap]].

* ''Star Ocean: The Last Hope'' has Edge Maverick. Though his job is to find a new habitable planet suitable for humans, he quite quickly ends up trying to save a village of people he doesn't know, destroy a certain race to prevent them invading planets and then accidentally destroys a planet in a different dimension when he was only trying to help it, leading him to mentally break down and blame the entire thing on himself despite everything his friends try to say to him.

 

* The heroes in the [[Nasuverse]] tend to have this very, very badly.

** ''[[Tsukihime]]'': Shiki spends much of "Far Side" investigating the disappearance of Satsuki, who he barely knew.

*** And Mikiya in ''[[Kara no Kyoukai:]]'', who is in some ways a prototype version of Tohno Shiki.

** ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]'': One Shiro Emiya is like this, thanks to his lack of a sense of self. The sheer ridiculous degree of his selflessness actually forms a large plot basis across the three routes. People actually call him on it, too.

 

== Web Comics ==

* Antimony from ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' is constantly going out of her way to help unusual creatures and/or her classmates, from [[Establishing Character Moment|her first week in the Court]] onward. A later [[Flash Back]] reveals that she's been doing this sort of thing since she was six years old.

* ''[[Ronin Galaxy]]'': Cecil absolutely MUST save the day when there is a girl involved.

* ''[[Supermegatopia]]'''s ''Weasel Boy'' series theorizes that heroism is "an instinct that makes people do good things before they can even begin to think about the consequences." Weasel Boy himself suffers from this in spades, even getting himself killed because he tries rescuing a little girl from a burning building just after being hit with a fast-acting poison.

* Mr. Mighty from ''[[Everyday Heroes]]''. On the first day with his new team, he helped a little old lady fix a flat tire, retrieved a truckload of chickens that were blocking traffic, saved a [[Bus Full of Innocents|bus load of orphans]] from a speeding freight train, and foiled a bank robbery... all before he even got to the office. His biggest worry was being an hour late to work.

* The title character of ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' can be counted on to do his even best to help anyone he encounters who's in serious trouble, whether that means facing off against a [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20060617.html giant space monster] or [[Save the Villain|rescuing]] a [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]] [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20080902.html from herself.] (Other incidents like stopping the [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20090609.html bigfoot war] don't quite count, since the threats endangered him, too.) His one attempt at being a [[Knight Errant]] when he got super powers [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20070303.html went badly.]

* ''[[Keychain of Creation]]'', an ''[[Exalted]]'' webcomic, features in the character of Misho a person who perfectly embodies the benefits and drawbacks of a high Compassion Virtue. He cannot pass a scene of suffering and not offer to help, and while he's got more than enough power to do the job, it comes at the cost of possibly revealing himself as a Solar, which causes problems for the group thanks to the Wyld Hunt. The [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|other problem]] with it is aptly demonstrated in [http://keychain.patternspider.net/archive/koc0219.html these] [http://keychain.patternspider.net/archive/koc0220.html strips].

* ''[[Freefall]]'': Florence Ambrose has a case of this; it almost got her killed at one point, in a [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]] incident at that. Of course, her grand objective is to prove that her species is too valuable to be allowed to go extinct, so it's probably a good thing, assuming she survives future heroism and doesn't get on the wrong side of the company that created her. (The company, Ecosystems Unlimited, is a [[Mega Corp]] which would reach positively [[Final Fantasy VII|Shinra]] levels of villainousness if they could only find their rear with both hands, so this may be harder than it looks.)

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'': Lewis Lovhaug is seen to have this. Mostly because he is willing to defend ''anyone'' (examples include [[Marz Gurl]], [[Bad Movie Beatdown|Film Brain]] and [[Iron Liz]]) leading to many heartwarming moments. It's kind of gotten to the point where someone being flamed/trolled and Linkara ''not'' showing up is odd!

* Phase of the [[Whateley Universe]]. He was brought up in a filthy rich family where the motto is 'Goodkinds don't complain, they fix things'. And even though he has been kicked out of the family for turning into a mutant, he still tries to fix things for everyone around him. Even if some of them tell him to stop it.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* [[Kim Possible]] practically defines this trope. She put up a website to bring in odd jobs like babysitting and got into fighting [[Super Villain|supervillains]] too. When asked why she doesn't turn down more requests, she replied "I'm not programmed that way."

* ''[[South Park]]'': Kyle Broflovski, but only when he's the protagonist to [[Arch Enemy|Cartman]]'s antagonist (which happens quite a lot sometime after season five).

** Jack's Chronic Hero Syndrome is so pronounced that it frequently hampers his ultimate objective, to go back in time and [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong|prevent Aku's Dystopian future for ever occurring.]] The irony being that if Jack ever succeeded in his goal, the people he gives up his many opportunies to go into the past to help would in all likelyhood never exist anymore.

* Optimus Prime from ''[[Transformers]]'' is often portrayed in this light. Hot Rod seemed to have a case of this in the first animated feature film. He keeps trying to be a hero even ''after'' [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|he gets an important Autobot killed in the process]]. Many fans agree that this is the source of most of his problems during his stint as [[Big Good|Prime]].

* Yugo of ''[[Wakfu]]'' can't bat an eye at a person in need without throwing his life on the line to help them. It's eventually lampshaded, mocked, and then outright ''discouraged'' by his companions, since he inevitably winds up making their quests over twice as long as they need to be, but he's too nice of a kid to back down.

* While [[Ben 10|Ben Tennyson]] has been portrayed with different attitudes in his various series, this remains his most definite trait: Ben has a strong desire to help everyone in need, to the point it was the very first thing he thought about when getting the Omnitrix.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Index Syndrome]]

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]

[[Category:Motivation Index]]