Eternal Hero: Difference between revisions

''Part presence, part idea they say''

''As if the very force they describe has existed for eons''

 

 

A character could become an '''Eternal Hero''' for many reasons. Maybe, like the Irish legend ''Osinn in Tír Na nÓg'', the hero ends up in a time loop or Neverneverland that allows him to return to Earth centuries later without having aged. Maybe he's just unkillable. Sometimes, a deity or other force of nature embodies itself as this character whenever the world needs it. For the Norse, [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]] argues that it's Sigurd/Siegfried. For the Celts, it's the many permutations of Fionn and the Fianna and the Red Branch Knights.

 

{{examples}}

* Sometimes a superhero keeps coming back in different guises, even when apparently dead. For example, Hector Hall/Silver Scarab dies and becomes the Sandman, but in ''[[The Sandman]]: The Doll's House'' he is revealed to be a ghost who has been manipulated into taking on a persona that's ersatz version of Dream of the Endless. Dream returns from captivity and sends him on into the afterlife. Later, he returns as Dr Fate.

** ''[[The Sandman]]'' also provides an extreme example, where the death of one of the Endless automatically means the nearest suitable human turns into them.

{{quote|''"Death is as powerful a weapon as it is an easy escape. Heroes can pass in to legend, Legends into myths, Myths fuel new heroes."''}}

 

* The [[Mega Crossover]] fanfic ''[[Undocumented Features]]'' contains a number of examples:

** About half of the [[Loads and Loads of Characters|huge cast]] are Detian, which means that they've taken the Omega-2 retrovirus which gave them [[The Ageless]] with a moderate [[Healing Factor]]. Began as heroes whose deeds included saving the [[Transformers|Autobots]] from destruction and leading a revolution on the planet [[Ninja High School|Zardon]]. They then were scattered by the [[Big Bad]]'s [[Batman Gambit]], and went into exile for 100 years. They came back and reconstituted the Wedge Defense Force in the 2380s, just in time to save the whole of the Perseus Arm of the galaxy from coming under the rule of the [[Bubblegum Crisis|GENOM corporation]].

** [[Revolutionary Girl Utena|Utena Tenjou]] is the Rose Prince of [[Magic Knight Rayearth|Cephiro]], a recurring office given to winners of the Rose Duel tournament. While the Pillar of Cephiro holds the world together and keeps it peaceful by will and prayer alone, the Rose Prince is a roving correction mechanism whose fate is to always be a champion for people in need. She plays a large role in the defeat of the [[Babylon 5|Earth Alliance and Psi Corps]]. I don't think she's actually immortal yet, but given her close relationship with both the [[Norse Mythology|Aesir]] and the aforementioned Detians (and her [[Triang Relations|3-way marriage]] with two immortals), it's bound to happen eventually.

 

== Literature ==

* [[Michael Moorcock]]'s The Eternal Champion series (''[[The Elric Saga]]'', The Books of Corum, Von Bek, Count Brass, et al) is one of the main modern literary examples. It's an epic series covering over 40 books and almost as many individual incarnations of the titular champion and moves between straight [[High Fantasy]] and [[Science Fiction]].

* At the end of Greg Bear's ''City at the End of Time'', it's revealed that {{spoiler|Daniel is actually Sangmer, the legendary missing-presumed-dead hero that the characters in the scenes set several trillion years in the future read stories about. When [[Crapsack World|the entire multiverse started to unravel]] during his lifetime, his demiurge [[Eternal Love]] Mnemnosyne regressed him to childhood and sent him to be a [[King in the Mountain]] in a [[Pocket Dimension]]. Eventually he is released, with his memories of being Sangmer suppressed, as a human fate-shifter (someone who can jump between parallel universe versions of themselves to avoid bad luck). He then starts from the beginning of human history, journeying to the recent past, where he has shifted into the identity of Daniel, who in turn shifts between multiple Daniels until he ends up in a universe where he is a beggar called Charles Granger. It turns out that this is because [[From Bad to Worse|Daniel died as a teenager in this universe]], so he ended up in the nearest equivalant. He then transfers his consciousness into the body of theoretical physicist Fred, his best friend in his home universe and married to the late Daniel's sister in Granger's world. He does all this, as well as being a [[Manipulative Bastard]] and [[The Sociopath]], because his suppressed memories are driving him forward to the point where he can stop the multiverse's destruction and reunite with his love. Because she's a demiurge and he's a far-future descendant of humanity, they don't really care how many human identities he sacrifices to succeed.}}

* All of the protagonists of Kim Stanley Robinson's [[The Years of Rice and Salt]] go through serial reincarnation down through the history of an Alternative Universe Earth from the moment it branches off from real history to the AU's 'present'.

* In [[Guy Gavriel Kay]]'s ''[[The Fionavar Tapestry]]'', Lancelot and Arthur are set up as eternal heroic archetypes who appear in all the worlds of the Weaver's Tapestry, playing out the same roles of the Noble King and the Knight Who Betrays Him in as many guises and names as there are worlds.

* [[Zig Zagged]] in ''Maurauders of [[Gor]]''. Torvald, the legendary founder of Torvaldsland, is said to be sleeping in his tomb and [[King in the Mountain|will awaken when a warrior comes to him in a time of crisis]]. The protagonists find the tomb only to find it empty except for a War Arrow. They realize that [[It Was with You All Along|it was a metaphor, that they themselves need to help themselves]]. But then after the battle Tarl finds himself talking with a man from near the mountain, who volunteers to return the War Arrow back to the tomb, who is named Torvald. It is possible that this man really is the thousand-year-old king, given that on Gor they have "stabilization serums" which is basically a cure for the aging process.

 

* The Doctor in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' is an archetypal example of this trope. It helps that he has a [[Time Travel|time machine]] that can go anywhere in time and space, so he literally can reappear at any time. His [[The Nth Doctor|regeneration]] may make him a slightly different person each time, but he's always a hero.

 

== Music ==

''A dormant seed awaiting nourishment'' }}

 

* Most ancient mythologies have an Eternal Hero. In [[Ancient Grome]], it's those heroes who are semi-divine, like Heracles. For the Norse, Germans and Anglo-Saxons, it's Siegfreid and his [[Expy]] son/alter-ego Sigurd. The Irish have Oisinn, Fionn and Cuchullain. In other words, this trope is very much [[Older Than Feudalism]].

* In ''[[The Hero with a Thousand Faces]]'', Joseph Cambell discussed the use of the archetype of the eternal hero in different ancient mythologies, positing that they might all be facets of a single ur-hero and ur-myth.

* Latter-Day Saints believe that the Archangel Michael, who defeated Satan during the War in Heaven, is the same being as Adam, the first man on Earth after its creation. Adam being his mortal name and Michael being his heavenly name.

 

== Video Games ==

* The Security Officer from ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' is heavily [http://marathon.bungie.org/story/kytterm.html implied] to be one.

 

* Then there are the Heroic Spirits from ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]''. They are heroes (such as Heracles and Cu Chulainn) whose legend transcended time, so they can be summoned to any point in the world timeline.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:This Index Will Live Forever]]