Herald: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed)-Gandalf came by. Gandalf! If you had heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him, and I have only heard very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared for any sort of remarkable tale. Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion.''~~|''[[The Hobbit]]''}}~~

{{quote|''Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed)-Gandalf came by. Gandalf! If you had heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him, and I have only heard very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared for any sort of remarkable tale. Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion.''

|''[[The Hobbit]]''}}

The Herald is a person, message, or crystalizing incident that sets the Hero on the path of adventure. Heralds bring the [[Call to Adventure]] to the Hero. If a story's setup is similar to this:

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[[The Herald]] may [[Refusal of the Call|have to]] bribe [[Consequence Combo|and]]/or enforce the call.

== Anime and Manga ==

* Luna in ''[[Sailor Moon]]''; she sticks around to play the Mentor later. Fellow mooncat Artemis in ''[[Codename: Sailor V]]'' plays exactly the same role to Minako.

* ''[[Fruits Basket]]'': When they find Tohru living in a tent on a Sohma land, and insist that she come live in their house. Repeated when it appears she will go back to live with her family, and Kyo and Yuki track her down to insist that she return.

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* Most mascots in the ''[[Pretty Cure]]'' series are like this.

== ~~Film~~ ==

== Comic Books ==

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* ''The [[Silver Surfer]]''. He is a Herald to Galactus the [[Planet Eater]].

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** Parodied by ''[[Dexter's Laboratory|Dial M For Monkey]]'' as The Silver Spooner, who was a herald for Barbequor.

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** Also parodied in DC Comics with the Scarlet Skier, Herald to Mr. Nebula, a flamboyant Galactus ersatz out to maliciously redecorate the universe according to his own tastes. When the Skier disobeys him, Nebula punishes him by making him wear increasingly ridiculous costumes.

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== Film ==

* In ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'', the NYPD officer who would become Agent J chases down a perp who moves much too fast to be human. He eventually corners the suspect on a rooftop... and is told "Your world is going to end" before the guy's irises blink and he jumps to his death.

* R2D2 of ''[[Star Wars]]'', when presenting the message "Help me, [[The Obi-Wan|Obi-Wan Kenobi]], you're my only hope."

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== Literature ==

* [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|Ford Prefect]], although he is arguably a subversion in that while he whisks Arthur away, he hasn't got a clue where they're going.

* ''[[Harry Potter]]'': Harry's letters; Hagrid

* The hunters and the butterfly both serve this role in ''[[The Last Unicorn (novel)|The Last Unicorn]]''.

* [[J. R. R. ~~Tolkien|JRR~~ Tolkien]] has Gandalf serve this role in both ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', for Bilbo and Frodo respectively—and then again in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' for Theoden.

* [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] has Gandalf serve this role in both ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', for Bilbo and Frodo respectively—and then again in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' for Theoden.

* In [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]]'s ''[[Narnia|The Horse and His Boy]]'', the function is split in two: first the [[Blue Blood|nobleman]] who tries to buy Shasta, and then [[Talking Animal|Bree]] telling him they can flee to [[Narnia]] together.

* The Death of Rats seems to have appointed himself Susan's personal Herald in the [[Discworld]] series. Either that, or he really, ''really'' likes swiping her chocolates, and uses warning her of her grandfather's difficulties as an excuse to get near enough.

* The Heralds of the Almighty from ''[[The Stormlight Archive]]''.

* In Teresa Frohock's ''[[Miserere: An ~~Autumn Tale|Miserere an~~ Autumn Tale]]'', Matthew Kellogg serves this purpose to Lucian, telling him he can escape and reminding him of his duty.

* In Teresa Frohock's ''[[Miserere: An Autumn Tale]]'', Matthew Kellogg serves this purpose to Lucian, telling him he can escape and reminding him of his duty.

* In ''[[The Hunger Games (novel)|The Hunger Games]]'', Effie Trinket serves as the Herald by picking Prim's name from the reaping ball, causing Katniss to volunteer as tribute on her sister's behalf.

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== ~~Comics~~ ==

⚫

* ''The [[Silver Surfer]]''. He is a Herald to Galactus the [[Planet Eater]].

⚫

** Parodied by ''[[Dexter's Laboratory|Dial M For Monkey]]'' as The Silver Spooner, who was a herald for Barbequor.

⚫

** Also parodied in DC Comics with the Scarlet Skier, Herald to Mr. Nebula, a flamboyant Galactus ersatz out to maliciously redecorate the universe according to his own tastes. When the Skier disobeys him, Nebula punishes him by making him wear increasingly ridiculous costumes.

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': "Into every generation, a Slayer is born." Giles serves as Herald, and later as [[Mentor Archetype|Mentor]].

** She also had a Herald in the movie: Merrick, her first Watcher.

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== Religion ==

* [[The Bible|John the Baptist]] fits the announcement function of the herald: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness 'Prepare ye the way of the Lord!'"

== Video Games ==

* Leopold Goenitz from ''[[Video Game/King Of Fighters|King Of Fighters]] '96'' announced the coming of Orochi.

* Elner of Wisdom in ''[[Galaxy Fraulein Yuna]]'' (specifically in the prologue of the first game). Anyone who missed that only knows Elner in the Mentor role. (Yuri Cube might qualify in her very first scene in the second game.)

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== Web Comics ==

* "The Child" from ''[[Scary Go Round]]'' heralded great change in order to inspire chaos. This worked due to lack of [[Genre Blindness]]: if a small bald child tells you that "Things will change... soon!", people know that panicking is the right thing to do.

* In ''[[Shan Shan|The Adventures of Shan Shan]]'', Shan Shan's life has been plagued by strangeness, but [https://web.archive.org/web/20140128005212/http://shanshan.upperrealms.com/view.php?pageid=026&chapterid=1 Julius gives it an actual focus.]

== Web Original ==

* Dr. Griffin in ''[[Kate Modern]]'', first by the blood test he gives Kate, which leads to a complex series of events, and later by his possession of the list of girls who Kate and her friends need to save.

== Western Animation ==

* Subversion: The minor character Mo-Ron in one episode of ''[[Freakazoid!]]'' has an important message for Earth, but he keeps forgetting what it was, to Freakazoid's mounting frustration.

* Melody, [[Sealed Good in a Can|a muse apprentice trapped in a mirror]], in ''[[Barbie and the Diamond Castle]]''.