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Contrast [[The Chosen One]], who is committed to single-handedly [[Saving the World]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* Even the [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Evangelions]] are tiny compared to the scale of Aeon War in ''[[Aeon Natum Engel]]''. Most evident in Operation CATO where after the initial beachhead assault they get a little [[Out of Focus]].
** Ditto in its rewrite ''[[Aeon Entelechy Evangelion]]'', where the Evangelions are strategically impractical, even if they can slaughter almost any enemy they encounter. When the 5th Harbinger Mot, the reskinned Ramiel, shows up, it does gets lots of attention from the High Command, but mostly as a result of it nearly destroying the status quo on the eastern front.
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* This is a theme of much of [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s work. Part of the subtext of all his Middle-earth stories are that what looks important to mortals is not necessarily what is actually important, and the world is so big and complicated and subtle that really, only God knows (literally!) what is and is not important, and how much so.
** Bilbo is the main character of ''[[The Hobbit]]'' but actually spends the entire climactic final battle unconscious, having been accidentally hit in the head with a rock. On a larger scope, while it looks like the most important thing to come out of the war is the reestablishment of Erebor and Dale, the really important thing is eliminating Smaug as a potential ally to Sauron. And of course, Bilbo's discovery of the One Ring and pity on Gollum are both more important than even that.
** Frodo from ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' is the primary main character, but he does none of the fighting, and does not get involved in the war directly at all. What he gets is the equivalent of a behind the lines assassination attempt. Even he only manages to succeed because his gardener tagged along.
** Even in the First Age, the story ''looks'' at first glance like a war story in which the angry Noldorin Elves march to war against the Dark Power, there are armies and sorceries and great cities and fortresses...but in the end, what really mattered in the Elven war against Morgoth was to bring Men into indirect contact with the influence of the Valar for good and wisdom, and to bring Beren into contact with Luthien, and Tuur with Idril, bringing a strain of each race's inheritance into the other race.
* In the ''[[Grey Griffins]]'' books, the main characters are four kids who mostly snoop around and attempt to solve mysteries and figure things out. Other than a few times they save themselves with their own wits, it's usually adults who save them from danger. When the kids stay in a castle that comes under siege in the second book, adults do all of the fighting, while the kids simply run and try to stay alive.
* [[Tad Williams]] enjoys this trope, a good part of the cast of the ''[[Otherland]]'' novels are little heroes in a big... conspiracy and the main character of ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn]]'' keeps repeating how he is just a little scullion until cast and readers alike want him to shut up about it.
* The ''[[Dragaera|Taltos]]'' novels also have a definite aspect of this, where Vlad always seems to run into a small manifestation of some larger conflict between powerful Dragaerans and/or Living Gods. Arguably, this occurs because an audience wouldn't be interested in heroes who would be expected to solve problems easily, not to mention that it wouldn't be a very long book with them as main characters.
* Larger-scale example from ''[[Warhammer
** Hell, this happens ''all the time'' in ''[[Warhammer
* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' book ''[[
** Arguably ''[[
* The ''[[Fighting Fantasy]]'' book ''The Crimson Tide'' follows the life of a boy seeking his mother, against the backdrop of the war from ''Black Vein Prophecy''.
* Found in the second trilogy of ''Emberverse'' books, with Rudi Mackenzie and his band trekking across America while the Church Universal and Triumphant is trying to conquer or subjugate everything west of the Rockies.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In roleplaying games like ''[[Dungeons
** Although you can run them as being a particular minor encounter within the larger fray, such as holding a trench against the zombies while the cavalry are out on the flanks...that are ''just coincidentally'' far enough out that they don't fit onto the battlemap.
*** A very effective way to run this kind of scenario is to let the players be the ones who fulfill this trope. Let them take out the vital bridge, knock out the crucial communications array, or stop the evil ritual which keeps reanimating the dead to fight for the [[Big Bad]]. The common grunts of the [[Redshirt Army]] are suffering the attrition and winning the battle, but the players are doing the thing that makes their victory possible. Video games use the same trick.
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** ''[[Scion]] Companion'' provides rules to make running a war scenario a bit easier... largely by turning units of soldiers into "single" characters, system-wise, a little like ''[[Nintendo Wars]]''.
** ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' uses the same system as well, by once again turning a large army into a single character.
** Averted hard in [[Deathwatch (game)|Deathwatch]], where the characters are [[Super Soldiers]] whose [[Training
** Of all [[Dungeons
== [[Video Games]] ==
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* A whole civil war is going on in the background while you fight for the highest bidder in ''[[Mechwarrior 4]]: Mercenaries''. Although towards the end you do start to get missions throwing you into some of the fighting of the Fedcom civil war.
* ''[[The Witcher]]'' remains this through most of the game. The principle of neutrality is often emphasized, up to the point where the player must make a choice that will put Geralt against one or all sides of a war. In the novels, maintaining neutrality becomes a greater and greater dilemma for Geralt of Rivia.
* ''[[
* ''[[Tales of Innocence]]'' has a big war going on between two countries in the background, but besides crossing a couple battlefields, you rarely see to much of it and spend a decent amount of time doing your own thing.
* Bungie's ''[[Myth]]'' series also utilizes this kind of narrative. Gradually inverted as the endgame approaches, since {{spoiler|the good guys suffer such a devastating [[Pyrrhic Victory]] your unit are pretty much all that's left}}.
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** As far as specific people go, there's [[The Travels of Marco Polo|Marco Polo]]. At a time when the Mongols were the dominant power of the Eastern Hemisphere and Europeans, Muslims, Japanese, etc. were working ''really'' hard not to lose their independence to [[The Horde]], Polo went on a trip all the way to the court of Kublai Khan himself and eventually had a record of all that he saw there put together. His account sparked a deep interest in the East among Europeans, and the resulting efforts of Europeans to consume any goods and knowledge from China, India, and elsewhere helped jump-start the Renaissance and the discovery of the Americas.
* Alan Moorehead, the famous war reporter said that you could tell the pulse of war by the behavior of ordinary people. When street merchants start hawking goods, traffic cops come back to doing their duty and traffic looks normal, and road signs are put back in place that is a sign of a lull in the area. Sort of as if there was a memetic, almost ecological atunement to the ways of war.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]
[[Category:Hero Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Little Hero Big War]]
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