The Messiah: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

The main character, simply put, [[Love You and Everybody|loves everyone]]. Loves them with a deep, spiritual love that means they will shake heaven and earth, destroy gods and planets, bring nations to their knees, etc. [[The Dulcinea Effect|for the person they just met yesterday]]. They will [[Horrible Judge of Character|believe the best]] of [[The Ingenue|everyone]], and constantly give someone [[Last Second Chance|a second chance]] (though they ''will'' defeat the [[Big Bad]]). They repay [[Turn the Other Cheek|cruelty with kindness and anger with calm]], as long as the attacks are only against them—they're ''not'' forgiving of harm done to others. They are the ones who will suffer for the sins of their loved ones. Most people think they're insane, but somehow they pull it off. Even [[Mary Sue]] and [[Marty Stu]] are impressed.

The [[Empathic Weapon]] trusts them completely, as does [[Friend to All Living Things|every animal they meet]]. Their [[Fertile Feet|every step causes flowers to bloom]]. Their [[True Companions|circle of friends]] are in awe of them, if not somewhat [[Harem Genre|in love with them]]. They'll even [[Magnetic Hero|attract]] an [[Anti-Hero]] or two who will stick around so they can at least figure out what drugs this person is taking—and where ''they'' can get some. In their hands [[The Power of Love]] and [[The Power of Friendship]] can be an awesome force, they may be the standard bearer for the message that [[You Are Not Alone]] and if anything can redeem a person against the odds by showing them the light of goodness, it will probably be '''The Messiah'''.

In the context of methods of climax fulfillment, this may be referred to as a "Love Hero". May overlap with [[For Happiness]] as a character motivation.

{{examples}}

* Usagi Tsukino from ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', though she started as [[The Fool]]. Not only that, she actually gets ''called'' the Messiah later.

** It should be noted, though, that Usagi is more of The Messiah in the anime than in the manga, where despite still being very compassionate and a good person, she's ''much'' less forgiving of [[Mama Bear|those who hurt her loved ones]].

{{quote|'''Kakashi''': Naruto has a mysterious power. Everyone who meets him becomes his friend, no matter how little contact they have beforehand.}}

** Hinata, Shikamaru, Temari, Neji, and Gaara all note that he has the power to influence people. It's worth noting that Naruto tends to get off to a bad start with most of the people he befriends, and they're often completely dismissive of him for reasons typically unrelated to him having the fox inside him. Unlike many of the other examples, he's not always civil in response, but his determination and honesty cause many of these people to see him, and often themselves, in a new light.

* Vash from ''[[Trigun]]'' often has to be prodded into shooting the bad guys instead of trying to reason the virtues of life with them. Even then, he refuses to kill humans, even if it means bandaging up the people he just took down.

** [[Badass Preacher|Wolfwood]] occasionally seems to see Vash in this light, and well beyond his [[Technical Pacifist]] stance above he ''will do anything'' to save people. From diving into blows that carved the scars all over him to stripping naked and barking like a dog to get a hostage free to training constantly so that his skills are up to pulling off his signature miracles. His whole identity is tied up in saving people.

* The ''[[Digimon]]'' leads seem to have an element of this, more often than not. [[Digimon Savers|Masaru]] manages to pick up where his father Suguru left off as far as reaching out to Digimon and trying to create the world where Digimon and humans can live together. [[Digimon Adventure 02|Daisuke]], [[Digimon Tamers|Takato]], and [[Digimon Frontier|Takuya]] also have their moments.

** Taichi's younger sister Hikari plays The Messiah role straight in ''Adventure'', but ''subverts'' it in ''02''. Her Crest of Light helps her channel spirits, reach for others and all, to the point of making her a borderline [[Purity Sue]] at times. However, in ''02'' Hikari shows huge emotional damage as she's much less able to handle the stress, to the point of having two serious [[Heroic BSOD]]s that Takeru and Miyako have to pull her out from.

** And not just the people; his [[Empathic Weapon]] is powered by his will to fight for both the well-being of the living and for the salvation of the Akuma's souls, who systematically try to kill him and all of his friends. Without the will to save ''both'' of them, the weapon won't work. In fact, it pretty much showed him getting an epiphany and coming to the realization that he loves both humans and Akumas alike.

* Nana "Hachi" Komatsu from ''[[Nana]]'' can turn even the toughest punk rocker into silly putty just by smiling cheerfully.

* Nausicaa, from the ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind]]'' manga/anime quoted above, fits this trope to a T. Besides being nearly a [[Purity Sue]], she explicitly plays the foretold role of a Messiah by wearing blue garments (stained with Ohmu blood) and walking on a "field of gold" (a bunch of shiny Ohmu tentacles). The Dorok priest has a revelation that she is the "Angel of Light" who will lead the people to the "Pure Land."

** An example: In a scene near the beginning of the manga she meets a cute squirrel-creature. It bites her hand, but she just smiles at it as it gets the biting out of its system, then feeds it. And the next thing you know it's her cute animal companion.

* ''[[Mayoi Neko Overrun]]'''s Otome Tsuzuki. She brings in stray orphans, travels around the world, and is generally a force of derring-do and near impossible feats.

* Yuki of ''[[Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru]]''.

* Mighty from ''[[Bomberman Jetters]]'' is perhaps the nicest person to ever grace any form of media ever. According to his grandmother, she could never figure out his likes and dislikes because of how selfless he was. Despite being regarded as a remarkably powerful and calculating being, he has almost never shown anger to anyone, responds to a death threat from his enemy with a serious polite greeting, and despite his power, tries his hardest to never resort to violence except as a last resort. To top it all off, after seeing his younger brother playing one day, he was convinced that he ''wasn't kind enough''.

* Ginta of ''[[MAR]]''.

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Chubby Huggs from ''[[Get Fuzzy]]'', he begins every day with hugging his pillow and thanking it for being so soft, and continues in the same way. Needless to say, Bucky is scared to death of Chubby Huggs.

* Victor Laszlo in ''[[Casablanca]]''. It says something about him that the only person in the entire movie who isn't in complete awe and admiration of the utterly heroic and saintly resistance leader and doesn't think he's the greatest thing since the invention of bread, sliced or otherwise, is the [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazi]] officer who has been sent to capture him, which is a [[Acceptable Targets|ringing endorsement]] if ever there was one. He's so noble that he doesn't even hold a grudge that his beloved wife, believing that he was dead, has fallen in love with another man, and his example is so powerful that that other man is eventually quite willing to sacrifice his one chance at happiness [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|by convincing her to stay with him]].

* Sergeant Elias K. Grodin from ''[[Platoon]]'' which makes his {{spoiler|dramatic death scene all the more powerful}}.

* William Wallace from ''[[Braveheart]]''. Think about it: He inspired not only his country but most of the people he meets either fought for their freedom or become strong influential. Also {{spoiler|he died so he can become free, reunite with his love one, and let the rest of the people to live on as free men}}.

* [[Happy Feet]]. Ironically.

* Po from ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'' is another great example he is an [[Idiot Hero|idiot]], [[The Fool|a fool]] and [[The Chosen One|a chosen one]], but what really makes him a Messiah is that he doesn't hate anybody, Not even [[Big Bad|Shen]] {{spoiler|Who killed his parents, and trying to kill him, and yet he still forgave by telling to let go of the past}}.

* Shuya in ''[[Battle Royale]].'' It's a strange place to find a character of this type, but he does love his classmates.

* Philip Swift from ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean|Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides]]''.

* Carrot Ironfoundersson from [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' series. He gets an idea in his head and is able to drag the rest of the world around to his viewpoint. Even to the point that he's able to arrest a dragon which had previously been terrorizing the city. His love interest Sergeant Angua (an [[Action Girl]]), and Commander Vimes both remark upon this ability of his. {{spoiler|In Carrot's case, it may be because he is the true and lawful heir to the throne of Ankh-Morpork.}}

** Discworld also has [[Discworld/Small Gods|Brutha]], the last true believer of the Great God Om. His sheer basic decency extends to everyone from tortoises to the [[Big Bad]], {{spoiler|''twice''}} and he brings in a new and more tolerant era for his [[Corrupt Church]].

* Bobby from the ''Pendragon'' series. He seems to be able to make friends with all of travelers in every world in a matter of minutes of meeting them. And, it was said on more then one occasion he would be the only one to beat Saint Dane. {{spoiler|He does.}}

* Andy Dufresne, the main character of [[Stephen King]]'s story ''Rita Hayworth and [[The Shawshank Redemption]]'' is The Messiah of the story, which is remarkable considering the near hopeless circumstances that he finds himself in (one might even interpret him as [[The Woobie]]). There are several symbolic parallels between him and Jesus Christ which shape the entire message of the book, that "hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies".

* The titular character of ''[[Harry Potter]]''.

* Also by Dostoevsky: Sofya from ''[[Crime and Punishment]]'', anyone?

* Again from Dostoevsky: Prince Lev Nikolaievich Myshkin from ''[[The Idiot]]'' is a much darker interpretation of this character type. Myshkin himself is, of course, kind and full of love for humanity—which leads most everyone he meets to assume he's a fool and try to take advantage of him. {{spoiler|Then Myshkin himself ends up hurting Aglaya when a climactic [[Moral Dilemma]] forces him to choose between his love for Agalya and his pity for the fallen Nastasya.}}

* In Anne Bishop's ''[[Black Jewels]]'' trilogy, Jaenelle is the most recent (and implied to be the most powerful ever) incarnation of Witch, essentially born from the collective dreams of the races who facilitates their reconciliation {{spoiler|and eventually nearly kills herself in order to save her people.}}

* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]],'' Both Frodo and Aragorn's attachment to the other members of the Fellowship, as well as a large number of people they encounter during the books, qualifies them for this trope.

* Elua in the ''[[Kushiel's Legacy]]'' novels by Jacqueline Carey. Christ himself, albeit sporting a different name, is also in the series, but the religion of the main characters focuses on Elua. (Born of a mixture of Yeshua ben Yosef's blood and the Magdalene's tears, flowers arose where he walked, seven angels descended from Heaven to be his travelling companions, etc.) His single commandment to the race of people descended from him and his angelic followers was "love as thou wilt".

* Adil, one of the main characters in Sahar Khalifeh's ''Wild Thorns''. A Palestinian who works in Israel (the book was written in the 70s') to support his nine family members, and always looking out for his fellow workers. He's more than once described as trying "to solve the Middle East conflict all by himself." Even his cousin who considers him a traitor for working in Israel cares strongly about him.

** He gets reconstructed near the end.

* Eriond in ''[[The Belgariad]]'' and ''[[The Malloreon]]''. He's a small child in the former, although he is very trusting and generous. (He's been raised to be a complete innocent, so that he can handle The Orb, which tends to destroy anyone who touches it with less than completely pure motives.) By ''The Malloreon'' he's grown into the position. He's very mild in temperament, and even when he gets very angry (at one point they're in a Temple of Torak and a major sacrifice ritual (human, of course) is going on all he does is put out the temple fires—since if the hearts can't be burned, there's no way to continue the sacrifices.)

* Mike in [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Stranger in A Strange Land]]''. He's a walking Jesus allegory, but beside that he has an innocence so strong it even scares people a bit.

* ''[[Les Misérables (novel)|Les Misérables]]'': Jean Valjean, who in turn learned forgiveness from the Bishop of Digne after 19 years of prison made Valjean bitter and hateful.

* [[Animorphs/Characters|Cassie]] from ''[[Animorphs]]'', who spends the most time grappling with the ethics of lethal force out of the entire team.

* Aerich Tenma of the ''[[Dragaera]]''-verse.

* Goldmoon in ''Heroes of the Lance,'' a [[Dragonlance]] book.

{{quote|because he had an overpowering intuition: if Luke Skywalker thought he might save thirty innocent lives by sacrificing his own, he wouldn't hesitate. Ten innocent lives.

One.

"Or, hell, one not-so-innocent life," Nick muttered. "Like mine." He flipped the carbine's power setting to stun. "I hate Jedi." }}

** Throughout that book, even when Luke is struggling with despair and mental trauma, he's consistently kind and compassionate to anyone not currently attempting to kill him. When someone is expressing their claustrophobia, he's completely sympathetic to them despite believing he's been through far worse himself. At the end, when to save the day he needs to destroy a [[People Puppets|mind-control device]] {{spoiler|knowing that doing so will kill the fifty thousand enemies being mind controlled}}, he does so, but {{spoiler|in the Force he stays with all of them to feel them die, so that they won't die alone. And because it's all he can do for them.}}

* Jane Bennet in ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]''.

* Tavi definitely wants to be this in ''[[Codex Alera]]'', though he does his smiting less with brute force and more with [[Crazy Awesome]] strategy and adaptation. If he were the son of a deity it undoubtedly would be a god of chaos. {{spoiler|Actually, he's just the son of the First Lord, which winds up giving him near-godlike furycraft. From a near-godlike fury.}}

* John Coffey from ''[[The Green Mile]]''

* ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]'': [[The Professor|Professor Aronnax]] is a humble [[Wide-Eyed Idealist]] scientist who'd already won the [[Undying Loyalty]] of Conseil before he comes to the Nautilus. He also causes [[Idiot Hero]] Ned Land to do a [[More Expendable Than You]] sacrifice when they are in the Pole, and he is ultimately the reason why Captain Nemo gets his [[Villainous Breakdown]] when Aronnax discovers the Nautilus is a [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]]..

** In fact, there are only a few select groups of people that permanently reject him. {{spoiler|Darken, Drefan, and Oba Rahl}}, the Sisters of the Dark, the Blood of the Fold, the Imperial Order leadership, the Slide, and the {{spoiler|Anders}}. Over 10,000+ pages.

** For everyone else, the books go to great effort to repeatedly remind the reader that everyone likes Richard and that he unites people simply by being Richard.

** As the Imperial Order's evil becomes more and more of an issue in the series, Richard actually becomes more of a militant leader and less of this.

* Daniel Jackson in ''[[Stargate (film)|Stargate]]'' and ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''. No surprise that later, by the end of the fifth season, he evolves into a [[Messianic Archetype]] as well.

* Dr. Molly Clock in ''[[Scrubs]]''.

* Gentaro Kisaragi, [[Kamen Rider Fourze]], who in his introduction stated his goal to befriend each and every single person in his new high school. This includes forgiving someone for throwing away a girl's love letter, and being nice to the [[Jerk Jock]] "king" and [[Alpha Bitch]] "queen" of the school despite their harassment (both verbal ''and'' physical).

** He'll even do it with the [[Monster of the Week]]. You have to be a [[Complete Monster]] for him to not make a serious attempt at getting a villain to amend his ways. Pyxis, the guy who ''is the reason Fourze has a [[Nightmare Fuel]] [[Kamen Rider Fourze/Nightmare Fuel|page]]'' is the only person he's not extended a hand of friendship to.

* Inverted in ''[[Tokumei Sentai Gobusters]]''. Messiah is the name of the [[Big Bad]].

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** One thing: bacteria, parasites - the things that cause diseases ARE living things. Nurgle loves every living thing equally and can't just kill those couple thousand bacteria that live within a sick person. That would be Something-cide!

* Similarly, both Devils and Deceivers in the third edition of ''[[Nobilis]]'' explore why loving '''absolutely everything''' is not necessarily a virtuous trait, or one that leads to the other traits of The Messiah. The Devils love the laughter of children and the beauty of a sunset... but they also love cancer and genocide. In fact, they love cancer and genocide '''more''', because who else is going to love them? As for the Deceivers... to make a long explanation short, let's just say that love doesn't have to be sane or healthy.

== [[Video Games]] ==

** The aforementioned L'Arachel claims to be The Messiah and has been raised as a [[Church Militant]], but she's more of a [[Love Freak]]. She ''does'' show genuine Messiah traits when she {{spoiler|helps Eirika get over the [[Heroic BSOD]] caused by the Lyon/Fomortiiis incident described above}}, though.

* ''[[StarCraft]]'' Tassadar who has ascended to this by the Protoss. Both figuratively and [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|literally]].

* Mithra from ''[[Asura's Wrath]]'', who has shown no contempt for her imprisonment and immediately forgives her Uncle Yasha for going along with the plot of the Seven Deities.

== [[Visual Novels]] ==

* Mary in ''[[Shikkoku no Sharnoth]]'', who will even cry for the monsters trying to kill her and beg M not to kill them. She's pretty tough when it comes down to it, though, but that attitude only strengthens with time.

* Masayuki in ''[[A Profile]]'' ''refuses'' to see the bad in people and places. People don't really know how to treat him because of it. One the one hand, it's kind of admirable, but on the other it's very difficult to understand or, in some cases, to tolerate.

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** Karkat starts out as a subversion and John's foil, being perpetually angry, derogatory, unforgiving, and just plain mean to everyone. Then it turns out that he's actually a decent guy who cares about others, was the only thing keeping the trolls all working together instead of killing each other, convinced villains to work in his best interest, and is ultimately the least threatening or dangerous member of his group. Played completely straight when he stops a rampaging murder clown with the power of hugs and it's revealed that his Ancestor was literal Jesus Christ figure.

*** Said ancestor started out as a messiah too, but became a [[Dark Messiah]] while being tortured to death.

== [[Web Original]] ==

* Shandala from ''[[Broken Saints]]'' fits this to a tee. Hell, pretty much all the tropes used in the description at the top of the page apply to her. Of course, when in the course of the story, it comes time for [[Break the Cutie]], things get ''really'' ugly...

* Neil Sinclair of ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' V3. No matter how many times he is knocked back by more [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|cynical or pessimistic]] characters, he keeps on trying, time and again, to gather as many students he can in an attempt to escape. His hugely idealist approach includes but is not limited to inviting a classmate into the group who had previously ''killed'' one of the other members of his group - S.A.D.D. {{spoiler|And now, his group has fallen apart after his death.}}

== [[Western Animation]] ==

{{quote|'''Edward:''' Lazlo, why do you hate me?

'''Lazlo:''' I don't hate you, Edward. I love all creatures, even whatever you are! }}

* Rex from ''[[Generator Rex]]'', despite his rebellious phase, and his sarcastic attitude, he is willing to risk his life to cure people with E.V.O, save people even when White Knight is going to kill them because they can't be cured [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right|Rex attacks instead]]. he helps people even [[Jerkass|pricks]] that he doesn't like. He even shows sympathy towards {{spoiler|[[Anti-Villain]] Garan-Set}}, because he feels sorry.

* Optimus Primal of ''[[Transformers]] [[Beast Wars]]'' and ''[[Beast Machines]]''.

* Waffle from ''[[Catscratch]]''. He (a cat) even befriends a dog that hates cats.

* ''[[Stickin' Around]]'' is noteworthy for having two messiahs as opposed to one. In this case, Stacy and Polly. Even if they have their moments of getting even with those around them (especially true for Stacy in regards to Bradley), these two are some of the more nicer girls you'll see in all of western animation, if not animated cartoons period.

* The titular character of ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''.

* In ''[[Regular Show]]'', Rigby's brother Don is overwhelmingly nice to everyone, even Rigby, who hates his guts for overshadowing him and unintentionally stealing his friends. When Rigby comes forward with his disposition towards his brother Don becomes upset because all he wanted was his brother's exceptance. Still, it is undebatable that Don would do anything for his little big brother or anyone else.

* T.J., Mikey, Gus, Cornchip Girl, and Miss Grotke from ''[[Recess]]''

* ''[[Hey Arnold!]]!'': Arnold. For that matter Lila, although she came off as an intentional [[Parody Sue]].

== [[Real Life]] ==