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Unlikely Hero: Difference between revisions
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''I tried so hard but you won't surrender.''"|'''Unlikely Hero''', by The Hoosiers.}}
What would happen if you replaced a [[Mary Sue]] with a well-written [[Ridiculously Average Guy]] without changing the plot? This trope is a character who gets involved in all sorts of craziness in defiance of all reasonable logic. Basically, they can't even take a vacation without becoming [[The Chosen One]] or saving the world. Whereas to a [[Mary Sue]], it's all in a day's work, this character often finds all the craziness surrounding them annoying and must rely on the remainder of the cast to keep their life from becoming [[
Often, the character has [[The Slacker|little interest]] in ever becoming a [[Heroes|hero]] and is basically happy being a [[Ridiculously Average Guy]] as long as they get a better job / win the contest / get a date with the hottie / etc. Typically, the character is either a [[Kid Hero]] who would rather play video games, or a [[Deadpan Snarker]] who has become slightly jaded and [[Genre Savvy]] after saving the world 12 times last year. Often [[Played for Laughs]].
See also [[Weirdness Magnet]]. Compare [[Action Survivor]]. If the character seems more likely as villain than hero, but ends up on the side of good anyway, they might be a [[Nominal Hero]].
{{examples
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Ash Ketchum from ''[[Pokémon (Anime)|Pokémon]]''. He has come back from the dead thrice, been [[The Chosen One]] of countless legends, is one of the few that can manipulate aura, saved the world countless times, and has helped more people then you could possibly imagine. [[Dude, Where's My Respect?|There's like maybe three people outside of his friends who respect him in some fashion.]]
* Kyon from ''[[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]''. [[Justified]] by a series of cosmic events so ridiculous it's pretty much a parody of the stereotypical [[Chosen One]]. And by "ridiculous cosmic events" I mean {{spoiler|God wants to get in his pants}}, or if you take ire to WMG {{spoiler|he IS God}}.
* Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's new series, ''[[Bakuman｡ (Manga)|Bakuman｡]]'' has the two main characters being told that the problem with their manga is the utter lack of ''special'' main heroes, and that their series' tend to suffer from average people as heroes.
* All ''[[Doraemon]]'' [[The Movie]] have the [[Five
== [[Comics]] ==
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* In ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120004/ The Relic]'' movie, Margo's just a scientist... who manages to kill the monster (in the book, [[Marty Stu]] [but a likable one] Penderghast kills it unspectacularly).
* Another example: ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Rock_City_(film) Detroit Rock City]'' has four pseudo-stoner losers spend the first half getting into trouble, then the second half just getting the favor of God itself as they luck out on everything.
* Ash in the original ''[[Evil Dead]]'' film is all over this trope. He works in the hardware department of [[Bland
* Lionel in "Braindead"/"Dead Alive" is a great example of this trope. He starts out the movie as a timid man living with his mother, and ends up dispatching all the zombies with a lawnmower.
* Carl Frederickson and Russel from Pixar's ''[[Up]]''. Just try explaining them someone who's never seen the film. One's an elderly septuagenarian, the other is an overly enthusiastic boy scout who's never been to the wild, and together [[They Fight Crime|they fight evil]] in Venezuela.
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