Everybody knows the character of the Reluctant Hero, the person who didn’t want anything to do with all this hero business but ended up along for the ride due to one or another reason. We see these characters across every genre, popping up in action movies (John McClane in Die Hard), science-fiction (Ellen Ripley from Alien), fantasy (Frodo Baggins from Lord of the Rings), dystopian fiction (Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games), and even comedies (Deadpool from… Deadpool).
All the trope really requires is that there be a hero or heroes, and that those heroes don’t want to go out adventuring to save the world. They’d much rather stay in their existing lives and live as they had already been living, but are forced to go out into the world and fight X to find Y so they can save Z. There are some deviations to this cliché and the stories around it, but the essence remains the same. It’s a trope, and while opinions on it vary the reluctant hero usually becomes a fan favorite.
There could be any number of reasons that somebody relates to being a reluctant hero or any number of fun scenes that could make them memorable. The important thing is that the writer uses the positives of this trope, at least enough for the pros to outweigh the cons. On to those!
Pros:
– The hero is instantly relatable (who hasn’t wanted to stay home and eat chips instead of doing something harrowing?)
– Built in moments of comic relief (they really don’t want to be there, and they can’t believe they have to deal with such obvious bullshit)
– Drama! (why did they want to stay home? What finally drove them out? Is there something or someone waiting for them when they return?)
– Flexibility (when using the Reluctant Hero as a base, there are nearly endless possibilities for the rest of the character. See the above examples of reluctant heroes, and consider how different each character and story is)
Cons:
– Very common (harder to keep the character interesting when it’s such a common base)
– Might not make sense (why would somebody not want to go on an adventure in a world of swords and sorcery? It takes extra in-world convincing)
– Flexibility (the Reluctant Hero being a universal base is also a drawback; there’s very little to go off of just from there)
In conclusion, the Reluctant Hero is a fun base to use for characters, one that proves both popular and rather common. It takes some difficulty to differentiate itself, but if that can be done, the character will almost invariably become a fan favorite.