Traits of a Compelling Hero

By: Josiah Sparks

Compelling heroes are not always the best heroes. Heroes could lack the heroic qualities people typically look for, making them seem unheroic entirely. To write a compelling hero, the hero must be a flawed person. A flawless character, to the majority of readers, is a boring character. Conflict drives a story, and without it a story becomes far less interesting. 

Jesse Pinkman, the secondary protagonist of Breaking Bad, is a compelling hero. He is not without his flaws. He is a meth junkie. He works with dangerous criminals. He makes several mistakes throughout his story, yet he remains compelling because despite his flaws, there are aspects of his character that some would consider to make him a good person. He’s good with kids. In multiple episodes, he prioritizes a kid’s wellbeing over his own greed. He saves a little boy from an addict household. He acts as a friend to his girlfriend’s son. He, rightfully, goes after Walter White when he poisons this kid. He actively tries to change himself when his drug addiction gets his first girlfriend killed. He goes to rehab. But he is still flawed. He falls back into his addiction several times throughout the story. He falls back into his violent tendencies. He inadvertently gets several people killed throughout the course of the story. By the time the story ends, Jesse comes out as a better person. He realizes the mistakes he’s made in his life. A compelling hero may not be a good person but have traits that make them redeemable in the eyes of the audience. Jesse is a good example of this. 

Caitlyn Kiramman, one of the main characters of Arcane: League of Legends, is a flawed hero, but in a different manner than Jesse. Caitlyn was born into nobility, being the daughter of one of the aristocratic houses of Piltover. By all means, she should be spoiled rotten, but she isn’t. She is blind to the ways of the world in some ways. She doesn’t see the way the people of Zaun are oppressed until she goes down there with Violet. She is very heroic, but vengeance takes her. When her mother is killed in a bombing, she takes extreme measures to find the person who did it. She uses gas to choke the people of Zaun, weaponizing the source of pain for so many innocent people. After failing to capture the woman she’s looking for, she is given a position of power over Piltover, and she becomes a dictator. It wasn’t until she saw the effects of what she’s doing that she returned to her more heroic nature.  

Compelling heroes aren’t always entirely heroic. They are flawed people. Whether they are bad people with redeeming qualities or good people with major flaws. To write a compelling hero, you need to give them human flaws. Heroes are human, after all.