Well you said Greek, which is why I provided the wiki links. Unless you weren't talking about Ancient Greek, in which case that was just a misunderstanding.
I realize the words are often used interchangeably, and most of the time this doesn't matter because the protagonist is also the hero, but if you're going to claim the two people who practically carry Harry's ass around for him aren't also heroic characters, then... yeah I have to say something. It's like saying FFVII had no heroine just because Cloud's the main character.
Side note: I would argue that though FF7 had two heroines, it had no classic hero until the end, its last hero having just died, its new hero having not risen.
good god my english teacher is weeping somewhere
do people not realize villain protagonists exist? that does not make them heroes ffs
It's also possible to have Heroic villians, though. It's a very fine line, but it can be done.
What we call a "hero" in real life vs. what we call a hero in drama/fiction are two different things. In fiction, a character need not be heroic to be labeled as such. Zack is not FFVII's hero despite being the most heroic of them all.
Put another way, he's A hero, but not the story's hero.
does that mean alex from a clockwork orange is a hero now
because wow
So wait, even though there are specific literary terms to explain the character's role in a story (protagonist, focus character, hero, narrator, etc) we don't need these labels because?
This entire post confuses me.
Well, some people do see Alex from CO as heroic, but he's also the 'hero,' yes, depending on the particular definition used.
Dr. Horrible is a villain protagonist and his rival is Captain Hammer, a heroic antagonist. Artemis Fowl's rival Holly is heroic, but she is not a protagonist.
There just seem to be so many things wrong with this sentence I'm not quite sure if I should start listing anti-examples or what.
Captain Hammer isn't a hero, though. And despite his job in mad science and heist pulling, Dr. Horrible isn't just our protaganist, he is presented to us as the hero, as not just being understandable, but better than Captain Hammer.
Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible may be Super hero and villian respectively, but their narrative heroism and villainy are the reverse. Because Captain Hammer isn't heroic. He's a narcissistic self serving asshat.
As for Fowl vs Holly, Holly is heroic, but not the hero. Fowl is.
Largely, though, I think this is boiling down to a butter side up vs butter side down.
Also, did someone say sorting scarf?
It was a painfully obvious pairing from early on, though.