063: Classic Heroes: Why Are They Always Orphans?

Hi friends,

I’m here to fulfill the promise I made a month ago of writing a mini-series on heroes. We’re getting started today with the Classic Hero, the one you can’t avoid if you read anything or watch anything ever, because the Classic Hero is everywhere. Nearly all storytelling revolves around the concept of a Classic Hero! Occasionally we get Anti-Heroes and Everyman Heroes and Tragic Heroes, but rarely is a story built around those archetypes.

(You might be screaming “LOKI IS AN ANTI-HERO AND HE HAS A WHOLE TV SHOW.” And you’d be right! But I’m talking about the number of stories—percentage-wise, anti-heroes rarely get their own shows. And, arguably, Loki’s show transforms him into a Classic Hero, though he’s an Anti-Hero in the rest of the MCU. But that’s for another essay.)

Before we hop in, I just want to remind everyone that there are a bunch of extra perks for being a paid member of Collected Rejections! You’ll get voiceovers of all the essays, writing prompts every Monday morning, and access to extra virtual writing sessions. You can upgrade here:

Okay onto the show!

Harry Potter.

Elsa.

Luke Skywalker.

Katniss Everdeen.

Spiderman.

Matilda.

Captain America.

What do they all have in common?

• Born with and cultivate abilities or talents that we can only dream of;

• Develop unfailing moral compasses, even when it makes their lives harder;

• Generally selfless and willing to put their lives on the lines for others;

• Start out normal, get placed into extraordinary circumstances, and rise to the occasion.

They’re all—obviously—Classic Heroes.

Don’t you love this truly awful collage I made in Canva?

Who Classic Heroes Are

The most common traits of Classic Heroes can almost go unsaid because we’ve all internalized them so heavily. They’re heroes. I mean, they’re heroes. We more or less know what that means.

It means that they’re uniformly good people. Every one of them is the person you want around in a crisis because they’re generally level-headed, calm, and good problem-solvers. They’re usually smart but not really smart.¹ (Harry is clever but Hermione is brilliant, that’s the distinction I mean.) They have over-large senses of responsibility; the weight of the world is on their shoulders. Not only do they have a strong sense of justice but feel like they have the right to enforce that justice (earned or not). They want what’s best for the collective, even if that means sacrificing what they personally want. They’re usually athletic and are experts at some sort of physical skill that regular people can cultivate, just not to expert levels.

And as you can see from above, the Classic Hero is also usually the main character. The skills/traits they lack are filled in by their sidekicks. Harry has Ron and Hermione because Hermione is the brains of the operation and Ron is the guide to the wizarding world. Luke has Leia and Han because Han has the skills to get them anywhere and Leia has knowledge and power as a princess. Elsa has Anna and Olaf because Olaf is innocent and happy and Anna is practical and hopeful.

This is also really necessary, by the way. The Classic Hero might be the best of us, but they can’t stand alone. They generally think that they can (think, every time Harry yells about how Voldemort killed his parents!!!!!, as if Voldemort didn’t kill lots of peoples’ parents) but they’re wrong! They need a support network. It usually consists of their mentor, allies, guardian(s), herald, trickster, and shapeshifter.

What else do Harry Potter, Elsa, Luke Skywalker, Spiderman, Matilda, and Captain America all have in common?

• They’re all orphans.

• None of them “get the girl” on screen/in the book.

Why can’t Classic Heroes have healthy homes or happy endings?

The issue with Classic Heroes is that they’re too perfect. They’re ethical and brave and talented and intelligent. They are the best of the best, the cream of the crop of humanity. Which makes it really hard for them to grow.

Sure, there’s always a training montage, right? Luke with Yoda on Dagobah. Captain America gets the serum and learns to use his powers. But training montages only develop a character’s skills. Teachers might impart wisdom as well, but those are just seeds. Pithy one-liners aren’t the same as the emotional growth a character has to do to be interesting and memorable.

So the shortcut to growth is to make them an orphan. Give them that deep wound, a trauma from childhood that no one else can “fix” easily, something that they need to heal themselves. They go out into the world intending to heal others, maybe to prevent others from being hurt like they were (hello, Batman), but in the process, they heal themselves.

They might still come from loving homes (Peter Parker has a great relationship with his aunt) but those homes are never the same as having loving parents. Alternatively, Matilda is not an orphan but she’d be better off as one because her parents are awful. By the end of the story, she’s adopted into a new family.

There are other traumas you could give a Classic Hero, but being an orphan is sort of the easiest. It’s not a trauma that has to be really explained to anyone. It’s also not necessarily a violent crime against the hero that might turn some readers/viewers off. And it’s not easily solved because parents aren’t easily replaceable, even if the hero is adopted into another happy family. Making them an orphan is the easiest way to achieve this, which is why we see it over and over again.²

It kind of sucks, but Classic Heroes need a place to grow from, an internal problem to solve that goes along with their external problem. When they don’t have that, we find the story really shallow. It’s not memorable.

As for “getting the girl”… Well, Matilda is too young, Katniss is never really happy with Peeta, and Peter Parker’s girlfriend/wife Mary Jane always dies. Luke Skywalker is never shown with a love interest (unless you count that kiss with his sister). Until Infinity War, Captain America didn’t end up with Peggy Carter, but it’s still only barely shown on screen.³

One reason for this is that after all that tension and drama, happiness is, uh, boring. Sorry! It’s not boring to live a happy life but it can be boring to read about one. There’s no conflict! And conflict is what makes a story, well, a story.

I mean, this is where really great fan fiction comes in, right? Really great fan fiction breaks that rule often, giving people long, drawn-out happy endings they didn’t get in their original stories. I can’t tell you how many fics I’ve read that are just two characters puttering around after getting married. But, again, that’s not the story. At least, it’s not a commercially viable story. Can you imagine sitting in front of your TV watching two characters drink tea and make doe eyes at each other and do nothing else? That would be great one time when you’re stressed out or sad, but then never again. It’s not exciting to watch. This is why even smutty romance novels end when the two leads figure out their relationship and whatever angst was driving the story ends.

(Psssst! The way to have a happy couple in fiction is to give them something to team up against, like solving a crime or fighting a dictator. Then the moments of domestic bliss are palate cleansers in between big conflict scenes. And yet we still almost never see this! For example, Han and Leia get together in Return of the Jedi but have separated by The Force Awakens.)

If your Classic Hero “gets the girl,” it better be in the last scene. Rowling did exactly this with Harry and Ginny—we don’t know for sure that they get back together until the epilogue.

One Last Thought

I brought up Hermione when I was talking about ‘smart versus too smart’ and I want to circle back to that. She’s interesting to consider here because she is, arguably, a Classic Hero… unless you consider supreme intelligence off-putting in some way. Which Rowling seems to. All of Rowling’s Very Smart Characters are sidelined, usually for unclear reasons. Hermione, Dumbledore, and Lupin are the most obvious examples from Harry Potter, but it shows up in all of her work.⁴ They’re all brave and talented and even have traumas equal to being orphans. In fact, Dumbledore is an orphan. They could each be Classic Heroes and great protagonists, but Rowling doesn’t render them that way. Rowling treats their intellect as a flaw somehow, even though it’s never said.

Consider this: Hermione as a Muggleborn actually has a more immediate reason to fight Voldemort than Harry. She is in much more direct danger from his rise to power, and she has the motivation of protecting people like herself. She is willing to put herself in harm’s way and is shown to be both athletic and a decent fighter. And by the time Harry defeats Voldemort, Hermione’s parents don’t know she exists. She is, effectively, an orphan too. She has all the Classic Hero qualities. This is sort of why, from a storytelling standpoint, Harry needs the prophecy and personal murder of his parents to mark him out as the one to fight ol’ Voldy. The magic of their twin wand cores and the magic of Harry’s mother’s protection are also involved, but these are purely MacGuffins. Take them away, and there’s no story reason that Hermione shouldn’t defeat Voldemort except that Rowling seemed to want to sideline her.

Compare this to how Q is treated in James Bond. No matter which actor plays him, Q is a genius and talented, just like Hermione, but he’s never portrayed as particularly brave or athletic (especially Ben Whishaw’s Q) which is why he can’t be a Classic Hero. Q might want to sacrifice himself for others, but he’ll never have the skill set that will put him in a position to do so.

But Hermione, Dumbledore, and Lupin are all physically good fighters, talented, intelligent, and just the right amount of traumatized. They should be Classic Heroes, but they’re not shown that way in Harry Potter. Fans might perceive them that way, but that’s not how Rowling wrote them. She reduces them to allies and mentors. Their intelligence is a flaw somehow, for her, which I think says something about Rowling’s values as an author.

Hope you enjoyed our first installment in the heroes mini-series! Let me know what you thought in the comments. Did I miss anything? Am I wrong about Hermione?

Thanks for reading! I will have our May virtual writing sessions up soon, so don’t forget to check back for those.

And, since we talked about Star Wars a lot today: May the Fourth be with you! If you’re celebrating by going to Disneyland/world and eating those lightsaber churros, I need photos (please).