Hero (noun):
1) A person distinguished by courage, noble deeds, outstanding achievements, etc.
2) A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life.

What exactly defines a hero (or heroine)? Is it their achievements? Is it their personality? Is it their strength? Is it their intelligence? Or is it something else, something indefinable, something that cannot be pigeonholed with set parameters, but easily recognized upon sight?

Some may say that a hero is someone that fights for what they believe in, and never gives up. Others may say that a hero is simply someone that is willing to do anything for whatever they believe is right and good. Whatever one thinks, there always seem to be several things constant.

Persistent (adjective):
1) Continuing firmly or obstinately, especially despite obstacles, objections, etc.
2) Enduring, surviving.

Heroes always seem to be the persistent type. They never give up, and if they do, they eventually realize that they must continue. Not for themselves, but for others. Others need them, and so they continue what to do what they believe needs to be done despite hardships and pain.

Moral (adjective):
1) Concerned with goodness or badness of human character or behaviour; or with the distinction between right and wrong.
2) Good, conforming to the rules of morality; virtuous as regards general conduct.

Heroes usually seem to have some type of morals set for themselves; what they believe is right, and what they believe they should do. Heroes must appreciate what “good” is to be able to do what they believe is “good”.

Risk (noun):
1) A chance or possibility of danger, loss, injury, or other adverse consequences.
2) (as a verb) To expose to risk.

Everything seems to always tie into this one thing: the risk of losing their life. A hero always seems to give no regard to his or her life. Whether or not they truly are afraid of dieing is of no consequence; a hero will always risk or give up their life in an attempt to do what they believe is right.

And from all of this, I can give what MY description of a hero is; what I believe defines a hero.

A hero is one that risks his or her life in a persistent attempt to achieve what they believe is moral.

A hero can be anyone. A hero can be any sort of person. A hero is not a personality type; it is a characteristic, a potential. A hero is merely one that is willing to sacrifice themselves for what they believe in.

Sacrifice (noun):
1) The act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else more important or worthy.

A hero is one that is willing to sacrifice their own life for what they believe will create a greater good; for what they believe is right.

Yet through all of this, it often seems that heroes survive. They are the ones that are there at the final battle, defeating what they believe to be the thing that prevents good, peace, righteousness, or whatever it is they are fighting for from achieving its true potential. They are the ones to save and protect what they believe in, as they survive to see what they believe in to the very end.

Yet there are those that die. Yet why isn’t it the hero that dies? They’re the one that is most willing to do die if it will help what they believe in. Why is it not they that gives up the greatest gift?

Because it is someone else that did so. Someone else dies. They die to protect the hero. They die instead of the hero. They die doing what they can to help the hero. They are known as the sacrifices.

Sacrifice (noun):
2) A loss incurred deliberately to avoid a greater loss or to obtain a compensating advantage.

While a hero’s sacrifice of their own life is often for the sake of what they believe is right, another meaning of sacrifice is to die to avoid a greater loss, or to gain an advantage.

When another character sacrifices their life to help or even save the hero, they are doing this not just because they want save the one who they believe in. They are doing this because they believe that they themselves cannot do what the hero can. They believe that the hero is the one that can save whatever it is that needs to be protected. They are not the one that can do so. They are merely a companion of the hero, maybe even just an acquaintance, they are not the hero.

Yet because of the hero’s willingness to help, to die for what he or she believes in, others willingly sacrifice themselves to save the hero, whom would do the same, given the chance.

Suddenly all of those characters that have given their lives to protect the hero, all of those main characters that have jumped in front of the hero when peril approached, all of those minor side characters that fought and died to allow the hero to do what needed to be done, all of them can be seen differently.

They are no longer sacrifices, given to save the hero, whom will save everyone else. They are something more. These sacrifices are ones that have died for what they believed in.

Is that not what a hero does, or is willing to do? Is that not a reasonable description of a hero?

Are these sacrifices not heroes that became heroes, because they wanted to help a hero?

Are all of those that gave their lives to save the one that they believed would save them not heroes themselves?

Are all of those that risked their lives, and ended up losing them, in a perilous, yet persistent attempt to do what they believed was moral and right, are they not heroes?

I, for one, believe they are.