Rugged and Manly or Nerd Named Stanley?
Ah, heroes. The one thing I suspect every romance fan truly wants from a story is a good hero. I've read, loved, and kept several romances with eyeroll inducing heroines, but if the hero is wrong, that book gets tossed. The hero archetypes are:
The Chief- Captain Kirk, the King of Siam, Don Corleone. Decisive, dominating, responsible.
The Bad Boy- James Dean, Snake Plissken, Johnny Castle (from Dirty Dancing.) Charismatic, street smart Joe Cool.
The Best Friend- Christopher Robin, George Bailey, Mr. Knightley. Stable, supportive, unassuming.
The Charmer- Cary Grant, Remington Steele, Petruchio. Witty, smooth, elusive.
The Lost Soul- Angel (for you Buffy fans,) Heathcliff, beauty's Beast. Vulnerable, devoted, fatalistic.
The Professor- Harry Potter, Mr. Spock, Frasier Crane. Analytical, genuine, inflexible.
The Swashbuckler- Zorro, Indiana Jones, Robin Hood. Fearless, exciting, foolhardy.
The Warrior- Dirty Harry, William Wallace, Atticus Finch. Tenacious, noble, merciless.
The Lost Soul appeals to me. So do the Chief and the Warrior. Swashbuckler...okay. The rest are pretty interchangeable for me. Why? Because, apparently, I love reading about hairy possesive chest thumping Alpha males. There's something so satisfying about the crash when they finally fall for the heroine. What fictional men do it for you?
The Chief- Captain Kirk, the King of Siam, Don Corleone. Decisive, dominating, responsible.
The Bad Boy- James Dean, Snake Plissken, Johnny Castle (from Dirty Dancing.) Charismatic, street smart Joe Cool.
The Best Friend- Christopher Robin, George Bailey, Mr. Knightley. Stable, supportive, unassuming.
The Charmer- Cary Grant, Remington Steele, Petruchio. Witty, smooth, elusive.
The Lost Soul- Angel (for you Buffy fans,) Heathcliff, beauty's Beast. Vulnerable, devoted, fatalistic.
The Professor- Harry Potter, Mr. Spock, Frasier Crane. Analytical, genuine, inflexible.
The Swashbuckler- Zorro, Indiana Jones, Robin Hood. Fearless, exciting, foolhardy.
The Warrior- Dirty Harry, William Wallace, Atticus Finch. Tenacious, noble, merciless.
The Lost Soul appeals to me. So do the Chief and the Warrior. Swashbuckler...okay. The rest are pretty interchangeable for me. Why? Because, apparently, I love reading about hairy possesive chest thumping Alpha males. There's something so satisfying about the crash when they finally fall for the heroine. What fictional men do it for you?
posted by Robyn | 5:42 AM
3 Comments:
The only one I'm not particularly interested in is the Best Friend. I too am a fan of the chest-thumping alphas, although I have written the Charmer as well.
Gimme the swashbuckling warriors.
What an interesting list. For every archetype I can name at lease one novel or movie that worked for me. Which means either that I've got no standards, or I'm eclectic in my tastes.
I'm going with the second one.
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