What makes a hero? Is Yas one, or just a protagonist?

By contrast, a hero’s definition (e.g. HERO Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com) includes qualities that sets them out as a role model. They operate from a strong moral compass and perform acts that puts others before themselves.

Heros typically also become, rather than always being. The Hero’s journey outlines that a hero will be confronted by personal challenges and overcome them in order to return home as a changed person, the hero.

So, a hero is likely to be a protagonist, but it’s possible also for a protagonist to not be considered a hero.

For Yas then, the ‘heroine’ character of the Word Guardians, is she really a hero, or just a protagonist?

Yas’s journey

In Book 1, The Battle For the Peacekeepers, remember that Yas starts out oblivious to realms and word magic. She’s even dismissive of them when her friend, Sam, talks about how it’s possible to visit them and that he believes his Dad is missing in one. Then, Yas literally falls into a realm and finds that what she thought was true about the world and how it worked was a blinkered view. It’s the start of a set of challenges to her beliefs, her friendship and her relationship with her parents.

She meets two Custodians, Y’in and Y’an, who tell her some truths that she can’t deny, and that sets her on a collision course with the antagonists of the story, The Controllers, who want control of the Peacekeepers. Instead of running from the truth, she wants answers, after struggling to get the truth about her grandfather’s disappearance from her parents. So, she confronts her challenges, head on. She’s told a prophecy by the Fates and then has to decide who she can really trust. Who is being genuine and who is not?

Ultimately, Yas has to decide how to defeat the Controllers and recover the Peacekeepers from her grandfather’s journal, and she’s faced with a hero’s dilemma. How does she do this without controlling their destiny, too. How does she do this without becoming a Controller?

Hero or just protagonist?

So, is Yas a hero? I believe so, yes.

She has a journey akin to a hero’s one. She has to confront her own beliefs, relationships and how she makes decisions in the heat of the moment. She takes actions in line with her own moral compass and also has regret about opponents she’s vanquished along the way.

As a person, she’s a strong female, yet compassionate. It’s a blend that creates many more challenges in future stories. How does she act around her best friend? Does she leave the strong, dangerous challenges to him? Does she try to take control of every situation to assert her own independence? Or is there some sort of balance that she’s able to maintain based on moral fibre and compassion?

You’ll have to read the series to find out how Yas’s challenges play out. Start with Book 1 The Battle of the Peacekeepers. Read Yas’s journey and find out who she returns home as. Click the button below to visit your usual Amazon store and view the series (all the books in the series are available in paperback and kindle editions).