SCARRED FANTASY HEROES

In several fantasy books, the main hero often sustains injuries in their quest to save their respective worlds.

In The Lord of the Rings, the protagonist Frodo Baggins sustained a number of physical and spiritual injuries throughout his quest to destroy the One Ring. On Weathertop, he was stabbed by the Nazgul with a Morghul blade. Even though the blade’s poison was healed, the injury itself will never fully heal and Frodo would carry it for the rest of his life. At Mount Doom, Frodo had one of his fingers bitten off by Gollum, earning him the nickname Frodo of the Nine Fingers. Finally, Frodo’s mind and spirit was deeply scarred after carrying the One Ring for so long during his quest.

During his final fight with the Shade Durza, Eragon sustained a cursed wound on his back that hindered his progress as a Dragon Rider. Even though the wound was healed and the curse lifted, it still played a significant role in Eragon’s development.

In addition to having his face scarred by a Wildling’s eagle, Jon Snow endured a traumatic experience after being betrayed and murdered by his own men. Not only did he sustain mental and spiritual scars due to experiencing the pain of death and the rapture of rebirth, but the stab wounds he sustained would never fully heal.

Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, from the Wheel of Time lost his left hand after having a mystical fireball thrown at it.

Overall, the injuries and pain that fantasy heroes play a significant role in their character development and serve as permanent memento of their adventures. I am planning to be in keeping with this tradition and have the main character in my Dark Ice Winter series injuries during his war with the Bauk horde.

DEKU’S SACRIFICE

I watched the first season of the Star Wars show Andor and Luther Rael’s speech about sacrifice made me think of Deku’s character development in My Hero Academia. Check it out:

“Calm.”

“Kindness. Kinship.”

“Love.”

“I’ve given up all chance at inner peace. I’ve made my mind a sunless space.”

“I share my dreams with ghosts.”

“I wake up every day to an equation I wrote 15 years ago from which there’s only one conclusion, I’m damned for what I do.”

“My anger, my ego, my unwillingness to yield, my eagerness to fight, they’ve set me on a path from which there is no escape.”

“I yearned to be a savior against injustice without contemplating the cost and by the time I looked down there was no longer any ground beneath my feet.”

“I’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them.”

“I burn my decency for someone else’s future.”

“I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I’ll never see.”

“And the ego that started this fight will never have a mirror or an audience or the light of gratitude.”

“So what do I sacrifice? Everything!”

TOMURA SHIGARAKI’S SACRIFICE

I realized that Tomura Shigaraki’s character development seems closely tied to the dialogue of the “Sacrifice” cinematic trailer of Star Wars: The Old Republic: Knights of the Fallen Empire. Check it out:

“A man can have anything, if he is willing to sacrifice.”

“With your birth comes a solemn vow: you will have nothing. Your privilege is the dirt.”

“In the darkness, only ambition will guide you.”

“The oath you swear, the promises you make, they are yours alone.”

“Your freedom will be the wars you wage.”

“Your birthright, the losses you suffer.”

“Your entitlement, the pain you endure.”

“And when darkness finds you, you will face it alone.”