I was going to include antagonists in the title, but the definition of antagonist is they oppose the protagonist. Go see the last post if you need a quick refresher.

For the sake of this article a hero is someone who behaves in a virtuous way according to the author’s intent. I think it goes without saying that not everyone agrees as to what the highest virtue is, or that virtue is universal – for instance, a Viking may have no problem mowing down a weaker foe, for his culture the virtue is s...