The Tolkien discussion is great. I think LOTR had three heroes; Frodo, Gandalf, and Aragorn. Each one exhibited a different trait of Christ. Frodo was crucified, bearing the weight of mankind’s sins (Frodo was spared at the last moment, a sign of Tolkien’s deep respect for Christ). Gandalf was the divine, the one from elsewhere walking among men. Aragorn was the man long predicted to come to his throne.
But, as mentioned, Tolkien rejected any notion that his story had these types or any others in them.
We’ve mentioned perfect heroes, and we’ve talked about flawed heroes. These arguments are slightly off focus. What makes a hero is sacrifice. We’ve mentioned Christ, he sacrificed his life to bring salvation.
Really great fictional heroes sacrifice to triumph. They have to pay a price for victory. All of the LOTR characters did. And perhaps sacrifice is what makes Spiderman superior to Superman and Batman; Spiderman’s personal life always suffers for his heroic actions.
Harry Potter pays the price of loneliness and isolation. Odysseus takes twenty years to get home. Arguably the best author of heroic fantasy, the late David Gemmell, writes some of the most absorbing fantasy novels, usually with larger-than-life heroes. His heroes always pay, or have paid, the price.
Real-life heroes, soldiers, cops, firemen, and so on, are typically called heroes when they have sacrificed life or limb for the public.
And, the everyday guy who raises a family, works all his (or her) life, plays by the rules, makes sure his family is sheltered, fed, and loved; this guy is a hero too. He’s put aside his desires to build a great life for others.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!
You can give a hero all the bad habits, wrong motives, personality quirks, and immaturity in the world, and yet if he comes to the point of sacrifice and does what must be done for his cause, he has earned the right to be called "hero."
In fact, characters like that are the more intriguing for their flaws. And if you want to create a really interesting hero, introduce a character arc; make him change over the course of the story. If the particular mode of change actually becomes what enables his act of sacrifice, so much the better. =]