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What makes a hero? I don’t mean as in “who can get qualified to get into the throne of heroes” I mean in an ideological way. What makes a hero?

Siegfried is an absolute powerhouse, near-invulnerable, among the strongest of the whole casts. Yet Astolfo outright tells him “You’re no fucking hero” while he’s about to sell Sieg off just because he was told so (and iirc Astolfo changes their mind when Siegfried sacrifices himself for Sieg, like “ok I do respect you actually.)

What makes a hero? Jeanne isn’t one. The narrative brings up over and over “what a saint would do” “what a hero would do” “what a decent human being would do” and then has Jeanne doing the exact opposite. This is what Jeanne means when she says she never considered herself a saint. She who picked who she’d save and who she’d sacrifice. She who would intimidate and kill a child, a murderous one, yes, but a child.

What makes a hero? What makes a real hero? In a story filled with demigods, with people who left their marks on history with a hot iron, with people capable of incredible feats. The only one who is consistently referred to as a hero is the weak one. The background character. The only one who is consistently referred to as a hero is the one who is willing to rise up even if the odds are greatly against them. The only one who is consistently referred to as a hero is the one who is willing to fight, not because they can win, but because they believe it has to be fought. The only one who is consistently refered to as a hero is Astolfo.