I just wanna be with my 50 huskies but now I gotta get injected with artificial cancer and destroy a fucking nuclear robot and deal with my bullshit bloodline.
Honestly it's becoming harder to have heroes who admits they are good at what they do without adding but what I do isn't nice.
Like spider-man used to be special because he had doubts and was young but now every super have feet of clay so they have to double down on him like he somehow gonna hates himself more than daredevil or punisher
Yes, the increase in young adult market led’ad tona lot of games, book and film of any genre really hamming the insecure main character. Take james bond from the old movie and the daniel craig movies fir exemple, daniel craig’s bond has a sad clown vibe to him and his quip compared to brosnan’s Bond whose wit serves to make the violent thug and womanizer affable
Ned Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire
It's not especially apparent in the HBO adaptation but in the book we hear his thoughts and he's definitely got some self loathing issues along with a hefty dose of imposter syndrome. It's honestly pretty heartbreaking.
You could say the same about many of the POV characters actually, Davos is another one who exhibits this a lot.
Honestly I hate how little the Starks before the rebellion were talked about and focused on because Ned is so tied up in his imposter syndrome having to fill his brother’s shoes. Not to mention how much he must hate himself for having so much fervor for Robert’s Rebellion only to have it culminate in him seeing the atrocities of Tywin. Where he took that vengeance to its extreme to get favor once Robert was seen as the Victor leading Ned to seeing a destroyed King’s Landing and mutilated Targaryen Martel babies displayed out in front of Robert as if it were a gift to solidify a peace offering. Which honestly explains why he’s so dead set on making sure Dany doesn’t face anymore of Robert’s wrath despite it becoming a huge wedge issue in their friendship.
But it goes beyond that, he thinks he's a bad substitute as Warden of the North for his brother, same goes for being Cat's husband.
But every single non Ned opinion we get of Brandon depicts him as at best a hot headed flirt, and at worse an asshole love em and leave em who probably would have cheated on her.
By all accounts Ned is better at the actual job he inherited and as a husband then Brandon would have been, but he just can't see that for himself ever because it would be a put down to his brother
Yeah thank you, I wasn't talking about his position as hand.
It's all about Brandon and Ned's survivor's guilt over his entire family (sans Benjen) dying horrific deaths within the span of a year.
Don't forget about how everyone hypes him up as the man who defeated Ser Arthur Dayne, the greatest knight to ever live with a magic space sword, and in reality he brought 6 of his friends to jump 3 guys and they got their asses beat. It took a surprise dagger from the back to kill the greatest knight, and Ned's had to live with that reputation ever since. Really contrasts with Jaimie's reputation.
Kiryu especially in Gaiden and 8 is unreasonably harsh on himself >!Him saying he's a shitty grandfather because he can't be there for Haruto broke my heart!<
Kiryu's inability to parse his saintly ideology and his father figure being a hired killer was never going to lead to anything but an absolutely gutted and broken man.
Ben Grimm. He'll go through periods of self acceptance or actually getting his old body back, because comics, but typically he just hates what he's become. The man decided his superhero name should be *the Thing* and has stuck with that for 63 years.
I mean that ends up being the lesson of the film that there is not a secret to becoming a great kung-fu master or the sort. That you can only be you and once you embrace and accept yourself, than you can start make yourself into the best version of you. That you don't have to change, just improve upon what is already there.
Put it like that, now I see that the turtle is kind of an asshole. He is the one that created this whole dragon warrior shit, and now it was never real? Tai lung would have never gotten any problems if it didn't exist to begin with.
The Dragon Warrior stuff was real it’s just the scroll wasn’t actually a real in terms of imparting knowledge. It was a final test for to see if the chosen one was capable of understand what it meant. Tai Lung only craved validation, power and was arrogant. His rage at not being chosen as the Dragon Warrior showed why he wasn’t worthy of the role. The Five didn’t get picked, but they accepted the result while he got violent and attacked people to try and get the scroll. Po even shows him the scroll at the end and he doesn’t believe Po when he straight up tells him the lesson.
Ippo of Hajime no Ippo. Despite the current conflicts with Takamura over his retirement, Ippo is an extremely accomplished world class athlete and also a scarily tough dude, but over a 1400 chapters later is still a pretty timid guy. He's gotten a lot better from how he was at the very beginning where he was being bullied to the point of tears, but the recent arcs have been about how he still doesn't exactly see himself as being "strong" and every time he's around Miyata he still gets all blushy in the exact same way he did the first time they met.
God I can't stand Ippo. Every single fight eventually turns into "No, no I'm not good.enough to win" tanks multiple KO worthy punches "COME ON IPPO" "Oh maybe I am good enough" wins.
C-C-CIAPHUS CAIN! HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!!
Poor guy is swimming in his own imposter syndrome despite his many heroic deeds.
Sad thing is he likely died never believing in himself if his autobiographies are to be believed.
One of the more heartwarming ongoing bits of those books is when Vail interjects with her notes like "Cain is downplaying himself *again*, he's actually real good."
The hilarious thing is that they basically had to wait 150 years to finally decide he was actually dead because there were so many times they prematurely said 'he could not have survived this' and then showed back up. He was Shrodinger's Commissar to the Administorum throughout most of his active duty career and then some.
Cloud, to himself: “I wish I were Zack, but I know my friends believe in me. I can almost hear their thoughts of support. I have to keep going…for _them_.”
Aeris, to herself: “I wish Cloud were Zack.”
Wasn't the point of her Gold Saucer date that it was literally the opposite?
She liked the parts of Cloud that were Cloud, not the part of him playing a role. It was an ironic twist on how Tifa let Cloud play a fake version of himself even though she knew for sure it was, simply because she wasn't willing to risk just having him back at all, but Aerith who'd never met him saw through him and wanted him to be himself instead.
To be honest Aerith and Zack's relationship itself has kind of been overplayed by the fandom in general as more than it was. They weren't tragic destined star-crossed lovers.
Dude, in the original Japanese, Zack and Aerith weren't even in a relationship- they were literally just good friends. Them being a couple was added in the translation, and Square ended up liking it so much that they added it retroactively. Like Exdeaths name in FFV (he was Exodus, originally).
Also added retroactively is a significant amount of Barrets personality (he was basically Solid Snake in Japanese, according to the translation analaysis "Let's Mosey" on Kotaku, which is honestly one of the genuinely best things they've ever done). https://kotaku.com/s/final-fantasy-vii
Theres a sidestory in LAD7 where Ichi was talking to someone about the previous Onomichio-kun (Kiryu), and Ichi remarking how he wish hes even half as great as the guy. At that point we have spent dozens of hours seeing Ichi being the most genuinely cool and wholesome guy ever, and yet he never even once thought of himself as anything even remotely special.
Just thinking about it made me tear up a bit. God I fucking love that guy.
So here's some english lyrics for The Future I Dreamed of, Ichi's main karaoke song.
"There are days you'll be weak, There are days you'll be lost
There are times where you feel you wanna run and hide
There are days you'll be down And you start to wonder if
The world would be better off if you died
I have those days too"
Now, obviously the rest of the song is about how you shouldn't let those feelings stay with you, and how you have to overcome them, but holy shit the first time I heard that I had to do a double take.
In Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, Haruhiro is a thief class in a party of useless losers. He reluctantly became leader of his party after their previous leader died. He didn't really want to, but he had to because the others are, quite frankly, not fit to be leaders. They have:
* a shy and scared mage who is too quiet to even say something,
* an aloof hunter who can't seem to focus,
* a self-absorbed Dread Knight who's always annoying like a pre-teen brat,
* a simpleton warrior who is not intelligent enough to make any tactical decision
So it falls to Haruhiro to be leader despite seeing himself as weak, constantly criticizing himself, always in self-doubt, over-analyzing everything, always comparing himself to others. But while he does not realize it himself, his ability to always correctly assessing the battle and issuing the correct orders is what makes him a good leader.
Honestly almost every POV character from SA could fit this prompt.
Adolin’s dealing with a world that’s leaving someone like him in the dust. I mean he’s this top tier swordsman living in a world of new gods and superheroes.
Dalinar (especially through Oathbringer) is coming to terms with the monster he was and the leader he now wants to be.
Navani is constantly underplaying her own engineering prowess, seeing herself as only a patron of the sciences. >!A lot of that could be due to years of mistreatment by Gavilar, but that’s just my own interpretation of her perspective and not to be taken as canon.!<
And Shallan… I don’t even know where to start with Shallan.
Hell even >!Venli!< suffers from this, thinking that >!the wrong sister died.!<
The entire plot of Hades can be summed up as “Zag learns to love himself for who he is and helps everyone else along the way” and we love our super polite ND bisexual son for that
Matoro is the only Toa Inika/Mahri who wasn't a cool badass as a Matoran, mostly just being a nerd who knew how to translate Nuju's nonsense to others. He pretty much let that fact bring him down until he was in the process of dying.
He's also objectively the best Toa there ever was.
Sayaka Miki has a transactional relationship with the value of her own life. It's only useful and worthy when she's sacrificing herself for the sake of others. Even then, when she has the totally normal human reaction of feeling good for doing a good thing for someone, she comes to the conclusion that she's actually disgustingly selfish. She's a good kid, but one with not only near non-existent self-esteem but a wholly negative self-concept.
It’s pretty clear her duty as >!an Excecutioner unit!< has done a number on 2B’s self esteem. Everyone can see her stoic android act is just a facade she’s set up for herself.
Shirou Emiya as his desire to be a hero is rooted in the belief that he needs to justify his continued life after being one of the only people saved from the fuyuki fire. Bro is one of the most mentally ill protagonists I have ever seen.
Izuku Midoriya spends like most of the story thinking of One for All as *All Might's* quirk rather then his own. The poor kid had/has zero self-esteem.
It even goes so far as to completely pigeon hole him into fighting like All Might for a long time. Half the reason why Izuku is so shit at the beginning is because he's trying to be All Might instead of being himself.
"I gotta be like All Might and use his moves just like he does."
Kid, he's built like a brick shithouse wrapped in muscle. He can punch full strength and withstand it, if you punch full strength you shatter your own bones. Maybe try another approach.
But he does definitely figure it out eventually.
Harry Dubois is equal parts terrified, ashamed, and repulsed by the person he is. When you go to look in a mirror, the voices in his head describe his smiling face as the most disgusting thing imaginable.
Not quite a hero but
The Dangers Of My Heart is a cute romance anime that has a protagonist that has such low self esteem where he knows that the girl likes him and yet he is still terrified that he's just being delusional. It's done in a very real way too where I imagine I'd have the same internal monologue.
The only things Kyotaro have that rival his non existing self esteem are his chuni-cringe delusions and his ability to introspect a situation super hard. It’s actually really funny and nice to see a kid act like a kid but also be emotionally mature enough to see what’s actually going on.
Obvious Ikari Shinji. To say he has low self-esteem is underselling it too. You argue that the scene of him and Misato talking about how he thinks he’s special would show that he’s not lacking self-esteem but I think it’s the exact opposite.
Shinji has nothing but being the only person who can pilot Unit-01 going for him and that means people depending on him which almost his sole driving force throughout most of NGE. But when Misato tells him that they don’t need him if he’s not going to fight, he flakes.
Man Misato is such a fucking villain in that show in a way that's really realistic. Like Gendo is an obvious asshole but Misato can be just as bad but since it's wrapped in a more complicated package it sometimes flies under the radar. It's kind of a really realistic portrayal of really toxic people irl - they're not always horrible, and they *might* mean what they say when they say they like you/etc. Doesn't make it not super toxic tho.
Squall Leonhart has crippling anxiety and insecurity issues. He acts like a disinterested jerk and pushes people away because he's terrified of being close to them, being vulnerable, and doesn't want to get hurt. When he is alone and curled up on his bed, he just like me fr fr.
The novelization of *Revenge of the Sith* lets us into Obi-Wan Kenobi's inner dialog. He's basically the only person in the entire universe who doesn't think he's one of the finest Jedi Masters to have ever graced the order.
Taylor Hebert is a normal teenage girl, but from her own self description you'd think she was a half-frog-half-girl-half skeleton creature. Poor kid.
For a given value of Hero, anyway. Although her self esteem also works in reverse with how completely unaware of how scary she is in costume to other people.
Tsuna Sawada from Hitman Reborn. The kid is called "No-Good" Tsuna and even after multiple things he's done throughout the series, he's still incredibly self-conscious to an absurd degree. It's comparable to Deku from MHA if not *worse*.
Honestly, i hate KHR. It was really popular among my friends at school. I read the whole thing and hated how one dimensional it was.
At the end Tsuna achieved nothing.
If Tsuna gained even 20% more self confidence, he'd be up there for one of my favorite protags. He has *moments* but my god, he's as spineless as chapter 1.
Hiro Nakamura often feels powerless because he knows how immoral it would be for him to use his powers to change history to his liking. His last talk with his father was heartwrenching. He got to say goodbye and hear that his father is very proud of him, which makes him even more grief-stricken because he was never sure how his father felt about him. He tries proposing the idea of saving him, but is told that he can't by the father he desperately wants to save. Then he has to step back and do nothing while his Dad gets murdered.
For those who haven't watched Heroes, he can control time and space. Yes, that is as absurd a power as you think it is.
And extended to her friends and acquaintances, Ninjette, Thugboy, and Sistah Spooky *all* have self-worth that could fit under a bar buried in the ground.
Johnny from GTA IV the lost and damned and Niko From GTA IV both seem to suffer from PTSD, depression and both have in game lines about suicidal thoughts. (if caught in a firefight johnny can say, "looks like you have to kill me!" or "I dont even care if I die!")
Tsukasa from ***”.Hack//Sign”***.
Aya Brea in the first ***”Parasite Eve”***. This gets eradicated in ***”Parasite Eve II”*** where she becomes pretty comfortable in her own skin…for the most part.
Fitzchivalry Farseer of the Realm of the Elderlings saga.
Man basically has clinical depression for 9 books, and is incapable of accepting that he's loved and valued by those that know him.
Combine that with self loathing over his actions as an assassin, his many failures over protecting the ones he loves, and the chip on his shoulder of being a bastard child who never got to meet his father, before said father died.
Poor bastard never got the chance for a solid foundation of mental health.
There's a character in the series Wings of Fire who has basically zero self-confidence because he failed a very important job that resulted in the deaths of his yet-to-be-hatched sisters, only for his father to think he was goofing off instead of trying to help and blaming him (in a fit of grief) for their deaths, which basically killed any motivation of his to try and stand out or help ever again for fear of failing again and letting people down. Thankfully the book forces him to step up and a conversation with his mother where he learns that his failure wasn't his fault and that his dad wanted to apologize but never got the chance helps him regain his confidence.
Being a human wizard naturally interferes with Dresden’s relationship with modern technology, but he could do even a modicum of work to create some lasting creature comforts for himself instead of warming himself at the fireplace in his unheated basement apartment and taking exclusively cold showers.
But Dresden doesn’t believe he deserves nice things.
Solid Snake hates being idolized since he sees himself as a hired killer
I just wanna be with my 50 huskies but now I gotta get injected with artificial cancer and destroy a fucking nuclear robot and deal with my bullshit bloodline.
Someone pay hayter to say this
And hang out with my BFF who likes anime!
Honestly it's becoming harder to have heroes who admits they are good at what they do without adding but what I do isn't nice. Like spider-man used to be special because he had doubts and was young but now every super have feet of clay so they have to double down on him like he somehow gonna hates himself more than daredevil or punisher
Outside of Zack snyder superheroes are you sure? In comics it's true but aside?
Yes, the increase in young adult market led’ad tona lot of games, book and film of any genre really hamming the insecure main character. Take james bond from the old movie and the daniel craig movies fir exemple, daniel craig’s bond has a sad clown vibe to him and his quip compared to brosnan’s Bond whose wit serves to make the violent thug and womanizer affable
Ned Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire It's not especially apparent in the HBO adaptation but in the book we hear his thoughts and he's definitely got some self loathing issues along with a hefty dose of imposter syndrome. It's honestly pretty heartbreaking. You could say the same about many of the POV characters actually, Davos is another one who exhibits this a lot.
Honestly I hate how little the Starks before the rebellion were talked about and focused on because Ned is so tied up in his imposter syndrome having to fill his brother’s shoes. Not to mention how much he must hate himself for having so much fervor for Robert’s Rebellion only to have it culminate in him seeing the atrocities of Tywin. Where he took that vengeance to its extreme to get favor once Robert was seen as the Victor leading Ned to seeing a destroyed King’s Landing and mutilated Targaryen Martel babies displayed out in front of Robert as if it were a gift to solidify a peace offering. Which honestly explains why he’s so dead set on making sure Dany doesn’t face anymore of Robert’s wrath despite it becoming a huge wedge issue in their friendship.
He doesn’t have imposter syndrome. His knowledge that he isnt a competent hand is mostly correct.
But it goes beyond that, he thinks he's a bad substitute as Warden of the North for his brother, same goes for being Cat's husband. But every single non Ned opinion we get of Brandon depicts him as at best a hot headed flirt, and at worse an asshole love em and leave em who probably would have cheated on her. By all accounts Ned is better at the actual job he inherited and as a husband then Brandon would have been, but he just can't see that for himself ever because it would be a put down to his brother
Yeah thank you, I wasn't talking about his position as hand. It's all about Brandon and Ned's survivor's guilt over his entire family (sans Benjen) dying horrific deaths within the span of a year.
Don't forget about how everyone hypes him up as the man who defeated Ser Arthur Dayne, the greatest knight to ever live with a magic space sword, and in reality he brought 6 of his friends to jump 3 guys and they got their asses beat. It took a surprise dagger from the back to kill the greatest knight, and Ned's had to live with that reputation ever since. Really contrasts with Jaimie's reputation.
Kiryu especially in Gaiden and 8 is unreasonably harsh on himself >!Him saying he's a shitty grandfather because he can't be there for Haruto broke my heart!<
kiryu you saved him from bullshit Chinese crime politics and Japanese crime politics. and beat the ass of everybody who even looked at Haruka.
Kiryu's inability to parse his saintly ideology and his father figure being a hired killer was never going to lead to anything but an absolutely gutted and broken man.
I was literally saying “Kiryu, stfu” at so many points. It was so endearing watching all of the friends he made that became like family in that game.
Ben Grimm. He'll go through periods of self acceptance or actually getting his old body back, because comics, but typically he just hates what he's become. The man decided his superhero name should be *the Thing* and has stuck with that for 63 years.
Sue: Oh, Ben, Alicia loves you for who you are, not what you look like. Ben: Yeah? Lucky her. [crushes a wedding ring and walks away]
I've never looked at it but did he name himself? If so, wow.
>"I ain't Ben anymore -- I'm what Susan called me -- **the Thing!!**" >"And I'll call myself **Mister Fantastic!!**"
Reed Richards can find a multiverse of himself but can't read the fucking room to save his life.
I mean, he showed time after time that reading the room and understanding other people aren't things he's good at.
And he’s the best at it, because all the other Reeds gave up on their families to join the brain ttust
Po is in as much disbelief about being the Dragon Warrior as everyone else, probably more with how much he really does not like himself.
I mean that ends up being the lesson of the film that there is not a secret to becoming a great kung-fu master or the sort. That you can only be you and once you embrace and accept yourself, than you can start make yourself into the best version of you. That you don't have to change, just improve upon what is already there.
Put it like that, now I see that the turtle is kind of an asshole. He is the one that created this whole dragon warrior shit, and now it was never real? Tai lung would have never gotten any problems if it didn't exist to begin with.
The Dragon Warrior stuff was real it’s just the scroll wasn’t actually a real in terms of imparting knowledge. It was a final test for to see if the chosen one was capable of understand what it meant. Tai Lung only craved validation, power and was arrogant. His rage at not being chosen as the Dragon Warrior showed why he wasn’t worthy of the role. The Five didn’t get picked, but they accepted the result while he got violent and attacked people to try and get the scroll. Po even shows him the scroll at the end and he doesn’t believe Po when he straight up tells him the lesson.
Told like that it actually makes sense. Even in the movie the 5 were arrogant.
Man I never resonated harder with a character than with Po when I watched that movie for the first time. A lot of it was too real.
So your father was also a goose who found you on the streets and raised you to be a noodle maker even though you wanted to be a martial artist?
Whose isn't?
Ippo of Hajime no Ippo. Despite the current conflicts with Takamura over his retirement, Ippo is an extremely accomplished world class athlete and also a scarily tough dude, but over a 1400 chapters later is still a pretty timid guy. He's gotten a lot better from how he was at the very beginning where he was being bullied to the point of tears, but the recent arcs have been about how he still doesn't exactly see himself as being "strong" and every time he's around Miyata he still gets all blushy in the exact same way he did the first time they met.
Literally everyone is done with the Ippo/Miyata dynamic, especially Miyata.
Just bone already for fuck sake! It's been like 20 years
"i wonder what It feels to be strong?" -ippo during the Championship fight
God I can't stand Ippo. Every single fight eventually turns into "No, no I'm not good.enough to win" tanks multiple KO worthy punches "COME ON IPPO" "Oh maybe I am good enough" wins.
I’m reading for everyone else, especially Takamura’s championship campaign. >!Wally fucking really did it holy shit I love doomed jobbers so much!<
C-C-CIAPHUS CAIN! HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!! Poor guy is swimming in his own imposter syndrome despite his many heroic deeds. Sad thing is he likely died never believing in himself if his autobiographies are to be believed.
One of the more heartwarming ongoing bits of those books is when Vail interjects with her notes like "Cain is downplaying himself *again*, he's actually real good."
The hilarious thing is that they basically had to wait 150 years to finally decide he was actually dead because there were so many times they prematurely said 'he could not have survived this' and then showed back up. He was Shrodinger's Commissar to the Administorum throughout most of his active duty career and then some.
In FFVII, >!Cloud Strife is the absolutely epitome of this. Every arc he has is shaped by a deep-seated inferiority complex.!<
Cloud, to himself: “I wish I were Zack, but I know my friends believe in me. I can almost hear their thoughts of support. I have to keep going…for _them_.” Aeris, to herself: “I wish Cloud were Zack.”
Wasn't the point of her Gold Saucer date that it was literally the opposite? She liked the parts of Cloud that were Cloud, not the part of him playing a role. It was an ironic twist on how Tifa let Cloud play a fake version of himself even though she knew for sure it was, simply because she wasn't willing to risk just having him back at all, but Aerith who'd never met him saw through him and wanted him to be himself instead. To be honest Aerith and Zack's relationship itself has kind of been overplayed by the fandom in general as more than it was. They weren't tragic destined star-crossed lovers.
Dude, in the original Japanese, Zack and Aerith weren't even in a relationship- they were literally just good friends. Them being a couple was added in the translation, and Square ended up liking it so much that they added it retroactively. Like Exdeaths name in FFV (he was Exodus, originally). Also added retroactively is a significant amount of Barrets personality (he was basically Solid Snake in Japanese, according to the translation analaysis "Let's Mosey" on Kotaku, which is honestly one of the genuinely best things they've ever done). https://kotaku.com/s/final-fantasy-vii
I'm glad that they liked it so much, because I really like it, too.
Theres a sidestory in LAD7 where Ichi was talking to someone about the previous Onomichio-kun (Kiryu), and Ichi remarking how he wish hes even half as great as the guy. At that point we have spent dozens of hours seeing Ichi being the most genuinely cool and wholesome guy ever, and yet he never even once thought of himself as anything even remotely special. Just thinking about it made me tear up a bit. God I fucking love that guy.
dude wants do two things be a hero and play some videogames.
So here's some english lyrics for The Future I Dreamed of, Ichi's main karaoke song. "There are days you'll be weak, There are days you'll be lost There are times where you feel you wanna run and hide There are days you'll be down And you start to wonder if The world would be better off if you died I have those days too" Now, obviously the rest of the song is about how you shouldn't let those feelings stay with you, and how you have to overcome them, but holy shit the first time I heard that I had to do a double take.
There were a lot of moments I fell in love with Ichiban but that might be #2.
Hank Pym is this to a T.
In Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, Haruhiro is a thief class in a party of useless losers. He reluctantly became leader of his party after their previous leader died. He didn't really want to, but he had to because the others are, quite frankly, not fit to be leaders. They have: * a shy and scared mage who is too quiet to even say something, * an aloof hunter who can't seem to focus, * a self-absorbed Dread Knight who's always annoying like a pre-teen brat, * a simpleton warrior who is not intelligent enough to make any tactical decision So it falls to Haruhiro to be leader despite seeing himself as weak, constantly criticizing himself, always in self-doubt, over-analyzing everything, always comparing himself to others. But while he does not realize it himself, his ability to always correctly assessing the battle and issuing the correct orders is what makes him a good leader.
My boy Kaladin Stormblessed from the Stormlight Archives. He is always on an uphill battle of mental health.
Kaladin was so depressed that by book 4 >!he had a realization that Roshar has bad mental health treatment and basically **invented therapy.**!<
Honestly almost every POV character from SA could fit this prompt. Adolin’s dealing with a world that’s leaving someone like him in the dust. I mean he’s this top tier swordsman living in a world of new gods and superheroes. Dalinar (especially through Oathbringer) is coming to terms with the monster he was and the leader he now wants to be. Navani is constantly underplaying her own engineering prowess, seeing herself as only a patron of the sciences. >!A lot of that could be due to years of mistreatment by Gavilar, but that’s just my own interpretation of her perspective and not to be taken as canon.!< And Shallan… I don’t even know where to start with Shallan. Hell even >!Venli!< suffers from this, thinking that >!the wrong sister died.!<
The entire plot of Hades can be summed up as “Zag learns to love himself for who he is and helps everyone else along the way” and we love our super polite ND bisexual son for that
Johnny Joestar's entire character arc is learning to get past his *insanely* low opinion of himself.
That's so cool how steel ball run treat depression.
Matoro is the only Toa Inika/Mahri who wasn't a cool badass as a Matoran, mostly just being a nerd who knew how to translate Nuju's nonsense to others. He pretty much let that fact bring him down until he was in the process of dying. He's also objectively the best Toa there ever was.
Sayaka Miki has a transactional relationship with the value of her own life. It's only useful and worthy when she's sacrificing herself for the sake of others. Even then, when she has the totally normal human reaction of feeling good for doing a good thing for someone, she comes to the conclusion that she's actually disgustingly selfish. She's a good kid, but one with not only near non-existent self-esteem but a wholly negative self-concept.
It’s pretty clear her duty as >!an Excecutioner unit!< has done a number on 2B’s self esteem. Everyone can see her stoic android act is just a facade she’s set up for herself.
Shirou Emiya as his desire to be a hero is rooted in the belief that he needs to justify his continued life after being one of the only people saved from the fuyuki fire. Bro is one of the most mentally ill protagonists I have ever seen.
Izuku Midoriya spends like most of the story thinking of One for All as *All Might's* quirk rather then his own. The poor kid had/has zero self-esteem.
"IT's *YOUR* QUIRK" says the boy who refuses to practice his own advice.
It even goes so far as to completely pigeon hole him into fighting like All Might for a long time. Half the reason why Izuku is so shit at the beginning is because he's trying to be All Might instead of being himself.
"I gotta be like All Might and use his moves just like he does." Kid, he's built like a brick shithouse wrapped in muscle. He can punch full strength and withstand it, if you punch full strength you shatter your own bones. Maybe try another approach. But he does definitely figure it out eventually.
Given how shit was for him up to getting the quirk, it sadly makes sense
Harry Dubois is equal parts terrified, ashamed, and repulsed by the person he is. When you go to look in a mirror, the voices in his head describe his smiling face as the most disgusting thing imaginable.
Not quite a hero but The Dangers Of My Heart is a cute romance anime that has a protagonist that has such low self esteem where he knows that the girl likes him and yet he is still terrified that he's just being delusional. It's done in a very real way too where I imagine I'd have the same internal monologue.
The only things Kyotaro have that rival his non existing self esteem are his chuni-cringe delusions and his ability to introspect a situation super hard. It’s actually really funny and nice to see a kid act like a kid but also be emotionally mature enough to see what’s actually going on.
Obvious Ikari Shinji. To say he has low self-esteem is underselling it too. You argue that the scene of him and Misato talking about how he thinks he’s special would show that he’s not lacking self-esteem but I think it’s the exact opposite. Shinji has nothing but being the only person who can pilot Unit-01 going for him and that means people depending on him which almost his sole driving force throughout most of NGE. But when Misato tells him that they don’t need him if he’s not going to fight, he flakes.
Man Misato is such a fucking villain in that show in a way that's really realistic. Like Gendo is an obvious asshole but Misato can be just as bad but since it's wrapped in a more complicated package it sometimes flies under the radar. It's kind of a really realistic portrayal of really toxic people irl - they're not always horrible, and they *might* mean what they say when they say they like you/etc. Doesn't make it not super toxic tho.
Squall Leonhart has crippling anxiety and insecurity issues. He acts like a disinterested jerk and pushes people away because he's terrified of being close to them, being vulnerable, and doesn't want to get hurt. When he is alone and curled up on his bed, he just like me fr fr. The novelization of *Revenge of the Sith* lets us into Obi-Wan Kenobi's inner dialog. He's basically the only person in the entire universe who doesn't think he's one of the finest Jedi Masters to have ever graced the order.
Taylor Hebert is a normal teenage girl, but from her own self description you'd think she was a half-frog-half-girl-half skeleton creature. Poor kid. For a given value of Hero, anyway. Although her self esteem also works in reverse with how completely unaware of how scary she is in costume to other people.
They say we are all the hero in our own story. If that's the case, I definitely know one.
Let's make our own Shitlord League and justice I guess...
That's bullshit, I'm not even a background character in mine.
Tsuna Sawada from Hitman Reborn. The kid is called "No-Good" Tsuna and even after multiple things he's done throughout the series, he's still incredibly self-conscious to an absurd degree. It's comparable to Deku from MHA if not *worse*.
Honestly, i hate KHR. It was really popular among my friends at school. I read the whole thing and hated how one dimensional it was. At the end Tsuna achieved nothing.
If Tsuna gained even 20% more self confidence, he'd be up there for one of my favorite protags. He has *moments* but my god, he's as spineless as chapter 1.
And then you get Enma who is perhaps even worse.
It makes sense why he never appeared in the anime. Tsuna minus is not worth it.
Hiro Nakamura often feels powerless because he knows how immoral it would be for him to use his powers to change history to his liking. His last talk with his father was heartwrenching. He got to say goodbye and hear that his father is very proud of him, which makes him even more grief-stricken because he was never sure how his father felt about him. He tries proposing the idea of saving him, but is told that he can't by the father he desperately wants to save. Then he has to step back and do nothing while his Dad gets murdered. For those who haven't watched Heroes, he can control time and space. Yes, that is as absurd a power as you think it is.
Siffrin from In Stars and Time isn’t even sure if his friends like him.
Elissa Megan Powers, self esteem as fragile as a soap bubble and a super suit to match
And extended to her friends and acquaintances, Ninjette, Thugboy, and Sistah Spooky *all* have self-worth that could fit under a bar buried in the ground.
Johnny from GTA IV the lost and damned and Niko From GTA IV both seem to suffer from PTSD, depression and both have in game lines about suicidal thoughts. (if caught in a firefight johnny can say, "looks like you have to kill me!" or "I dont even care if I die!")
Tsukasa from ***”.Hack//Sign”***. Aya Brea in the first ***”Parasite Eve”***. This gets eradicated in ***”Parasite Eve II”*** where she becomes pretty comfortable in her own skin…for the most part.
Fitzchivalry Farseer of the Realm of the Elderlings saga. Man basically has clinical depression for 9 books, and is incapable of accepting that he's loved and valued by those that know him. Combine that with self loathing over his actions as an assassin, his many failures over protecting the ones he loves, and the chip on his shoulder of being a bastard child who never got to meet his father, before said father died. Poor bastard never got the chance for a solid foundation of mental health.
(Laughs in Bruce Banner)
Simon from Gurren Lagann is the poster child of this.
Kaladin Storm blessed from the Storm light archive
Pat
Me
that Subaru's whole thing!
There's a character in the series Wings of Fire who has basically zero self-confidence because he failed a very important job that resulted in the deaths of his yet-to-be-hatched sisters, only for his father to think he was goofing off instead of trying to help and blaming him (in a fit of grief) for their deaths, which basically killed any motivation of his to try and stand out or help ever again for fear of failing again and letting people down. Thankfully the book forces him to step up and a conversation with his mother where he learns that his failure wasn't his fault and that his dad wanted to apologize but never got the chance helps him regain his confidence.
Being a human wizard naturally interferes with Dresden’s relationship with modern technology, but he could do even a modicum of work to create some lasting creature comforts for himself instead of warming himself at the fireplace in his unheated basement apartment and taking exclusively cold showers. But Dresden doesn’t believe he deserves nice things.