http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StandardizedLeader

Natural-Born Leader: Noun. An untalented, benignly useless person, but for the potent services of the natural-born led. Thorax, 9 Chickweed Lane Noun. An untalented, benignly useless person, but for the potent services of the natural-born led.

Conflict drives stories. This is a central axiom of fiction. It's why the more conflicted and nuanced a character, relationship, or plot, the more involved the viewer will become. Characters themselves must have some conflict to overcome, be it internal or external, to engage a narrative. This is why when a story focuses on a group of heroes, it is the most dynamic of them that garner the most attention and love. Pity that's rarely The Leader.

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Leaders in fiction tend to have two simultaneous burdens on them both in and out of the story: outside of the story they must be The Everyman as a reader's stand in; they can't be too distinctive without alienating some audience members after all. So they end up sucking because we suck. Inside the story they have to bear the qualities necessary to lead. So their temperament must be emotionally balanced, serious and morally upright to keep their teammates in check. Effectively, they don't have the ambiguity of the other heroes. You know that he's not going to fall to The Dark Side or lose, so his conflicts are less interesting than those not as protected by their morals or Plot Armor.

Those being led are under no such yoke. They're free to be a Rebellious Spirit with a Dark and Troubled Past, a carefree Cloud Cuckoo Lander or any kind of character under the sun. Proof of concept: part of being The Lancer is an increased likelihood of making Ensemble Dark Horse. The Hero has no choice in the matter; if he wants his party to function he has to become The Generic Guy.

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In a long-running series or mythos, the Standardized Leader stands out most for not being able to change. And when we say change, we don't even mean his Character Development. Writers and designers may not even be able to change the Hero's look without backlash from fans who can only accept the original flavor. The Standardized Leader is trapped in time.

Happens quite a bit in High Fantasy and Science Fantasy series in general. The main hero shoulders the burden of being a paint-by-numbers Campbellian hero, generally a standard male protagonist who grows from a boy to a man to a Messianic Archetype. His companions' role in the plot is not so strictly defined, and are allowed to be quirky, flawed and hint at Hidden Depths. This trope is also particularly common in Role-Playing Games where the leader is meant to stand in for the player.

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Averting this trope is not impossible. In fact some characters are Magnetic Heroes precisely because they're quirky and Hot-Blooded. Heck, some writers will see that second paragraph and think that any character capable of balancing that many variables would make for an Oscar role, making Mr. Ensemble Donut a delicious jelly filled donut thanks to Hidden Depths. He just happens to be a Nice Guy on top.

Compare Jack-of-All-Stats and the The Red Mage.

Examples:

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Comic Books

This is an explicit feature of Cyclops, leader of the X-Men. The traits which make him, or anyone, a good leader are also the traits that make him the least fun at parties. To a certain extent, the two are mutually exclusive. Recent writers have given Cyclops a good deal of character development by embracing this trope. Used to great effect at times, however, for comedy; being a standardized leader makes him adept at playing The Comically Serious role. It also helps that, depending on the writer, he has a very dry sense of humour. Various events, especially the death of Jean and most recently Avengers vs. X-Men, have however lead to deconstructing this trope. As the only thing he had close to a personal life died, he basically threw himself into work 24/7, and as mutants plummeted in numbers and things got Darker and Edgier, he pushed the team into darker territory to keep everyone safe, resulting in some morally ambiguous decisions. He's now frequently compared to Magneto (who he gave a spot on the team to when he came asking for a HeelFace Turn), due to his willingness to use extreme measures others would find appalling or a last resort.

Cosmic Boy from the Legion of Super-Heroes is much more rule abiding and serious than his drama generating teammates, it's a large part of why he's usually the leader.

Nightwing/Dick Grayson, possibly the default guy for leadership in the DC universe, subverts this astoundingly by being one of the most popular characters and having a far too jocular attitude to fit. It probably helps that he has a very long, detailed, and sometimes painful history of growing up as a sidekick, and whenever he works with Batman he seems fine with letting Bats take the lead. During the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans run, Dick was chosen by Raven to lead the team she assembled because he is just the default leader of any team of heroes due to his incredible charisma and cleverness in delegating roles. Nightwing is so universally accepted as a leader that when three different incarnations of the Teen Titans gathered together to fight a threat, they all took Dick's orders without hesitation or bickering over who should be in charge. Even the Titans that were never lead by him. He was almost killed during Infinite Crisis because his death would send the most reverberations through the DCU due to all his friendships and relationships with the rest of the characters.

In most groups he's a part of, Batman will be the leader or at least a leading member. He tends to skirt this trope by maintaining his cold demeanor but the lack of focus means that a lot of his depth is glossed over.

For the DCU as a whole, Superman often takes this role, due to him essentially playing the role of role model to all other heroes. Over in the Marvel Universe, Captain America plays this role for mostly the same reasons; while Nick Fury often has more authority than him, Fury's also a world-class Jerkass that makes him slightly more distinctive.

Princess Sally Acorn from Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics is a rare example of a Standardized Leader who isn't the main protagonist. Less evident in earlier issues, where she was more The Finicky One, though as time passed, her Closer to Earth role eclipsed most of her defining flaws.

Gold of the Metal Men. The other Metal Men all have very loud personalities (except for Copper, but she's new); Gold's personality seems limited to "being the leader, and all that that entails." In the New 52 version, he does have a unique personality: namely, he's a preening narcissist who thinks gold is obviously the best metal, and so appointed himself the leader.

In The Authority, Jack Hawksmoor takes over as leader after Jenny Sparks dies, and proceeds to be several orders of magnitude less interesting than her. All the other characters have recognisable personalities, story arcs, and motivations. Jack just has his powers and a tendency to brood.

Films — Live-Action

Literature

Animorphs: While Jake seems like this to his teammates, his inner conflicts resulting from his position and Shoot the Dog tendencies make him a subversion of this trope. This is especially brought to light when he orders his (Yeerk-infested) brother killed and starts committing war crimes against the Yeerks. Discussed as early as book 16 (of 54) — Cassie tries to convince Jake that he doesn't have to be like this 24/7, but he disagrees. If he admits that he's scared, then so can everyone else, at which point the whole team will be paralysed.

Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica: Fresh-faced kid Jason, with no exploits to his name, is put in charge of an all-star team of established Greek heroes. He can't help but come across as bland in comparison.

Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. Despite being the title character, a clean-cut all-American boy and The Smart Guy, his negligible personality is overwhelmed by those of his much more colorful and assertive teammates. Rand, the hero of The Wheel of Time, is a deconstruction of both this and The Chosen One, since for much of the later part of the series, aside from his comparatively bland personality outside of his friends, he was literally going insane as a result of all the pressure he was under. He did finally get better, though, and now acts more like a wise beyond his years holy warrior than anything .

. Rhodan, the eponymous character of the long running Perry Rhodan pulp space opera. Much was made of his leadership and decisiveness in the early years, but that eventually got old and now he's basically the reader's projection screen.

Kill Time or Die Trying: Brad from Part I is a fairly generic student who cements himself as the moral compass of WARP and eventually becomes club president.

Jason Grace, from The Heroes of Olympus. Well, until he gets some serious Character Development in House of Hades.

The Lord of the Rings: Neither Frodo nor Aragorn really fits the Standardized Leader type, but Frodo tends to be overshadowed by other members of the Fellowship.

Live-Action TV

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Western Animation