You see, people need heroes to look up to, especially when they are young. Kids naturally seek out a mold to pour themselves into, someone besides mommy and daddy that can do extraordinary things to model themselves after. Whether that's a legendary warrior in the age-old tales of a village shaman, a big sister, a laser-firing robot or the ideal of a firefighter, cop or princess is irrelevant- what matters is the accessability of the character, how easily he or she can be understood, how easily and how much he or she can be respected, and for what qualities or actions.

So how does this play out in today's world? Anyone can tell that we've transcended the single hero mentality by a long ways, that we've left the days of three-or-four "great heroes" behind in favor of endless hoards of protagonists (and antagonists) vying for our affections- and it's all thanks to the information age and the steady climb that we've made toward it. Think about it- growing up in a small village in the ancient past, you wouldn't have had much to go on. You'd look up to your father or your mother, maybe a grandparent or an uncle as your "hero". The mythology would be his or her exploits, harrowing adventures, and near misses- sound familiar? The kind of things we share around the table today are the same kinds of things we shared around the fire in the distant past, inspiring the young to go out and try new things, to assert themselves and change the world around them. As time went on, the number of available heroes and the number of stories expanded- larger communities and contact with other cultures brought divinity and great heroes and other peoples' relatives into the picture, and then the heroes spun and spread by poets, bards, and storytellers alike blossomed and tantalized in ever-increasing droves until a whole plethora of heroes became available for the common man or woman -or most importantly, the common child- to look up to. In the not-so-distant past, the heroes of books, radio, and much later, movies, followed this example as they popped up and began to snare our attentions. The Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon, and even Captain Kirk inspired countless children to push forward and attain their own superhuman heights- and new heroes were thus born, more men and women that could be looked up to and idolized, used as a benchmark for progress and a guide whenever the flying got hard. And with each new decade, with each new technological mark we surpass that brings humanity just a little closer together, the number of available heroes to inspire us continues to grow, hundreds pouring out of the stories that come to us through books, television, movies, even anime and interactive media like videogames and "action books." It's all the same- from Lancelot, Indra, and Jason to Luke Skywalker, Ellen Ripley, and Cloud Strife, the hero myth proves itself eternal and continues unabated, rising up and griping us, giving us men and women with superhuman qualities that we can look up to and emulate consciously or unconsciously throughout the rigors of our everyday lives and the not-so-everyday circumstances we all-too-often find ourselves face-to-face with. Every second, new heroes are born and new people are exposed to them- it's an endless cycle. Just ask anyone the simple question of who their hero is and you'll get an incredible array of answers, from relatives and friends to characters that have never existed outside the imagination, with many people not content to pick or stick to just one in any given circumstance.