When you think about heroes, you instantly think of capes and leather as far as the eye can see.

But not all heroes wear masks. Some are just everyday people fighting off the supernatural, safe-guarding time, or ensuring that their family is safe and sound.

These TV characters from 2016 broke the mold and redefined what it means to be a hero.

1. Stiles Stilinski (Teen Wolf)

No matter how scary the foe or how big the challenge seems, Stiles never gives up. He pushes and he fights back against adversity, the craziest of supernatural opponents, and stays when everyone else leaves.

His commitment to his pack, liberating Lydia from Eichen House, and getting back to his family, make him a hero on Teen Wolf. Whatever comes next, he’ll make it out alive, because that’s what survivors and heroes like him do.

2. Rick Grimes (The Walking Dead)

Rick has been put through the ringer every single season of The Walking Dead. He’s lost his wife, members of his found family, and been broken by the likes of people like Negan the Savior. But like the saying goes, “You can’t keep a good man down.”

Rick is that good man.

He survives, thrives, and cherishes the people around him. Rick doesn’t want to just get through the zombie apocalypse. He wants to live a life worth living with his family by his side.

3. Emma Swan (Once Upon a Time)

Emma Swan’s not just a hero — she’s the hero of Once Upon a Time, the Savior of Storybrooke, of Henry, of her parents (even of Hook, in a way). And yet, what makes Emma a hero is not that she was destined to be one, but that she loves wholeheartedly.

She fights till the end (and then a little bit more) and despite some growing pains, she believes in the family she’s got, in the love of her life (Yes, we’re talking Killian here) and in the happiness she’s fought so hard for.

4. Luke Cage (Marvel’s Luke Cage)

Luke didn’t set out to be a hero, yet he became one almost instantly. His previous appearance on Jessica Jones gave us a little background on this character.

It was his journey on his own show that really gave us a glimpse at the complexities of this man and how he came to be unbreakable. Luke Cage feels undeserving, yet honor bound, to the community that accepted him and stays because he cares.

5. Jules Thomas (Sweet/Vicious)

Out of all the heroes on this list, Jules from Sweet/Vicious is the most multifaceted and real. The pain of her trauma was transformed into a mission to protect others and not let her pain consume her.

Her rape didn’t just become a trope or something that could be brushed aside at the first sign of an understanding man. Instead she fights her inner demons on a daily basis, has started to actively seek the companionship of others, and is taking on life on her own terms.

6. Eretria (The Shannara Chronicles)

From the start, Eretria is painted as the outsider. She’s the scavenger, the thief, the villain. And any other show would have stuck to that instead of doing what The Shannara Chronicles did.

They peeled back the layers of this lonely, yet fierce, woman and showed us the hero she could be. She stuck to her convictions and saved the day over and over again for the family that she found with Wil and Amberle.

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