Top Inspiring Fictional Characters To Look Up to
Ever admire fictional characters? Don’t worry. Most of us have been there, they pretty much resonated my life as I work. I used to say “I am the blood of the dragon” to keep me motivated to work (aside from praying).
However, these characters are actually very good examples for us. Sure we have inspiring leaders and successful people in the world, but we don’t follow their overall lives.
Unlike movie characters, we SEE who they were from the very beginning until their end. Take Tony Stark for an example, we saw him first as an arrogant man who later changed to be a hero. We saw all his motivations towards his goals and why he did it.
It’s all right if we have fictional characters we admire and eventually became inspirational models. I have lists of characters that I see as inspirational models in my life:
1) Daenerys Targaryen
Let’s pretend the Mad Queen thing did not exist, all right? Because I don’t believe the motivation that turned her mad is convincing enough to do this. Plus the last two seasons were rushed.
Rising from a mere slave into a remarkable leader, conquering cities after cities. Daenerys had and always been a part of my life. We first saw her as an innocent girl just wanting to go home and be with a loving family, only to be torn away from her and having an abusive brother.
In other words, she felt alone. However, that didn’t let her cloud her mind forever as she decided to change her destiny.
She took advantage of her role as “Queen of the Savages”. Though she was first sold to Khal Drogo, who took her to become his wife, she managed to use that role to command her now blood riders and learned to love Drogo.
However, when Drogo died, that didn’t stop her to still be a leader. She proved her worth as she walked into flames and hatched 3 dragons. Long story short, she then began conquering cities after cities and ended slavery in Essos.
If she had given up when she knew she will forever be one of the savages or gave up when Khal Drogo died (which lead the tribe to be torn apart as well), she would never be able to be a leader. I don’t even think she would have the heart to figure out that her dragon eggs were still alive.
What we can take from her is: accept the truth, own it, self-evaluate, find ways to improve yourself, and help others. That way, you can also be a remarkable leader just like the Dragon Queen (not counting from season 8).
2) Captain Marvel
The once a girl who was rejected and doubted by everyone, now rising into a powerful Avenger, Captain Marvel. Carol Danvers was a pilot before she was turned into a superhero. Her past wasn’t as great as it may be prior to becoming Captain Marvel.
She wasn’t really great at many things. She kept falling down when she tried riding a bike, wasn’t good at sports (Baseball, climbing), and would seem to always fall whatever she did. Her friends and family weren’t supportive of her as well, telling her to “go home”, “she doesn’t belong here”, and all the doubting words to her.
However, her stubborn nature of a fighter helped her get back up again to fight for what is right and proved to everyone that she can still win the game.
The point is, she never gave up. She used all the doubtful words, rejections, and failures as a motivational drive to prove that she can. If she had given up when she trained to be a pilot, she would never be able to become Captain Marvel.
The lesson here is: NEVER EVER GIVE UP NO MATTER WHAT OTHERS SAY!!
3) Aquaman
The son of land and sea, Arthur Curry. Born as an outcast of Atlanta for being a hybrid human, and the bastard son of Queen Atlanna, he used his powers to protect both worlds.
We first saw him in Justice League as someone who protects fishermen and fished with them. There, he wanted to help those in need. In the stand-alone film, while still doing that, he was reluctant to confront Atlantis after hearing about his mother’s execution because she had him.
As much as he wanted Justice, he didn’t want to cause any troubles to anyone because of him. So instead, he turned his attention to those in danger. When the Sea and Land world were both in trouble of war, he had to do something: confronting his half brother, which did not turn well.
Eventually, he had to find the legendary Trident of Poseidon. Just as he was about to reach the trident, it was guarded by Karathan, a monster guardian, who did not think that he suited to wield the trident.
Now in here, just like a job interview, people would say “I am highly motivated, I am smart, etc”. That tells us nothing. That’s your CV, just like how Arthur managed to reach for the Trident. What HR, in this case, Karathan, want to know, is your “why”.
That’s when you, like Arthur, tell your strengths, own your flaws and tell why are you doing what you did. Arthur communicates with Karathen first, he wants to explain things before he tells about himself. After that, he explained how he is a nobody and that he came because he had no other choice as he was trying to protect people.
THIS IS A LEADER. A leader thinks of others first before themselves. Doing this, that’s when you can win people’s hearts.
You may be an outcast, I felt that at work when my colleagues found that I kept speaking English all the time. But, that helped me connect with international people to the point that I can help be the bridge for them for my country such as convincing them to visit Indonesia. I wrote my experience of building a bridge to connect here:
What you can learn from Aquaman is: help people in need, own your flaws, and don’t be selfish. Had Aquaman turned his back on his people or Atlanta, Land and Sea will be at war. He could’ve run away with his father, but he chose to fight for both world. He would have given up after he was defeated by King Orm, but he got back up and challenged him again. And just like what his mother said, and I may be paraphrasing: “A hero fights for both worlds”.
4) Lucy Pevensie
The valiant Queen of Narnia and the youngest of the Pevensies, Lucy. Though innocent, she had a great heart for Narnia. In fact, no matter how many times her siblings doubted her, she still believed in Narnia and Aslan. Most of all she believed in what she had experienced that no one else did.
We first saw her as the most innocent one and discovered Narnia first. Her siblings know that she had never lied, and yet they still didn’t believe her about the wardrobe. Instead, she kept visiting the wardrobe until all the siblings saw Narnia for themselves.
The one that made me love her more was that she believed that she will always return to Aslan. She had faith in him, even when her siblings doubted here again and again, that she saw Aslan. In the end, she would always be the first to find him.
What you can learn from her is to: faith and believe. With or without religion involved here, as CS Lewis implemented some Christianity in the books, his core of the book is to: believe in what you think is right. Lucy believed that she saw Aslan telling her to go across the gorge.
But no one believed her until she proved that there is a way to get across when they found a dead end in the other way. If she followed what her siblings had said, even the very beginning when they doubted her about the wardrobe, the four of them will never know of Narnia.
Thus, believe & have faith in yourself, and if you are a person of religion, believe in your God(s) that they’ll give you away.
5) Sora
The boy who was chosen by accident to wield a magical sword, the keyblade. Sora was thrust into a different world to find his friends, only to find out that there is a hidden war that can cause his world to fall into darkness as well. Whilst searching for his friends, many times he encountered many temptations to fall into the darkness, but that didn’t stop him to fight the darkness.
Sora was a teenager when he discovered that he was a keyblade wielder chosen by accident by another former keyblader wielder, Ventus, when he fell into the dark to protect his friends. He traveled to many worlds and each time, enemies will mock him about his weakness on needing his friends to fight all the time.
It’s true though, in the game, he had many allies to back him up to fight and links to summon his friends. Enemies would always tell him to give in into the dark in order to unlock his darkness to gain more power.
However, he refused to give in into the dark and keep fighting for the light. He hasn’t passed his mark of mastery and went to the realm of darkness in order to save a former master, Aqua, despite knowing that he wasn’t as strong as his rival friend Riku. Despite that, he managed to save Aqua. He never gave up to be a fighter, and that made him, indirectly, a leader of the guardians of light in Kingdom Hearts 3.
What you can learn from Sora is to: never give up. Sora went to many worlds and all his enemies wanted him to come to the dark side because it was easier to be powerful, just like when he was able to turn into his dark form, the anti-form.
However, no matter how great something sounds, we must not fall into the temptation. It’s like when you are on a diet, and there is chocolate in front of you. You are tempted to eat it right? They taste better than salad. If you can fight that temptation and not giving up to stay persistent about it, then you win. Therefore, keep fighting no matter what.
All in all
Some of the pop culture characters today helped to shape us to become a better person as they are involved in our lives. So watching movies or playing games is not useless, though it depends on which perspective you see. But most have morals that we can follow when it is difficult to relate or not enough information about successful people today. I certainly had inspiration and motivation thanks to these fictional characters as well. I am not worshiping them, but I can grateful that I found, somewhat, a role model.
There are many other characters out there that may help you go through your life. Some tell you to be smart like Tony Stark, brave like Captain America, and many more. The point is, you can be your favorite characters in real life. Take Elon Musk, for example, he was dubbed as the real-life Iron Man, despite that he created electronics such as Tesla. So, you can be that character you love, as long as you, like this article mostly pointed out, never give up.
Hope you get something from here and thank you for reading :)
