What happened to the heroes?

Last night, Paige and I were talking about how, in books, what has happened to the heroes? The main guy characters who are like the knights in shining armor, the ones who don't get made fun of (that seems to happen a lot in TV shows), and the ones who make a difference. That makes me think of characters like Dick Grahame from The Sherwood Ring and Geoffrey from A Murder For Her Majesty. It seems to me there's a lot of books being written that are just sugar. If they were a kind of candy, they'd be a pixie stix. They taste good, but they have no substance.

In my books (i hope!) I try to create strong male and female characters. I don't want the girls to be nasty, too stubborn, and controlling, but I want them to have spirit. My guys shouldn't be cowards, made out to be stupid, and basically just punching bags for the girls. That isn't to say that the girls can't be stubborn; or that the guys aren't nervous going into battle, because that's what makes them human-- and I think another reason that the heroes don't seem to be heroes anymore is because they're becoming way too un-human. Isn't that what we love about our favorite book characters? Their weaknesses. Their downfalls. After all, a perfect book hero is an uninteresting book heroes. They become interesting when they become human; that's who I hope I created with Julian in one of my books, Cymbeline. He's vain; he's stubborn; but he's also brave and selfless and would put his own life in danger to save Finna. Do I understand what I mean? I think we're losing the real heroes to guys like Edward in Twilight.

I was just listening to The Saltwater Room by Owl City. I love his songs; a lot of them are romantic, but they're really sweet, not angsty. Maybe that's another point I'm trying to prove:). Sometimes it's nice to have clean love songs, without worrying about what they're going to say next.

I'm going to compile a list of the heroes I think are the most real-- the ones have weaknesses, strengths, who are really human and therefore more lovable.

Finn, Razo, and Geric from the Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale
Dick Grahame, Pat Thorn, and Peaceable Sherwood from the Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope
Jacob Grimm from The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley
Percy Jackson from Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
Artemis Fowl from... guess where... Artemis Fowl! by Eoin Colfer
Geoffrey and Orlando from A Murder for Her Majesty by Beth Hilgartner
Sheftu from Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis Mcgraw
Johnny Tremain from Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
This one is for Paige-- Gen from the Attolia books by Megan Whalen Turner
Howl Pendragon from Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

I'm sure there's a few I'm missing... but that's all I got for now. Have fun, keep writing, and make those characters real!