Kazuma from Konosuba

This is a niche type of hero, but I think it shows up more often than we realize.  It’s definitely a big fantasy thing though.  Now, a hero who has been reincarnated can go one of two ways:

• They are a regular person who has died and gets reborn as a hero.  Either they appear in the world as a child to grow into a hero, stay as themselves, or become a different adult.  In the end, they leave their mundane life behind to carve out a new legend for themselves.
• The other way is that they are a previous hero who has been reborn.  They don’t always remember their past, but they have the abilities of a hero who has died.  It can even be for non-her0es.

This brings up a bunch of story options since the new hero has a lot to come to terms with after being reincarnated.  At least, they should for character development purposes. In an Isekai, they have to learn about a new world and find allies among the denizens.  Those from the second category have expectations to live up to since they are putting on the shoes of an established hero.  Doubt, ego, fear, and a wide variety of emotions will stir this character as carry on through their adventure.  The internal conflict alone would make for a fun tale that focuses on character psychology.

I think the psychology is where some authors can go wrong too.  We tend to believe that everyone will be happy to become a hero.  So, these characters rarely want to walk away from their new life.  They typically accept their second chance at living with all of the danger and figure they’ll be fine through hard work, luck, friends, etc.  This is why many of them get overpowered fast when an author fails to make them have any resistance towards taking up a hero’s title.  Not that this is a bad thing since there’s a big audience for overpowered protagonists.  For other readers, it will get boring fast unless they are giving at least an emotional conflict.

A lesser use for reincarnation is that it is designed to be a curse.  This might be a third category, but it’s actually closer to resurrection.  The difference is that the reborn character isn’t exactly the same one.  They may look similar to their previous self with the same powers and dark fate, but they have their own personality.  For example, the manga ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ has a character named Elisabeth.  She has the same name, powers, and appearance as all of her previous incarnations.  Her personality is very similar, but she is noted as being a new version that was born to die after falling in love with a specific man and learning about the curse.  This borders on resurrection, but it’s much closer to reincarnation with a twist.

Personally, I like the reincarnated hero concept even though I haven’t really used it.  I like how it can create a conflict between destiny and free will, which is something I toy with in my stories.  Does a reincarnated hero have to follow their path or can they leave their previous life’s work undone?  What if they get a second lease on life and don’t want to spend it saving the world?  I would assume the entities that brought them back would have issues with that mentality.  So, there is a lot of fun you can have here.

What do you think about this concept?