I would say Harry Potter is not exactly an EA example. The super-powerful almost-immortal physical embodiment of evil has a huge beef with him (a not-very-skilled not-very-smart teenager??). Though he knows that Evil Embodied is constantly trying to assassinate him in inefficient baroque ways, Harry Potter puts hundreds of other wizards in danger (resulting in a few dozen deaths) by going to Hogwarts versus, eg, insisting on homeschooling. Why is Harry the sole person who can save the magic-world? Why not hedge your bets and explore other methods? Pinning the survival of your entire society on one teenager seems like a particularly ill-advised move. Tangentially, why not study (and later attempt to reproduce) what makes Harry immune to a ton of otherwise-lethal magic stints?
Then, after defeating the Most Evil And Worst Person In Wizardom, Harry takes his wealth of insane experiences and decides to become… a magic cop (if you’re really The Very Special Main Character maybe you should write and share your experiences/insights with everyone instead of issuing wizard parking tickets?).
Lord of the Rings: absolutely moral heroism/altruism in protagonists. Two hobbits et al. walk from Florida to Michigan, push themselves very far outside of their comfort zones, and risk death/torture in order to protect literally everything on (middle) Earth.
(please note: this is slightly facetious in tone)
I would say Harry Potter is not exactly an EA example. The super-powerful almost-immortal physical embodiment of evil has a huge beef with him (a not-very-skilled not-very-smart teenager??). Though he knows that Evil Embodied is constantly trying to assassinate him in inefficient baroque ways, Harry Potter puts hundreds of other wizards in danger (resulting in a few dozen deaths) by going to Hogwarts versus, eg, insisting on homeschooling. Why is Harry the sole person who can save the magic-world? Why not hedge your bets and explore other methods? Pinning the survival of your entire society on one teenager seems like a particularly ill-advised move. Tangentially, why not study (and later attempt to reproduce) what makes Harry immune to a ton of otherwise-lethal magic stints?
Then, after defeating the Most Evil And Worst Person In Wizardom, Harry takes his wealth of insane experiences and decides to become… a magic cop (if you’re really The Very Special Main Character maybe you should write and share your experiences/insights with everyone instead of issuing wizard parking tickets?).
Lord of the Rings: absolutely moral heroism/altruism in protagonists. Two hobbits et al. walk from Florida to Michigan, push themselves very far outside of their comfort zones, and risk death/torture in order to protect literally everything on (middle) Earth.