Magnetic Hero

Occasionally, you get a hero with such personal magnetism that he is capable of persuading others, usually the Badass Normal, to join him in his quest. Of course, the companion has no qualms about killing or even dying for the hero, despite knowing him briefly and there being many people who want him dead.

This is a staple of fiction that may well be Older Than They Think. Many epics and legends chronicle the process by which a hero gathers a band of motley friends and allies of dubious background but doubtless courage and nobility. Even if the hero has no special quality compared to his subordinates, this is often his implied "power", Heart.

There's a few variants of this:

  1. Beat them up. Because Defeat Means Friendship, anyone the hero beats up on the way to the supermarket will become a lifelong friend and ally.
  2. Conversely, beat up their enemy along with them. Fire-Forged Friends are always ready to come along.
  3. Give a kid a candy bar. Because hey, proving you're kind to cute orphans is the best way to get their Caretaker to dump them and come with you!
  4. Save their life. Simple: save someone's life, or buy their freedom, and they'll be your slave forever!
  5. Tell them your quest. Who knows? Maybe they too are out to put a stop to Doctor Demonica? A particularly idealistic or persuasive hero can pull this off with gusto on even the most jaded.

Often at the center of a Character-Magnetic Team. Contrast with The Dulcinea Effect, which usually involves the hero falling victim to a similar phenomenon at the hands of a member of the opposite sex, and Hitchhiker Heroes. A female Magnetic Hero who leads male characters with The Dulcinea Effect is a Jeanne D'Archetype. On a larger scale, the usual subject of A Protagonist Shall Lead Them.

If the resultant group actually sticks around for a while, you may get True Companions or Badass Crew.

Contrast Socially Awkward Hero. Not to be confused with a Hero who has magnetic powers.

Examples of Magnetic Hero include:

Anime and Manga

  • Naruto - The eponymous hero has used most of the tactics above.
    • Beat Them Up: Gaara, Nagato, Neji.
    • Fight With Them: Sai, Sakura, Sasuke, Lee.
    • Being kind to Inari (an orphan) in the Zabuza Arc[1] indirectly wins him a whole village who believes in him.
    • He saves Konoha and gets their respect and adoration.
    • Telling his goals tends to overlap with beating them up, as both Gaara and Nagato are persuaded after they hear his plans.
    • This has actually become so common that forum goers have given it the name 'Talk No Jutsu', 'Therapy No Jutsu', or 'Jesus No Jutsu'.
  • One Piece: Luffy. It's even directly acknowledged by Mihawk.

It's not some kind of special power, but he has the ability to make allies of everyone he meets. And that is the most fearsome power on these high seas!

  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Kamina. A Type 4 except most of his group came because of his sheer power of awesome. Kittan and Simon each get a turn with the magnet.
  • The Dragon Ball series uses this with The Atoner to have a Badass Crew full of reformed bad guys. Oolong, Yamcha, Puar, Tien, Chaozu, Piccolo, and Vegeta started out as Goku's opponents, though not all of them turned face immediately after being defeated by Goku.
    • In the first Dragon Ball story arc, Bulma is the Magnetic Hero on a quest and Goku is one of companions she picks up.
  • Shaman King (virtually all of Yoh's team, especially Ren Tao),
  • Yugi of Yu-Gi-Oh!!.
  • Yusei of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, and even more naturally than Yugi. He grew up with Kiryu's True Companions, formed one of his own that we meet at the start of the series, then quickly gets separated from them to form an entirely new one. We also see he recruits using all five methods.
    • How has Yu-Gi-Oh! GX's Jaden/Judai been left out? Every single character he ever disputes with is converted, seemingly by the sheer force of his personality, either to a friend or a hardcore devotee by the end of the episode/duel/season.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha - Nanoha is apparently at her best accompanied by former foes she's thrashed to within an inch of their lives. Of course, she's very nice about it.
    • Subaru also has this quality, befriending not only the Tsundere Teana, who initially dislikes her and tries not to bond with her, and the initially socially awkward Erio and Caro, but also the reformed Combat Cyborgs, four of whom become her adopted sisters. She also manages to befriend Ixpellia and change her worldview. Lampshaded by Teana.

Teana: (to Erio and Caro) You don't have to become friends with everyone like the Stars' front attacker.

  • Sagara Sousuke from Full Metal Panic!. He actively tries to discourage people from becoming his friend, and is generally very business-like and unfriendly, disliking chit chat. Yet somehow, he always manages to attract a bunch of people to him. And all of them really like him (many times, to the point of being willing to die for him). Even his enemies are attracted to him. In the novels, as Lemon puts it, "even though he is so expressionless, he's oddly charming."
  • Tsuna from Katekyo Hitman Reborn, anyone? He's quickly building up a gigantic harem of incredibly loyal underlings (99% of which are male) whose main purpose in life is apparently to protect him. And most of his enemies / rivals, after being defeated by him, become... very friendly and affectionate towards him. In a creepy way though, since they're normally rather Ax Crazy.
One of the more... interesting examples is Spanner's sudden decision to switch sides and become a part of Tsuna's family. This decision was reached after the two spent a long, undisclosed amount of time alone together. With Tsuna naked, unconscious, and handcuffed to Spanner's bed. You figure out the reason and method of how Tsuna unwittingly managed to convince him to join.
  • Negi Springfield of Mahou Sensei Negima. He starts out working pretty much on his own, but by this point he has a troop of around 15 or so primary allies (mostly various students) in addition to an absurd number of secondary characters. He has tried on many occasions to ditch his True Companions but that just starts fights and he sees himself as the Papa Wolf now since they keep hanging around.
    • Of course, it doesn't hurt that most of his group (which tend to be female) find him attractive the usual way.
  • Tenma in Monster.
  • Haru slowly accumulates buddies in Rave Master. Elie by the power of love, Musica (more or less) by uniting him with his grandfather, Let with an impressive display of belief, Celia by pulling her out of a rock, Lazenby by showing him he was working for the villain, Shuda by motivating him to live (and also some stuff with his dad), Julia by his determination, Julius by... *cough*, and Belnika by being cute and friendly.
  • Ash of Pokémon always has unbelievable luck in finding traveling companions.
    • Not just humans. Most of the Pokemon he captures he does so by getting them to like him and follow him.
  • Touma from A Certain Magical Index even if they don't fight alongside him all the time, many people would rally to his cause, something that a magic cabal took note of and tried to have someone use magic to pose as someone in the group to assassinate him and split it up even though there is no real group. Others he's beaten take new paths in life.
  • Monster Rancher has Genki who is able to see the good in the most evil-seeming enemies, and then get them to see it. Notable examples include Pixie and Big Blue as well as a large number of mooks and lesser villains as well as Tiger and Hare (Maybe even Golem if you think about it).
  • Sengoku from Cage of Eden starts off as another goofy schoolboy, but begins to come into his own as he pulls more of the survivors into his group.
  • Jacuzzi Splot from Baccano! has a natural ability to draw people towards him, unconsciously forming his own street gang largely off of this tendency. The Light Novels point out that this has less to do with any extraordinary amount of charisma so much as he gives people the impression that he'd be helpless on his own and is in constant need of coddling.

He wasn't especially charismatic, but he had a strange way of gathering people about him — or, to be more specific, it was like they gravitated to him. His appeal didn't spring from any sort of trustiness, but instead from the feeling that, if left to his own devices, he'd probably end up walking off a cliff somehow. He evoked a strange sort of protective instinct in people.

  • A villainous version comes from The Claw in Gun X Sword, where nearly everyone he meets considers him to be a kind man.
  • Light from Death Note is a Magnetic Villain:
    • Give the Shinigami an apple – Ryuk
    • Beat them up (and get kicked in the face) - his "friendship" with L while it lasted.
    • Kill their enemy - Misa
    • Save their life - his promise to save Misa eventually wins Rem's loyalty.
    • Beat up their enemy along with them – the conclusion of the Yotsuba arc he has won the trust and loyalty of the Kira taskforce.
    • Tell them your quest - Mikami and Takada


Comic Books

  • Superman is at, or near, the forefront of nearly every major event in the DCU since he began his career of heroics. If not just because of his incredible power, then for who he is as a symbol, and the sheer number of other heroes he's befriended and/or inspired through the years.
  • John Constantine of Hellblazer attracts friends with his charming and magnetic personality, but they all eventually either get offed by the many Cosmic Horror villains or screwed over by Constantine himself. He gets called out on this many times, but despite constantly flirting with the Moral Event Horizon, he's never quite passed it in 20 years of stories.
  • Captain America (comics) is so well-respected by the superhero community that they usually follow his lead whether he's their official leader or not. This is because he's both incredibly competent despite not having superpowers and because they trust him to always be true to the right ideals. It comes to a point that when he fails them, the whole community gets demoralized (ex. in Marvel Civil War.)
  • Nightwing is a huge one too, to the point where some believe his superpower is charisma. When he sowed up to a fight with multiple generations of Teen Titans, Superboy noted how everyone instantly followed his lead.
    • He also once convinced every hero on Earth, without question, to jump into a parallel dimension (saving them all).
    • Batman even said it's one of the reasons he's proudest of Dick—unlike Bats, he can gain and keep allies.
      • So essentially he's "Batman with social skills"


Fan Works


Film

  • Played remarkably straight (along with several other tropes) in the movie Krull. Prince Colwyn got an Ergo The Magnificent, a group of escaped prisoners intent on robbing him, a Blind Seer and a cyclops to join his party.
  • About the first third of The Magnificent Seven consists of this.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean series—This seems to sum up Captain Jack Sparrow's recruiting technique.
  • Morpheus in The Matrix.
  • King Arthur in most of his incarnations in film, but most notably John Boorman's Excalibur. If you're fighting a fully-armed knight, get the better of him, and demand he swear faith to you with your sword at his neck, you generally don't ask him to knight you and hand over your Infinity+1 Sword to him when he objects to giving you his allegiance because you're a squire and thus he outranks you. On the other hand, if you're the knight in question you generally don't use said sword to knight said squire when he kneels before you to accept your knighting and then kiss his hand in fealty ... unless the squire, of course, is a Magnetic Hero.
  • Buckaroo Bonzai.
  • The 1982 Conan the Barbarian film. Conan releases Subotai from chains in exchange for his companionship. The two of them meet Valeria while robbing a temple of Thulsa Doom. Conan later runs into the wizard on his journey to assassinate Thulsa Doom. The sequel, Conan the Destroyer, relies more on Avengers Assemble, but Zula's recruitment is an example of this trope.


Literature

  • Tortall Universe: Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan. Seriously. This Badass Normal girl makes friends with EVERYONE (except the bad guys) and those that don't befriend her at least respect her (save the bad guys). Kids, Commonfolk, pages, birds...Kel will never be one of those hereos that fights alone in dark places, because while she may not be a Wild Mage or have the Gift, she's got the superpower of building one of the most loyal band of True Companions in a few hundred pages. They won't let her go off and do anything stupid without them.
  • Discworld
    • Cohen the Barbarian has this sort of power. As Rincewind explains it, when you interact with him for long enough, you see the world the way he does... and want to be part of it.
    • Carrot is the driving force behind the expansion of the City Watch, and its large presence of non-humans.
      • Carrot is something of an aversion, as it is mentioned by many others that he could get people do to just about anything but possibly does not because of the negative consequences of this trope.
      • Speaking of, Corporal Nobbes is probably an inversion. He's so horrible, he's fascinating, and people are drawn to him just to see what he might do next.
    • Moist Von Lipwig has traces of this as well, as evident by how he gradually rebuilds the postal service in Going Postal.
  • Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter of His Dark Materials are both imbued with an uncanny ability to persuade people over to their side, to command and convince them to obey. Their daughter, Lyra, is nothing if not more so, as almost everyone who meets her takes an immediate liking to her and wants to help her.
  • It's a plot-point that Wheel of Time's Rand Al'Thor and his friends have this quality. Of course, this magnetism is but one manifestation of reality itself warping around them.
  • Stephen King's Dark Tower series calls this effect "Ka", with a good bit of You Can't Fight Fate thrown in. Roland is magnetic, possibly in addition to ka. His ka-tet all end up seeing him as a father, despite knowing that he would off them at any point to reach the Tower. Of course, this might be different towards the end.
  • The Chosen: Rebbe Saunders. Not only is he a charismatic and beloved "Rabbi Man" but the Backstory shows Hidden Depths that reveals he is more then just the demanding father we see. In Russia during the many excesses of the chaos there he had led his people to immigrate to America. Reuven finds it odd that a rabbi would have such autocratic power and it is; Danny's sect is odd in that respect. In a way though Reuven is Completely Missing the Point that Rebbe Saunders was also the first one in his community to think of a good idea about how to get out of their difficulties.
  • In The Hunt for Red October Russian officers and men had once competed to get berths with Ramius and he was accused of forming a "cult of personality". Once the Americans board his sub there is a sense of him recuiting them!
  • In the Dragonlance novels the elven princess Laurana is a remarkably charismatic figure whose incredible beauty, charm, and courage inspires thousands to join her army.
  • In the Belgariad novels, Ce'Nedra becomes this trope as well, albeit that it's much more consciously manipulated by those supporting her, and she actually feels some remorse over being the Magnetic Heroine to her army.
  • Robin Hood is practically an Ur Example of this trope.
    • Um... Jesus? (Makes Robin Hood look positively recent!)
  • Judge Dee - Three of Judge Dee's trusted lieutenants are criminals who abruptly reformed after their first encounter with him. He occasionally has trouble getting shut of attractive young women who've assisted him too. Magnetic is definitely the word.
  • Paul Atreides of Dune.
  • Amaurn of the Shadowleague books, though, unusually for this trope, he's very much an Anti-Hero.
  • Jenna in the Great Alta Saga attracts followers everywhere she goes; they eventually declare her The Messiah.
  • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; Dorothy and pals all want to see the Wizard, but for different reasons.
  • Harry Dresden of The Dresden Files, although a very powerful wizard in his own right, one of his most valued assets might be the staggering number of allies he has acquired/known/converted over the years.
  • Jim Eckert, the Dragon Knight, is surprised to find a band of True Companions coalescing around him in The Dragon and the George.
  • Ciel Phantomhive from Black Butler is showing signs of being a magnetic Villain Protagonist in the manga. Being an Affably Evil Benevolent Boss has its advantages.
    • He sold his soul for Sebastian's services.
    • He forgave Tanaka for his failure, even if he ended up basically Kicked Upstairs to make way for Sebastian.
    • He gave Baldroy and Mey-rin something approaching a normal life. (We haven't had a flashback of these events.)
    • He showed kindness to Finnian, gave him a fine, heroic name instead of a number, and gave him a job that allows him to work outside and interact with nature, something he was deprived of in his previous life.
    • He spared Snake's life and lied about the fate of Snake's friends to convince him to stay. Later on Ciel bound Snake even tighter with remarkable kindness.
    • ...And it looks like Ciel just might be getting another follower...
  • Daniel Leary of the RCN Series series doesn't even have to ask. In fact, several times he's told people they shouldn't come along as part of his Badass Crew; on this particular mission there's dirt and danger and no expectation of profit. They clamor to sign up anyway. If for no other reason, because the bragging rights of someone who's sailed with Captain Leary mean that crewmember often won't have to pay for his/her drinks in spaceport bars.

Live Action TV

  • In Star Trek: Voyager, Janeway does this, first getting Chakotay and the crew from his ship to join, then Neelix, then later Seven of Nine, then even later, they pick up several children who were assimilated by the Borg. Most of them return to their various homeworlds, but one remains on Voyager.
  • Definitely happens on Farscape, but it's hard to say exactly which attribute it is that draws people to John Crichton. It's probably a mix of all of the above, and a just general lack of what to do without him.
  • The Doctor in Doctor Who. This is how he picks up nearly all of his Companions. Also how he picks up the majority of non-companion allies. People usually start doing what he tells them within minutes of meeting him, however batshit insane he may have been acting. The trope is subverted occasionally, particularly in the disturbing episode Midnight.
    • "Journey's End" provided a decontruction then a reconstruction. The Doctor is called out on this by Davros of all people (see the above quote), who asks how many have died in the Doctor's name. Cue flashbacks of nearly every Mauve Shirt in the revived series.
    • "Vampires of Venice" - Rory: "It's not that you make people take risks, it's that you make them want to impress you. You make it so they don't want to let you down. You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves!" This is Foreshadowing: in spite of his concerns about Amy, Rory's the one who sacrifices his life to save the Doctor's. He gets better.
  • Leroy Jethro Gibbs in NCIS. His whole team says so. But he only uses his powers for good. Ask Abby.
  • Merlin is highly magical, but also seems to possess the innate ability to make every man, woman and child that he comes across fall hopelessly in love with him. With the exception of Prince Arthur and King Uther, Merlin has made immediate and life-long friends with cast regulars such as Guinevere, Lancelot and Gwaine, as well as guest stars such as Freya and Gilli. Most, if not all, are willing to die for him within mere moments of their meeting. At least one has come back from the dead in order to aid him on his quest.
  • Steve McGarrett in the re-imagined Hawaii Five-O recruits his team in the pilot by basically going to each of them and saying "Come work for me". In the second season premiere after being framed for murder, even characters like Dr. Max who he's only ever interacted with on a professional level, are willing to put themselves on the line to keep him out of jail and help him prove his innocence. Even ne'er-do-well informant Kamekona offers to invoke Bolivian Army Ending on his say so.
  • Gentaro Kisaragi from Kamen Rider Fourze makes it his personal goal to make friends with everyone at his high school. So far, he's living up to that promise as he has saved some of his new friends' lives from Monsters of the Week, as well as getting to know the personal issues of some of them as well.


Tabletop Games

  • One of the main points behind the charisma stat is to turn you into one of these.
  • In Forgotten Realms Cormyrean dynasty Obarskyrs are born charismatic (which is sometimes suspected, but never proven to be Elven magical meddling by those who know their history - both In-Universe and out). Once very young princess Alusair slipped from her guards while in Waterdeep. The city watch found her in Dripping Dagger - a mercenary hangout with door covered in blood stains and weapon marks. During this time patrons played with her, let her taste local beverages and taught some tricks with weapons. The watchman who had to dodge a dagger she was throwing at the door marveled no one here knew who she is. Her father was amazed only by amount of salty language she learned in about one hour. Of course, adult Obarskyrs in their land are even more popular - no wonder they remained in power for fifteen centuries.
  • Magic: The Gathering has this with cards like Seraph, which steals your opponent's creatures when they die. It's Awesome but Impractical because of the high mana cost, at which time your opponent's biggest creatures should be much bigger than 4/4.


Video Games

  • A Deconstructed Trope in Knights Of The Old Republic II. The main character is (in)famous for creating bonds like this subconsciously by using the Force, sometimes creating bonds strong enough for a Synchronization. Further deconstructed when it's revealed that you're regaining your connection to the Force by basically pulling the Force into yourself through said bonds.
  • Also deconstructed in Planescape: Torment, which KOTOR II took many notes from. The Nameless One's allies are drawn to his torment by torments of their own. Furthermore, with the exception of Annah, Nordrom and Fall-From-Grace, their torments are mostly your fault.
  • Likewise, subconsciously attracting allies is a semi-divine power of Breath Of Fire IV's hero.
  • Every Lord in a Fire Emblem game. Enough so to attract more allies than your party has room for. Regrettably, this includes at least one Crutch Character per game.
  • Commander Shepard of Mass Effect has natural talent for influencing other people. Whether that talent is for charm or for intimidation—and to what uses Shepard puts it—is up to the player. Paragon Shepard even recruited from supposedly Exclusively Evil races.[2]
    • Hackett himself even notes that this is exactly why he essentially made him/her the Big Good to the other species. Because he knew that s/he could get them to believe in the cause and follow him/her, no matter what the cost or odds.
    • Archangel is another example, recruiting a multi-racial band of vigilantes to fight crime all over Omega. It worked fairly well until a traitor left them wide open to retaliation. Since he's Garrus, you can guess where he picked it up from.
  • The hero in Suikoden gathers 108 people towards them Because Destiny Says So. Well, that and if you play the game right.
  • In Chrono Cross, only a few of the 40+ characters join Serge because their own ambition drives them to seek the Frozen Flame (and even then, they become subservient to him instantly.) The others join up simply for the reasons described above, or Because Destiny Says So.
  • Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops - you can recruit any soldier you come across, including the Big Bad, and his bosses.
  • Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. The protagonist has no problem whatsoever in recruiting people to cheerfully abandon their livelihoods and trudge along, carrying crateloads of gear into dangerous situations and swinging weapons at all manner of ungodly foes and beasts, and not even say anything when you're announcing your plans to go to the next "no-one-ever-came-back-alive" destination, such as the Vendigroth Wastes, Island of Despair, ultra-secret enclave of the dark elves, or the Void. (Those are Names to Run Away From, people.) The protagonist will also usually inform the latest recruit that they're hunted by an ancient order of assassins who want them, and everyone associated with them, dead. This fails to deter anyone. I guess living in Dernholm must suck majorly if this is the preferred choice.
  • The Legend of Zelda - Link is made of this trope. All sentient characters except Ganondorf are required to help him in some way.
  • Fei of Xenogears falls into this, since he recruits quite a large party of people from all over the world, including at least a couple who try to kill him at first.
  • The MC of Devil Survivor can become one, depending on dialogue choices and in some paths, end up recruiting more humans than the player can deploy in battle.
  • Yuri from Infinite Space seems to have natural air of leadership that draws people to him... or have him to do dirty work for them.
  • Reimu and Marisa from Touhou Project are extreme examples of this trope - every game introduces about 8 new characters, and the series is a dozen games long, not even counting the Gaiden Games leading to roughly a hundred characters (117 named characters as of this writing), and Defeat Means Friendship is practically ironbound law in Gensokyo, leading to them having massive numbers of Superpower Lottery winners to call on for allies. Although only a fraction of these characters actually wind up fighting directly alongside the heroines in any of the regular games (doujin games like Labyrinth of Touhou that have real party systems being an exception), and often are more friendly rivals in function, the sidestories like Silent Sinner In Blue feature essentially half of Gensokyo teaming up in a massive jumble to take on the Lunarians.
  • The Gray Wardens of Dragon Age have far less clout in Fereldan then they enjoy in other countries, so they rely on this for their recruitment. Duncan and the player are two such examples. Arl Eamon also owes his political influence to being one.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog - Not only does he have his main Power Trio of Team Sonic, he has plenty of other friends and allies.
  • According to Rose in (Super) Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter series lead Ryu is an unintentional variant of trope and mixes this with The Chosen One. According to Rose's fortune telling, Ryu is designated as The Fool, the only one who can possibly hope to defeat Bison, but only when "the stars align to herald his coming". Rose would attempt to do the deed herself (and in fact, has tried at least three times beforehand), but seeing as she's the good half of Bison's soul, her Soul Power and his Psycho Power simply stamp each other out at best, so she can only hope to stall Bison as she lends her power to Ryu's quest (and sometimes prevents him from preemptively facing Bison). Addition, Rose notes that anyone who's crossed paths with Ryu (which is practically everyone, ranging from the likes of Chun-Li and Guile to Guy to Sakura) will have their life's path altered accordingly; Ryu's best friend Ken will apparently play a role in the final battle and Sagat's destiny was ultimately changed when he met Ryu back in the first World Warrior tournament. In a sense, Ryu's a Black Hole Sue minus the Mary Sue qualities.
  • Cloud Strife in Final Fantasy VII. Despite the fact that he's a former soldier for Shinra, not to mention a jerk, AVALANCHE accepts his help and eventually admit him as their leader. It gets even harder to swallow when they find out that his memory of certain important events is *wrong*, and even when they discover that he can be mind-controlled by the Big Bad they still trust him!
  • It's observed early on that the protagonist of Exit Fate has a knack for this. After he defects to the opposing army, his superiors don't even bother assigning troops to him, since he's so good at finding new recruits. At the end of the game, your crew count will be somewhere between 40 and 75.
  • Tactical RPGs love this. In Ogre Battle, your hero does it with main characters, and you can also do it with neutral encounters, and occasionally you'll get an item called Love and Peace that lets you do this to enemies.
  • Up to Eleven for the eponymous character of the Rance series. By the time of Rance Quest (Rance VIII) and its expansion, he has three (out of four) major human countries, the largest religion in the world, the most technologically advanced city, the richest person in the world, one of the Four Holy Monster Girls, the current Demon King (though to be fair, she is still unawakened.), and the Kalar Tribe as his allies. If one man could unite the world, it would be him.
    • In the spinoff game, Kichikuou (Brutal King) Rance, he does exactly that.
  • Mario in the Paper Mario series, where he gets some pretty helpful allies, most of them belonging to a usually antagonistic race. In the planned game for the 3DS, he gets a Chain Chomp parnter.


Web Comics

  • "Sparks" of Girl Genius have this as an explicit power; it was described as "a strange charisma". Heterodyne Sparks are alleged to be even more charismatic than the usual, though it may be just because they avoid most of the things that tend to repulse potential minions and get monsters Turned Against Their Masters.

Mr. Rovainen: Ah - it is part of the power of the gifted. Those around them wish to aid them. To serve them. Even when we know them to be monsters.

  • This trope is precisely how the Order of the Stick was formed.
  • Looking for Group, of course, is named for this sort of occurrence. It takes place there, too but not a lot.
  • No Rest for The Wicked: November is quite talented at this.
  • In Wake the Sleepers, Oralee attaches herself to Locke.
  • Axe Cop is all over this like an axe on a bad guy's neck. His recurring sidekick (variously Flute Cop, Dinosaur Soldier, Avocado Soldier, Uni-Avocado Soldier, Viking Cop...) is secretly his brother, and I don't think there's been an explanation for Wexter yet, but any time anything bad happens, Axe Cop announces "we need to have more try-outs" and people pour out of the woodwork to join him. Examples: the Moon Ninja Brothers, Sockarang, Uni-Man and his family, Chihuahua Soldier, that cyborg lion, the King of the Mermaids, "a wrestler", Leaf Man, Mr. Wilkins, those various aliens from the Bad Guy Planet Two arc...


Web Original

  • There are people in the Global Guardians PBEM Universe who would follow Global Guardians team leader Achilles into the fires of Hell just because the man said it might be necessary.
  • Rob from Dimension Heroes brings a group together, not because he has any particularly appealing qualities, but because he unintentionally put them under fire from the enemy, thereby forcing them to become involved as part of the group.
  • Sasha Hunter in Greek Ninja, although shown and claiming to not like people and even being rude to them a lot of the time, somehow manages to gather a group of capable fighters around her. The twist is, most of them join her on her quest even though she was unwilling to accept them. The only character she actually asked to join her on her own accord was Electra.
  • Chaka of the Whateley Universe seems to have this. She pulled Fey and Lancer along in her wake when they first met, and then helped pull Team Kimba together. Since then, she's also pulled in more boyfriends and girlfriends than any fourteen-year-old could possibly handle.
Recently, her team-mates have begun pointing out that this is not a good thing, as far as her relationships go. Ayla does not expect it to end well, if/when Chaka's significant others all find out about each other, and has had to explicitly forbid Chaka from bringing both of them to his birthday party.


Western Animation

  • Metalocalypse - Although we don't know much about how the band was actually formed, Nathan Explosion seems to be capable of getting virtually anyone to do anything purely by his personal magnetism, at one point even convincing the most homophobic of his bandmates to attempt autofellatio in front of the others with a brief pep talk. Even the villains often comment on his so-called Stalinlike ability to galvanize the masses, and how dangerous that is.
  • The protagonists of Here Comes the Grump travel from town to town enlisting the local folk to aid them in escaping from the eponymous Grump, who is always hot on their tail.


Real Life

  • Any great leader fits this trope. No leader can be great without it.
    • This is especially the case among military leaders; in times past anecdotes about it made it sound religious or homoerotic. This was the case in the days when a Warrior Prince had to be an effective stage manager. And more importantly it was logistically practical (because of the small armies) and sometimes even necessary (because of the poor communications) for a commander to come within actual danger. This is toned down a bit in modern times, when the Vast Bureaucracy makes it necessary for most generals to be soldiers at the rear. Nonetheless good propaganda can spice up a general, and of course junior officers are still up forward with the men.
  • Innumerable ordinary heroes. You probably know a couple personally.
  • Both Churchill and Hitler were Magnetic Heroes, in the eyes of their followers. Hitler was not heroic in any other sense. They had tens of millions of followers. Both managed to array great world powers behind them on the issue of the largest war in human history, based largely on the force of their personality and oratory. Hitler was a decorated soldier in WW 1, Churchill fought as a soldier/reporter in the Sudan and Boer Wars.
Several people who met Hitler said he was magnetic. Of course, really, you should wonder about the testimony of someone who was granted an audience with Hitler. One of the chief appeals of Nazism was to give people a way to try to live fantasy in Real Life . That was one of the main points of the torchlight parades and the hocus-pocus. Thus if one is to convince factory workers that they were Proud Warrior Race guys, they need to have a Magnetic Hero just like the ones in poems did. If Hitler didn't foot the bill, the Ministry of Propaganda could easily enough pretend he did.
  • Horatio Nelson. The man was heavily into self promotion, but he earned ever accolade, and his ability to inspire men was even termed 'the Nelson effect'.
  • Stonewall Jackson. This is a man who, when his men are outnumbered 10 to 1, turns a full rout into a counter-attack through sheer force of personality.
  • Canada had Isaac Brock in the The War of 1812, a savy general who was able to persuade the Aboriginal leader, Tecumseh, to join forces with him so effectively that the Native Leader stood up, patted Brock on the shoulder and proclaimed, "This is a man!"
  1. ↑ Although it should be noted that Naruto accomplished this with a Quit Your Whining speech
  2. ↑ Certain player actions can lead to Hitchhiker Heroes instead.
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