The unlikely hero is should be called the unexpected hero because that’s what they really are. An unlikely hero is someone who defies the stereotypical characteristics (like smart, strong, wealthy etc.) of what is accepted as a hero by our society. A character who shows heroicness through their actions but isn’t expected as the typical person to do these heroic deeds is an unlikely hero. Mercedes from the movie Pan’s Labyrinth is an unlikely hero. Mercedes is Vidal’s (the Captain’s) housekeeper, who has actually infiltrated the captain’s base and is keeping an eye on everything for the rebels. She isn’t a wealthy character with a good life, like stereotypes would proclaim a hero as. Although it nowhere in the movie says she is poor we can infer this by the setting of this film. This movie is placed in the time of 1944 during the Spanish Civil War which makes almost everyone poor since a lot of goods are unable to be collected because of the war. This isn’t something you would expect from a hero, even during the…show more content… Mercedes, not so much. Physically her appearance seems very bony, and weak. She looks as if she has malnutrition, which also ties in with her being poor and not being able to get enough food. Emotionally she isn’t very strong at all either. At many points in the movie she broke down crying and also seems as if she is “emotionally broken”. There was one point where she got it all together and was a very strong character. During the movie where the captain had captured her and she was able to get out and slit the captain’s mouth was when she was the most powerful. She said “You won’t be the first pig I’ve gutted!” which is a powerful statement and certainly made her seem heavier during the rest of the movie. But even after that she still looked as a weak character which makes me think that moment was just a surge of anger that helped her do