im struggling to wrap my head around the hero trope post, do you know of any examples to help me put it in context?
You’re referring to this post. Mainly because I follow the OP and she’s a huge Arrow fan (you could almost call her a BNF=big name fan) I’m p certain she’s talking about Arrow.
Arrow, p much every time he stops pursuing a relationship with a woman. And he’s done so exactly like the post described at several times, at least twice with Felicity, I think once with Laurel (for the same exact reason) but I’d have to watch season one again.
Batman Begins kinda has the same vibe because even tho its Rachel who doesn’t want to be with Bruce while he’s Batman (I could be wrong) the narrative is set up that way in anticipation of The Dark Knight. As TDK was written it has Rachel’s murder become manpain to 2 men Bruce AND Harvey Dent/Two-Face. So you have to ask yourself, had Bruce chosen Rachel over Batman sooner maybe she wouldn’t have died.
And then here’s the real kicker about TDK, had Batman chosen to rescue Rachel before Harvey Dent/2 Face there might never have been a 2 Face. But he didn’t he choose to save Harvey for the sake of Gotham.
In Superman Returns Clark chooses being Superman over his family/Lois.
Moving into Marvel, Thor had to leave Jane in the first film but they botched his excuse for not being with Jane in Avengers. So like Jane is hurt by him not calling or coming by and that’s why she’s mad at him in Thor 2.
Iron Man 2 had this in the sense that Tony never found the time to tell Pepper he was dying but it works out so that he’s sacrificed pursuing a romantic relationship with her (remember the flirting was hardcore in the first film) because he’s worried about dying and leaving her alone. Also he’s busy being Iron Man.
I think those are enough examples. Sorry for the wait I was trying to organize my thoughts a bit more.