When you view Heroism as an allegory for queerness everything becomes... gayer? Makes more sense? Becomes better.
Like-I just thought about this while making an edit of Reaver to "No one's son" by Mad Tsai.
Heroes were hated and looked down on during a period of time. Reaver probably lived through that era, and I'm so sorry but you cannot say "this is just about heroes". Reaver is the oldest man in Albion, openly pansexual, and a hero. Like-... this can so easily be read as your older uncle who's had to live closeted because back then homosexuality wasn't accepted.
And another element that reinforces that theory is literally that all heroes are queer-coded. First of, HoO lives hidden away from people with only a small community of people like him. He also doesn't speak to people.
Then you have Theresa who he looks for but who is also in her own small community away from people, and that community happens to be a gang (aka punks OR, considering the fact that they are mercenaries, we can also take a homophobic pov which would make sense for what I'm about to say which would be the stereotype that queer kids are influenced by "bad people") and she chose the gang over her brother for years, so it really gives off "Older lesbian sister who ran away from home to join a gang of other gay people because her countryside village wasn't accepting". Theresa is also the most mysterious secretive person in Albion and then she literally leaves to study on the other side of the world and she remains alone there. She also, somehow always ends up having to take care of kids/teens and guide them (Sparrow, hobw, Gabriel) while not having kids of her own (aka older lesbian guiding questioning kids).
In Fable 2 Sparrow can be queer to depending on the player's choice but I feel like even in the canon she wouldn't be cishet. She lives with Theresa in the dwelling camp, so with another minority who becomes her own community and small found family. She is also referred to as Lionheart I believe which is a direct ref to Richard of Lionheart aka THE gay king of England.
Meantime Hammer is a fucking muscular monk and we know how deeply religious imagery is used to show a character is gay because religious guilt is angsty and we like angst. Plus there is the whole thing of if you become religious in most orders you need to make a chastity vow which is a great excuse for a lesbian not to marry a man in a heteronormative society (this whole religious thing can be used for Theresa as well). Then the fact that Hammer is muscular can be perceived as her being butch even though I think she is fem, but again we're just talking about she can be read as queer-coded.
Garth lives alone, talks about his family yet we never see them, so it could be like a gay man talking about his husband but saying "partner". And then Reaver, again, openly pansexual.
In Fable 3 the Hobw is also queer or not depending on the player but I think that it's important to note that El is never referred to as their lover which-again... Could mean they're just bestfriends. And once El is "killed" or threatened, Hobw's only cover-up as straight disappears. So what do they do? THEY RUN AWAY FROM THE CASTLE WITH A MAN WITH ONE EARRING AND A BUTLER WITH MANNERISMS WHO ARE BORDERLINE FLIRTING TOGETHER.
Logan is not a confirmed hero but there are hints he is too, and let's be real this guy isn't cishet. He is a grown-up adult, king, who isn't married and has no child. This is a very rare find in History. We talked about Lionheart btw, and Lionheart never married nor had any child, LIKE LOGAN. And Lionheart is still mentioned in Fable 3. Also as someone once said "his castle is purple and he can't sit straight". And purple is literally the colour of queer people.
So yeah... Heroism being about abilities? Yeah... But also about something else.












