> I can make a difference as a mortal man"

Thinking of popular fantasy sci-fi, this seems like the exact opposite of what actually happens! With the notable exception of lotr (and how many early readers really focused on frodo's struggle anyways?) most fantasy has some kind of superhuman main character that can singlehandedly change the world.

Scifi tends to be a lot more about people like Picard, important and respected but ultimately limited to influencing others to achieve major changes.