How do I apply this trigger to a variable unit?

I am having a problem with my familiar, hero system that I need to address, and this trigger fixes it entirly, but the problem is I can only select the event for "aquires a target" with a specific unit event for some anal reason and my hero is a variable unit.

you can't...however there is a simple solution:
generic event - aquires a target
condition: triggering unit equals to <your variable>

You can add the event trough another trigger, just use

but just to let you know...if you do it that way and later change the variable, the trigger will still respond to the unit that was in the variable at the time you added the event.

You cannot select aquire a target through a generic unit event, only a specific unit event...

As for this other method, uh not really sure how to do that, I've never tried doing that before... Do I just put that action in like initialization and delete the actual event from my trigger?

no events in your trigger, that action must be after you declare the variable.

Cool, that worked, thanks... and my hero varaible never changes, its always "hero1"