History DesignatedHero / LiveActionTV

* In ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'', Sam and Bucky spend much of the series illegally investigating the Flagsmashers, even helping Baron Zemo break out of prison to do so, despite having been offered the chance and resources to so legally by John, choosing to reject his offer for extremely childish and petty reasons, then go on to repeatedly defend the Flagsmashers actions, even after they become increasing unrepentantly murderous and violent, culminating in Sam publicly martyring them on National Television to their would-be victims faces.

* In Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier, Sam and Bucky spend much of the series illegally investigating the Flagsmashers, even helping Baron Zemo break out of prison to do so, despite having been offered the chance and resources to so legally by John, choosing to reject his offer for extremely childish and petty reasons, then go on to repeatedly defend the Flagsmashers actions, even after they become increasing unrepentantly murderous and violent, culminating in Sam publicly martyring them on National Television to their would-be victims faces.

In Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier, Sam and Bucky spend much of the series illegally investigating the Flagsmashers, even helping Baron Zemo break out of prison to do so, despite having been offered the chance and resources to so legally by John, choosing to reject his offer for extremely childish and petty reasons, then go on to repeatedly defend the Flagsmashers actions, even after they become increasing unrepentantly murderous and violent, culminating in Sam publicly martyring them on National Television to their would-be victims faces.

** Even Sheldon, though usually an intentional UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist, can be this at times. Because to spite how much he annoys everyone, his mental and social means he's treated as incapable of change and his friends are expected never to challenge him on it. For example in one episode Howard dresses as him for Halloween and spends the episode mimicking his annoying traits, Sheldon doesn't realize he's doing this and is very hurt when he finds out it was an impression of him. Instead of reflecting on how people see him and [[CharacterDevelopment making an attempt to change his behavior]] the episode just treats Howard as a {{Jerkass}} for offending Sheldon in this way and when Amy confronts Bernadette over it she's treated as equally in the wrong for responding [[HypocrisyNod "well he makes fun of people all the time."]]

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'':
** Leonard, as he has [[TookALevelInJerkass taken a level up in jerkassery]] and developed a {{holier than thou}} attitude over the course of the series.
** Penny is a whiny, egotistical freeloader who constantly belittles the others, and the audience is supposed to feel sorry for her because she's not a famous actress.
** Really, depending on your view of things, ''all'' of the main cast with the exception of Stuart (who's too nice of a guy to qualify) and Sheldon (who's intended to be an UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist) falls under this trope. They all have character flaws, which would be a good thing if those flaws hadn't been subjected to bizarre quantities of {{Flanderization}} through the years, and many one-time fans of the show have lost their affection for the series due to the cast having evolved into being so unlikable.

* ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'': The title character's wife becomes this in the later seasons, as the show devoted ever-increasing amounts of screentime to the war between her and her mother-in-law, and kept trying to shill her as the heroine. What made it really ridiculous was the fact that her behavior was ''exactly the same as the mother-in-law's'' (i.e., bullying other family members, being arrogant and condescending,etc.), which made it really hard to actually root for her, as there seemed to be no real difference between the two characters. In fact, the wife's behavior was arguably even ''worse'' than her mother-in-law's, because she physically and emotionally abused her husband in virtually every episode of the mid-to-later seasons.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E4TheRomans The Romans]]", the First Doctor ends up being unintentionally responsible for ''burning down Rome'' and this is treated as something to {{Squee}} about. It says a lot about how cleverly-written the episode is that it comes across as a genuine moment of celebration and a turning point for the Doctor's character, but think of all those people who died because of him!
** The First Doctor wasn't just gruff and miserly, he was often a dangerously reckless man completely at odds with what he would become in later incarnations (although as Ten would point out many years later to Five, despite having the appearance of an old man, he was by Time Lord standards actually a very young man merely playing at being old which does account for a lot). Some of the examples in addition to the above include nearly trying to kill an unarmed and unconscious man in the pilot before being stopped by Ian, intentionally sabotaging the Tardis on Skaro just so he could have an adventure and nearly get them all killed, and deliberately abandoning Susan without resources or equipment in the wastelands of the 22nd century post Dalek controlled Earth just because he wanted her to settle down with a man that she had only just met.
** The Third Doctor in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E2InvasionOfTheDinosaurs Invasion of the Dinosaurs]]" gets stuck as one due to a BrokenAesop. Throughout the story he attempts to persuade the WellIntentionedExtremist villains that although their goals are noble, they are trying to achieve them by wiping millions of people from existence, and there should be another way. But then, instead of actually bothering to find or even propose another way, he just reverses their time machine so it traps them in the past. Notably, the novelisation hangs a lampshade on this by rejigging everything so Sarah Jane is the hero of the story, and having her go WhatTheHellHero in her internal monologue about much of the Doctor's behaviour.
** The Sixth Doctor's [[NeverLiveItDown most famous moment]] is strangling his companion in his first story, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E7TheTwinDilemma The Twin Dilemma]]". Throughout the rest of the serial he acts incredibly cowardly and at one point decides to blame Peri (the above-mentioned companion) for everything; he never apologises or gets called out for any of this. The rest of his time with Peri can not help but invite uncomfortable similarities to an abusive relationship. On top of that he is one of the most violent Doctors. Thankfully the audios fix all these problems.
** The Tenth Doctor has a tendency to come across as a hypocritical, arrogant and egotistical jerk. [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion His first story]] has him overthrowing the government because the prime minister blew up a spaceship of aliens whose leader had proven untrustworthy (he tried to kill the Doctor after promising to leave in peace) and would have likely gone on to decimate other planets. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E12TheSoundOfDrums This leads to the Master]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords becoming prime minister]], followed by a government willing to send ten percent of Earth's children to a FateWorseThanDeath in the spinoff ''Series/TorchwoodChildrenOfEarth''! He also spends most of Series 3 treating Martha as inferior to Rose and whining about losing Rose -- and his "no second chances" rule given to many one-off villains is waved for the Master and Davros, who have repeatedly shown to not want redemption. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd He also called his clone a monster for blowing up the Daleks (i.e. standard operating procedure for handling the Daleks since their first appearance) despite their being capable of slaughtering the universe]]. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime Finally, he spends most of his regeneration episode whining about how regenerating is an equivalent to death -- even though no past or future incarnation acts like this or any other Time Lord for that matter. And he gets angry at a man who caused his death because he saved someone else's life!]] Ten then spends the last few specials making clear mistakes due to hubris and ProtagonistCenteredMorality, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars ending in him almost crossing the]] MoralEventHorizon (breaking one of the laws of time he's bound to protect, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E8FathersDay despite knowing this will have catastrophic repercussions]]). However, those last few specials were the character's saving grace, as both the Doctor and those around him agree that he's gone too far, suggesting that Ten had to "die" in order to atone for hurting so many.
** The Eleventh Doctor comes off as this several times in Series 6. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E6TheAlmostPeople The Almost People]]", he [[ExpendableClone murders Amy’s clone]] to learn the original Amy's location after spending the entire episode [[{{Hypocrite}} berating miners for treating clones as disposable and less important than the originals]]. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E10TheGirlWhoWaited The Girl Who Waited]]", he erases an aged Amy from existence [[ILied after making her believe he could save her]].
** Rose Tyler is meant to be seen as really heroic and loving for crossing dimensions to find the Tenth Doctor in Series 4. Except the Doctor told her that coming back between worlds would destroy both, to which her reaction was [[ItsAllAboutMe "So?"]] She was able to cross worlds due to the Daleks' Reality Bomb collapsing the barriers between Universe, however her dialogue shows she was trying to come back before this happened. And for risking the destruction of two worlds so she could get to someone she loved, she gets her own, conveniently human, [[DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest version]] of him (created by a massive AssPull) -- she even kisses that human version of the Doctor right in front of the original!
*** All this is '''even worse''' in the wake of the final episodes of Series 9, in which [[spoiler: the Twelfth Doctor]] willingly goes through unspeakable hardship and to universe-risking extremes for similar reasons but is ''not'' treated as this trope -- instead it's constant WhatTheHellHero reactions, a MyGodWhatHaveIDone realization, and [[spoiler: losing not only Clara, but also most of his ''memories'' of her]].
*** In Series One, Rose also treats her boyfriend Mickey like he's invisible and ditches her mom Jackie to run off with the Doctor. And in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays The Parting of the Ways]]", she periodically gives dirty looks to another girl that the Doctor had invited to come with them.
*** In Series 2's "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E2ToothAndClaw Tooth and Claw]]" when people are getting torn to pieces by a werewolf, Rose's main priority still seems to be [[SkewedPriorities winning a bet]] with the Doctor that she can get Victoria to say she is not amused. In that episode she can come across as a NightmareFetishist and it isn't surprising Victoria gets so angry at Rose and the Doctor for seeming to enjoy the horrific events.
** Lady Christina de Souza, the ClassyCatBurglar from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E15PlanetOfTheDead Planet of the Dead]]". She is meant to be a heroic companion figure, but arguably nothing she does is particularly heroic -- only self-preservation. She is introduced stealing a museum artifact and doesn't seem at all unhappy that her possible boyfriend gets arrested. Finally the Doctor helping her escape the police is meant to be seen as a great moment, and [=McMillian=] as an InspectorJavert for wanting to arrest her. However he was completely justified in arresting her. To add insult to injury, in ComicBook/DoctorWhoIDW she still gets away with committing crimes after leaving Earth.
** Clara Oswald becomes one toward the end of Series 8. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon Kill the Moon]]", when the Twelfth Doctor leaves the fate of the Moon Creature -- whose birth might destroy Earth -- in her and humanity's hands, she overrules the votes of Earth and decides to spare the creature. Fortunately it doesn't destroy all, but she has no reason to think that it wouldn't. She ''and'' the episode are busy seeing the Doctor as in the wrong for trusting humanity to save it rather than just doing it himself based on his informed guess about the creature's intentions -- an intended gesture of respect that comes off as condescending partially because he has NoSocialSkills. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E10InTheForestOfTheNight In the Forest of the Night]]", upon learning that a solar flare will burn the Earth, she rejects the proposition of the Doctor to save herself, her boyfriend Danny and a class of children claiming that she doesn't want to be the last human...without bothering to consult Danny and the children first! (So the Doctor's learned from his "Kill the Moon" experience, but she hasn't!) And while it's not surprising that over time she learns to be a ConsummateLiar from the Doctor's example, where he primarily uses lies to put plans into action, she ''constantly'' lies to the Doctor and Danny about her relationships with both men simply because she's a ControlFreak who wants things both ways. The kicker is the beginning of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E11DarkWater Dark Water]]": [[spoiler: after the sudden death of Danny, she attempts to blackmail the Doctor to save him by drugging him and threatening to throw the keys of the TARDIS in a volcano]]. She is understandably stressed at the time and the Doctor does call her out on her actions, but that's ''still'' nasty for someone we're supposed to see as TheWoobie -- and then the Doctor bends over backwards to help her. Remember, the Ninth Doctor kicked Adam out of the TARDIS for a far lesser crime.
*** Also -- she previously traveled with Eleven and was willing to '''die''' for him ([[spoiler: and did -- perhaps millions of times over]]) even knowing of many of the horrible deeds of his past (i.e. the Last Great Time War). Then after he spent 1,000 or so years in lonely vigil on Trenzalore and received a last-moment reprieve from the grave that she had a hand in getting him, he regenerates into a GrumpyOldMan who has NoSocialSkills, a more [[PragmaticHero pragmatic personality]] -- and an identity crisis that he needs her help in working out. Naturally, she's promptly making rude comments about his appearance, slapping him, lying to him, temporarily abandoning him after "Kill the Moon" even though [[spoiler: Eleven himself]] warned her that he desperately needed her friendship and support, and even betraying him. As it's established in "Mummy on the Orient Express" that she's addicted to having wacky adventures and thus can't give him up entirely, it comes off as her ''using'' him. She insists she isn't shallow, but she sure frosted up once he was no longer young, pretty, and charming. To make matters worse, while she and Twelve eventually become chaste sweethearts, consider her sendoff in Series 9: [[spoiler: She tells him he must let her die and move on for the greater good, but doesn't simply go back to her death once he's been mind-wiped and she leaves him on Earth with his TARDIS -- instead she decides to have more adventures in the second stolen TARDIS first]].
** The show's treatment of the Twelfth Doctor usually '''averts''' this trope, so when it turns up in two episodes it's extremely noticeable. Both episodes happen to have the same writer, Toby Whithouse.
*** In Series 9's "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E4BeforeTheFlood Before the Flood]]", he allows the villain to kill a woman simply to test a theory involving the order in which he and other characters seem doomed to die. (He's informed of this ''by his own ghost'', which may be influencing his behavior.) After realising the next person to die is Clara, only then does he decide to step in and save everyone else. He does receive a WhatTheHellHero speech, and it turns out to be {{Foreshadowing}} for him temporarily becoming a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds a few episodes later when [[spoiler: she ''does'' die]] but it still feels like the Doctor only intervened when someone he knew was about to die.
*** Later, Series 10's "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E8TheLieOfTheLand The Lie of the Land]]" has him becoming the evil Monks' PropagandaMachine when they TakeOverTheWorld, which means he has to take ''some'' responsibility for everyone imprisoned and killed over their six-month reign. This turns out to be because he has been [[spoiler: deep undercover, with his life forfeit if they realized the truth]], and ''was'' probably the best choice to make under extreme circumstances. Still, it undercuts his much-professed belief in the value of individual lives even as it's brought up later in the episode as his justification for not simply [[spoiler: sacrificing Bill's life to stop the Monks]] (in fairness, Missy calls him out somewhat, but the people imprisoned by the Monks are not brought up specifically). On top of that, it is deeply psychologically wounding to his companion Bill, who [[spoiler: ends up shooting him in rage, not realizing he can heal and that this was a Secret Test of Character]], but she seems to easily forgive him when the crisis has passed. Of course, this may be because...
** Bill Potts herself qualifies as this between the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E7ThePyramidAtTheEndOfTheWorld The Pyramid at the End of the World]]" and in "The Lie Of The Land". The reason the Monks are allowed to invade Earth in the first place is because [[spoiler: she made a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with them]] in exchange for the Doctor's life knowing the Monks invading Earth would be the price and explicitly against his wishes]]. The closest to her getting called out for this is a SecretTestOfCharacter to establish she is not under the Monks' mind control, which ends up being why she [[spoiler: shoots the Doctor in anger with intent to kill]] when the Doctor tells her why he sided with the Monks, despite being aware they have mind control powers and long before all the other options were used.

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': In the early seasons, Lana Lang evolved from a slightly annoying DistressedDamsel into one of these, and remained one for her entire run. Despite her frequent betrayals of Clark and his friends, she was consistently treated as being in the right until her exit in Season 8; and unlike Clark and others who border on this, her motivation for anything heroic she does do is either 'to get with Clark' or, later, 'to punish Lex'. Former BigBad Lionel Luthor, post-HeelFaceTurn, is seen as this in-universe: the heroes use him for his resources, but [[ReformedButRejected don't trust him any farther than they can throw him]].

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Emma in season one. She decides that she knows what's better for Henry than Regina does a day after meeting him, despite having no experience then illegally cuts down a tree on public property shortly after Regina tells her that she's been taking care of it since she was a child. After becoming sherif, she uses her newfound power to plant an illegal bug in Regina's office and then break into City Hall and conduct an illegal search. Many of the actions Regina takes against her are pretty reasonable given the circumstances. The only unambiguously heroic thing she does is save Regina from the fire... which was set to help her win the election. The only reason Emma doesn't come off as a CorruptCop who has a vendetta against the mother of her biological son because she regrets giving him up is that we've already been told that she's [[TheChosenOne the Savior]] and Regina's the Evil Queen.

* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'', increasingly. Their total selfishness and the body count attached to them, which is now in the ''thousands'' and includes people killed for reasons ranging from self-defense to HorrorHunger to to gaining advantage over an enemy to just being unhappy and taking it out on other people, can make it pretty difficult to root for them. Notable acts include causing the deaths of thousands of vampires, ''twice'', for pretty dubious reasons, and trapping thousands of souls in limbo, possibly forever, rather than give up a chance to resurrect their friend.

** The whole main cast as explained in this video https://youtu.be/OIvcaG1Nw84?si=kL5IvQ4pKdIAGyNr and this videohttps://youtu.be/yA-rsBH1NP4?si=sC-Lyt6lM95jBWP1

* ''Series/GreysAnatomy'': Pretty much all of the heroic surgeons come off as this from time to time. The show seems adamant that surgeons are allowed to do whatever they want and ignore the wishes of their patients, and frequently shows them doing things that would get real doctors fired or arrested. Like stealing organs from patients, coercing patients to give up a transplant for ''their'' patient, misplacing body parts, and ignoring family member' wishes. Surgeons are so self-obsessed in this world that they are effectively allowed to indirectly murder people for personal gain. And when clearly unsympathetic characters, like Penny, make the same kind of mistakes, they are outright treated like murderers.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Emma in season one. She decides that she knows what's better for Henry than Regina does a day after meeting him, despite having no experience then illegally cuts down a tree on public property shortly after Regina tells her that she's been taking care of it since she was a child. After becoming sherif, longtime resident of Storybrooke in the election, she uses her newfound power to plant an illegal bug in Regina's office and then break into City Hall and conduct an illegal search. Many of the actions Regina takes against her are pretty reasonable given the circumstances. The only unambiguously heroic thing she does is save Regina from the fire... which was set to help her win the election. The only reason Emma doesn't come off as a CorruptCop who has a vendetta against the mother of her biological son because she regrets giving him up is that we've already been told that she's [[TheChosenOne the Savior]] and Regina's the Evil Queen.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Emma in season one. She decides that she knows what's better for Henry than Regina does a day after meeting him, despite having no experience with children and based solely on the fact that Regina makes it clear that she doesn't want her in their lives. She takes Henry's medical records from Archie despite the fact that it's illegal for him to give them to her, and then illegally cuts down a tree on public property shortly after Regina tells her that she's been taking care of it since she was a child. After becoming sheriff--beating a law-abiding (up to that point), longtime resident of Storybrooke, she uses her newfound power to plant an illegal bug in Regina's office and then break into City Hall and conduct an illegal search. She discounts [[spoiler:Snow as a suspect in Kathryn's disappearance despite the obvious motive because Snow is her friend.]] Her full intention is to come between Henry and his mother, who raised him from birth, simply because he's unhappy, despite the fact that he's in already treatment. Many of the actions Regina takes against her are pretty reasonable given the circumstances. The only unambiguously heroic thing she does is save Regina from the fire... which was set to help her win the election, and which she initially keeps quiet about. The only reason Emma doesn't come off as a CorruptCop who has a vendetta against the mother of her biological son because she regrets giving him up is that we've already been told that she's the savoir and Regina's the evil queen.

* This trope is purposefully lampshaded and deconstructed on ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend''. Rebecca paints herself as "just a girl in love" who therefore "can't be held responsible for her actions". In reality, she is a stalker to her old boyfriend Josh and often manipulates others to get what she wants. What she tries to pass off as being a quirky ManicPixieDreamGirl is really a front for the fact that she is very mentally ill, [[DesperatelySeekingAPurposeInLife feels empty inside]], and has unresolved past trauma to work through.

* This trope is purposefully lampshaded and deconstructed on ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend''. Rebecca paints herself as "just a girl in love" who therefore "can't be held responsible for her actions". In reality, she is a stalker to her old boyfriend Josh and often manipulates others to get what she wants. What she tries to paint as a byproduct of her being a quirky ManicPixieDreamGirl is really a front for the fact that she is very mentally ill, [[DesperatelySeekingAPurposeInLife feels empty inside]], and has unresolved past trauma to work through.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'':
** Emma in season one. She decides that she knows what's better for Henry than Regina does a day after meeting him, despite having no experience with children and based solely on the fact that Regina makes it clear that she doesn't want her in their lives. She takes Henry's medical records from Archie despite the fact that it's illegal for him to give them to her, and then illegally cuts down a tree on public property shortly after Regina tells her that she's been taking care of it since she was a child. After becoming sheriff--beating a law-abiding (up to that point), longtime resident of Storybrooke, she uses her newfound power to plant an illegal bug in Regina's office and then break into City Hall and conduct an illegal search. She discounts [[spoiler:Snow as a suspect in Kathryn's disappearance despite the obvious motive because Snow is her friend.]] Her full intention is to come between Henry and his mother, who raised him from birth, simply because he's unhappy, despite the fact that he's in already treatment. Many of the actions Regina takes against her are pretty reasonable given the circumstances. The only unambiguously heroic thing she does is save Regina from the fire... which was set to help her win the election, and which she initially keeps quiet about. The only reason Emma doesn't come off as a CorruptCop who has a vendetta against the mother of her biological son because she regrets giving him up is that we've already been told that she's the savoir and Regina's the evil queen.
** Robin Hood is often referred to InUniverse as a bastion of nobility and virtues in the hero community. However, a lot of fans like to point out that we rarely if ever actually see him do anything heroic. The main point a lot of fans like to point towards is him sleeping with Regina not five feet from his dying wife's frozen body. A lot of fans also find it hard to root for him and Regina to get back together when he is so ready to forgive Regina for executing his wife and leaving his child motherless with barely any hesitation. Furthermore, a lot of fans like to point out the hypocrisy of him saying that Zelena is unfit to raise their daughter after he not only fails to name said daughter for weeks on end but straight up abandons her to travel to the Underworld in order to save a man who tried to kill him and his family. He then proceeds to yell at Regina for attempting to give Zelena the benefit of the doubt by trusting the still unnamed daughter to her, despite him being one of the main people who preaches that Regina should be given a second chance after all the bad she has done, with the show framing him as in the right and having Regina apologize to him.