History Main / DesignatedHero

* The Abh from '"CrestOfTheStars'' are TheEmpire as depicted by an author who is RootingForTheEmpire, and glorified [[RecycledInSpace Space]] [[CantArgueWithElves Elves]] to boot. The dissonance between the fact they're intended to be the sympathetic, admirable, perfect, protagonist faction and the reality of what they actually are is so great that many viewers/readers end up RootingForTheEmpire instead -- and the TheEmpire in this case is a case of TheEmpire being played straight!

* DeconstructedTrope in FateZero. Mages can use SummoningMagic to call heroes from across time and space, so that both can contract together in order to win a tournament and have their greatest wishes granted. The servants' [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight reasons]] [[ItsAllAboutMe for]] [[HonorBeforeReason fighting]] [[TakeOvertheWorld in]] [[FallenHero the]] [[BloodKnight war]] are perfectly natural [[ValuesDissonance judged by the standards of their time]]. Transplanted into the modern world they are seen at best as naively peculiar and at worst as dangerously sociopathic. Not every team survives the contradiction.

** Actually, [=SpongeBob=]'s not really a jerk, he's just [[TheDitz naive]] and [[TookALevelInDumbass dumb]]. He's not really aware his shenanigans are causing trouble for others, and he's usually nice to other people ([[{{Yandere}} sometimes to creepy extents]]). He almost never shows any true signs of selfishness or [[JerkAss jerkassery]], and if anything, is just a ditzy ManChild who unintentionally causes trouble, and will sometimes try to make up for it.

* ''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 one episode, she forces her husband to go with her to a couple's therapist in order to patch up their marriage. Ray is initially reluctant to open up, but then opens the floodgates and complains about how Debra constantly abuses him. Naturally, Debra is shocked by this, as she expected the session to be all about how Ray is not the man she wants him to be and doesn't stand up to his parents. After all, how could ''she'' possibly be anything less than perfect? After the therapist appears to take Ray's side (although therapists are supposed to stay neutral), she refuses to attend any more sessions and is mad at Ray for embarrassing her like that (to reiterate, he did exactly what she wanted him to do - open up).

* The main character of the {{Touhou}} fan series/movie, Fanfic/DiamondInTheRough, Brolli Diamondback is a {{Deconstruction}} of this trope and of [[MartyStu Gappy Stus]]. Brolli is in a white shirt and jeans, and all he wants is to gain power so he can essentially vacation in Gensokyo. The rest of the characters have cool costumes, lead busy and interesting lives, and have numerous character traits. He, after getting [[StoryBreakerPower his powers]] gives numerous KickTheDog moments that make the other characters hate him. Needless to say, the story focuses on how this [[DownerEnding will not end well]]. The only thing that doesn't make him a CompleteMonster is his "self-awareness" and ability to feel remorse for his actions, a trait that no other Gappy before him had.

** In the first ''Anime/DominionTankPolice'', there is an exchange between squad leader Brenten and Lovelock that illustrates this mentality perfectly. Brenten, probably the next most gung-ho member of the squad besides Leona, and most definitely a dyed in the wool veteran of the squad, suggests to Lovelock that they should quit the force right then, and go off and become criminals, for the action, the money, and the lack of regulations that plague them as Tank Police. From the tone of voice, it's clear that he's saying this in a half joking, half not manner, suggesting that if Lovelock had agreed to this, they would have actually left for a life of crime right then. When Lovelock declines, Brenten immediately recants everything he said, and nothing more is ever said of it again.

** In fact, while Celestial Being might not have been aware of it themselves, stage one of their founder's master plan involved them ''being'' villains in the eyes of the world, to unite the feuding superpowers against a common enemy.

* An in-universe example on WesternAnimation/{{Sidekick}} is Maxum Man, who is hailed as the greatest hero of all time, even though he mostly just takes credit for the actions of his sidekicks, who are rewarded by being maimed repeatedly, often ''by him'' (keep in mind that sidekicks in this universe are generally small children), and many of the villains he faces became supervillains as DisproportionateRetribution for Maxum Man being a jerk to them.

* ''Series/DawsonsCreek": Dawson. He normally acts like a spoilt, self-centred Jerkass, especially in Season 3. After he himself rejected Joey, he is furious when she falls in love with Pacey. He forces her to choose between their friendship and Pacey, alienates Pacey and tries to win Joey back in an increasingly manipulative, underhand way. (Including almost killing Pacey in a sailing race, lying to Joey about reknewing their friendship and tricking Joey to going to the prom with him). All of this is treated as a normal competition to 'win the girl'.

* ''FlashForward2009'': Mark Benford. Many perceive him to be a major-league JerkAss to his coworkers, his family, and everyone. ''See:'' giving his wife huge amounts of shit for seeing herself sleeping with another man in her FlashForward, yet lying to her about his own (he was drinking in his); routinely flouting international law and direct orders from his boss, but unlike other Screw The Rules types, he doesn't really accomplish anything by doing so; having his hands superglued to the IdiotBall (best example: [[spoiler: shooting an assassin who has what is obviously a unit tattoo]]); and as the promo for the post-hiatus episodes shows, [[spoiler: accusing Demetri of being a mole]].
* ''{{Smallville}}'': In the early seasons, Clark Kent could be seen as this, frequently making morally dubious decisions without being called on them. This improved as the show continued, with Clark eventually becoming the moral centre of the {{Justice League|OfAmerica}}, and frequently calling out the likes of [[AntiHero Green Arrow]] on his actions. In contrast, Lana Lang 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. Following this, Chloe Sullivan picked up the Designated Hero ball and ran with it, constantly going behind Clark and Oliver's backs without any explanation, stockpiling Kryptonite weapons, and making very iffy moral choices. 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]].
* ''KenanAndKel'': The eponymous characters, especially Kel.
* ''LawAndOrder'':
** Arguably, most of the characters in every iteration, but especially ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' and ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent''. Hardly an episode goes by without an absolutely horrifying instance of breach of protocol, bad judgment, unnecessary hatred for a suspect, or outright lawbreaking on the part of the main cast. The main cast is made up entirely of law enforcement officers and lawyers. Almost every crime drama has this to some extent.
** Elliot Stabler is this trope personified. While interviewing a suspect (that's SUSPECT - not criminal, SUSPECT) he becomes aggravated and puts the man's head through the one-way glass in the interrogation room. He is not punished for it in any way, because obviously the suspect is an evil criminal and does not have rights.
** Somebody is talking with Cabot, the prosecuting attorney, and accuses the police department of harming a suspect. Cabot replies that the injuries were sustained during a fight between two suspects. Her conversation partner acknowledges that this is technically correct... because the suspects were intentionally baited, by the police department, into turning on each other. Cabot does not even bother to reply, she just stands there looking smug for the rest of the scene.
** Stabler and Benson go to a suspect's home, where he lives with his grandfather. They do not have a warrant and cannot enter the house without permission. They tell the suspect something about his grandfather that shocks him and causes him to throw the door closed and run upstairs to confront the grandfather. Stabler ''puts his hand out to keep the door from closing'' and the two detectives chase after the suspect, into the house that they do not have permission to enter.
*** At the risk of advocating Stabler's {{Jerkass}} behavior, in that moment, he could have argued that he feared that someone's life was in jeopardy. Exigent circumstances.
** In one very serious episode, a young man recognizes that he is a pedophile and turns himself in before he harms someone. Specifically, he fears that he will molest a young relative of his and has actually been drinking heavily in an attempt to forestall his actions. When he accepts that he will not be able to stop himself for much longer he turns himself in to he police in the hope that they will be able to keep him from hurting any little kids. Benson explicitly states that up to that point, no pedophile had ever turned themselves in out of an honest desire to reform. Rather than appreciating the selfless efforts of a very confused person who needs help with a legitimate problem, he is despised by the police force and referred to as a "monster."
** It doesn't help that the detectives and prosecutors tend to have a smug attitude most of the time. Almost veering into SmugSnake territory.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': For many fans, Buffy is the DH for much of [[SeasonalRot Seasons Six and Seven.]] However, there were implications that Buffy wasn't exactly being herself, being under even more massive pressure than usually, and having gone through several traumatic experiences in a short time.
** This has been played with several times, from Buffy's temper tantrum that she wasn't allowed to kill Faith and Series/{{Angel}} telling her to get stuffed, to her being rejected by the potential slayers, to a storyline where a rogue slayer intends to kill Buffy because of how much of a princess she is.
** There's also Spike in Season 7. For some reason Buffy and the writers seem to believe Spike is in the right when he tells Robin Wood that he doesn't regret killing his mother, and that she ''never loved him''. And frankly, that's only the worst time by a small degree.
* ''Series/TheOfficeUS'': Has Jim & Pam, who are supposed to be normal, but are actually kinda pricks. Jim knew he wasn't supposed to upset Andy when he was at Stamford, but he did, and he did it again at Scranton. He picked on Andy - someone he ''knew'' had anger management issues - enough to make him punch a hole in the wall. He even probably endangered Pam in helping too. Between the two of them, they were lusting after each other, regardless of the feelings of the people they were involved with. They also broke company policy in the baby shower ep with the bluetooth and making themselves noticeable enough to warrant investigation ([[FridgeBrilliance though considering how lax Michael is with office policy, he probably let it slide]]). Sometimes Jim's pranks on Dwight go too far (enough to give him a bit of a HeroicBSOD when regaling). The writers do notice this sometimes, especially in later seasons. A few episode show Jim being embarrassed by his immaturity, and show Dwight as more of a victim. This depiction is closer to the UK version, where Tim and Dawn were often presented as immature bullies, and not just playful jokers.
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Leonard, as he has gained a generally jerk demeanor and holier-than-thou attitude as the series went on.
* ''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 one episode, she forces her husband to go with her to a couple's therapist in order to patch up their marriage. Ray is initially reluctant to open up, but then opens the floodgates and complains about how Debra constantly abuses him. Naturally, Debra is shocked by this, as she expected the session to be all about how Ray is not the man she wants him to be and doesn't stand up to his parents. After all, how could ''she'' possibly be anything less than perfect? After the therapist appears to take Ray's side (although therapists are supposed to stay neutral), she refuses to attend any more sessions and is mad at Ray for embarassing her like that (to reiterate, he did exactly what she wanted him to do - open up).
* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'': The Charmed Ones, in the later seasons, have stopped thinking about saving people and are more about themselves. They cast magic on innocent people, needlessly set up a human criminal up to get killed by demons in their home, and joined up with a bunch of magical extremists to wipe out free will for the sake of destroying evil. Then they faked their deaths and got a new girl (played by the same actress as the aforementioned Penny from ''Big Bang Theory'') to do all the work for them. Seriously, the new girl [[spoiler:being [[DefectorFromDecadence convinced]] by [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil her]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy sister]] to [[FaceHeelTurn turn heel]] and the two of them almost being powerful enough to kill the Halliwells (before she got better, anyway)]] was practically a [[LaserGuidedKarma due backfire]].
* ''GossipGirl'': Serena frequently acts far nastier than Blair, and her protests and apologies just make her seem like a huge liar compared to the others.
* ''Series/RobinHood'':
** Robin Hood from the BBC's 2006-2008 version of the story kept getting worse as the seasons went on. His "[[ThouShaltNotKill no-kill]]" policy was chucked out the second season when it became apparent that he was prepared to kill in the name of King Richard (even if it meant shooting unarmed priests and mentally-deranged spies), and by the third season he was shooting guards in the back whilst ''still'' insisting that he only killed when he needed to. He also treated his outlaws like crap (especially poor Much), started a relationship with a girl he was barely interested in despite knowing that his best friend liked her, attacked a frightened woman in her own bedroom after she's had to kill a man in self-defence, and shot dead an executioner who was just doing his job (and ''then'' having the gall to tell the aforementioned woman that not only is ''she'' "a murderer" for killing a man who was threatening to rape/strangle her but that ''he'' only kills when he absolutely needs to).
** The third season also introduced Kate, who was shilled as brave, compassionate and altogether wonderful even though she was never anything but rude, nasty and shrill to everyone around her, and once demanded that a terrified woman be left to be raped and strangled by her sadistic husband, stating that "she doesn't deserve our help."
* ''Series/DawsonsCreek": Dawson. He normally acts like a spoilt, self-centred Jerkass, especially in Season 3. After he himself rejected Joey, he is furious when she falls in love with Pacey. He forces her to choose between their friendship and Pacey, alienates Pacey and tries to win Joey back in an increasingly manipulative, underhand way. (Including almost killing Pacey in a sailing race, lying to Joey about reknewing their friendship and tricking Joey to going to the prom with him). All of this is treated as a normal competition to 'win the girl'.
* ''Series/BigTimeRush'': The four characters of the eponymous group all have moments that push them into this category, especially in episodes where they're carelessly destructive (i.e. Big Time Mansion, Jobs, etc). Though not all of them are always like this (sometimes it depends on the episode), you get the idea.
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': MemeticBadass though he may be, Leroy Jethro Gibbs can definitely be seen as this, with repeatedly assholish behavior to various characters, occasionally bending or even ''breaking'' laws he's supposed to be enforcing, and some instances of hypocrisy regarding investigations with agents/officers from outside his team.
** He has also put his own agents (especially [=McGee=]) into dangerous situations just to save time. Of course, both Abby and DiNozzo tend to act terrible toward the guy.
* ''AllyMcBeal'': Georgia is generally described by other characters as a really nice, good hearted person. While she certainly can be nice to some people she can also be petty and a quite mean; e.g., badmouthing Nelle, making it clear that she disliked her and physically attacking her when she tried to break up a fight between her and Ally for the sole reason that she's jealous of the fact she considers Nelle to be prettier than her
* ''The Secret Life of Us'': Series 2 turned the character of Gabrielle into a serious JerkAss. She starts an affair with Dominic a married man with two young children and gets him to leave his wife Francesca for her saying that because she loves him so, so much this is all justified. When Francesca shouts at her and calls her selfish she has the barefaced cheek to complain that she is victimizing her and then she breaks up with Dominic for ''spending too much time trying to comfort his heartbroken children'' rather than forgetting them and focusing all his time on her. A short time later Dominic, who has tried and failed to make things work with his wife because he can't forget Gabrielle, tries to win her back and she says she has gotten used to being on her own even though she caused all this pain on the grounds that she supposedly loved him so much. Despite this neither Gabrielle or any other character apart from Francesca says anything about how selfish, fickle and destructive her actions are and she is still depicted as a likable character the audience should root for and empathize with
* ''Promised Land'': Shamaya Taggert from the ''TouchedByAnAngel'' spin off. You're supposed to like this character, but she come off ass a bitter self righteous pretentious prick.

* ''Series/{{Glee}}'':
** Rachel and Finn fall very much into this category.
** Will Schuster too, if not even more so. In the very first episode he ''plants drugs on a student'' to blackmail him into joining Glee Club. When said student protests his innocence and frantically promises to take a drug test, Will weasels around that obvious out by reminding the kid that being charged at all will look bad. Seeing as how in the US, a drug conviction of any kind bars kids from applying for student loans, Will essentially threatens a minor's future education to force him to join a failing club.
* ''VeronicaMars'': It's easy to sympathize with her backstory, which includes ParentalAbandonment, rape and subsequent social exile. It's not so easy to actually ''like'' her, as she's incredibly manipulative, enables various illegal actions throughout the series (including the kidnapping of a baby), uses her friends as pawns (sometimes putting their lives in danger) and is just outright ''mean'' to most people she speaks to on a regular basis. One could make a solid argument that the only difference between Veronica and the [[AlphaBitch popular crowd]] she was once part of is that fact that she's directing her manipulative tendencies into a profession which ostensibly helps people -- notably, her behavior worsens in season three when she has no central mystery to solve.

* ''TrueBlood'': The vampires. Bill killed many people with Lorena and has deliberately killed people even in the present day. Every vampire we've met we know for a fact have killed at least one human, and many of these vamps we know have killed more than that. Even "saintly" Godric killed Eric's 2 best friends before turning Eric into a vamp. And thanks to Jessica killing a man soon after she became a vampire, there's now no vampire we can definitely state has never killed a human. The Authority might be seen as a benevolent influence... except as their Arbiter they appointed a nasty [[FantasticRacism "humans-are-inferior-to-vampires" bigot]] who regarded the fact Bill killed a vampire to save the life of a human as making Bill's crime of killing the vampire worse, not better, and as punishment had a terrified teenaged girl (Jessica) kidnapped and forcibly turned into a vampire by Bill. And we're supposed to be rooting for the vampires and their integration with humans because why, exactly?
** Note that the later seasons ''realized this'' and now there is a War brewing between Humanity and the Vampires [[spoiler: with Bill, now a HumanoidAbomination, leading the charge as the Vampire's new god, taking the place of [[EldritchAbomination Lillith]].]]
* ''{{ER}}'': Mark Greene, who from the very first episode was pushed as the "heart" of the show. Said "heart" was frequently unbearably self-righteous with his friends, often failed to be there for them when they needed his support, was unable to take a stand on anything, blasted others from bending or breaking the rules, then bent or broke them himself, and deliberately withheld treatment from an AssholeVictim patient, resulting in the man's death. There's no denying that the man deserved to die--at the hands of a judge, jury, and executioner, NOT at a doctor betraying the most basic tenets of his profession.
* ''CriminalMinds'': Edward Allen Bernero stated that Jason Gideon was meant to be the central character to the show, even though episodes tended towards ensemble-like setups. Furthermore, Gideon as a character wasn't particularly nice to the rest of the team, as he frequently disobeys the chain of command (giving orders to the team when it's supposed to be Hotch's job), being terribly difficult to work with and not being very approachable. Hotch called him out on this in "What Fresh Hell?", telling him that he bought flowers for Garcia (after Gideon proved extremely difficult with her in the previous episode) and said they were from Gideon explaining, "Jason, people need to know that they're important, and sometimes you forget that."

* Deconstructed in FateZero. Mages can use SummoningMagic to call heroes from across time and space, so that both can contract together in order to win a tournament and have their greatest wishes granted. The servants' [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight reasons]] [[ItsAllAboutMe for]] [[HonorBeforeReason fighting]] [[TakeOvertheWorld in]] [[FallenHero the]] [[BloodKnight war]] are perfectly natural [[ValuesDissonance judged by the standards of their time]]. Transplanted into the modern world they are seen at best as naively peculiar and at worst as dangerously sociopathic. Not every team survives the contradiction.

* ''{{Victorious}}'': Tori Vega. In the first episode, she gets revenge on the AlphaBitch by kissing her boyfriend. That wouldn't be too bad if she hadn't done it ''again'' in another episode (This time it was actually a good friend of hers). In a recent episode, she left her friend behind at a Sushi bar because she selfishly wanted to return to class. Earlier, he did something nice for her by treating her.

* Carly from 'ICarly'' never stops her {{Jerkass}} friend Sam from bullying others. What kind of friend lets another friend bully her other friends? Then in "iMove Out," when Freddie's mom came on the set to humiliate her son, instead of turning off the camera, she points it at Freddie while he's getting embarrassed. And that's not even getting into Carly's emotional manipulation of [[DoggedNiceGuy Fredd]][[TheWoobie ie...]]
* Tori Vega from {{Victorious}}. In the first episode, she gets revenge on the AlphaBitch by kissing her boyfriend. That wouldn't be too bad if she hadn't done it ''again'' in another episode (This time it was actually a good friend of hers). In a recent episode, she left her friend behind at a Sushi bar because she selfishly wanted to return to class. Earlier, he did something nice for her by treating her.
* Several characters from ''Series/{{Lost}}'', especially [[DesignatedProtagonistSyndrome Jack and Kate]]. Aside from the fact that they are Designated Heroes, they are both essentially JerkAss types who meander between helpful-yet-arrogant [[StandardizedLeader leader types]] through to paranoid, secretive, unhelpful, cliquey and murderous asses.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' Captain "Designated Hero" Janeway - after stranding her crew in the Delta Quadrant due to reasons largely beyond her control, she forgoes several attempts that would have gotten her back to the Alpha Quadrant, kills one of her crew to restore the status quo, and when given the chance to go back in time and save her crew, rather than preventing them from going to the Delta Quadrant in the first place, she opts to save someone they recruited along the way and abandon nearly a third of her crew to die when they get dragged into the Delta Quadrant.
* ''{{Flash Forward|2009}}'''s Mark Benford. Many perceive him to be a major-league JerkAss to his coworkers, his family, and everyone. ''See:'' giving his wife huge amounts of shit for seeing herself sleeping with another man in her FlashForward, yet lying to her about his own (he was drinking in his); routinely flouting international law and direct orders from his boss, but unlike other Screw The Rules types, he doesn't really accomplish anything by doing so; having his hands superglued to the IdiotBall (best example: [[spoiler: shooting an assassin who has what is obviously a unit tattoo]]); and as the promo for the post-hiatus episodes shows, [[spoiler: accusing Demetri of being a mole]].
* In the early seasons of ''{{Smallville}}'' Clark Kent could be seen as this, frequently making morally dubious decisions without being called on them. This improved as the show continued, with Clark eventually becoming the moral centre of the {{Justice League|OfAmerica}}, and frequently calling out the likes of [[AntiHero Green Arrow]] on his actions. In contrast, Lana Lang 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. Following this, Chloe Sullivan picked up the Designated Hero ball and ran with it, constantly going behind Clark and Oliver's backs without any explanation, stockpiling Kryptonite weapons, and making very iffy moral choices. 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]].
* The eponymous characters of ''KenanAndKel'', especially Kel.

* For many fans, {{Series/Buffy|TheVampireSlayer}} is the DH for much of [[SeasonalRot Seasons Six and Seven.]] However, there were implications that Buffy wasn't exactly being herself, being under even more massive pressure than usually, and having gone through several traumatic experiences in a short time.

* ''[[Series/TheOfficeUS The Office]]'' has Jim & Pam, who are supposed to be normal, but are actually kinda pricks. Jim knew he wasn't supposed to upset Andy when he was at Stamford, but he did, and he did it again at Scranton. He picked on Andy - someone he ''knew'' had anger management issues - enough to make him punch a hole in the wall. He even probably endangered Pam in helping too. Between the two of them, they were lusting after each other, regardless of the feelings of the people they were involved with. They also broke company policy in the baby shower ep with the bluetooth and making themselves noticeable enough to warrant investigation ([[FridgeBrilliance though considering how lax Michael is with office policy, he probably let it slide]]). Sometimes Jim's pranks on Dwight go too far (enough to give him a bit of a HeroicBSOD when regaling). The writers do notice this sometimes, especially in later seasons. A few episode show Jim being embarrassed by his immaturity, and show Dwight as more of a victim. This depiction is closer to the UK version, where Tim and Dawn were often presented as immature bullies, and not just playful jokers.

* On 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.

* The ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' Ones, in the later seasons, have stopped thinking about saving people and are more about themselves. They cast magic on innocent people, needlessly set up a human criminal up to get killed by demons in their home, and joined up with a bunch of magical extremists to wipe out free will for the sake of destroying evil. Then they faked their deaths and got a new girl (played by the same actress as the aforementioned Penny from ''Big Bang Theory'') to do all the work for them. Seriously, the new girl [[spoiler:being [[DefectorFromDecadence convinced]] by [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil her]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy sister]] to [[FaceHeelTurn turn heel]] and the two of them almost being powerful enough to kill the Halliwells (before she got better, anyway)]] was practically a [[LaserGuidedKarma due backfire]].
* Serena in ''GossipGirl'' frequently acts far nastier than Blair, and her protests and apologies just make her seem like a huge liar compared to the others.

* MemeticBadass though he may be, Leroy Jethro Gibbs of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' can definitely be seen as this, with repeatedly assholish behavior to various characters, occasionally bending or even ''breaking'' laws he's supposed to be enforcing, and some instances of hypocrisy regarding investigations with agents/officers from outside his team.

* Georgia from ''AllyMcBeal'' is generally described by other characters as a really nice, good hearted person. While she certainly can be nice to some people she can also be petty and a quite mean; e.g., badmouthing Nelle, making it clear that she disliked her and physically attacking her when she tried to break up a fight between her and Ally for the sole reason that she's jealous of the fact she considers Nelle to be prettier than her
* Series 2 of ''The Secret Life of Us'' turned the character of Gabrielle into a serious JerkAss. She starts an affair with Dominic a married man with two young children and gets him to leave his wife Francesca for her saying that because she loves him so, so much this is all justified. When Francesca shouts at her and calls her selfish she has the barefaced cheek to complain that she is victimizing her and then she breaks up with Dominic for ''spending too much time trying to comfort his heartbroken children'' rather than forgetting them and focusing all his time on her. A short time later Dominic, who has tried and failed to make things work with his wife because he can't forget Gabrielle, tries to win her back and she says she has gotten used to being on her own even though she caused all this pain on the grounds that she supposedly loved him so much. Despite this neither Gabrielle or any other character apart from Francesca says anything about how selfish, fickle and destructive her actions are and she is still depicted as a likable character the audience should root for and empathize with
* Shamaya Taggert from the ''TouchedByAnAngel'' spin off ''Promised Land''. You're supposed to like this character, but she come off ass a bitter self righteous pretentious prick.
* Jimmy [=McNulty=], the closest thing ''TheWire'' has to a central character, discusses this trope in-universe with regards to his (oftentimes morally questionable) behavior.

* VeronicaMars. It's easy to sympathize with her backstory, which includes ParentalAbandonment, rape and subsequent social exile. It's not so easy to actually ''like'' her, as she's incredibly manipulative, enables various illegal actions throughout the series (including the kidnapping of a baby), uses her friends as pawns (sometimes putting their lives in danger) and is just outright ''mean'' to most people she speaks to on a regular basis. One could make a solid argument that the only difference between Veronica and the [[AlphaBitch popular crowd]] she was once part of is that fact that she's directing her manipulative tendencies into a profession which ostensibly helps people -- notably, her behavior worsens in season three when she has no central mystery to solve..
* In the failed ''Wonder Woman'' 2011 pilot, they make the bad guys out to be complete and utter scum who use trafficked humans and underprivileged ghetto kids to test their steroid-type drugs and use their lobbyists to avoid being investigated, and that whatever means that Wonder Woman uses is justified. Unfortunately, Wonder Woman is a brutal, vicious killer who goes after people without any actual evidence, tortures people for information (''while pointing out'' she has a magic lasso called [[TruthSerum the Lasso of Truth]]), and uses her contacts with the police to avoid prosecution.
* The vampires in ''TrueBlood''. Bill killed many people with Lorena and has deliberately killed people even in the present day. Every vampire we've met we know for a fact have killed at least one human, and many of these vamps we know have killed more than that. Even "saintly" Godric killed Eric's 2 best friends before turning Eric into a vamp. And thanks to Jessica killing a man soon after she became a vampire, there's now no vampire we can definitely state has never killed a human. The Authority might be seen as a benevolent influence... except as their Arbiter they appointed a nasty [[FantasticRacism "humans-are-inferior-to-vampires" bigot]] who regarded the fact Bill killed a vampire to save the life of a human as making Bill's crime of killing the vampire worse, not better, and as punishment had a terrified teenaged girl (Jessica) kidnapped and forcibly turned into a vampire by Bill. And we're supposed to be rooting for the vampires and their integration with humans because why, exactly?

* {{ER}}'s Mark Greene, who from the very first episode was pushed as the "heart" of the show> Said "heart" was frequently unbearably self-righteous with his friends, often failed to be there for them when they needed his support, was unable to take a stand on anything, blasted others from bending or breaking the rules, then bent or broke them himself, and deliberately withheld treatment from an AssholeVictim patient, resulting in the man's death. There's no denying that the man deserved to die--at the hands of a judge, jury, and executioner, NOT at a doctor betraying the most basic tenets of his profession.
* Edward Allen Bernero of ''CriminalMinds'' stated that Jason Gideon was meant to be the central character to the show, even though episodes tended towards ensemble-like setups. Furthermore, Gideon as a character wasn't particularly nice to the rest of the team, as he frequently disobeys the chain of command (giving orders to the team when it's supposed to be Hotch's job), being terribly difficult to work with and not being very approachable. Hotch called him out on this in "What Fresh Hell?", telling him that he bought flowers for Garcia (after Gideon proved extremely difficult with her in the previous episode) and said they were from Gideon explaining, "Jason, people need to know that they're important, and sometimes you forget that."

* In ''MuchAdoAboutNothing'', Claudio was tricked into thinking that his fiance Hero had cheated on him. Instead of asking her about it or even quietly canceling the wedding, he waited until the wedding ceremony was underway then publicly accused her of being a whore. Even after being (falsely) informed that Hero had died of shock afterwards, he showed no remorse.

* MichaelCrichton's ''{{Timeline}}'' ends with the protagonists drugging the CorruptCorporateExecutive, and sending him to past to die of the Black Plague. While he was a fairly unpleasant individual and was more concerned about using TimeTravel to [[OnlyInItForTheMoney make money]] than actually giving a chance to learn about the past, he does actively work to prevent the tissue-damage caused to the people who do too many trips through the time-machine/teleporter by forbidding one person from doing too many trips, and all the problems result from those who disobeyed him. But since he's a douchebag, it's all right to murder him horribly. Notably, when TheFilmOfTheBook came out his death and circumstances around it were substantially changed.

* [[LooneyTunes Chester and Spike]] were always the heroes of their shorts, and we're expecting to cheer them on despite their goal in each and every one being to harass, torment and just plain beat the living shit out of poor Sylvester, who is always minding his own business and not doing anything wrong. Did mid-20th century cartoonists just hate cats ''that'' much?

** Except that if you accept "the guards magically pinged 'detect evil' and are therefore valid targets" as a rationalization, then you also have to accept the fact that all of the goblins pinged the dwarf paladin's detect-evil sense in a not-much-later comic, making the goblins outright villain protagonists. It's more likely that the author's intent is to simply have a GreyAndGreyMorality setting with the goblins treating the humans as a monstrous race for irony.

* Spider-Man in the infamous ComicBook/OneMoreDay is supposed to be suffering from the upcoming death of his Aunt May, instead he's a selfish manchild who scoffs at a man showing him sympathy for saying "I know how you feel", [[spoiler:accepts a ''literal'' deal with the devil by giving up his marriage and talks his wife into doing it]]. So, with great power comes... [[BrokenAesop no responsibility? Peter's deal was a better option than taking responsibility for his actions and growing up?]]

* TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}: The Grim Darkness of the 41st Millennium might as well be the poster boy of this trope. The only reason the Imperium of Man appears to be good guys is... well... because they are human. Beyond this they are xenophobic fascist anti-progress extremists that have committed just as many atrocities as any other faction. The closest thing the setting comes to actual good guys would be [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the]] [[TheDictator Tau]]... or the [[ScaryBlackMan Salamanders]], just because they actually care about the lives of civilians.

* ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' has Jim & Pam, who are supposed to be normal, but are actually kinda pricks. Jim knew he wasn't supposed to upset Andy when he was at Stamford, but he did, and he did it again at Scranton. He picked on Andy - someone he ''knew'' had anger management issues - enough to make him punch a hole in the wall. He even probably endangered Pam in helping too. Between the two of them, they were lusting after each other, regardless of the feelings of the people they were involved with. They also broke company policy in the baby shower ep with the bluetooth and making themselves noticeable enough to warrant investigation. Sometimes Jim's pranks on Dwight go too far (enough to give him a bit of a HeroicBSOD when regaling). The writers do notice this sometimes, especially in later seasons. A few episode show Jim being embarrassed by his immaturity, and show Dwight as more of a victim. This depiction is closer to the UK version, where Tim and Dawn were often presented as immature bullies, and not just playful jokers.

* ''TheOffice'' has Jim & Pam, who are supposed to be normal, but are actually kinda pricks. Jim knew he wasn't supposed to upset Andy when he was at Stamford, but he did, and he did it again at Scranton. He picked on Andy - someone he ''knew'' had anger management issues - enough to make him punch a hole in the wall. He even probably endangered Pam in helping too. Between the two of them, they were lusting after each other, regardless of the feelings of the people they were involved with. They also broke company policy in the baby shower ep with the bluetooth and making themselves noticeable enough to warrant investigation. Sometimes Jim's pranks on Dwight go too far (enough to give him a bit of a HeroicBSOD wen regaling). The writers do notice this sometimes, especially in later seasons. A few episode show Jim being embarrassed by his immaturity, and show Dwight as more of a victim. This depiction is closer to the UK version, where Tim and Dawn were often presented as immature bullies, and not just playful jokers.

* Kevin from ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy''. Although he is made to be a HeroAntagonist, he has blatant shades of TheBully and is usually more a {{Jerkass}} who picks on the Eds, and even some of the other (usually less provocative) kids in the cul-de-sac. [[KarmaHoudini Him never getting struck by karma]] doesn't help either.

** Mr. Krabs. It used to be that he was a bit greedy, but eventually he became {{Flanderiz|ation}}ed to the point of psychotically spending a full episode trying to get a single penny from [=SpongeBob=]. (On another occasion he [[DealWithTheDevil sold SpongeBob to the Flying Dutchman]] for 62 cents, an act which [[WhatTheHellHero even horrified Squidward]].) Meanwhile, as Plankton heads more into {{Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain}}y Krabs' responses become more extreme; once he actual [[DrivenToSuicide drove Plankton to attempted suicide]].

** Sometimes Jerry had reasons to act against Tom, sometimes, however, he was just being mean for the sake of it. The most common scenario seems to be: Tom is sleeping or otherwise doing nothing while Jerry, being a mouse, starts stealing Tom's owner's food. We're expected to support Jerry while Tom is constantly fed to the lions because, after all, CatsAreMean.