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John Constantine, Hellblazer
"Never let your sense of morals stop you from doing what's right."
The questionable shade of gray between good and evil, an anti hero is a rather dark, edgy character who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero. He or she may be bewildered, ineffectual, deluded, or merely pathetic. More often an antihero is just an amoral misfit.
Lives f-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-r from the ideal end of the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism.
Other common attributes are: rarely speaking, being a loner, either extreme celibacy or extreme promiscuity, father issues, being able to tell the story of their life through any Simple Plan song, a name from the Dark Age Of Supernames and wearing lots of black. They won't Save The Villain, but they will Shoot The Dog, and they will not hesitate to kill anyone who threatens them.
Other characters may try to impress upon them the value of more traditional heroic values through The Power of Friendship, but these lessons tend to bounce more often than stick. Hopefully.
What amoral antiheroes learn, if they learn anything at all over the course of the story, is that an existence devoid of absolute values offers a lot of isolation. (But that may be to their liking.)
Antiheroes often crop up in deconstructions of traditionally heroic genres. As the struggling, imperfect protagonist begins to gain more respect and sympathy than the impressive-but-impossible-to-relate-to invincible superhero, "anti" heroes have come to be admired as a perfectly valid type of hero in their own right.
Sometimes, they are not the "star" (protagonist), but serve as The Rival or Worthy Opponent of the protagonist and inevitably steal the spotlight. If they are part of a Five Man Band, they will most certainly be The Lancer.
See also Nineties Anti Hero for a specific version whose embodiments may completely lack redeeming qualities, Heroic Sociopath when said Nineties Anti Hero is given an overdose of badass and played for laughs, and Villain Protagonist for when the character is an outright villain. The Loveable Rogue is morally a click below, but can rise to this level.
Be careful when writing Anti Heroes. At one time they were a clever and unique idea, but today there are so many of them, that they are just as clichéd as the regular Hero. The idea that they're automatically more "deep" then a straight up good guy seems to imply that Good Is Boring. There is also a tendency for fans to overlook or straight up ignore his negative traits if said character is cool or sexy enough ( which most of them are).
Examples:
Literature
- While Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus already displayed all the hallmarks of the Anti Hero, the archetype was popularised in the heyday of Romanticism with characters like Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, Edmond Dantes in The Count Of Monte Cristo or Jean Valjean from Les Miserables... and, of course, practically the entire oeuvre of Lord Byron and Goethe.
- It's a rather common argument in literary circles that Lord Byron himself was an example of an anti-hero (well, a Byronic Hero). He was a hard drinker, drug addict, notorious womanizer/manizer, had an unusually close relationship with his sister, and was (possibly) a paedophile who wrote some spectacular poetry and prose. Although I suppose writing good poetry isn't really much of a heroic act. Unless you're me. Hell, the Byronic Hero was named after and inspired by him, and it's quite often interchangebale with anti-hero. Although not identical.
- To be fair, Lord Byron also supported the Greeks in their bid for independence from the Ottoman Empire, and spent a lot of his own money refitting their ships and paying their sailors. His support was short-lived, however, due to a slight case of death.
- Sam Vimes from Discworld is both a subversion and a deconstruction of Anti Hero image. He is portrayed as cynical, unshaven, anti-authoritarian and so on... but is actually one of the most noble heroes in the series.
- In fact, Vimes' dedication to justice and Law (not laws) is so great, that he has constructed a policeman inside his own head that keeps him from succumbing to the darkness and the rage of the Beast deep down in his soul. "The Watchman" as the personification of Vimes' quintessencial natural takes on semi-mythical proportions in the novel Thud, when Vimes is "infected" with an ancient demonic spirit being from dwarven folklore, the Summoning Dark, and the Watchman repels it. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Vimes watches himself. Like a hawk.
- Likewise Granny Weatherwax, who's a good witch (in more ways than one, as she'll be the first to tell you) with a bad attitude.
- Discworld has a more traditional anti-hero in the form of Cohen the Barbarian, an Affectionate Parody of Conan (see below).
- Yossarian from Joseph Heller's Catch-22.
- Film and literary example: Conan the Barbarian is strong and bold, but he also frequently engages in behavior that the law would call "theft" and "murder," without remorse.
- I'd have to say the main reasons to call Conan an Anti Hero would have more to do with him being a selfish bastard, who mostly does acts of good/heroism by killing the REALLY bad people/monsters that get in his way.
- William Gibson's drug-addicted burnout protagonist Case in the seminal Cyberpunk novel Neuromancer.
- Lestat, of Anne Rice's vampire novels, is an anti-hero who seeks to rationalize his feeding on humans for sustenance by only allowing those he considers "evil" to die, though his morality has been known to lapse at times.
- Although, if only the first two books in the series are taken into account, this could be considered an example of unreliable narrator, since Louis and Lestat disagree about so much, including who Lestat killed, it's really up to the reader if they believe Lestat only killed murderers.
- The nonhuman sorcerer-king Elric of Melnibone from the works of Michael Moorcock, who, like Lestat, must kill human beings regularly to stay alive (in his case, the sustenance are souls fed to him by his sword Stormbringer.) Elric ultimately manages to redeem himself, however; while his actions set into motion a course of events that destroys civilization, kills off the human race (and all the others on his world as well), and ultimately leads to the apocalypse, in its aftermath he creates a new world free of magic and divine influence where beings such as himself cannot exist.
- Not quite. Dorian Hawkmoon, another incarnation of the Eternal Champion, did away with the Lords of Law and Chaos and the Cosmic Balance too, after which the Multiverse was finally free of the Eternal Conflict. Elric managed to kill the Dukes of Hell on his world during the final battle of Law vs Chaos. (Alas, Chaos gods are notorically hard to destroy completely.) He managed to thrice blow the Horn of Fate to birth a new world from unformed chaos. However, Elric's world was wiped out in a maelstrom of pure roiling Chaos energies, with him the only survivor; and he was shortly afterwards treacherously killed by him own sword Stormbringer, because he had forgotten that the malicious demon inhabiting the blade Stormbringer was a creature of Chaos too... and it was set free in the new world, laughing as it flew away.
- Elric doesn't actually have to kill people with Stormbringer to stay alive. He can use a "combination of drugs and herbs" to sustain himself.
- Elric TWICE tried to "kick the habit" of stolen soul energies, and was successful for several years, but unfortunately events forced him take up the demonic runeblade again. He also once tried to simply throw Stormbringer into the sea, but found out to his horror that the runeblade is not only sentient but can also levitate on its own and likes to have a master that will wield it in battle. If Stormbringer isn't "fed" sufficiently, the sadistic blade is entirely capable of jumping from Elric's hand and piercing the heart of one of Elric's allies, lovers or friends in front of his eyes.
- Thomas Covenant from the Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant is an unusual anti-hero in that he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever — not just in a moral sense, but in a literary sense as well. He manages to mostly not do anything, but just catalyzes events by being present. The world mostly falls apart around him while he stalwartly tries to remain ineffective.
- The Continental Op from the Dashiell Hammett books, wellspring of things Noir. He goes after criminals and usually gets them. More importantly he always makes money from the gig: money from crooks or good guys, it doesn't matter. Catching criminals is just a dangerous job, and any effective method is a good one, even making deals with criminals or inciting them to murder. He holds to a private code of honour, a tightly bound book his enemies never see and he himself suspects might be nothing but blank pages.
- Also from Dashiell Hammett is Sam Spade, pretty much the ultimate hardboiled detective. He's rude to everyone, sleeps with every woman he speaks to, and steadfastly refuses to let the bad guy (or girl, as case may be) get away.
- In Ender's Game, Ender Wiggin is not only the most talented boy in Battle School - he's also a killer. He isn't the gleeful sadist type: that would be his brother Peter. But, all the same, he gets away with killing two boys who bullied him, and doesn't find out that they really were dead until he saves the world by nearly wiping out an alien species in a war that he didn't know was real. He does feel a certain amount of guilt over their deaths, despite having acted in self-defense.
- Arguable Trope Maker: Kaoru Genji, from Genji Monogatari.
- Ferdinand Bardamu, from Louis-Ferdinand Celine's oeuvre. He is, among other things, an Author Surrogate, and a real anti-hero. This troper earnestly recommends Celine's work, by the way; he was one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century.
- Raymond Chandler's iconic private eye, Philip Marlowe.
- Vladimir Taltos
- Severus Snape from the Harry Potter novels. He's a bastard, and he is known to have dabbled in the Dark Arts... and Harry never quite knows which side he's on, but Dumbledore trusts him implicitly to do the right thing.
- Arya Stark and Sandor Clegane are probably the best examples in A Song Of Ice And Fire, in terms of their personalities. Their actual roles as protagonists or antagonists are debatable.
- Julien Sorel of The Red and the Black is an interesting case. He's the youngest, smartest, and most attractive of three brothers; he's The Unfavorite of his family; and he's subjected to the whims of so many stupid, boorish people it's easy to feel as the story wants you to feel sorry for him. However, he's hypocritical, pretentious and ruthlessly ambitious. What's more, his schemes almost always fail because his emotions get in the way of his machinations, but he never learns from this. Entire critical essays have been written about whether or not the reader is supposed to like Julien; in this troper's opinion, it boils down to how much of yourself you see in him, making The Red and the Black a favorite of pretentious intellectuals.
Film
- Porter, Mel Gibson's character in the movie Payback. A film whose tagline was "Get ready to root for the bad guy!"
- And of course, Parker, the character in the Richard Stark novels that the movie is based on, is a resolute anti-hero. Possibly even more so since he has no compunctions about killing innocents in his way, not just those on whom he's getting revenge.
- Let's not forget Walker in the original adaptation of a Richard Stark novel, Point Blank. Quite possibly the only guy who could make walking down a hall threatening.
- In Star Wars, Han Solo (when he shot Greedo first...or did he?) is also an Anti Hero, most vividly seen by comparing him to Luke Skywalker, the obvious hero (which also makes him The Lancer). He moves more toward the standard hero as time goes on.
- In constrast, Boba Fett, who was depicted as a villain the movies, is portrayed more as an Anti Hero in the Expanded Universe. While he's still the Bad Ass bounty hunter who won't hesitate to disintigrate you if somebody is willing to pay him for it, Fett does have a very loosely defined code of honor and apparently has a soft spot for orphans and the oppressed, and will often go out of his way to help them. Examples include him giving money to charity and saving an alien species from extinction for a hundred credits (it's even implied that he gave their money back).
- Dante and Randall, the main characters of Clerks and Clerks The Animated Series, are Anti Heroes — not especially moral and not especially successful. Jay and Silent Bob, recurring characters in The View Askewniverse, also count, being crude, rude drug dealers who nevertheless dispense wisdom and help out the main characters — when they aren't the main characters themselves.
- In old Westerns, when the hero and villain would face off in a duel, the hero would traditionally wait for the villain to draw, then draw awesomely faster and shoot first. Antiheroes, like most of Clint Eastwood's characters, facing a villain would draw first.
- Snake Plissken from Escape from New York and its sequel.
- In fact, just about anything set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland tends to have a couple show up simply because such settings tend strongly towards the latter end of the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism.
- Lawn Dogs has two of them, adult Trent and 10 year old Devon. Both cause mischief in town, but both are really the only likeable characters in the film, as well as the main characters. Devon is VERY anti, however, when she threatens her own father at gunpoint and steals his wallet in an attempt to help Trent escape.
- Tony Montana from Scarface is a murderous drug lord not above gunning down his many enemies, but refuses to kill innocents and breaks with his more vicious fellows, to his very great detriment.
- Terry (Takuma) Tsurugi from the Sonny Chiba grindhouse classic The Street Fighter is a particularly vicious Anti Hero. He fights with a savage brutality seldom seen in the action world (including one scene when he castrates a rapist with his bare hands, which earned the movie the industry's first X rating for violence), he doesn't hold back against men or women, and he protects those he counts as friends with his life. On the other hand, Terry isn't above sacrificing innocents who he's not specifically helping, he can be a stone bastard to those he feels has betrayed him, and he's not above sending you out a window and selling your sister into prostitution if you can't afford to pay him for the job he's just done for you.
- The guys in In Bruges would be shining examples of this trope, if anti-heroes were allowed to shine. Even the villain is Affably Evil and has some very clear principles.
- Hans Beckert, from M, is either a perfect Anti Hero or a perfect Anti Villain. He's a sympathetic childkiller.
- Richard from Dead Man's Shoes is another sympathetic Serial Killer; his victims are the gang who bullied his mentally-disabled younger brother when they were teenagers and drove him to suicide.
- Technically, he's a "spree killer". Serial killers don't for revenge... well, not the standard kind of revenge, anyway.
- Sweeney Todd starts out as one of these, plotting to avenge his wrongful imprisonment and the rape of his wife upon Dirty Old Man Judge Turpin. Then around the middle of the movie, his bid to kill Judge Turpin goes awry and in the midst of his less than Heroic BSOD, he launches into the dynamite "Epiphany" number which marks his transition from Anti Hero to full on Villain Protagonist with a nasty grudge against humanity in general, and then starts killing people and having them baked into pies.
Television
- Dr. Gregory House of House MD.
- Dr. Cox from Scrubs.
- Tony Soprano of The Sopranos is an Anti Hero.
- George from Dead Like Me.
- Paige Michalchuk and Gavin "Spinner" Mason from Degrassi The Next Generation. The two of them are among the most loathsome teenagers ever portrayed on TV, but the audience can still root for them because they suffer far more than even they deserve.
- Now that you mention it, Paige did get a lot nicer after she was raped.
- Profit's titular character regularly engaged in blackmail, bribery, extortion and intimidation to achieve his nefarious goals.
- Mal Reynolds of Firefly. In The Movie, Serenity, when the Operative tells him he wants to negotiate like a gentleman and that he's come unarmed, Mal simply says "Good" and shoots him. He also shoots not one but two other unarmed men over the course of the movie.
- One of whom was surrendering at the time.
- Another of whom would have been treated much worse, had Mal not shot him.
- Then there's Jayne Cobb, though he's arguably more of a Heroic Sociopath.
- Mal's entire crew fits under this, and they're saved from being Designated Protagonists by way of Honor Before Reason. Sure, they may be petty criminals working under the radar of a Lawful Evil government, but they at least make an effort to do the right thing.
- Jack Bauer of 24. He's perfectly willing to torture, mutilate, execute allies if necessary, and break nearly every law in the book. To his credit, he does intend to stand trial for any laws he breaks, even though this never actually happens (given that this is Jack Bauer we're talking about, perhaps nobody is brave enough to try).
- Avon of Blakes Seven is a particularly good example: He begins as a mix of The Rival and The Lancer, supporting Blake only when it's in his personal interest and because he wants the Liberator. Later, once he becomes the leader of the group, he becomes increasingly paranoid and sociopathic, at one point nearly murdering Vila in cold blood.
- Neil Burnside of The Sandbaggers is not above lying and cheating to get his way, as both Wellingham and Peel frequently tell him. He even (unintentionally) drives a young woman to suicide in order to prevent her boyfriend from resigning from Special Section.
- Vala in Stargate SG 1, though less so as time went on and BadassDecay set in.
- Although The Doctor from Doctor Who is traditionally a Heroic Archetype, some incarnations have been less merciful and more deceptive than others. While Sylvester McCoy's Chessmaster of a Seventh Doctor is arguably the most sly, Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor and David Tennant's Tenth Doctor have been amongst the most ruthless of his incarnations. Perhaps the clearest example of the Ninth Doctor's anti-heroism appears in the episode Boom Town - when the villainous Margaret Blaine tells the TARDIS gang about the painful execution awaiting her on her homeworld, all but the Doctor - even the Loveable Rogue Jack Harkness - are unable to meet her gaze, but the Doctor is clearly unfazed.
- Really, she had previously tried to blow up the Earth for profit, and then destroy an entire city to get home. And that's not counting her life of crime, or that she is wearing someone elses skin. In the end, she is de-aged to a baby, and The Doctor says there is no need to bring her to trial, she can grow up outside of a criminal family. If we want to talk about Anti-Hero Doctor moments, there's the fate of the Family of Blood, each doomed with immortality in the worst way. It is specifically stated that The Doctor hid from them because he knew he does not always deal politely with his problems. The Doctor was NOT happy with what happened during that story, and we get to see him at his cruelist.
- In Life On Mars, DCI Gene Hunt is a racist, sexist, homophobic, crude, lazy and borderline corrupt Old Fashioned Copper who has no problems with taking the odd kickback, beating up a suspect to get a confession or to fit up someone 'who has it coming' for a crime they didn't commit. Yet he's still one of the good guys, mainly because even in the grey area where he keeps his ethics, there's still a line - and once it's crossed, he won't rest until the person who crossed it is brought to justice.
- Walt on Breaking Bad. A high-school chemistry teacher who makes crystal meth to support his family upon learning he has cancer. Just one example of his awesomeness: Taking revenge on an obnoxious lawyer by placing a squeegee on his car's engine, causing it to explode.
- Wesley from Angel, after the whole throat-cutting thing.
- While they still might be the good guys (and guilt whores to boot), both Sam and Dean from Supernatural fit into this category. Dean's pretty much always been in a deep, dark pit of death-seeking self-loathing while Sam only saves people (but this only happens for a while) to balance out his bad karma. They're co-dependent, childish, self-pitying, martyred jerks with hearts of gold who don't care all that much about the human hosts anymore. Captain Empathy is usually just an act while Dean was brainwashed by Daddy and while Dean's "stupidity" is made fun of more often, Sam's usually not as clever as he thinks he is.
Comic Books
- Spawn (that is, from Todd McFarlane's comic book of the same name, not the Spawn Kim Bauer from 24).
- The title character of Johnny The Homicidal Maniac is something like this, although he may be more of a sympathetic villain.
- Marv from Sin City is the embodiment of this trope. He feels no remorse for torturing and killing a great deal of people over the course of his story, even bragging about it on one occasion.
- Rorschach from Watchmen. Subverted in that his violence is not due to amorality, but rather to an impossibly high standard of moral absolutism that makes almost everyone a potential target of his extraordinarily harsh sense of justice.
- Undoubtedly the king of anti-heroes is Batman. Batman displayed the traits of the modern anti-hero since his debut in Detective Comics, 1939. Nearly all the characters above are living in the house Batman built for them.
- Although it's worth pointing out that Batman's status as an anti-hero ultimately depends on who's writing or portraying him; many have leaned towards a more traditional idea of heroism. For example, whilst Frank Miller's might fit this trope like a glove, it's hard to really describe Adam West's Batman as an anti-hero. And even when he most resembles an anti-hero, Batman still often displays the morality and traits of a traditional hero, many of which are essential to his character (such as, for example, complete selflessness, an absolute devotion towards protecting the innocent and a blanket refusal to kill regardless of the circumstances). As such, even in his most dark and edgy moments, it's hard to describe Batman as a genuine anti-hero.
- Other comic book anti-heroes of note include Wolverine, Lobo, The Punisher, and (some versions of) the Incredible Hulk.
- If there's anyone capable of taking the mantle of 'ultimate' anti-hero away from Batman, it would have to be Hellblazer's John Constantine. He is a self-described chain-smoking, swearing, binge-drinking dog kicking asshole, making all sorts of crooked deals with demons and exploiting loopholes (even damning angels) to save his soul from the ensuing damnation. He saves the world several times, but more often just so he has a place to buy a decent pint of Guinness and a pack of cigarettes. Despite his misconduct, he does manage to defeat the baddies and make the world a slightly better place in the end.
- Say his name with me, comic fans: LOBO. Definitely The Lancer on the spacefaring L.E.G.I.O.N. team, and in Young Justice as the de-aged Slobo.
- Rayek from Elf Quest always does what he thinks is best for the entire elfin race, without ever stopping to ask the rest of the elfin race what they think is best for them.
- The DCU introduced a slew of Anti Heroes to "replace" their traditional heroic characters during the Dark Age — the Eradicator for Superman, Jean Paul Valley for Batman, Artemis for Wonder Woman, Dark Flash — though whether they were supposed to emphasize how good the originals were in comparison or a cynical attempt to get with the Darker And Edgier trend of the '90s depends on how charitable you are. The only one with any staying power was Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, but he was never really an Anti Hero to begin with.
- Kyle Rayner was brought in to replace Hal Jordan who had become the supervillain, Parallax. He didn't need to be dark and edgy.
- Marvel's The Punisher is a Badass Normal, trenchcoat-wearing, Vigilante Man who often uses extreme amounts of violence to combat criminals.
- For some reason, The Other Wiki claims that Spiderman is an antihero. How the hell is th nonlethal, old-lady saving Spiderman an Antihero?!
- Spider Jerusalem loves to eat puppies, shatter illusions, knock people's teeth out and drive his poor editor to the brink of insanity, but he's also about the only journalist left in his world who tells the truth no matter what.
Anime
- Shinji Ikari of Neon Gensis Evangelion is a messed-up, whiny and nearly unlikeable protagonist.
- Lelouch, cynical and borderline-sociopathic protagonist of Code Geass, will climb to any height — and stoop to various lows — to destroy the corrupt and decadent Empire of Britannia, including lying to his allies, breaking a few eggs, and outright murder. In an interesting twist of the common combination, Suzaku, Lelouch's best friend, is an Anti Villain with the goal of reforming rather than toppling the Empire, even if it means selling out his own people. How these opposed approaches to the same basic goal conflict with and complement each other form the moral arc and tension of the story.
- Archer of Fate Stay Night was walking this line. He grew up as an idealistic busybody, believing that he can be a 'champion of justice' with his powers and turn the world into a better place. In the end, he realized that for everyone he saved, someone else must die. He lost faith in his own ideals, and from then on, he simply killed whoever posed a threat to the rest of humanity, saving millions by killing thousands - "for the greater good", literally. Naturally, he's also a White Haired Pretty Boy.
- This was in no small part thanks to his father, Emiya Kiritsugu, who held the same ideals, and did pretty much the same thing - killing people whose work would involve death of others, even if it would've benefitted others. After the 4th Grail War, finally believing that he made a difference in the world (ordering Saber to destroying the Grail) he dies. Of course, the Grail wasn't really destroyed...
- Virtually anyone with any power in Hellsing.
- And then there is Integra...
- Mirielle and Kirika in Noir are assassins, more or less ruthless, cold blooded, killers. Kirika is saddened, not by kiling, but by the fact she isn't saddened by killing, and Mirielle, not even that much, sometimes joking about their kills off-handedly. In this anime, they are the heroes.
- Ichigo in Bleach though this is only because he has an evil source for his powers. Zaraki Kenpachi is a more standard example. He does good, but only because it allows him more
carnage fun.
- Guts from Berserk has one goal in life: making his former ally Griffith pay in blood for what's happened to him. A childhood spent as a mercenary and an adult life spent being attacked by demons has left him with few moral precepts. He thinks nothing of cutting people in half, although he does prefer not taking out bystanders (still a bad idea to stand in his way, though). On the other hand, he cares deeply for Casca and has given some thought to what he really wants to do with his life once he's gotten his revenge; he doesn't have an answer for that one yet.
- Scar from Full Metal Alchemist starts out as a villain and gradually transforms into one of these.
- Nao Yuuki from Mai-HiME is an arguable case; bent on vengeance for her mother, who was severely wounded in a robbery, she uses herself as bait to trap paedophiles, who she proceeds to rob. It's never made clear if her victims receive punishment under a proper judicial system. In fact, she seems to enjoy going after her victims a bit too much.
- Brilliantly lampshaded in an episode of Pokemon. Anti Villains Team Rocket are disgusted by how Anti Hero Paul mistreats his pokemon, giving the notion that they're nicer people than he is, and they're criminals!
- Saito Hajime from Rurouni Kenshin is the very epitome of this trope.
- Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z qualifies for this trope. In his first appearance, he's the Big Bad, but in the ongoing series, in his effort to beat Goku, he keeps saving the day. He also often unnecessarily endangers the situation by letting his enemies reach their full potential, so he can have a honorable fight.
- You could say that the main cast of Black Lagoon could count as Anti Heroes, but that would be a misnomer.
- Light Yagami from Death Note starts out like this, a Vigilante Man vowing to rid the world of criminals with the power of the titular Artifact Of Doom, but when the police get in his way, it doesn't take long for him to become a full-fledged Villain Protagonist.
- Please tell me we did not forget to mention Lupin III?
Video Games
- Magus from Chrono Trigger can almost certainly be considered an anti-hero, and only joins thanks to an Enemy Mine situation — since he only really wants Lavos destroyed, he's willing to join the party. Of course, once we find out about what caused his turn to evil, he softens considerably.
- Kain from Legacy Of Kain is generally considered an anti-hero, having apparently doomed the world and subjugated the human race to the point of extinction, but apparently did so since the original choice would have doomed the world either way and is technically trying to save the world.
- Agent 47 from the Hitman series, could be seen as an anti-hero, seeing as he is a cold-blooded, remorseless killer. In his defense, the plot of the second game kicks off with him trying to rescue his priest from the Russian Mafiya.
- Kratos from the God of War series, despite being the hero of the story, is a near sociopathic warrior who has little to no compunction over the numerous lives that he has taken.
- The hero from Def Jam: Fight for NY fits this trope like a bloodied, torn glove, one with the fingers cut out so it can wear expensive diamond rings. No matter how you make him look or sound, he comes across as being as arrogant as the real-life rappers he fights. He even cheats on his girlfriend with Carmen Electra, if you so choose. He kills three of his opponents outright: Trejo, by throwing him onto the tracks of a subway; Sticky Fingaz, by throwing him into the ring of fire that Sticky surrounded them with; and Crow, by throwing him out a window.
- Carl "CJ" Johnson from Grand Theft Autos: San Andreas.
- I'm sorry, CJ is about the least heroic lead of a GTA game, and that's saying something. He does evil, scummy, bastardly things because he's a lapdog who can't say no to evil scummy bastards. This Troper did more horrible things as CJ than as Tommy and Claude combined.
- Actually, considering he comes home to find his mom's been killed and his old gang's in disarray, and what he really wants to do is find out who did it and get them, and get his life back together, CJ isn't too bad. Sure, you can do apalling things in the sandbox game, but that's GTA for you. Following the precise storyline, he's not too bad.
- Niko Bellic, the star of the sequel, pretty much defines Punch Clock Villain in all it's forms. There's even an option to have him Pet The Dog in certain story events.
- The ending of Soul Calibur IV for the Siegfried character basically involves him and Soul Calibur covering him, Soul Edge, Nightmare and the world in crystals, creating a "utopia without wars or suffering". The question is, is this what Siegfried, or Soul Calibur (or both!) wants?
- The Silencer from the Crusader series of games. In the first game, the character, though definitely fighting for the good guys, is never rebuked by superiors for wantonly killing civilians with weapons of moderate to mass destruction—though this may be due to his skills being literally impossible to replace, as he is the only known defector from the corps he served with. In fact, a viable secondary strategy to acquire weapons and ammunition is to kill people to take their money, so you can buy from Weasel between missions. The Silencer never seems bothered by it in the least, possibly due to being both a Heroic Mime and remorseless killing machine who may or may not have been born in a vat. The money feature is removed from the second game, but occasionally it is useful or necessary to kill an unarmed civilian - to stop them sounding an alarm (nonlethal force is not an option in either game), move them out of your way when the AI buggers up and stops them in the middle of a door way with their hands in the air, get a keycard, and in rare cases (most civilians carry nothing) get an energy cube or medkit.
- Caim from Drakengard. It's hard to sympathize with someone slaughtering thousands of people.
- Haseo from the .hack//G.U. Is a good example of an anti-hero.
- Wario, although debuting as a villain, became an anti-hero in the Wario Land series, even once agreeing to help free a hidden figure from a music box in exchange for getting to keep all the treasure he finds on the way.
- Shadow the Hedgehog in all the games he's been in, though first appearing as an enemy in Sonic Adventure 2, became a mere rival of Sonic's in later games.
- The Star Wolf team in Star Fox started as a generic "evil Star Fox" group, but in sequels, the team becomes more anti-heroic. The removal of the two "scum" characters Pigma (a traitor) and Andrew (nephew of the main villain in Star Fox 64) and the addition of a ladies' man named Panther (who falls in love with a character on the hero's team) gave them an opportunity to work with Star Fox.
- Jimmy Hopkins in Bully. No, he's not very nice, and also bi, but considering he's at least not insane, and in several cut-scenes stands up for smaller kids, and teams up with the weaker Nerd gang, he's a lot more pleasant than the guys he's up against.
- Ayane from Dead Or Alive. She's bound by her duty to hunt down and kill her half-sister Kasumi for running away from the ninja clan where they both grew up, and was also jealous of her for getting all the attention while the others saw her as a "cursed child" due to the circumstances surrounding her birth. In DOA 2 and DOA 3, she's a bit of a loner and a jerk, but in her story mode in DOA 4, she helps Kasumi, Hayate, and Ryu Hayabusa bring down the DOATEC corporation, suggesting that her feelings toward Kasumi may have softened a bit.
- Iori Yagami, introduced in The King Of Fighters '95 as an enemy (and later The Rival) of series protagonist Kyo Kusanagi. K' (from KOF '99), one of Kyo's many clones, is also like this, though he brings more stoicism to the table in contrast to Iori's occasional bouts of madness.
- Darkstalksersblurs the line between this and Anti Villain so much it's scary when you think about it. The guy that officially beats the Big Bad in the first game just did it to take his power into himself. The villain of the Vampire Savior is trying to kill everyone because it's the only way to haves demons have a shot at beginning anew. Morrigan is a Horny Devil if ever there was one, but never displays any genuinely evil feelings. Cosmic Horror Pyron was responsible for killing the dinosaurs and laying waste to thousands of planets, and yet in his Vampire Savior ending, decides humanity's worthwhile enough to keep around. The person who will one day become the leader of humanity is so mentally scarred it'll be a wonder if she doesn't kill us herself. The Yeti guy reeks of being a Toblerone, until he reveals his people are going to make war on humanity. It's a shame there's no true sequel to Vampire Savior, really.
Western Animation
- The Transformers series Beast Wars had a handful of characters who would arguably qualify, most notably (but by no means limited to)...
- Dinobot, a Defector From Decadence who never lost his Predacon sense of warrior honour - but had a tendency to push for the more agressive option.
- Depth Charge, gritty loner determined to bring Protoform X to justice.
- And, in the third season, Blackarachnia, who joins the Maximals mainly to save herself, although Silverbolt's constant romantic/chivalric advances may have had something to do with it.
- Later series have this as well, including Ultra Magnus in Robots in Disguise and Starscream in Transformers Armada.
- Valerie Gray The Hunter on Danny Phantom
Webcomics
- Emokid and Chemokid in Head Trip, a Dead Baby Comedy webcomic, don't have psychic powers or Mad Science at their disposal. They got their names because one of them cries all the time and the other has cancer.
- 8-Bit Theater's main characters are anti-heroes to the point that "Designated Heroes" doesn't even begin to describe them.
- I'd say Fighter is probably more a hero than an anti-hero in that he wants to be a hero and seems to succeed in being a nice, good, righteous guy when he attempts to. However, his stupidity causes him to put up with pure evil Black Mage, amorally-greedy Thief and morally-detached Red Mage.
- Surprisingly, Dechs Rashart of Antihero For Hire isn't all that anti.
- Richard of "Looking for Group" is another example of the Anti Hero, though his motives for helping the main hero seem to be out of pure boredom rather than anything else.
Other
- Professional Wrestling thrives on anti-heroes, as the very nature of the show requires even the most idealistic to pound someone into a gooey paste for a living. Plus, if a woman dumps a man and betrays his trust, the audience will often demand physical retribution from the wronged hero.
- However, Stone Cold Steve Austin raised it to an art form by becoming (in his own words!) a "trash-talking, beer-swilling, backstabbing son of a bitch" who was the hero because he opposed Corrupt Corporate Executive Vince McMahon.
- Further, during the Rock's heyday, he was cheered by millions (and millions) of fans while showing classic bullying behavior, most notably to Mick Foley.
- Macho Man Randy Savage, meanwhile, made his name by always being on the edge of a psychotic breakdown and would defend his girlfriend Elizabeth whenever necessary — even though he wasn't always the nicest guy to her.
- Hulk Hogan's status as superhero and protector of the innocent meant he could get away with a lot of things on camera, such as hogging the spotlight and fighting fire with fire. The deconstruction of his wrestling style helped facilitate his infamous Face Heel Turn in 1996.
- Some of the most popular characters in Survival Of The Fittest are anti heroes. Among the most prominent examples are version two winner Bryan Calvert and version one contestant Hawley Faust. Over the course of version one, Adam Dodd steadily turned into one.
- Five Iron Frenzy's song 'My Evil Plan to Save the World' illustrates this point to an extent.
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