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According to a loose enough definition of 'hero' we qualify. Well, more or less. The point is that good deeds were done and we were nearby.
Red Mage, 8-Bit Theater, Episode 920

A character in a story who, despite being presented as heroic, doesn't really do anything heroic. This isn't a matter of being deliberately unsympathetic or cowardly. They have problems inspiring even pity from the audience. They're generally given a pass by the writers, freeing them from the consequences of their acts. This character type is used a lot in satire where the Hero-with-a-capital-H is being sent up.

An extremely common plot associated with this character is their riding the coattails of a misunderstanding or undeserved reward, until they finally feel guilty about it, and are allowed to keep it at the end anyway. In so-called 'guy movies', this is sometimes associated with an implausibly attractive woman inexplicably respecting that he came forward with this information and allowing it to wipe away all fault for what he originally did, despite the fact that most reasonable human beings would never want to see him again. But hey, he learned to be a nice guy, right?

It might be easier to present this character as being deliberately morally ambiguous, if not for other characters repeated implying they have great traits, and that everyone else is worse. However, this can even strike the especially annoying brand of Anti Hero. The Scrappy, The Wesley, and the Mary Sue can all fall into this as well. This is the worst part of the Jerkass Stu.

On the other hand, this can be done deliberately; see Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist, Heroic Sociopath, Tragic Hero and Black And Grey Morality. Though these stories usually make a point about not being conventionally heroic.

On the flip side, there's the Designated Villain, who we're supposed to jeer despite the fact that he's pretty much right about everything. This is often because everything he says is accompanied by an annoying smirk. Another inversion would be the Villain Protagonist, who, while presented as the protagonist, is in no way presented as a hero; rather the opposite.

Many thinkers about psychology have observed that people see their own lives as a story, and that each individual is, or tends to be, the Designated Hero of his own story.

Not to be confused with The Chosen One, though they can occasionally overlap.

Also not to be confused with Supporting Protagonist, which is when the story just focuses on a character other than the hero.

There is, unfortunately, a tendency to recast the actions of a character you simply don't like into this sort of thing, so the following examples verge on Subjective Trope. In some cases the character honestly tries to be good but fails miserably, in which case he may be a Hero With An F In Good.

Subtrope of Show Dont Tell.

Examples

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