History WhatTheHellHero / Literature

* In Book 3 of the ''Literature/{{Aeneid}}'', Aeneas and his men stop on an island and prepare for a meal, when a bunch of harpies come down and ruin the food (because that's what harpies do). So they prepare again, this time concealing weapons: when the harpies return, they attack. But not only are the harpies invulnerable (so the meal is still ruined), once they've flown to safety, one of them, Celaeno, gives a What the Hell, Hero speech, pointing out that the harpies were there first, and it's a little disproportionate to start a battle over some ruined food.

* The prominence of BlackAndGrayMorality in ''Literature/ChroniclesOfMagravandias'' means that What the Hell, Hero? is almost the status quo of the series. The heroes of the story, such as they are, constantly disagree, do questionable to deplorable things, and argue with each other over who is less wrong.

* One of the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' short-story collections had a tale with an AI that could recharge itself off emotions, attempting to get enough power to send a message and prevent the destruction of the planet it was on. In the end, it decided that the best solution was to call the Doctor out on some of his less pleasant actions -- such as abandoning his daughter on a relatively barbaric world and inciting a race to war to find his lost pen.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''

** In ''Literature/WhiteNight''

* Gaunt, in Creator/DanAbnett's ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novels, manages to [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything avoid shooting his own men despite it being his]] ''[[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything job]]'' [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything ...most of the time]]. When he does attempt to fulfill his role as a commissar, it results in a confrontation with [[TheMedic Doc Dorden]].
** Oddly enough, whenever Gaunt does go into a WTH, H moment (drinking, giving up, etc.), it is normally Rawne, one of the most morally grey characters of the series that sets him back on the straight and narrow. Normally by being an utterly MagnificentBastard.
** Creator/SandyMitchell's Literature/CiaphasCain, [[FakeUltimateHero HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!]] gets one of these near the end of ''For the Emperor'' when he shoots a pair of troopers with no warning or provocation. The surrounding soldiers initially freak out, and then he explains his [[TheVirus reasons]].

* ''Literature/{{GONE}}'' series;

* Patroclos, in the ''Literature/TheIliad,'' calls Achilles for [[AchillesInHisTent moping]] over Briseis instead of fighting for Greece.
** Subverted by [[ButtMonkey Thersites]], who attempts to call out Agamemnon for being a {{Jerkass}} to Achilles, among other failings on his part, but gets beaten down by Odysseus for his arrogance. AndThereWasMuchRejoicing.

* In ''[[Literature/InheritanceCycle Brisingr]]'', Sloan finally calls out ostensibly heroic sociopath Eragon on his actions in a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome.

*** As with many, ''many'' things in the Literature/InheritanceCycle, this is ''highly'' subjective. Especially the situation with [[AssholeVictim Sloan]]. But one What the Hell, Hero? cannot be denied, and that is the nameless soldier in Feinster who calls out Eragon for helping to perpetuate a brutal war when the majority of the empire just wants to go about their lives.

** The heroes of the ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' often have MyGodWhatHaveIDone, but Eragon and Orik are definitely {{squick}}ed when Angela the witch poisons the enemy soldiers. They see it as dishonorable; [[CombatPragmatist she sees it as just good strategy.]]

* A handful of times in the Literature/RizzoliAndIsles series, Jane Rizzoli gets called out on her IrrationalHatred of beautiful women (which is out of jealousy that she herself is average looking). In particular, her first partner Thomas Moore adds a dash of BrutalHonesty to this when he suggests that what really turns men off isn't her plain looks, but her brusque and abrasive personality.
--> "What guy is going to like you when even YOU don't like yourself?"
* In Creator/BernardCornwell's ''Saxon chronicles,'' the hero, Uhtred, spends the first couple of books as a violent, arrogant, murderous thug whose only real virtues are loyalty to his oaths and being one of the best fighters around. Halfway through the second book, a prostitute tells him exactly what she thinks of him, and he's forced into something of a personal re-evaluation. He doesn't ''stop'' being arrogant, murderous, and unfaithful to his wife, but he does start to feel a little guilty about it.

** In a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, at the end of ''The Vile Village'', Hector finally overcomes his fear of [[ItMakesSenseInContext stuffed crow hats]] to call out the village elders for their horrible treatment of the orphans, pointing out that the children have had nothing but poor treatment since their parents died, that the village was called upon to take care of them, and instead they just used the children as cheap labor. Of course, the village elders are only "heroes" in the sense that they aren't affiliated with Olaf...

* In ''Literature/TheLayOfLeithian'' Thingol is not pleased to hear that his daughter Lúthien has fallen in love with a mortal, and not even one with a kingdom. He asks his prospective son-in-law Beren to steal a Silmaril, all three of which are currently in possession of the BigBad GodOfEvil. Beren proceeds to give him one of these, which is a pretty gutsy move considering that Thingol is the most powerful elf in Middle Earth at this point in time. Since, you know, Lúthien is a ''person'' whose worth should not be equated to a fancy gemstone. The speech doesn't have much effect however, unfortunately for Thingol.

* ''{{Literature/Abominable}}'': Jeremy calls out Blake on his and Timothy's FantasticRacism against [[PlayingWithFire Finn the Phoenix.]] It doesn't help.

* At one point in ''Literature/TheScorchTrials'', [[spoiler:Teresa psychologically and physically tortures Thomas to a severe extent, because WICKED had requested her to do so, and she believed it was for the best]]. When Thomas recovers from the ordeal, he is understandably angry at Teresa, especially since she didn't try to find another way to go about things, as Thomas and his friends had on many occasions. Teresa believes she has nothing to apologize for, due to being ordered to make the hard choice between letting WICKED murder him or hurting him emotionally herself. She gets annoyed at Thomas because he resents the way she treated him. Teresa acts like nothing happened and tries to continue their budding young romance, even kissing Thomas to shut him up. Thomas calls her out on her behavior [[spoiler:and is completely turned off to her for the rest of the series]].

* In Chekov's story in the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' book ''Kobayashi Maru'', he gets called out for his actions during a training exercise where the cadets are told the scenario is one where one of them was [[TheMole a traitor]]. Chekov's solution, which is what he imagines his hero, Captain Kirk, would do? [[KillEmAll Stun all the other cadets]], including the ones who had allied with him, to make sure he wouldn't be taken out by the traitor. No cadet actually had been designated as a traitor; the exercise was to see how they dealt with a situation that could cause paranoia. (Kirk's solution had been to get everyone to ''cooperate''.)

** There's a moment at the end of ''Literature/FoolMoon'', second novel, where he has to confront a pack of hexenwolves, or werewolves who use enchanted belts to change form. At this point, he's physically and magically exhausted. Having defeated one earlier and stolen his belt, he uses it and becomes a raging monster. His wake-up call moment comes when he sees his reporter girlfriend, and she's terrified of him.

** It's averted in ''Literature/{{Changes}}'', when Harry agrees to [[spoiler:become Queen Mab's Winter Knight]]. Everyone understands why he did what he did, and offer their moral support. Then it goes double for substantial chunk of the next book, ''Literature/GhostStory'', features Harry mentally applying a What the Hell, Hero? to ''himself'' for the lines he crossed in ''Changes''. The other characters don't really get to do it until ''Literature/ColdDays.''

* In ''Literature/{{Emma}}'' by Creator/JaneAusten, Emma gets rebuked by Mr. Knightley because of her cruel behavior to Miss Bates.

* ''Literature/KnavesOnWaves'' haspretty much everyone chewing out [[spoiler:Trigger]] over his [[spoiler:alliance with Carnage]]. Justified, considering his many atrocities.

* At one point in ''Literature/TheScorchTrials'', [[spoiler:Teresa psychologically and physically tortures Thomas to a severe extent, because WICKED had requested her to do so, and she believed it was for the best]]. When Thomas recovers from the ordeal, he is understandably angry at Teresa, especially since she didn't try to find another way to go about things, as Thomas and his friends had on many occasions. Teresa believes she has nothing to apologize for, due to being ordered to make the hard choice between letting WICKED murder him, or hurting him emotionally herself. She gets annoyed at Thomas because he resents the way she treated him. Teresa acts like nothing happened and tries to continue their budding young romance, even kissing Thomas to shut him up. Thomas calls her out on her behavior [[spoiler:and is completely turned off to her for the rest of the series]].

** Squirrelflight calls out anyone who [[BerserkButton messes with or insults Leafpool]]. The cats she yells at include Brambleclaw, Ashfur, Jayfeather, and Lionblaze.

* In ''Literature/{{Emma}}'' by Creator/JaneAusten, Emma gets rebuked by Mr. Knightley because of her cruel behaviour to Miss Bates.

* In ''Literature/TheLayofLeithian'' Thingol is not pleased to hear that his daughter Lúthien has fallen in love with a mortal, and not even one with a kingdom. He asks his prospective son-in-law Beren to steal a Silmaril, all three of which are currently in possession of the BigBad GodOfEvil. Beren proceeds to give him one of these, which is a pretty gutsy move considering that Thingol is the most powerful elf in Middle Earth at this point in time. Since, you know, Lúthien is a ''person'' whose worth should not be equated to a fancy gemstone. The speech doesn't have much effect however, unfortunately for Thingol.

** Mackenzie Calhoun from the Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier series got a doozy of speech from his first officer when he ran the Kobayashi Maru test when she disagreed with his solution: [[spoiler:destory the Maru, on the basis that if the ship was a trap, the explosion would damage the Klingon ship and, it is was a genuine distress call, he would be saving the crew from torture and execution at the hands of the Klingons while buying his ship time to escape.]] Amusingly enough, the first officer also got a speech for failing to obey his orders during the test.

** Lupin calls out Harry in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban The Prisoner of Azkaban]] for sneaking into Hogsmeade, thereby disregarding all the effort everybody is making for his safety.

** Eragon then delivered his own What the Hell, Hero? to Sloan, calling him out for betraying his entire village to inhuman monsters whose primary diet consisted of [[IAmAHumanitarian humans]] as well as [[WhatAnIdiot trusting them to keep their word]] when they kidnapped his "beloved daughter", who he ALSO sold out to them out of a petty grudge toward Eragon's cousin (who wished to marry her and wound up getting mauled by those abominations) as well as irrational superstition. He also murdered a night watchman in order to rat out his village to the Ra'zac.

* In ''Literature/{{PrideAndPrejudice}}'', Darcy had spent the beginning of the story leaving a bad impression to Elizabeth. He's unsociable, appears to actively get in the way of his friend and her sister's romance, and from the account of a Mr. Wickham, seems to have prevented this man from receiving an inheritance. The final straw is when Darcy, proposing to Elizabeth, seems to emphasize her lower status rather than the proposal itself. She angrily confronts all of this to him, calling him proud and selfish.