Designated Hero/Villain cleanup and maintenance

Reposting.
Do you all think this is an example?

(For the record, it's from YMMV.The Powerpuff Girls S 2 E 5 Dream Scheme You Snooze You Lose.)

EDIT: Revising this.

Edited by RandomTroper123 on Jul 26th 2022 at 2:10:31 AM

Looks solid. The Sandman is supposedly the villain of the episode, but the fact his motivation is understandable, and his punishment is to be tormented by the heroes until he is traumatized made most fans feel sorry for him.

but you have to remember that sandman wanted everyone to sleep forever, that's why did the girls treat sandman like a villain was because sandman behaved like a villain in Dream Scheme, I understand the fact that he wants to sleep a little, and I wondered why he didn't program his machine to help him in his work instead of making it so everyone would sleep forever?

Edited by MarioDipper20 on Jul 29th 2022 at 12:54:37 PM

I agree.

so the Powerpuff Girls thing about having to scare the sandman so he never sleeps again was justified, because sandman had never thought of waking up the people of the world

From YMMV.The Ghost And Molly Mc Gee

• Designated Hero: Molly, Darryl, and Scratch in "Hooray For Mollywood." Before they joined Andrea, they achieved absolutely nothing. Instead of simply leaving when they don't like how Andrea obliviously takes over the movie (while actually delivering results), they unleash a Disproportionate Retribution on her and everybody who happens to work on the set while trashing everything, leaving only chaos and ruin behind.

I find this somewhat contentious. They basically had the rug swept out from under them

From YMMV.The Big Bang Theory:

• Designated Hero: All of the main characters except Stuart (who's too friendly to qualify) and Sheldon (who's intended to be an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist who's almost always called out on his behavior). They all have character flaws, which would be a good thing if those flaws hadn't been subjected to bizarre quantities of Flanderization through the years, and most of the time they just come across as whiny, egotistical jerks.

Just looks like blatant complaining to me

How the hell am I supposed to add anything when everything is misuse?!

I believe so too.

Not to mention it's a sitcom. None of them are really supposed to be heroes, they're just the protagonists.

It could be moved to Unintentionally Unsympathetic but it needs more actual context.

Does this mean the DH entry on How I Met Your Mother (another sitcom full of dubious people) can be cut too?

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Found these examples in DesignatedHero.Western Animation:

First one I think should be nuked because Cricket was called out for costing Gloria her job and he felt extremely guilty about it. Second one doesn't specify whether or not the trio's actions are portrayed as good or not. Someone who's seen the episode should weigh in.

Probably. Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist exists for a reason.

• One of the many complaints that The Emoji Movie has is that the main character, Gene, who is meant to be seen as the hero, causes the majority of the film's problems ranging from panicking for no good reason while being scanned by Alex, causing several apps to be deleted, and even leaving the Just Dance girl, Akiko Glitter, to die in the trash along with the Trolls while only showing concern for Hi-5. It really doesn't help that it's technically Gene's fault Akiko is in the trash to begin with. It also doesn't help that, while Smiler does want Gene to be deleted, she does have an extremely good reason for being angry at him since he technically is a major threat toward the entire cellphone.

While I'm sure Gene from The Emoji Movie counts, the bit about leaving Akiko Glitter to die is missing some important context, since, believe it or not, Akiko is actually a villain in that movie, a pretty important detail about the character that (arguably) justifies Gene's treatment of her, but somehow didn't have a single mention anywhere on the movie's pages until I saw the movie myself and added her as a Designated Villain just so there's be one reference to her antagonist role on the wiki.

Having seen the TGAMM episode, I can say the revenge scheme was portrayed in a positive light. I should also note that Andrea basically turned the movie into a big Product Placement thing and by the end, all of the original crew was pushed out.

Edited by DoomTay on Sep 5th 2022 at 12:49:43 PM

Just replace "Just Dance girl" with the villain, then. The rest of the example doesn't seem that bad.

Sounds valid to me as long as the example isn't exaggerating the protags' actions.

BCG example axed.

Edited by badtothebaritone on Sep 5th 2022 at 12:08:54 PM

On Millennium Series

• Designated Hero: Lisbeth Salander may rarely be in the wrong, and may be up against more depraved people than herself, but she's still a deeply scary human being.

The books do repeatedly make clear Lisbeth's techniques are an invasion of privacy and other characters take issue with them, so doesn't this fail the designated part, like it's clear not supposed to be seen as a good thing from her

REALITY IS AN ILLUSION, THE UNIVERSE IS A HOLOGRAM, BUY GOLD BYEEEE! | She/Her

Yep. It's only designated if it's unambiguously treated as right in-universe.

Oh, hey, found this:

From YMMV.Sword Of Truth

• Designated Hero: Richard can certainly come across this way, given his eagerness to slaughter all those who "choose death" rather than "life" in the later books. The only thing keeping him from being an Unscrupulous Hero or even an outright Sociopathic Hero is the narrative and the other characters referring to him as incorruptibly pure and The Hero to them. Kahlan is, if anything, even more bloodthirsty and willing to Shoot the Dog, and that's saying something. Zedd also drifts in this direction in the later books by a mixture of lectures and an extremely high kill count. That said, Zedd's backstory involves being personally responsible for a genocide (when creating the barriers prior to the first book), so he's never had clean hands. His shift is more one of attitude, and how it's approached. In early books he's... not precisely The Atoner, but it's heavily implied that his relatively minor role in things is a conscious choice, because he doesn't like what he becomes when in power. In the later books... well, he is in power, and becomes that person again, but it's treated as morally justified, and even laudable.
  • The idea that something like the Confessors could be in any way heroic, ever. If their Mind Control wasn't permanent it would be one thing.

Richard is, to put in no uncertain terms, a mass-murdering, atrocity-committing tyrant the narrative fully sympathizes with. This is a pretty good one, but might need some streamlining.

The bit about the Confessors might need expansion. They're a group with mind control abilities who can turn any men into their slaves, and take men as permanent mind-controlled sleeves for breeding purposes and have any male babies killed.

Narrative is wholly on their side as well.

From The Addams Family 2:

• Designated Hero: Wednesday is the central character who is supposed to be sympathetic and likable. However, while she does prove that she genuinely loves the rest of the family (and she does save them in the climax), she tries to murder Pugsley early on by throwing him over the edge of Niagara Falls, and her cruel treatment of him never changes throughout the film. She even says that Pugsley is the one member of the family she would be okay with experimenting on in the climax. While her bullying of him has been a part of her character for years, here, she actually tries to kill him. There is also the scene where she lets a character fall over the cliff of the Grand Canyon and die.

Ignoring the fact that Wednesday trying to kill her brother since the 90s movies, she is not protrayed as a hero here. Rather she is still a psychopath like she always has been. Seems weird to call this one out on it but not any other version. Still I think it is best to get some more opinions and could be prusraded to see it as an example.

Edited by Bullman on Oct 30th 2022 at 6:36:35 AM

Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread

The Addams Family is a weird case because their Orange And Blue Morality. I haven't seen the movie in a long time, but I'm pretty sure Pugsley actually enjoys whenever she does something cruel to him. For them is just a game, regardless of consequences. Also the whole franchise runs on Black Humour so these instances while not showing her in a good light, tend to be played for laughs.

In my opinion, if the whole example is based on her treatement of Pugsley, it should be cut, since any action she takes against him is normally for the amusement of them all.

Edited by ElBuenCuate on Oct 30th 2022 at 6:35:44 AM

There's this Designated Hero entry on the Akame ga Kill! that I'm a little confused about.

• Designated Hero: Many detractors of the series find that Night Raid falls into this trope. Even though Takahiro makes it clear that Night Raid is morally gray the detractors just don't buy into it. A main criticism the detractors aim towards Night Raid is that seeing as how The Empire is Obviously Evil (with Wave, Bols, Run, etc. being the exceptions) they are the definitive good guys of the series that the audience is supposed to root for. However because of how they mercilessly kill anyone who opposes them, lack any sort of unique qualities, and don't really allow their exploits to change them as characters it's hard to see them as sympathetic protagonists and they come off more as heroic sociopaths rather than effective villain protagonists.

This is the description for Designated Hero.

The entry itself states that the Night Raid is intended to be morally gray, but end up feeling like the definitive good guys, which is pretty much the exact opposite of this trope.

I’m gonna put some Gloom in your eye.

That might be better under Unintentionally Sympathetic.

Actually, this Designated Evil example above describes this issue well.

I’m gonna put some Gloom in your eye.

I've removed the following for being misuse. I normally wouldn't do that to a work I'm not familiar with, but the rest of the work/character pages make it clear that the character is an All-Loving Hero who gets pushed beyond his limits and so becomes Beware the Nice Ones. I suggested in my edit reason that perhaps Karma Houdini might be more appropriate.

YMMV.RWBY Academia

• Designated Hero: Izuku. While he's nice enough, he still readily insults Bakugo, demolished a good chunk of the cafeteria, and almost killed All Might in a berserk rage and has yet to get in trouble once.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Nov 13th 2022 at 5:20:54 AM

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.