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Author: crazysamaritan

Feb 5th 2012 at 7:50:02 AM

Now I get it, you guys are reading "hero" as "protagonist".  That's not what it means.  Cold and calculating, ''with a moral code that they are willing to break''.

There's your difference between "amoral bastard on the protagonist's side", and "character willing to betray his morals".  The "lighter version" are the characters who very rarely ShootTheDog.  Darker versions would be sometimes mistaken for Unscrupulous Hero, because they seem to lack morals.  That's the trope for DisproportionateRetribution.

It is the "hero" aspect of the trope that means the character is more than just logical.  Otherwise this trope would be redundant to {{The Unfettered}}.
 
Again, I don't think harry fits, because we never see him betray his morals.  Even before she goes to hogwarts, we see him lying and sneaking around.  Harry is very good at heart, but instead of going against his own moral code, he goes against societal norms.  I don't think "doesn't follow cultural norms" fits the idea of ShootTheDog.

However, the example currently under the proposed new description works very well.