History Main / DesignatedHero

* Oscar from ''WesternAnimation/SharkTale'' constantly lies and gets himself into trouble, no matter what anybody else does to get him OUT of trouble. For instance, his friend Angie gives him a pearl that her grandmother gave her to get him out of a debt. What does Oscar do? Instead of paying off the debt, he bets the pearl at the seahorse races (which backfires on him spectacularly). He complains about a job where he's popular, paying the bills, and well-liked because he wants to be rich and famous instead, and it's clear that the people who dislike him do so for very justifiable reasons. Even after he has his supposed epiphany, he still [[NiceJobBreakingItHero directly causes the events of the climax]] [[IShallTauntYou by taunting the villains]] while he was on a time limit. It's only during the climax that he uses his image as the "Sharkslayer" to the benefit of anyone other than himself, and [[EasilyForgiven he never receives any real comeuppance for his actions]] and basically gets everything he ever wanted.

* Wrestling/TheElite were treated as the face during their feud with the Wrestling/BlackpoolCombatClub in 2023. While the latter faction were indeed a group who embraced violence and love to beat up their opponents, the same can be said for the former team, who not only has done every dirty trick in the book even when they were face, they never actually turned face properly since their previous heel run, simply returning to being face in the middle of 2022 after being betrayed by Wrestling/AdamCole in a storyline that was abandoned. Most notably, Wrestling/AdamPage, abandoning his friends from Wrestling/TheDarkOrder, to rejoin his obnoxious but more popular other friends who kick him out few years prior, didn't sit well with fans, especially when the Dark Order helped him to overcome the darkest moments of his life. [[Wrestling/KennyOmega Kenny Omega's]] quote about the Elite fighitng for "heart, passion, soul, friendship, and love" also rings hollow since, cheating and ruthlessness aside, Omega has been channeling his anger towards his former mentor, Wrestling/DonCallis over his betrayal and aiding his enemies.

* Wrestling/TheElite were treated as the face during their feud with the Wrestling/BlackpoolCombatClub in 2023. While the latter faction were indeed a group who embraced violence and love to beat up their opponents, the same can be said for the former team, who not only has done every dirty trick in the book even when they were face, they never actually turned face properly since their previous heel run, simply returning to being face in the middle of 2022 after being betrayed by Wrestling/AdamCole in a storyline that was abandoned. Most notably, Wrestling/AdamPage, abandoning his friends from Wrestling/TheDarkOrder, to rejoin his obnoxious but more popular other friends who kick him out few years prior, didn't sit well with fans, especially when the Dark Order helped him to overcome the darkest moments of his life.

** One of the newer commercials features a guy staring at a bunch of "hot" women fooling around in the street. The guy's wife, with their presumably newborn daughter, yells at him, and asks what he's doing. The [[CatchPhrase "Need a Moment?"]] logo comes up, the guy eats one of the bars. He says, "I'm just looking at... potential babysitters!" The wife then kisses his cheek, saying, "You are SO sweet!".

* Wrestling/{{DGeneration X}} in 1998 WWE were a group of obnoxious {{Jerkass}}es who reveled in VulgarHumor and low-rent behavior. However, they were pushed as {{Face}}s due to politics and simply because of Wrestling/TripleH's feud with [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]], not because they did anything that could be considered admirable (or even entertaining). Their CatchPhrase was "Suck it!" and was expressed while doing crotch-chops, with their wrists crossing in the form of an "X." At the same time, it was the perfect gimmick for the sleaze-filled Wrestling/AttitudeEra, which was the result of Wrestling/{{Vince McMahon}} trying to copy Wrestling/{{ECW}} and misinterpreting it, due to the need for ''Wrestling/{{WWERAW}}'' to end ''Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro'''s dominance in the Wrestling/MondayNightWars.

A Designated Hero is a character who, despite being presented as TheHero within a story, doesn't actually do anything heroic. The narrative paints their actions in a heroic light, despite their behaviour lining up to morally ambiguous or even outright villainous actions. A normal AntiHero is typically shown to be conflicted and struggle with choosing between right and wrong, but the Designated Hero is treated as [[IdealHero unambiguously heroic]]. From the praise these Designated Heroes receive from other characters, the narrative, and perhaps WordOfGod, it is plain that the audience is expected to root for them. However, they often have only superficial virtues, with no CharacterDevelopment and a [[KarmaHoudini free pass from the consequences of their actions]] (because they're already perfect and don't need to learn any moral lessons).

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rumble}}'': Winnie Coyle is meant to be seen as the main heroine, yet she happens to inconvenience everybody around her. She causes the plot of the whole film by interfering with a match between Tentacular and King Gorge by telling Tentacular how to win, causing Stoker Stadium to be under threat of demolishment when Tentacular wishes to love to Slitherpoole. Later on, the film shows King Gorge injured and traumatized but it only chooses to chew out Tentacular for it and not call out Winnie. Winnie also treated Steve very poorly, interfering with a match he was supposed to throw and causing him to be in debt with his boss and being forced to train under Winnie to pay off the debt. Even then Winnie bosses Steve around and forced him into a dangerous match as punishment when he slacks on training and even then the film expects audiences to [[UnintentionallyUnsymapathetic feel sorry for Winnie due to her father’s death and his legacy being in jeopardy of being torn down]] Despite Winnie’s bossy hypocritical, and selfish behavior in the film, she is not only never called out for her behavior by anybody but she is also rewarded for it by becoming a monster wrestling Champion coach like her father, getting everything she ever wanted in the process.

'''Note:''' InUniverse examples or [[IntendedAudienceReaction Intentional]] ones go to NominalHero, EvilHero, or VillainProtagonist.

* This is the most common fan perception of the Red Talons from ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse''. Although they are probably ''intended'' to be see as the TokenEvilTeammate, the fact of the matter that they're an entire Tribe whose hat is embracing the anti-human FantasticRacism aspects of the setting and whose near-universal goal is the reduction of humanity back to Stone Age-level hunter-gatherers (if not its [[KillAllHumans outright extermination]]) means most fans regard them with great distaste and they are near-universally banned as a player option. It's telling that their creed is used with fairly minimal changes as the philosophy of an outright ''villain'' faction, the Predator Kings, in SpiritualSuccessor ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken''.
** Likewise the Silver Fangs tribe, whose defining trait is also FantasticRacism, but of the belief that werewolves are a SuperiorSpecies who should be ruling over humanity, and that their own "superior" lineage means they should be ruling over werewolves. Not only do they have a strong AristocratsAreEvil vibe, but their beliefs actually made them collaborators with the Nazi regime, a stain they still haven't overcome InUniverse and with several editions of attempts to fix them. As with the Red Talons, they served as the foundation for one of the villainous factions in SpiritualSuccessor ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken'': their heirs are the Ivory Claws, who're an entire tribe that are as close to unrepentant werewolf NaziNobleman as you can get without them actually running around with swastikas.

** The Changing Breeds get in on this, too, especially the [[YouDirtyRat wererats]], who are essentially "What if [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} the Skaven]] were presented as heroic?" Insane even by the game's standards, they're {{plaguemaster}}s who actively spread pandemics and poison human consumables, with one splatbook spelling out their endgame being lerhaps even more extreme than the Red Talons - not only over 90% of all humans dead, but the rest kept only as test subjects or future wererats themselves. (By contrast, the [[AsianFoxSpirit Kitsune]]'s original, sane plan of "Lay low until this all blows over" gets treated as rank cowardice.)

* ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicRoundabout'': Dougal in the 2005 movie, as explained by [[https://youtu.be/LfK58z9KA3w?t=932 DazzReviews]]:

* ''Webcomic/ThePrincessesJewels'': Princess Ariana. She spends the comic seeking out and collecting gorgeous men to make them part of her harem, referring to them as her "jewels", and treating them like objects for her personal amusement. It's pointed out in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBDOztc0L78 this video]] that she would more likely be the villain of the story if it showed her actions to be as terrible as they are.

* ''Webcomic/ThePrincessesJewels'': Princess Ariana. She spends the comic seeking out and collecting gorgeous men to make them part of her harem, referring to them as her "jewels", and treating them like objects for her personal amusement.

* ''Theatre/DearEvanHansen'': Evan Hansen is supposed to be seen as an adorkable, relatable, well-intentioned protagonist, held back by serious mental health issues. However, all the daddy and abandonment issues in the world can barely offset the fact that he pretends to have been friends with Connor, a kid who died by suicide. Initially, this is just Evan not correcting a mistaken assumption by Connor's family (the title of the musical comes from the fact Connor had a note that started "Dear Evan Hansen" on him when he died, and the family doesn't realize that ''Evan'' wrote it and Connor stole it to make fun of), but Evan not only fails to tell them the truth as time goes on but actually adds even more lies, going so far as to write an entire fake email correspondence, so that he can continue to receive affection and attention. On top of that, he romantically pursues Connor's sister under these false pretenses. But wait, we're supposed to feel sorry for ''Evan''?

* ''Theatre/DearEvanHansen'': Evan Hansen is supposed to be seen as an adorkable, relatable, well-intentioned protagonist. However, all the daddy and abandonment issues in the world can barely offset the fact that pretending to be friends with a teen who recently committed suicide just to romantically pursue the dead kid's sister and get some social clout is pretty messed up.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys2022'': Diane. While the Bad Guys covering for her is a very sweet gesture (and Marmalade getting framed as the Crimson Paw is quite cathartic), it also inflicts a DoubleStandard, where the group complete their RedemptionQuest by facing up to their actions while the supposedly more seasoned atoner Diane doesn't. It doesn't help that Diane spends a lot of the movie being hypocritically pious (while still bragging about her crimes and even keeping one of her thefts), not to mention the situation [[RealismInducedHorror having uncomfortable similarities to several real-life celebrities or people of power who have their nastier actions covered or ignored because they also do beneficial things]]. Of course, being a heist spoof, ProtagonistCenteredMorality is to be expected.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys'': Diane. While the Bad Guys covering for her is a very sweet gesture (and Marmalade getting framed as the Crimson Paw is quite cathartic), it also inflicts a DoubleStandard, where the group complete their RedemptionQuest by facing up to their actions while the supposedly more seasoned atoner Diane doesn't. It doesn't help that Diane spends a lot of the movie being hypocritically pious (while still bragging about her crimes and even keeping one of her thefts), not to mention the situation [[RealismInducedHorror having uncomfortable similarities to several real life celebrities or people of power who have their nastier actions covered or ignored because they also do beneficial things]]. Of course being a heist spoof, ProtagonistCenteredMorality is to be expected.

* ''Webcomic/Ctrl+Alt+Del'': Christian is a jerk, doing some incredibly slimy things, but considering that Ethan's antics have also screwed over people whom he considers his friends for selfish reasons and have even put people's lives in danger, it gets harder to root for Ethan.

* Ariel from ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}''. As the narrator and viewpoint character, she considers herself a hero, in a [[CrapsackWorld world where nobody can decently be called such.]] Though the fact that she considers herself a 'hero' is toned down in the remake. She just wants to live, and some of her more [[KickTheDog dubious actions]] have been {{retcon}}ned or changed. Her [[spoiler:not really]] mother Quain'taina, is also portrayed as this InUniverse, because to the Drow the definition of a great person is capability to do great deeds. Morality does not enter into the matter. Quain'tana's virtue lies in her skills and charisma that allowed her to rise from a [[SatisfiedStreetRat homeless street rat]] to one of the greatest political powers in the city, while the fact that she's a horrifically [[AbusiveParents cruel mother]] is not particularly important to the drow. She isn't a sociopath, incidentally. It's more of a case of a cycle of abuse.
* Also occurs in the comic ''Webcomic/BlackTapestries''. The main star is a bitch. Also has a Designated Antagonist, who manages to be a villain by a compulsive "Shoot the Dog" reflex.
* ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'' plays with this by putting the protagonists on the receiving end. A band of adventurers invade their home to clear them out with no other justification than that they were goblins and therefore AlwaysChaoticEvil. Most of the tribe gets wiped out and the survivors decide that they are sick of being walking chunks of XP and decide to become adventurers themselves to better protect their homes. Then, one of their own gets captured and brought into a human city where so-called "monstrous races" are routinely captured and [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters tortured]] to better understand how to kill them. While it might seem that they slip into this trope's territory when they slaughter guards, they actually use the paladin's ability to detect evil to ensure only evil guards are killed. And Thaco's declaration of his intent to slaughter his way through the human civilians to get to his son is a bluff to scare away said civilians so that they aren't caught in the crossfire.
* All the "heroes" of ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}''. Many of the female main protagonists only exist solely for "[[FetishRetardant fanservice]]"; [[SatelliteLoveInterest rarely, if ever, do they perform heroics without their significant others,]] and usually focus on shopping and having sex. Everyone takes the title with issue 10 and later AllThereInTheManual-type questioning. Issue 10 shows the AuthorAvatar for Christine Weston Chandler eradicating everything she hates - from [[CureYourGays homosexuality]] to simple Internet {{troll}}s with her fellow castmates cheering her on. A jarring example that was retconned was when one of the heroes lost his wife to an attack of the trolls. He blew his moral high ground by having his very young daughter torture one of them to death. Later installments turn the characters into something of a private army for the city where they're granted immunity for any actions they've done and one of their more powerful characters is used as a sort of psychic security officer patrolling for anyone "gay". Chris continuously kept backpedaling after people kept complaining, leading to her big CreatorBreakdown.
* Mora in ''Webcomic/LasLindas'' has a history of using [[http://laslindas.katbox.net/archive/shanghai/ sex, violence, and blackmail]] to extort people for cheap labor. Mora also throws [[http://laslindas.katbox.net/archive/breakdown/ childish tantrums]] and [[http://laslindas.katbox.net/archive/overdressed/ belittles her loved ones]]. Her occasional acts of charity often come as result of plot convenience or her boyfriend [[http://laslindas.katbox.net/archive/thatll-shut-her-up/ bribing her with sex]]. Yet, every story arc ends with Mora being labeled as the [[http://laslindas.katbox.net/comic/dianas-secret/ positive force]] everyone's life, despite her not really doing anything worthy of such praise. Even the ruler of the world shows favoritism towards Mora for no obvious reason, much to the chagrin of [[DesignatedVillain Alej]].
* Rhys from ''Webcomic/{{Teahouse}}'' is supposed to be a troubled and rude yet somewhat charming prince. Except that he's irresponsible (meaning he would be a terrible person to run the country - [[LampshadeHanging his sister points this out several times]]); he's uncaring (he left his sister, grieving over how their father, in whom he had previously shown zero interest, is slowly dying in front of them, so he could go to a whorehouse and fuck a whore - there were plenty of people within the palace who he sleeps with so it isn't a matter of needing comfort/escaping his duties); he violently beat up the whore who, supposedly, slept with his sister after he suggested that she should go there; he's repeatedly raped a male whore who is technically a slave and not allowed to say no (but he still fought back as much as he could before Rhys overpowered him and tied him down) and he only goes to said whore, who's straight, so afterwards he can mock and victim-shame him - meaning he only does it so he can feel better about himself. Not only is he supposed to be a good guy, [[BoysLove that whore/prince couple is supposed to be romantic.]]
* Makoto Yosue turned into this by the end of ''Webcomic/RedString.'' He started out as [[{{Jerkass}} an actual and obvious antagonist]] to the author's [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally planned main couple]] and was a completely rude and relentless jerk to Miharu. Despite him knowing she's engaged and that he's also engaged to marry her ''cousin'', he continues to harass and pursue her. The closest he ever comes in the comic to acknowledging this is apologizing...for still loving Miharu. However, as the author [[CreatorsPet completely fell in love with him]], she drastically changed the story to make him more of a protagonist and derail her original storyline to focus more on Makoto. This led to the original male protagonist getting written out of his own comic and Miharu's [[SatelliteLoveInterest only concerns in the storyline being her ability to date Makoto]]. People in the ''story'' constantly tell the reader he's "changed" or blow off his continued bad behavior to everyone around him with [[HandWave handwaves]]. Other storylines not featuring Makoto rapidly dropped out of the comic as it blew towards its conclusion. The author herself declared him her favorite character because of his "self-sacrifice", [[InformedAttribute a trait he never displays in the entire ten years of the comic's run]]. Miharu eventually winds up with him because the story expects him to have her. By the end of the story, he'd morphed into a complete KarmaHoudini and a CreatorsPet, but never actually a person who the reader would actually want to root for.
** To highlight the complete disconnect between Makoto's portrayal in the comic and how the author wants him to be seen, in one of the final scenes of the comic, [[spoiler: Makoto [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming insults Kazuo for having an abusive home and for becoming so ill from it that he tried to commit suicide]]. Kazuo points out that Makoto entered his life by declaring the then-engaged Miharu and her family's business as his property, both of which he'd gotten his hands on with no actual effort, and pointing out that his life has been nothing but one lucky break or parental bail out after another]]. We are supposed to take Makoto's side. Oh, and his parents ''do'' bail him out once again, leaving him in a ''better'' position than he was before the argument...so [[StrawmanHasAPoint Kazuo was completely correct that Makoto is completely useless as a protagonist.]]
** Miharu devolves into this as well. By the end of the comic, anything about her that indicates she exists to be anything ''except'' Makoto's girlfriend [[SatelliteLoveInterest has departed the comic and she can't even make the simplest decisions without relying on him to do them for her]]. Miharu's goal at the start of the comic is eating and being Kazuo's wife. All that changes in the end of the comic? [[spoiler:She just intends to be Makoto's wife instead.]] In the meantime, while the story tries to tell us that she's brave, thoughtful, and spunky, her actions come off as a [[SpoiledBrat spoiled bratty teenager]] that's never been told no. She's kicked out of high school (which is ''very'' hard to do in Japan and doubly so at her school in particular) due to her antagonism of her teachers and complete disregard for schoolwork. The story started to show her realizing that she was on her last chance at her new school...then dropped any pretense of showing her ever working on fixing her grades or having any plans beyond marrying [[spoiler:the guy that just threw his job away to date her full time and has shown no indication of actually planning on getting another one]]. In addition, she treats her parents like crap [[spoiler:when they rightfully point out her secretly dating Makoto could put her entire family (including Karen's family!) in serious peril if she isn't taking it seriously]]. Naturally, since Makoto just solved the problem for her, Miharu is never put in a position to admit she's wrong and the last scene of the comic is her mocking her parents. Oh, and Kazuo, the guy she was supposed to marry who she now knows had a physically and emotionally abusive home and who she claimed to still care about and that she'd "always be there for him" even after his family pressured him (physically) into ending the marriage? Yea, she cuts him off entirely and can't even be arsed to tell him in person. She also seems to think she can magically solve his ''abusive home life'' by manipulating him into participating in cooking contests and then gets angry and offended when he finally realizes she had convinced a woman to ''pretend to love him'' to convince him to cook. Only in that last scenario is Miharu ever shown to admit she did something wrong. The story still expects us to sympathize only with Miharu and be angry with Kazuo despite the fact that [[StrawmanHasAPoint he's absolutely right to be angry with her for treating his problems so flippantly]].
* ''Webcomic/LighterThanHeir'' features a complete jerkass protagonist that deconstructs the Determinator Trope: sure, she's patriotic, optimistic, and never gave up when her instructor stacked the odds to break her jerkass. But she's UTTERLY anti-social, treating her squadmates like malfunctioning weapons, and ends up becoming the intolerable bane of her entire squad (to the ones who can tell the difference between comrade and sociopathic load). And then she proceeds to disown her father over NOTHING (she suspected that he was playing the war hero / cheating on her mother as a disappeared dad - she found out that he was tortured and murdered ForScience) and mass-murder a bunch of soldiers in her way, some of whom turn out to be decent people. It would be understandable if it were for revenge for her experimentation and her father's murder, but she's just utterly loyal to her country and willing to murder anyone who isn't part of her country. It's unknown if her power increase and constant PTSD will eventually develop into character development or full-blown sociopathy. Our Superwoman Expy, ladies and gentlemen!
* One of the most common criticisms of the Sisterhood in ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}''. The author wants them to be seen as heroic and noble feminists who are fighting against "the Patriarchy," which is a tangible organization/conspiracy within the world of the strip. Instead, they come across as {{Jerkass}} [[StrawFeminist Straw Feminists]]. They brook no disagreement with their viewpoints and refuse to debate their opinions, perform morally questionable actions (like hacking into a Fembot factory and turning the androids against the staff), and even have a member who, when questioned about why she "hates men," ''doesn't disagree with the idea and labels men as her oppressor''. They are never called out on their more extreme behavior and the author seems to want them to be seen as 100% in the right despite them being [[HeWhoFightsMonsters objectively worse than the Patriarchy]] in almost every possible manner.
** Case in point: when the Sisterhood hack into the Fembot factory, they cause all of the Fembots inside to revolt against the staff working there and attack them. Later, another Fembot who's gained sentience comes across the abandoned factory and finds that the Fembots there had been destroyed. This is treated as a tragedy...except all of the blame is put on the Patriarchy. It's never once acknowledged that the Sisterhood, whatever their intentions may have been, are directly responsible for the violence that occurred there.
* ''Webcomic/SonicTheComicOnline'' is a deconstruction of this trope, showing the consequences of Sonic's behavior from the original ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic''. Even from the start, it's clear Sonic's ego, putdowns and self-righteousness has begun to wear thin on everyone and [[spoiler:when the Kane Network uses their resources to reveal all of his more morally ambiguous decisions to Mobius, the populace finally hits their breaking point and turns on Sonic.]]
* ''Webcomic/VeganArtbook''. All vegan characters are intolerant, self-righteous assholes who bully people who disagree with them. The one who doesn't (Bunny) is portrayed as an antagonist for respecting people who disagree with her. On the other hand, [[MisanthropeSupreme Raziel]] is even more extreme than the others, hates humanity in general, murders a man for telling her a joke, and she is portrayed in a positive light because she agrees with the author. The vegans also tolerate Sterk, who is a demonic serial killer, when he kills meat eaters. Meanwhile, the worst thing the "bad guys" do is [[DesignatedEvil buying bacon.]]

* ''Webcomic/SuicideForHire'': While we are supposed to root for these characters, Hunter is a psychopath who enjoys "assisting" the suicides of various people, whether they are willing to go through it or not, and Arcturus is too ineffectual to question their methods and just goes with them.
* ''Webcomic/SlyCooperThiefOfVirtue'': Sly tends to act [[AdaptationalJerkass rather selfish in this comic]] and almost kills Kevin Turbo by threatening to tip his car into water. In the chapter "Welcome to the Jungle", [[SkewedPriorities Sly neglects to mention that there were warlords who Zahn had sold weapons to that planned to terrorize the Congo]].
* ''Webcomic/TailsGetsTrolled'': In general, the protagonists often do things that make them no better than the trolls. Shadow and Sonic are the biggest offenders. However, as the story goes on this starts to gets subverted a bit as Sonic's attempt at revenge on the trolls leads to him being killed brutally. And after the failure of the fucking awesome plan, Shadow is painted in a much more negative light to the point that even Knuckles calls him out on his brutality.

** Proteus and Valentine, ''Theatre/TheTwoGentlemenofVerona'' themselves, treat their supposed love ones like crap. Proteus emotionally cheats on his hometown girlfriend Julia, tries to steal his best friend Valentine's girlfriend Sylvia and gets Valentine banished just to remove any competition, and threatens to [[spoiler: rape Sylvia if she will not submit to his advances]]. In the text he is [[EasilyForgiven still forgiven]] by Valentine and Julia [[KarmaHoudini at the end]]. Valentine offers Silvia to Proteus if the latter wants her that badly as if Silvia were an inanimate object to be traded at will.