History Main / DesignatedHero

* ''Webcomic/{{Lackadaisy}}'': The Lackadaisy Gang gets this title, due to being the protagonists. But being bootleggers who stop at nothing to keep their struggling business afloat means they aren't exactly paragons of all things pure and good.

** In [[https://youtu.be/jhOqikF9cic?t=1m31s one ad,]] he went as far as to disguise himself as a villain called the Purple Phantom and told Fred that Barney was being held hostage, which means he uses the very friendship he has with Fred as a tool to get Fred to hand over a box of cereal.

** 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 "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!".

* Some of the worst offenders in commercials on the Website/{{Cracked}} article [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-ad-campaigns-that-prove-humanity-doomed/ 6 Ad Campaigns That Prove Humanity Is Doomed.]]

* [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UxT4_tPKtYE This Greek telecommunication company Wind ad]] suggests that no matter how good you have been otherwise, [[DisproportionateRetribution going to Hell is a perfectly justified punishment for paying your economy expensively]]. Obviously, you’re supposed to root for God at the expense of [[DesignatedVillain the guy]] whom he [[JerkassGods promptly condemns to Hell]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AladdinAndTheAdventureOfAllTime''
** Both Aladdin and Paige in the 3rd act, forcibly changing people who weren't like their traditional depictions looking like their stereotypes, murdering a pharaoh and making the world a worse place by "correcting" mistakes in time. By the end of the story, Aladdin and Paige are directly responsible for the genocidal tyranny of Henry VIII, the murderous piracy of Blackbeard, the brutal civil war between Rome and Egypt, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking making the Leaning Tower of Pisa lean]]. And then at the end they [[spoiler: MindRape the BigBad [[HeelFaceBrainwashing into becoming good]] and force her to release dozens of potentially dangerous prisoners back into society.]]

* One of the many complaints that ''WesternAnimation/TheEmojiMovie'' 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 [[spoiler: leaving the ''Just Dance'' girl, [[EnsembleDarkhorse Akiko Glitter,]] to die in the trash along with the Trolls while ''only'' showing concern for [[TheLoad 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 [[BigBad Smiler]] does want Gene to be deleted, she ''[[DesignatedVillain does]]'' have an extremely good reason for being angry at him since he technically ''is'' a major threat toward the entire cellphone.

* 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.

* [[Wrestling/CharlotteFlair Charlotte Flair's]] role as a Designated Hero is less of her doing questionable actions as a face and more of the company trying to retcon her past actions. In 2016, Charlotte was the top heel of the women's division; her actions include multiple KickTheDog moments, pulling strings to ensure her victory and betraying everyone around her, from her best friend, Wrestling/BeckyLynch to even her father. A year later, she turned face after being attacked by a group of heels without facing any consequences from her actions (aside from losing the Raw Women's Championship) and the people she betrayed [[EasilyForgiven easily forgive]] her without so much of an apology. Another year later, Charlotte again enters another feud with Becky Lynch, with Becky being the heel this time, after the latter attacked Charlotte following their Triple Treat match at ''Summerslam'' 2018 which also includes defending champion Carmella. However, the angle completely ignores their 2016 feud and made it as if Charlotte was the one who values friendship over the tittle. WWE continues to make Charlotte more sympathetic by making her being a role model to children and attempting to turn Becky back by reminding their friendship while making Becky more and more villainous. It's not just David; being the daughter of one of [[Wrestling/RicFlair wrestling's greatest legends]] also has its perks. Ultimately however, because of Becky's massive popularity, WWE gave up and a FaceHeelDoubleTurn eventually occurs.

** Speaking of which, it hasn't gone unnoticed that the Get of Fenris tribal symbol looks a lot like a swastika. It's implied that this was not a mistake, either -- there was a sizable camp of full-blown Nazi Garou (The Swords of Heimdall) in their ranks prior to the Second World War's end, and the tribe as a whole still uses a lot of rhetoric about the Garou (particularly the Get) being a "superior" species to humans and the other Changing Breeds ''despite'' this. Added to their StayInTheKitchen tendencies, violent abhorrence of "weakness", and SocialDarwinist views that have seen them outright attack other tribes in the past, it's difficult to see them as heroes a fair amount of the time.

** 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 Silvia and gets Valentine banished just to remove any competition, and threatens to [[spoiler: rape Silvia 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, and even though Proteus threatened to [[spoiler: sexually assault Silvia]] just moments earlier.
* Siegfried from Music/RichardWagner's ''Theatre/RingOfTheNibelung''. The anti-Semitic connotations with his treatment of Mime don't help, even if Mime is a DirtyCoward.

* ''Theatre/{{Turandot}}'': Calaf's stubborness and general refusal to care about anything except winning Turandot's hand, as well as Liu dying for him, don't endear him to some viewers. Lampshaded in certain productions where Timur, Calaf's father, disowns his son after Liu's death.

* ''VisualNovel/MajikoiLoveMeSeriously'': Yamato is very fond of [[GuileHero using underhand tactics]], blackmail and is something of a jerk in general, but he reaches a new low in Chris' route. In order to convince his girlfriend to stay in Japan, he decides to [[spoiler: tie her up in her sleep and [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization rape her until she changes her mind]].]] When Yamato tells his male friends about this plan, they are only worried about his safety in case he failed, since most girls in the game are absurdly strong. [[spoiler: Yet, Chris isn't able to free herself and Yamato manages to overpower her with not much trouble. His explanation: "Men are strong at times like this." The whole incident isn't played dramatically, the word "rape" is never used and Yamato's plan, as usual, ends in success.]]

* 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]].

* ''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.]]

* 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.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BebesKids''. They destroy a theme park and cause trouble for many innocent people there, yet they never get punished for it. Worse, the audience is expected not to think badly of them because they have a poor life and have "attitude." In the original stand up routine the movie was based on, they were clearly the antagonists. Robin Harris was criticizing irresponsible parents who were too selfish to raise and discipline their ill-behaved children. Also, Robin Harris' character in the movie qualifies for this trope too; generally acting like a major {{Jerkass}} to everyone yet actually being praised as a good guy despite doing nothing good whatsoever.

** Also from Dragonlance, part of the reason that [[{{Hobbits}} Kender]] are considered TheScrappy is because of this trope. Despite the race description defying logic for their [[PlotArmor continued survival]] and encouraged to act as TheMillstone towards other players(famously detailed [[https://web.archive.org/web/20200902094835/https://1d4chan.org/images/4/45/Kender_race_description_annotated.png here]]), WordOfGod states that they are unambiguously good and beneficial to the world.

** Also from Dragonlance, part of the reason that [[{{Hobbits}} Kender]] are considered TheScrappy is because of this trope. Despite the race description defying logic for their [[PlotArmor continued survival]] and encouraged to act as TheMillstone towards other players(famously detailed [[https://1d4chan.org/wiki/File:Kender_race_description_annotated.png here]]), WordOfGod states that they are unambiguously good and beneficial to the world.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coonskin}}'': Despite being the protagonist, Brother Rabbit has no qualms about killing at the drop of a hat.

**

** Both Aladdin and Paige in the 3rd act, forcibly changing people who weren't like their traditional depictions looking like their stereotypes, murdering a pharaoh and making the world a worse place by "correcting" mistakes in time

** By the end of the story, Aladdin and Paige are directly responsible for the genocidal tyranny of Henry VIII, the murderous piracy of Blackbeard, the brutal civil war between Rome and Egypt, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking making the Leaning Tower of Pisa lean]]. And then at the end they MindRape the BigBad [[HeelFaceBrainwashing into becoming good]] and force her to release dozens of potentially dangerous prisoners back into society.

[[caption-width-right:350: Yeah, [[SarcasmMode sure is definitely]] TheHero alright.]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350: Yeah, [[SarcasmMode sure is definitely]] TheHero alright. [[note]] The "bad guys" he slew [[AwfulTruth were innocents.[[/note]]]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AnExtremelyGoofyMovie'': Max. In the first film, he was a TroubledTeen dealing with peer bullying and school ostracization. Here, he's portrayed as an ambitious up-and-coming extreme sports competitor whose glory-seeking gets hampered by his father suddenly joining him in school. Max, not wanting to deal with Goofy's embarrassing antics, dupes him into joining the Gammas in hopes of not only sabotaging his rival team's chances but also to get a few laughs at his own father's expense as Goofy is humiliated on live TV. When his plan backfires and Goofy ends up becoming a school celebrity, Max turns into TheResenter and starts detesting Goofy for the crime of unintentionally stealing his thunder. Max's behavior, while understandable to an extent, makes him come across as a very selfish, self-centered, and ungrateful son, driven by his own petty ego, and only worth rooting for because Bradley and the Gammas are much worse in comparison. It doesn't help that when he finally makes the gesture to reconcile, it's mainly because he needs Goofy's help to win against Bradley, not because he seriously reflects on his own actions.

* 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.

*** Since Tats has gone into a QAnon-flavored FilibusterFreefall, this could probably be said of ''every'' character now.

* ''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!

--> '''Creator/RobertWebb''': It was a confused campaign. I was the unlikeable one and you were supposed to buy my computer, and [[Creator/DavidMitchell David]] had all the funny lines and you were supposed to despise him. Americans don't really get it about [[Series/MitchellAndWebb us]].

* 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, doesn't sit well with fans, especially when the Dark Order previoulsy helped him to overcome the darkest moments of his life. [[Wrestling/KennyOmega Kenny Omega's]] quote about the Elite fighting 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. In their Blood & Guts match, the Elite fight more like a heel, especially in the ending where they gang up on Wheeler Yuta in a five-on-one assault with more and more brutal attacks (multiple consecutive finishers and weapon shots including pressing his face onto a spiked boot) while handcuffing Jon Moxley, forcing him to watch Yuta being choked with a steel chain until Mox surrenders.

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': Hobbes can come off like this at times. He's generally portrayed as [[StraightMan a smarter conscience to Calvin]] when the latter is about to misbehave or do something foolish but often [[{{Hypocrite}} doesn't live up to his moral standards]], is [[NotSoAboveItAll just as prone to foolish activities as he is]] and doesn't hesitate to make Calvin suffer. While his aggression towards Calvin can sometimes be mitigated by the fact that he's [[FurryReminder acting on tiger instinct]] and it's more often than not a justified reaction whenever Calvin starts the fight, [[TheBully he occasionally bullies him at next to no provocation as well]]. In addition to physical attacks, he [[{{Jerkass}} purposefully inconveniences and takes advantage of Calvin]] despite the latter doing little to deserve it in those situations (e.g. when Calvin was tied to a chair and in another arc where a bee landed on his back) and [[LackOfEmpathy remorselessly delighting in his misery]]. Unlike [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist Calvin]], [[LaserGuidedKarma who almost always pays for his mischief and selfishness]], [[KarmaHoudini Hobbes faces virtually no comeuppance]] and yet you're expected to side against Calvin in the instances where it was uncalled for.