Basic Trope: A hero who lacks the moral character of a hero, but is better than the villains.
- Straight: Dracone is bloodthirsty and downright vicious for a hero, but he is nowhere near as evil as the Omnicidal Maniac Emperor Evulz, and likely has those he'll do anything to protect or get revenge for and/or good intentions.
- Exaggerated:
- Dracone is a highly sadistic hero who enjoys seeing others suffer the most horrifying pain possible, yet even if he seems nowhere near a good guy, he isn't as bad as the three main bad guys in the Big Bad Ensemble, the even more sadistic and uncaring Emperor Evulz, the Stupid Evil and Insufferable Imbecile Nefaria, and outright Complete Monster Tom.
- Dracone is a Nominal Hero.
- Downplayed:
- Dracone is a Jerkass with no heart of gold to show, but is slightly better than other jerkass villains.
- Good is Not Nice.
- Pragmatic Hero.
- Justified:
- Dracone had a harsh upbringing which contributed most of his vile behavior, but as hard as it is for others to believe, he still strives to do the right thing.
- Dracone is continuing the mission of the hero that preceded him after the latter's death. In his eyes, the reason that said hero failed was due to him being too soft with his foes, so he decides that he'll "avoid making the same mistake".
- Inverted:
- Ideal Hero
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist
- Knight Templar
- Dracone is a villain who who lacks the moral character of a villain, but is still worse than the heroes.
- Subverted: Dracone starts out bitter and bloodthirsty, but faces a borderline Heel Realization that gets him to soften up.
- Double Subverted: ...until that leads to the death of someone he cares about, forcing him to simultaneously revert to his old ways and deny himself any more emotional attachments.
- Parodied: Dracone is treated like a brutal antihero, but all he does is Poke the Poodle.
- Zig Zagged: Dracone's heroic tendencies can sometimes overshadow his amoral behaviour, but he can just as often be seen as merely the lesser of two evils.
- Averted: Dracone is just an ordinary hero who doesn't lack the moral character of a hero, but isn't entirely heroic.
- Enforced: The author is interested in edgy heroes.
- Lampshaded: "He may be vicious, but at least he's better than the villains we have to deal with."
- Invoked: Dracone has seen a lot of good people die by trying to be honorable and noble to bad people, so he fights are ruthless and dirty as his enemies do.
- Exploited:
- Emperor Evulz purposely fights Dracone in populated areas because he knows he'll just unwittingly add to the collateral damage.
- Or he uses his near-villainous behaviour to convince him that they're not that different.
- Or he'll try and ruin Dracone's popularity with the general populace, making them think that their hero is no better than the villain.
- Defied: Dracone decides to tame his malevolent qualities and become more of a morally upright hero.
- Discussed: "How could someone as amoral as Dracone be considered a hero?" "Because he's the only one who gets things done."
- Conversed: "My take on Dracone's character is that he's simply an Anti-Hero with an emphasis on "anti"."
- Deconstructed: Dracone is supposed to be hailed a hero after killing Evulz, but the public immediately starts losing trust in him, effectively labeling him a fugitive. This forces Dracone to go into hiding from the public and start yelling to the public populace "I just killed Evulz and this is how you people repay ME?!"
- Reconstructed: Dracone angrily starts a broadcast while in seclusion revealing all of Evulz's crimes to the public, and proceed to claim that had Evulz been captured, he would have just escaped imprisonment and continue his reign of terror anyway, which prompted Dracone to execute Evulz on the spot before the situation gets worse. This eventually leads to Dracone regaining the public's trust upon hearing the truth, allowing him to return to the city, killing and maiming bad guys only when they're too dangerous to let live and deserve to die.
- Played For Laughs: Dracone is a Heroic Comedic Sociopath.
- Played For Drama: Dracone has a strong moral core, and is disgusted by himself. He sees him self getting worse all the time, and he worries he will become a villain once he finishes off Evulz.
- Played For Horror: Let's just say that the rest of the cast must be very glad that Dracone is on their side as he goes on a rampage worthy of nine or ten slasher films to get to Evulz.
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