Tragic Hero

""A man cannot become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall.""

- Aristotle

The tragic hero is a longstanding literary concept, a character with a Fatal Flaw (like Pride, for example) who is doomed to fail in search of their Tragic Dream despite their best efforts or good intentions. This trope is rare on television, perhaps because watching someone fail once teaches a lesson, while watching them fail every Tuesday gets boring—though that didn't stop shows like Arrested Development or the so-inappropriately-titled Good Times, no matter how hard they Yank the Dog's Chain. It is more common in Miniseries and Anime dramas, where the program's entire run can be dedicated to one or more Story Arcs that lead to the Tragic Hero's ultimate failure. You'll most likely find this in the Theatre, where the trope was born and codified.

A Tragic Hero can work as an antagonist or a protagonist. As an antagonist, his goals are opposed to the protagonist's, but the audience still feels sympathetic towards him.

By the time a Tragic Hero antagonist is defeated, the protagonist himself feels sympathetic to the Tragic Hero, and a little bad about having to capture him. It is acceptable and common to defeat a Tragic Hero antagonist by stopping him from achieving his goal, but otherwise letting him go free. Tragic Hero antagonists are rarely killed, except when death is seen by the Tragic Hero himself as an honorable end which is preferable to capture. Tragic Hero protagonists die more often than not (except for Shakespeare's, who all died).

Definitely Older Than Feudalism, as the trope was used constantly in Greek tragedies starting in the 5th century BCE. Aristotle analyzed the character in his Poetics.

Compare with Classical Anti-Hero, Protagonist Journey to Villain, Fallen Hero. Compare the Jerkass Woobie, a Jerk with a Heart of Gold whose Fatal Flaw is their mean streak. Compare Tragic Villain and Hoist by His Own Petard for the villainous counterparts. Contrast Byronic Hero, who has numerous, celebrated flaws. Contrast Karma Houdini, a villain who gets away with their evil deeds.

Anime and Manga

 * Utena Tenjou of Revolutionary Girl Utena seeks strength and nobility not for her sake, but to save another person whom she cannot even remember. However, the enemy she faces is vastly older, more powerful and more sophisticated than this 14-year-old girl and manipulates her handily, turning her into the Tragic Hero through the final third of the series. (Even so, Utena manages to pull off a win against him—confusing and puzzling, but a win nonetheless.)
 * The entire cast of Neon Genesis Evangelion(including Gendo), but especially Shinji Ikari, who is fourteen years old, shy, indecisive, reclusive, and has no self-confidence, but must learn to be a warrior—and, in the end, he doesn't even succeed at that.
 * Kikyo and Inuyasha from Inuyasha, in regards to how their insecurity issues allowed Naraku to turn them against each other, kill Kikyo and make Inuyasha sleep for 50 years.
 * Subaru in X 1999, oh so very, very much.
 * Harry McDowell and Brandon Heat from the Gungrave anime are tragic heroes. This is a rare case where both protagonist and antagonist are tragic heroes. Harry McDowell, in his search for power so that he will never have to lose anything, ends up becoming a power-hungry Bloody Harry and kills his best friend Brandon Heat, turning Brandon into Beyond the Grave. The guilt over killing his best friend makes Harry slowly lose his sanity. On the other hand, Brandon Heat, who is loyal to the fault, cannot bring himself to stop Harry even when he knows Harry is obviously going down the wrong path and ends up getting killed. In a way, Brandon is also responsible for the deaths of his other loved ones as Brandon's death causes Harry to hunt down those whom Brandon holds dear (as Harry reasons that those people "took Brandon from him"). At the end of the series, after destroying each other completely, both Brandon and Harry realize that the only time they were truly "free" was when they lived in a slum with three other friends (whose deaths led Brandon and Harry to join the Millenion in the first place) and decide to take the only way out:.
 * Ends very differently in the videogame--
 * Yomi of Ga-Rei Zero. So very much...
 * Arguably, Lucy from Elfen Lied. By the end of the anime, she even admits that both Diclonii and humans are too proud to surrender and live peacefully with each other.
 * One could also call Lucy a Tragic Hero that mutated into a Tragic Villain thanks to the horrors that are her life and/or her inherent nature.
 * Interestingly, Kamina fits the concept quite well. His overweening sense of determination & over-the-top Hot-Blooded-ness are integral to his success, yet in the end are what leads to . Also, Lordgenome and even Rossiu to a degree.
 * Oskar von Reuenthal from Legend of Galactic Heroes is one of the greatest examples found in anime, even if he's not the protagonist. A Broken Ace who is almost as ambitious and brilliant as Kaiser Reinhard - He could become a great ruler, if he weren't simply outshone by Reinhard. Over the course of the series, his conflicting loyalty, ambition, jealousy, his traumatic past and especially his pride eventually lead to his downfall after he is . It should be mentioned that he never really became a villain right until the end, despite it all.
 * in the Martian Successor Nadesico Movie.
 * from Tenshi ni Narumon. Overall good-willed, but terribly misguided and with immense issuses of self-denial..
 * Unrequited love was the catalyst – not the cause – of Sayaka's downfall; what really pushed her over the edge was her righteousness. As a coping mechanism, she tried to become a hero who would uphold ideals. She believed in justice, but her growing resentment made her shift from protecting the innocent to punishing the wicked. When Sayaka realizes how she had come to contradict her earlier aspirations, all the hatred turns inward. It is precisely because of her unyielding nature that her spirit shatters. Unable to forgive this transgression, she inflicts her own punishment: a curse unto herself.
 * Played with, with the eponymous character of Naruto, who faces tragedy after tragedy throughout his life, but he tries his best to avoid this fate.
 * Shu Ouma seemingly evolved into this, but it's implied that he's been one all along. His Fatal Flaw is kindness. He went through many betrayals, and completely shattered after . And that is his Start of Darkness.

Comic Books

 * Rorschach, from Watchmen.
 * Wolverine
 * Morpheus, or Dream of the Endless, from The Sandman. His pride, his stubbornness and his fanatical devotions to his own duties as the aspect of Dream constantly conspire to make his life(?) an eternal mess.
 * Daredevil

Films -- Live-Action
"Leland: That's all he ever wanted out of life... was love. That's the tragedy of Charles Foster Kane. You see, he just didn't have any to give."
 * Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars was a Tragic Hero in the prequels. He was a hero of the Republic, got the girl, helped win the war, and saved his Master a number of times. His Fatal Flaw was the fear of losing those he cared about, which fed a hunger for power to prevent it from ever happening, and that eventually turned him into the ever-popular Black Knight Darth Vader.
 * His main Fatal Flaw was the desire for control- a concept that had evaded him his entire life. As a slave he had no control over his life and neither did he as a Jedi. His fear of death and the death of his loved ones is a rperesenatation of his need to control EVERYTHING even what should be uncontrollable (i.e death). This flaw is tucked away for much of the prequel trilogy with only odd mentions (He mentions a couple of times to Padme how he wants to control the galaxy) but fully reveals itself in the OT where Vader is the eptiome of Tyrrany and Order. With all his loved ones dead or now his enemy all the man has left is his intense need for Control.
 * Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The title character is a barber trying to get revenge on Judge Turpin for raping his wife and taking his daughter away from him. His Fatal Flaw was his tendency to take things at face value and his willingness to trust someone he really shouldn't have regarding his wife, and as a result, he unknowingly, just before finally taking vengeance upon Turpin.
 * Tony Montana from Scarface also counts. His aggressive conquest for power and guts are important factors in his rise to power and his godlike charisma, but they also end up causing his downfall as he refuses to compromise with anyone. He also develops a case of paranoia which is only worsened by his increasing addiction to his own product.
 * Citizen Kane: Kane, all his life was the need to be loved... on his own terms. Lampshaded by Leland.

Literature

 * from A Song of Ice and Fire, who actually did keep his nobility of spirit to the end... and it killed him. Everyone else in that series could also qualify, to a greater or lesser extent.
 * Mack Bolan, The Executioner, from the series of novels by the same name. He knows he can't kill every Mafioso, but he sets out to get as many as he can. In the end,
 * David Eddings considers (Bel)Zedar of his Belgariad to be a tragic hero, although he's really more of an Anti-Villain.
 * In the Harry Potter series, both Sirius Black and  can very much be considered tragic heroes.
 * Sirius actually suffers from his fatal flaws several times. His hot headiness is what got him framed for murdering his best friend, causing him to serve several years in Azkaban.
 * Also  And , because
 * Lily Bart from The House of Mirth. Her fatal flaw is her inability to recognize how vain and materialistic New York high society is.
 * Jake from Animorphs. Being the leader is tough when you need to make decisions that cost you the respect of everyone around you.
 * The Dragon (Rand) from The Wheel of Time series is doomed to eventually fail, as the goal of the Big Bad is to destroy the Pattern and the Wheel of Time, and the Wheel of Time will keep cycling until that happens.
 * The Silmarillion is made of these; though, since it mostly follows characters exiled for rebellion, it's kind of a prerequisite.
 * Húrin and Túrin Turambar may be the Most Glorious Examples. The former defies Morgoth and is punished by having his whole family cursed with bad luck, and is forced to watch their fates. The latter, his son, falls in love with his own sister, whom he had not seen since she was a little kid, is pursued by a powerful dragon, and when he finally manages to kill it, the dragon reveals his sister's identity to him, causing him to commit suicide.
 * Satan, in Paradise Lost, could be considered one of these.
 * Raistlin Majere from the Dragonlance Legends trilogy is even called one of these in the Annotated Legends.
 * Inspector Javert of Les Misérables is a man on the side of good and law, but so inflated with extreme self-righteousness that, when confronted with criminal Valjean's nobility he has no choice but to kill himself (damned if I live in the debt of a thief, damned if he's free at the end of the chase).
 * Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart is a prime example of this. His father is a titleless debtor, he gets exiled because he accidentally killed a man, his son leaves him for a life as a christian, he gets imprisoned by said christians, and he eventually.
 * In Winds of War/War and Remembrance Leslie Slote's Fatal Flaw seems at first glance to be lack of physical courage. In fact it is more that he panics the first time he is under fire (when it fortunately doesn't matter) and anyway looks, nerdy, pitiful and generally "antibadassy". He is brave enough later in the plot. His first flaw in the Backstory is selfishness in being to ashamed to ask a Jew to marry him but enjoying her as lover and thus allowing another to beat him to the draw. Once he does in fact accept that she is another's wife he is a pitifully loyal Platonic Life Partner and in fact when he gives up on rescuing her, he goes off and dies in battle in despair. His first flaw is selfishness. Paradoxically his second is loyalty which is a virtue in his case (it is only a flaw in the sense that it brings him to his doom not in the ordinary sense) but can only be partly repaid.
 * Fate/Zero's first line really says it all about Kiritsugu:

Live-Action TV

 * House definitely fits the bill—his addictive personality may make him a genius, but he continues to hit new levels of rock bottom each season.
 * Assuming his eventual downfall or assassination, Tony Soprano is probably the biggest example of a tragic hero in modern television. He actually wants to be a good person, a good father and a good husband, and he tries hard, even getting flashes where you hope he'll improved (such as when he realizes that the stripper Frankie just murdered was the same age as his daughter), but is incapable of overcoming his own narcissism, shortsightedness and lack of empathy. And the fact that he's, you know, a mob boss.
 * Craig Manning from Degrassi the Next Generation is smart, charming, artistic, sensitive, romantic, and a perfect gentleman. But he inevitably breaks the heart of everybody around him, and himself, due to his Fatal Flaw—he is thoughtless, rash, and grandiose (eventually revealed to be due to bipolar disorder).
 * Ashley Kerwin is responsible, hard-working, and the most decent of all the popular kids. She is slowly destroyed by bad luck, unscrupulous rivals—and most importantly, by her own bitterness from all she goes through. (Perhaps inevitably, she and Craig wound up as Star-Crossed Lovers.)
 * In a similar vein, student Rick (who had pushed a fellow student into a rock, leaving her in a coma) underwent anger management before going back to school, and genuinely tried to be a nice person... which failed, because essentially the entire school hated him for what he had done before. It got to the point that, after being dumped on with goo at an event Carrie-style, he took a gun to Degrassi and shot a fellow student in the back, paralyzing him, then threatening to kill one of the main characters before dying in a struggle with another student, Sean, over the gun.
 * Six Feet Under, where characters and plot action alike were primarily defined by the tragedies they encompassed.
 * More than you can shake a stick at in Heroes, but perhaps most notably Isaac.
 * Pick anyone you like from Supernatural, but the two main characters' flaws are different flavors of desperation (Sam's obsession and Dean's devotion). Or maybe the same flavor—desperation for approval from an absent father—given different focuses based on their roles in the family.
 * Dean's so desperate to have a family that he has no sense of self-worth outside of it. His reason for living is so that he can protect his little brother; his perfect fantasy is a world where he's worthless (but most everyone else is happy and his mother is still alive); he's been Driven to Suicide by guilt and loss from his father sacrificing his soul for him and his brother dying just for starters.

After dealing with the torments of hell, suffering a serious case of It's All My Fault since he's responsible for breaking the First Seal and initiating the beginning of the Signs of the End Times, and finding out he's The Chosen One to become a Destructive Saviour, it's losing faith in his brother that makes Dean willing to go along with the angels' destructive plan to end the Apocalypse. And in a show of Flaw Exploitation by his own brother, it's Sam's faith in him and the need to not disappoint his brother that keeps Dean from doing it.

Dean is so focused on his brother that he doesn't want Sam to sacrifice himself even if it's the only way to avert the Apocalypse, and he gets called out on it: "Bobby: ...What exactly are you afraid of? Losing? Or losing your brother?"


 * Sam is so desperate to not be the failure and freak he always felt like and avert Bad Powers, Bad People that he believes demon Ruby when she tells him he's The Only One who can save the world. He allies with and has romantic liaisons with Ruby, getting addicted to the consumption of the demon blood that fuels his ability to do something seemingly good, exorcising demons with his mind and without hurting the hosts. It also makes him feel in control and (overly) confident. He lies to his brother repeatedly, and after Dean calls him a monster while he's high on demon blood, nearly kills Dean in their fight before leaving with Ruby to kill Big Bad Lilith.

Sam doesn't take it well when he finds out he was being manipulated into starting the Apocalypse, and his plan at the end of season 5 is the classic response of a tragic hero who realizes how badly he's screwed up.
 * becomes a Tragic Hero in Season 6, as he desperately tries to prevent . In this case, his Fatal Flaw would be Pride, as he's convinced that everything he does, regardless of what it is, is ultimately right so long as it's for this goal. This leads to him being making an alliance with , and ultimately Jumping Off the Slippery Slope by  . By that point, it's hard to call him a "hero" anymore.
 * Londo Mollari in Babylon 5 is a definite example of a tragic hero; while at first he seems to be a self-absorbed drunken buffoon, he is a true patriot who really does want his people to rise up from their malaise.
 * Lennier was a faithful and devoted servant who never seemed to ask anything in return. But his Fatal Flaw was a jealousy he barely admitted to himself.
 * Captain Benteen on the hour long Twilight Zone episode On Thursday We Leave For Home. For years he lead a colony of people stranded on a hot, desolate planet. He helps them survive, holds them together and gives them hope for a rescue. When a spaceship finally arrives to take them home to Earth everyone is overjoyed including him. However
 * Frank Sobotka of The Wire just wants to make sure the Baltimore stevedores are going to stay in business. Unfortunately this means keeping slightly unsavory company...
 * Ryubee Sonozaki of Kamen Rider Double. Despite being the lead antagonist, he's a Tragic Hero in true Shakespearean fashion. His Fatal Flaw of ambition ultimately results in the utter destruction of his family's happiness and unity and costs him . As much of a monster as he was, drive the tragedy home.
 * In some extent Gaius Baltar in the Battlestar galactica 2003 serie (not in the original ones, where Count Baltar is more of a Manipulative Bastard ): he actually has a LOT of Fatals Flaws, the main of which would be pride and overconfidence. However, he strives to protect humanity (and therefore the fleet) from utter destruction on numerous occasions.

Mythology

 * Greek Mythology had too many tragic heroes to count. There is the story of Oedipus who was cursed to marry his mother and kill his father, Prometheus, Orestes.
 * Prometheus accomplished his mission, stealing fire for mortal man. And tricked the Gods as to which parts of animals the humans were to sacrifice. It's just... you know... he pissed off the Jerkass Gods in the process of helping humanity. So Zeus chained him to a rock and had an eagle eat his innards. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Since he's immortal. Hercules breaks him free. Eventually, after centuries. If anything, it counts as a Heroic Sacrifice.
 * Speaking of, Hercules could go on this list as well. Those famous 12 Labors? Penance, for being driven into a berserk rage (by HERA) and murdering his own family. Then he gets another wife, who gets kidnapped by a centaur named Nessus. Herc shoots him with a poison arrow (dipped in the Hydra's blood). Dying, Nessus tells her to rub his blood on Herc's clothes if she ever thinks Herc is being unfaithful, and it will tell the truth. Blood that is now laced with the Hydra's poison. It goes as well as you would think.
 * Karna from The Mahabharata.

Theater

 * Many of Shakespeare's protagonists, of course. Some of the best examples are Brutus, Othello, and Hamlet.
 * If fact, if the title is a main character's name they tend to bite it by the end. Tragically.
 * Macbeth potentially being an exception. He comes NEAR the ultimate repentance of the Tragic Hero... but pulls out of his Villainous Breakdown and goes for broke.
 * Importantly, Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes have Fatal Flaws specific to their situation. Put Hamlet in Othello . Put Othello in Hamlet and.
 * David Mamet's play Oleanna. A university lecturer about to get his tenure, with a loving wife and a payment on a house going through, decides to help a female student falling behind in his class. He makes a few off-the-cuff, inappropriate comments to the female student (he says "I'm not your father" in response to her wanting to be told want to do, he relates an anecdote about the rich copulating with less clothes on to the student), only to be told by the student in the next act that she's having him done for sexual harassment because of his comments.
 * Arthur Miller intended to create the "modern tragic hero" in his legendary play Death of a Salesman. Previously, it had been generally thought by literary critics, academics et al. that for a character to be a tragic hero he must fall from a great social height- ex. Brutus in Julius Caesar. Miller, however, argued for years that Willy Loman was a tragic hero who fell not from the height of social position but from the height of his aspirations and self-delusions. Eventually, Miller admitted that Loman's character was pathetic, not tragic because he stubbornly failed to learn anything from his fall and thought maybe he would have achieved his goal if he had focused more on Willy Loman's son, Biff.
 * In The Crucible, John Proctor definitely qualifies as a tragic hero, and his fatal flaw would be either his temper or his pride depending on who you ask.
 * If your name is the title of a Greek play that is not a comedy, you fall under this trope and have an high chance of dying.
 * Seymour Krelborn of Little Shop of Horrors is brought down by his desire for Audrey's love; he makes a Faustian Bargain of sorts with the plant to win her love.
 * Elphaba "My road of good intentions lead where such roads always lead..." No matter how hard she tries to do what's right, she cannot win.

Videogames

 * Kratos of God of War was tricked into killing the only two people he ever loved and the Olympian gods refused to get rid of his memories of this, even though he . He's a total asshole, but still sympathetic - an apt hero for a game based on Greek mythology.
 * Kratos is a Tragic Hero because for all the impressive feats he manages, he himself is never able to get over the trauma of killing his own family. It is his love for his family that prevents Kratos from becoming a Complete Monster, but at the same time, it's due to that love that Kratos is unable to get over his feelings of guilt and is slowly driven insane. Kratos starts working for the gods because they promise to free him from his nightmares, but as time goes on, it becomes apparent that 1) the gods do not have the power to take away his guilt and 2) the gods only view him as a pawn. In this regard, his ignorance towards the Gods' anger (or causing the said anger) is rather understandable.
 * The Metal Gear series is all about these characters.
 * The first two Metal Gear games cast protagonist Snake as a tragic hero, who rapidly realises he doesn't actually care about his orders, is being exploited by his bosses and manipulated by the villains, who together constitute his only friends and family.
 * He's press-ganged into doing it all again in Metal Gear Solid, but in the end, he gets to disappear and chase after his own goals.
 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty casts newcomer Raiden in a similar, but more Shinji-esque exploited hero role.
 * Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater puts Snake's progenitor, Naked Snake, through the wringer to explain his turn to villainy, in an interesting contrast to Snake's own decisions.
 * In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Snake is still a free man, but he has.
 * Of course in the end, they do manage to earn a happy ending of sorts. The world is a better place when all is said and done, so they didn't really fail. The main characters get a shot at happiness too:
 * Sigurd of Chalphy in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War starts out as an upstanding if not idealistic chap on a mission to rescue his childhood friend, but due to events he had little to no control over he loses the woman he loves, is branded a traitor and forced to flee his homeland. It all culminates in
 * of Persona 4, who . If the player manages to convince the others that he's innocent,   will have a My God, What Have I Done? moment upon realizing the consequences of his actions.
 * The Nameless One is a perfect example of a tragic hero. The happy ending for the game ends with him
 * Archer from Fate/stay night. His Fatal Flaw, ironically enough, was his idealism. Eventually, it killed him.
 * To expand upon this one:
 * Other heroic spirits in the Fifth Grail War are Tragic Heroes in their previous lives. Caster and Saber are some examples.
 * As was the Fourth War's Saber, Lancer and.
 * Neverwinter Nights 2 has
 * The expansion Mask Of The Betrayer had
 * Tirion Fordring of Warcraft helps an orc who saved his life, and is in turn branded a traitor, has all his powers taken away, has his family leave him, and generally becomes a classic tragic hero. Also a subversion, because the powers were not theirs to take, leaving him ultimately as the founder of a new and less Jerkass order...
 * in the Backstory of Lusternia.
 * Harpuia in Mega Man Zero wants a world in which humans and reploids can live in peace. Too bad he's so blinded by pride that he can't see the truth. For extra irony, his goal makes him Not So Different from the leader of the Resistance. Becomes subverted in later games when he's capable of differentiating between a rebel and a psychopath and turns his wrath on the later first.
 * Both mage party-members (besides Bethany) in Dragon Age II.
 * Merrill wants to restore the lost heritage of the Dalish Elves, but is willing to mess around with extremely dangerous Blood Magic and the Eluvian to do so. Her entire clan, including mentor Marethari, considers this a Very Bad Idea and are terrified of what she'll end up doing, but she's convinced that it's worth the risk and they'll understand when it's over.
 * Anders wants human mages to be able to live free of Templar oppression, and gets less and less picky about how this happens; by the game's end, he's basically Dragon Age's answer to Redcloak.

Webcomics

 * There are a few in Order of the Stick:
 * Redcloak in Start of Darkness. His goal: improve the goblin race's lot in life. Initially merely a Well-Intentioned Extremist, his Fatal Flaw turns out to be the "sunk cost" fallacy, which Xykon ruthlessly exploits. By the end, he's incapable of ever betraying Xykon, because if he does, he'll have to face the fact that . He does have his moments of "redemption", such as when he reaffirms the value of other goblinoids even if they aren't his race of goblin.
 * Vaarsuvius seems to have recently arrived in this role, partly as a result of fan-diagnosed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. V's Fatal Flaw is Pride in magic, and an increasing inability to admit failure at a task and requiring the help of others. This leads to selling (leasing, technically) Vaarsuvius's soul out to fiends and refusing to give up the resulting power after the rescue of V's threatened mate and children, as "I have so much to do". Vaarsuvius's exact words were actually "I still have to fix everything", but the subsequent attempts to do so have allowed V to realize the mistake made without dying like so many tragic heroes. Sadly, this bit of wisdom is unlikely to be much help with fixing V's family life. The aftermath has cemented V's status; after a severe case of Break the Haughty and, V is acting like an elf with not much left to live for.
 * Miko Miyazaki was a self-righteous headcase paladin who was the most powerful paladin in the Sapphire Guard. She was severely anti-social; her only friend was her horse. As a consequence the Sapphire Guard would send her away on long missions so they wouldn't have to put up with her. She believed that she was an incorruptible force of goodness and justice. She could not accept that she may be wrong or have made a mistake, and believed that if she believed something, it had to be true.  When she   The real tragedy with Miko was that

Web Originals

 * Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: Dr. Horrible manages to be both this AND a Villain Protagonist.

Western Animation

 * The Brain, of Animaniacs spinoff Pinky and The Brain, who is doomed to failure every episode because of his tragic flaw, Genre Blindness. His plans have been shown at points to be purely power-hungry, but he's also shown to be wanting to rule the world because he thinks he can do a far better job (that appears to be Pinky's position at least—and considering the intelligence level of the world as depicted in the show... he could be right). In the Did Not Do Research episode of "Freakazoid!" (where he travels back in time), it was shown as much in an alternate time-line where he's president of the U.S.A. and things seem to have worked out pretty well. He is unable to anticipate the wacky hijinks which will inevitably result from the fact that this is a Warner Brothers cartoon, and so inevitably either Pinky's bumbling or his own carelessly chosen reactions end each plan in disappointment. In one episode, a prognosticative observation shows a future elderly Pinky & the Brain still locked in their labmouse cage, still plotting to Take Over the World.
 * Jet of Avatar: The Last Airbender. His parents were killed and his village was destroyed when he was eight. He became the Well-Intentioned Extremist leader of a group of rebels who tried and failed to destroy the village the Fire Nation was occupying. He tried to move on and become a refugee, but was Brainwashed for speaking about the war, and ultimately is killed the instant he breaks free from the brainwashing (see: Redemption Equals Death).
 * Zuko also spends most of Season 2 and late Season 1 as this - until he
 * Oddly enough, Danny Phantom becomes one in an alternate universe of the show. Danny Fenton gains ghostly powers and decides to use them to protect his town from the ghosts and menaces threatening it. The twist however, is that his friends and family are killed in an explosion, leading his arch enemy Vlad to take him in. Far MORE twisted is that in a  The fact that he's exists outside of his own alternate Bad Future is just a matter of when he will break free from his containment. Or would if not for Executive Meddling.
 * Rusty Venture from the Venture Brothers. In a show that the creators have described as being about failure, Rusty may be a sometimes brilliant scientist, but his flaws- the biggest of which is his inferiority complex regarding his father- often hold him back while his brother manages to attain great successes.