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Byronic Hero: Difference between revisions
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* V of ''[[V for Vendetta]]'' certainly fills this trope for the comic book, being a dreamer who wishes to bring total anarchy to a corrupt and totalitarian government. In fact Alan Moore specifically wrote V in this style in order to make the reader question whether V was actually the hero or just some lunatic who would rather screw over the whole world then be controlled by his government.
* Hans von Hammer, the ''[[Enemy Ace]]'', fits the archetype rather closely as a charismatic nobleman who hates war, but is very good at it. His ideals are often at odds with those of his country: true when fighting for [[Imperial Germany]] in [[World War One]], and even moreso in ''War In Heaven'', where he's fighting for [[Nazi Germany]]. And he's always ''extremely'' brooding.
* Some modern interpretations of [[Lex Luthor]]; particularly [[Infinite Crisis]] [[Big Bad]], Alexander Luthor, ''[[Smallville]]'' Lex, and, most notably, [[Superman: Red Son]] Lex.
* Dwight and Wallace embody this trope more than any other ''[[Sin City]]'' protagonist: charming, handsome, dark, mysterious, and violent.
* In ''[[The Metabarons]]'', the titular nobles are Byronic heroes.
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* [[My Immortal|Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way]], unintentionally (unless it's a parody).
* England in ''[[All He Ever Wanted]]'' is this.
* The version of Quirrel/{{spoiler|Lord Voldemort}} in ''[[
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** The Monster (or the Creature, as he is more often called in the novel) also qualifies. He is incredibly eloquent, brilliant, and even persuasive in his best moments. He is also filled with characteristically Byronic anguish and despair due to being cut off from humanity as a result of his unnatural birth (or creation, depending on how you look at it). Not to mention that some literary critics have interpreted the Creature as Victor's dark side.
* Perhaps one of the greatest ironies of literature is that, while the [[Public Domain Character]] Don Juan is usually written as a selfish, haughty, shameless womanizer and fits this trope to a tee, ''Lord Byron's own version of the character doesn't''. The eponymous hero of Byron's [[The Epic|epic]], ''[[Lord Byron's Don Juan|Don Juan]]'', is not at all villainous or malicious, but easily manipulated and misunderstood.
* The title character of [[Alexander Pushkin]]'s ''Eugene Onegin'' can be both seen as an example, a parody, and a [[Deconstruction]]. On one hand, he fits the mold in his cynical, self-destructive nature, he has more than a little of the [[
* Grigoriy Aleksandrovich Pechorin in Mikhail Lermontov's ''[[A Hero of Our Time]]'' is both a good example and possibly a [[Deconstruction]], being very [[Genre Savvy]] and all the more miserable for it. Also, he's not even the protagonist as such and [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|dies "off-screen"]]. The author apparently intended to stretch the idea of the Byronic Hero to its limits:
{{quote|"You will again tell me that a human being cannot be so wicked, and I will reply that if you can believe in the existence of all the villains of tragedy and romance, why wouldn't believe that there was a Pechorin?".}}
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