Designated Hero: Difference between revisions

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They are often mean people with no redeeming qualities aside from some superficial virtues, and they do not undergo appreciable character development. They're generally [[Karma Houdini|given a pass]] by the writers, freeing them from the consequences of their acts.

Note that [[Values Dissonance]] can sometimes be a factor with this trope since the exact definition of what constitutes heroism has changed over time; a character that comes across as a Designated Hero to a modern audience might well have been [[The Paragon]] when the story was written in [[Feudal Japan]] or [[Ancient Rome]].

 

 

Not to be confused with [[The Chosen One]], though they can occasionally overlap. Also not to be confused with [[Supporting Protagonist]], which is when the story just focuses on a character other than the hero. [[Pinball Protagonist]] is for when a character doesn't do much that's "heroic" by dint of the fact that they just don't do much of anything ''important''. [[Accidental Hero]]es do accomplish heroic things, but not intentionally. If the character is publicly perceived as a Hero, but is still shown to be villainous within the narrative context of the work, then he's a [[Villain with Good Publicity]]. For a character who is an utter [[Jerkass]], but still ultimately heroic, see [[Good Is Not Nice]]. For a morally ambiguous character who is ''intended'' to be seen as such by the audience, see [[Anti-Hero]] and its related subtropes. Can also be related to [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]], where a character who seems like a nice person turns out to be a mean person deep down. For a protagonist who fans consider to be less dynamic than the supporting characters but isn't morally ambiguous, see [[Designated Protagonist Syndrome]].

 

Subtrope of [[Show, Don't Tell]]. For something similar on a larger scale, see [[Rooting for the Empire]]. Often, but not always, overlaps with [[Nominal Hero]].

 

* The Miller Lite beer commercials have a guy enjoying time with his girlfriend; he mentions it's been 30 days and he thinks he's found something special. Just when we think he's talking about his girlfriend, he opens up his refrigerator and reveals the Miller Lite home draft. He even moves her out of the way. (This is a parody of the E-Harmony dating service commercials.)

* The kids of "Trix are for kids" advertising campaign love to torment that poor rabbit with the fact that he will never ever get to eat the damn cereal. By far the most [[Egregious]] example was when the rabbit legitimately purchased some Trix with his own money, only for the kids to take it away when he left the store, essentially mugging him. Nobody points out the sadistic glee the kids seem to take in excluding and denying the rabbit over and over.

* According to their ad campaign, anyone with AT&T's 4G is entitled to act like a total [[Jerkass]] to anyone who DARES try to tell them the latest news: "That's SO Xsty seconds ago!" Not that these people ever see fit to share the information when they learn it ''first''; no, it's just an excuse to degrade and insult the 'uninformed masses'.

 

* [[Inuyasha]] can be considered this at beginning of the series. He whines about having to help other people, used Kagome as a bloodhound for the Shikon Jewel for his own selfish purposes, makes his debut by [[Establishing Character Moment|blowing up a shrine to retrieve said jewel]].

* The [[Hidden Elf Village]] in ''[[Fafner in the Azure|Fafner in The Azure Dead Aggressor]]'' is absolutely horrendous at first, refusing to help the rest of the world against the [[Cosmic Horror]] befalling it, as well as maintaining a [[Masquerade]] to fool their own children into not realizing [[After the End|The End Of The World]] had happened to the outside world. They then pick one of these children to be [[Humongous Mecha]] pilots, and aren't sympathetic when they don't react well. Halfway through the series it seemed the writers realized that the viewers were more sympathetic to the [[Designated Villain]], the U.N.-backed "Human Army." Steps were taken to make sure that the audience knew who was "right" and who was "wrong".

* ''[[Coyote Ragtime Show]]'' has "[[Only Known by Their Nickname|Mister]]" and his team, who are the protagonists of the show, even though they are depicted as terrible people who unscrupulously kill innocents or get them killed through their mindlessly violent antics. Many viewers thought that the makers should have focused on [[Inspector Javert|Angelica]] and her assistant Chelsea, since they are much more likable and heroic.

* ''[[Gokudo]]'' plays with this. From the beginning, the title character is an unlikable ass who uses anything thrown his way to cheat and steal, but everyone always tells him he's the hero of the land. After the first few episodes, he's tricked into killing the [[Big Bad]]. Eventually, he uses his Genie to stop being the Designated Hero and sends the world back [[In Harm's Way]] because he finds the happy evilless world exceptionally boring.

** Well, when you put it that way, it is no wonder he pulled a [[Face Heel Turn]] in season 3, and then had to face the consequences of that in both season 3 and season 4.

* The protagonists from ''[[Dragon Pink]]''. The only good character is a put-upon [[Catgirl]] [[Sex Slave]].

** In one scene they encounter a group of "Slave Knights", skeleton warriors who defend themselves by keeping a naked girl hostage in their torso as a human shield. The protagonists say "Sorry!" and slash right through one of them, including the hostage. It really says something when the ''monster'' is shocked by their callous behavior.

* While many many Soul Reapers in ''[[Bleach]]'' are what can generously be called [[Jerkass]]es of varying degrees, there aren't actually that many who are Designated Heroes, as they are more protagonists than heroes.

* Dark Schneider of ''[[Bastard!!]]''. What's more, he ''knows'' that he's the designated hero.

* It's arguable that [[Dragonball Z|Goku]] is a bit of this trope. The audience watches him grow up, from the [[Cheerful Child|innocent pre-teen]] to the [[Idiot Hero|lovable hero]], it's easy to ''not'' notice his questionable actions - Goku's decisions could result in anything from; hurting the feelings of his loved ones, to bringing about the end of the world as [[It Amused Me|nothing gets in the way]] of his fun by; facing off against [[One-Man Army|super powered]], evil villains who often are ''stronger'' then he is would be admirable, if he wasn't so keen on purposely giving them time and opportunities to prepare and power-up further, simply so he knows he has beaten them at their best. Remember, said [[Big Bad|evil villain]] are bent on [[Take Over the World|taking over]] or [[The End of the World as We Know It|destroying]] the world and Goku is the one everyone is relying on to save the day.

** And, of course, there's the fight with Cell, where Goku purposefully gave a slightly weakened Cell the means to completely replenish his strength and energy, and then ''made his own son fight him''.

* Tohru Nishimaki does this by default with his male protagonists as they're ''supposed'' to be [[Trickster Mentor]]s helping their love interests getting over their issues, but [[Values Dissonance]] aside they come off as Jerk Sues, [[Karma Houdini|rapists]] that're easily forgiven and in the case of ''Blue Eyes,'' which is supposed to be set in the real world (besides the [[Gag Boobs]],) the [[Cunning Linguist|protagonist]] is shot dead at point-blank range, [[Ass Pull|realizes]] [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower|it was a premonition,]] [[Martial Arts Do Not Work That Way|knocks out the blackmailer/intended killer with a kick,]] [[Dressing as the Enemy|impersonates him,]] then [[Karma Houdini|forces his de facto/potential mother-in-law to have sex with him and reveals himself afterwards to which she only gives an "oh you" response since they've had sex before and will again.]]

 

* [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]] during the ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'', with [[Iron Man]] as the [[Designated Villain]].

** Although mileage may vary ridiculously; according to the main series writer, there was not supposed to be a "right" or a "wrong" side. Almost nobody went with this, resulting in the designated hero/villain roles being ''reversed'' for the Captain and Iron Man in most comics.

* Gladstone Gander in ''[[Don Rosa|The Sign of the Triple Distelfink]]''. Considering the immense lucky streaks he gets every other day of the year, it's hard to feel sorry for him if his [[Born Lucky]] status is inverted on a single one. And he accomplishes his goal of getting rid of even that spec on his entitlement to fortune, while beating Donald out of attaining any luck for himself, who can normally barely get by or financially support his nephews.

 

* This is fairly common in poorly written ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' fanfiction in general. The author often seems unable to realize that having her Mary Sue OC (or a suddenly pureblood Hermione) be a complete bitch to everyone, believe in blood purity, and/or side with Voldemort makes her a ''bad guy!''

** Zuko: As mentioned, canon!Zuko is a [[Hero with an F In Good]], a [[Freudian Excuse|hellish background]], and a [[Adorkable|complex personality]]. Here, however? He cheats on his wife behind her back AND fathers a baby with the designated heroine mentioned above, physically and emotionally abuses Mai when she confronts him and [[Jerkass Has a Point|appropriately]] mentions the huge political and social consequences his philandering will bring, leaves ''his struggling and almost destroyed kingdom'' without any seconds thoughts to get together with his woman-on-the-side—and yet we're supposed to sympathize with ''him''.

* ''[[Latias' Journey]]'' has an in-universe example in the Red Ranger. A ''totally'' amoral and borderline sociopathic "[[Beware the Superman|superhero]]" is designated as heroic by {{spoiler|Mr. Ford.}}

'''Red Ranger:''' Hey, as long as the people of Ever Grande City think I am, and I get paid for my work with money and power by Ford, I don't care what you call me! }}

** And the kicker? {{spoiler|He's ''Richie'' of all people.}}

** Nine times out of ten, Naruto will be shown this way if he's in [[God Mode Sue]] form.

 

* Sinbad for pretty much the entire animation of ''[[Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas]]''. Aside from the obvious fact the only reason he is sent is because he's their only option, the general way he acts almost entire movie makes him little to no different then a villain. Starts the movie trying to rob a ship, not even caring when it's his childhood friend he's robbing. When he's set-up for execution and his friend, who at this point has no reason to trust him besides fact they knew each other 10 years ago, takes his place and puts his faith in his hands. His response? Leave him to die & would of if he hadn't gotten stopped by said friend's love interest. He's an Ungrateful Bastard for her saving their lives from sirens and needs to be pressured to show any gratitude alongside sexist attitude. He then proceeds to steal said girl that best friend is engaged to and has been with for 10 years. Eris even calls him out on this and he proceeds to fail a test based on whether he wanted more to save his friend or steal girl and he fails lying to save friend. He does go back in the end, but it's very hard to see what goodness is in him that others are seeing, though he does go back in the end. Plus, worst of all, he succeeds at getting said girl, her leaving guy she has known and with for 10 years for one she's known for a couple of days.

* ''[[Bebe's Kids]]''. Seriously, they destroy an entire theme park and cause trouble for many innocent people there, yet they never get punished for it. Worse, we're expected not to think badly of them because they have a poor life and have "attitude."

* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' films:

** ''[[Puma Man|The Puma Man]]''. Given the fact that the "hero" is trying to come into his new superhero persona, he's still incredibly feeble, whiny, and ineffectual. Meanwhile, his wise Aztec sidekick/mentor Vadinho has to hand-hold Puma Man through his heroics, and is shown more than once to do an [[Badass Normal|equal or superior job]] at whomping bad guy ass ''without'' superpowers. Towards the end of the movie on MST3K, Crow thinks it's time to admit that ''Vadinho'' is the real hero. And frankly, the movie wouldn't have suffered if Tony weren't in it at all and it was just about Vadinho in the first place.

{{quote|'''Peter Graves:''' I can't help but feel partially responsible.

'''Crow:''' ''Partially'' responsible?! }}

{{quote|"So, Rod, that's thirteen dead cops, a half dozen dead innocent civillians, and a couple of dead bikers. Good work!"}}

** Used as a defense against critics claiming the subject of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]] -- the Movie'', ''[[This Island Earth]]'', was "too good" to mock. When Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo) was asked about this during filming, he "threw his head back and laughed uproariously," explaining that Kal, the movie's protagonist, goes on a mind-bending journey across the universe but remains utterly unchanged in any way, and his most heroic action in the entire picture is to shout, "Run, Ruth, Run!" when she's being attacked by the mutant.

* Just about every protagonist in ''[[Alien Resurrection]]''. The crew of the Betty are willing to trade human life for a profit. Even whenever they learn of [[And I Must Scream|the horrible]] [[Body Horror|fate]] that the people whose lives they sold they express no remorse of any sort for their actions. Even ''[[Took a Level In Jerkass|Ripley]]'' herself gets this to an extent. Due to her cloning she now is part Xenomorph which makes her much more violent and sympathetic to the titular monsters, but at least she develops past that. The only exception is Call, who was probably only on the Betty so she could get close to Ripley.

* ''Man's Best Friend'', about a mutant killer dog, treats its protagonist, Lori Tanner as the hero of the film. While the film's [[Mad Scientist]] takes the heat for the carnage, it's noteworthy that Lori actually trespasses into his lab and "liberates" the killer dog herself, effectively making ''her'' responsible for every subsequent murder committed by it. The only person who objects to her actions is her boyfriend; the dog kills him. Go figure.

* The movie ''Cheaters'' was based on the true story about a group of students and their teacher who cheated their way through the United States Academic Decathlon. The cheaters were portrayed as heroes who had no choice except to cheat while the one student who did the right thing in outing them was portrayed as [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong|a disgruntled, rat-faced snitch]]. In addition, the movie also tried to play up the biased assumption that they had cheated because they came from a less than stellar school, regardless of the fact that 1.) ''[[Shut UP, Hannibal|They had cheated]]'' and 2.) A sudden, unexplained spike in scores would naturally raise a few eyebrows.

* Yor from ''[[Yor, the Hunter from the Future]]'' is undoubtedly the protagonist, but he wipes out several mini-civilizations, including one he was trying to ''save''.

* Nomi Malone from ''[[Showgirls]]'' ''really'' didn't even try to be heroic. The [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold]] trope is attempted to be played with her job as a stripper/topless dancer, despite the fact that many of her actions in the movie come off as mildly amoral and a bit of a [[Sympathetic Sue]]. She gives what is apparently a lap-dance, but is basically just actual sex while he kept his pants on. She screwed her boss to get higher in the consideration to be [[Psycho Lesbian|Crystal Conner]]'s (the lead dancer) understudy. Then she pushes Crystal down the stairs, which one character mentions resulted in injuries that would keep her out for up to a year. Sure Crystal was a bitch, but Nomi just stooped to the level of the bitchy dancer who purposely injured another dancer because she yelled at her kids. Her best friend Molly is disgusted at Nomi for having done this....for a whole four minutes before she goes back to fangirling over Andrew Carver, who for some reason gang-rapes her. By the end, everybody forgives Nomi and treats her as some angelic force, the girl she pushed down the stairs, her boss, everybody. There's also the fact that her punishment of Andrew Carver, to kick him in the face a few times, [[Karma Houdini|really did nothing to prevent him from raping again.]] Nomi leaves town at the end after threatening Andrew's life. Nomi was a Vegas star, did she think her disappearance would go unnoticed? What's stopping Andrew from attacking Molly again? Pretty much nothing.

* There is sometimes a criticism about Glinda the Good Witch from ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]''. When the Wicked Witch of the West shows up to claim her now dead sister's magic shoes, she gives them to Dorothy, who was just some random girl who showed up instead of, say, hiding them from her, and this is to assume that WWotW wanted them for some sinister, magic purpose. After she essentially forced a random teenage girl into a tug-of-war between two witches for seemingly no reason, she sent Dorothy to talk to the wizard. When she gets there, the wizard tells them that they need to take the witch's broom before he'll do anything for them. As it was pointed out, they'd need to kill her to do this. After they kill the witch and come back with her broom, the wizard's method of getting Dorothy back to Kansas fails (sort of) and she's left with no way to get home. This is until Glinda shows up and tells Dorothy that ''at any point'' she could have just used the slippers to wish herself back. When she's rightfully asked why she didn't tell Dorothy this, she says she wouldn't have believed her. Except, yes, she would have. Dorothy is in a dangerous world with witches and the way out is on her feet. Considering how acid-trippy the place was, would there be ''anything'' you wouldn't believe at that point?

** There is even a [http://www.cracked.com/article_18881_5-reasons-greatest-movie-villain-ever-good-witch.html?wa_user1=5&wa_user2=Movies+%26+TV&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=recommended Cracked article] detailing how she is the best villain in film history.

* Forrest Taft (Steven Seagal) from ''[[On Deadly Ground]]'' performs several criminal actions in his defeat the polluting oil companies of the film. When he acquires evidence as to how they've broken the law, he refuses to take it to the police (as his love interest suggests) and instead loads up to attack their oil rig himself. In doing so, he murders everyone inside, not just the armed mercenaries hired to kill him, but the construction workers for the rig as well. When he meets the owner of the oil company he kills him without hesitation, in spite of the fact that the man is unarmed, tied up, and unable to defend himself. At the end of the film, he blows up the oil rig in a clear act of eco-terroism.

** Not to mention all his actions were actually quite counterproductive, since actually ''blowing up an oil rig'' is going to cause a hell of a lot more ecological damage than any oil rig simply running will do, even if it fails to meet environmental protection regulation.

** We see a shot of the construction workers evacuating. The rest of these objections are valid. Furthermore, the owner had called the FBI and asked for assistance because he was expecting a terrorist attack—while we don't see Taft fight anybody on-screen but the mercenaries, how much outer-perimeter security did he have to disable to get that far, and who were they?

* Played for laughs in ''[[Mystery Men]]''. Captain Amazing is constantly viewed by the residents of Champion City as a great hero, even though he is often rude, inconsiderate, thoughtless, and only interested in making money off his powers. He even brings about the events of the film, unwittingly, by getting his archnemesis released so he can fight someone worthy (and save his sponsorship deals), eventually getting himself killed stupidly in the process. Of course, we're not ''supposed'' to like him. Our sympathies instead lie with the title characters, who are basically the underdogs of the superhero world; most of them don't have any actual super powers, and they're respected by next to nobody in the city they've sworn to protect.

 

* ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'': Edward and the Cullens are the good guys because ... well, they don't eat humans. They let their vampire buddies eat humans, routinely show up the Muggles, use their awesome powers for pure personal gain, and screw up the lives of many a werewolf to get their way, but at least they don't eat humans.

** Bella gives minimal thought to the innocent people being killed by vampires, [[Protagonist-Centered Morality|unless it's someone she knows, of course]]. In ''New Moon'', she seriously considers withholding what she knows about vampires from the werewolves because telling them anything would feel like betrayal to the Cullens (even though she knows full well that the Cullens are in no danger from the wolves at all and that helping the wolves learn about the vampires will help them stop Victoria more quickly and thus keep more people from dying).

* In ''Beck Beyond the Sea'' from the [[Disney Fairies]] series, Beck not only shirks her duties in Pixie Hollow to follow the Explorer Birds across Neverland, but she does so by using dust that she knows was made from feathers freshly plucked from Mother Dove, one of the cruelest acts known to fairies. Yet at the end of the book, it is [[Designated Villain|Vidia]] who is punished, for using Beck's absence as a chance to get more fresh feathers. The fact that Beck indirectly caused this is never addressed.

* The Silver Horde from [[Discworld]] personify this trope, as explicitly lampshaded by the Patrician.

** Note that Cohen is actually titled Cohen ''the Barbarian''. They are meant to be 'heroes' but only in the same way Conan was.

* [[Michael Crichton]]'s ''Timeline'' ends with the protagonists drugging the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]], and sending him to past to die of the Black Plague. While he was a fairly unpleasant individual and was more concerned about using [[Time Travel]] to [[Only in It For the Money|make money]] than actually giving a chance to learn about the past, he does actively work to prevent the tissue-damage caused to the people who do too many trips through the time-machine/teleporter by forbidding one person from doing too many trips, and all the problems result from those who disobeyed him. But since he's a douchebag, it's all right to murder him horribly.

** Notably, when [[The Film of the Book]] came out his death and circumstances around it were substantially changed.

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: Hoo, boy! The Sisterhood or the Vigilantes have fallen into this territory at least once. Of course, the first seven books were all about the Vigilantes getting [[Revenge]] on the people who wronged them, and breaking the law in doing so. That's not supposed to be heroic. Despite this, once it got out what they were doing, they were considered heroes and household items. Reviewers at Amazon.com were quite happy to point out how the Vigilantes' behaviour went into this in the book ''Under The Radar''. In that book, the heroes go to a cult of pedophile polygamists. The heroes acted rather abusively toward the adult women in the cult. In fact, the book spelled out quite clearly that the adult women were [[Complete Monster]]s who didn't give a damn about the treatment their own children suffered in the cult and deserved absolutely no sympathy. Reviewers, however, pointed out that the adult women were raised in this cult and brainwashed into believing in the cult all their lives, and that they are actually victims who you should feel sympathy for. With that said, the heroes have the adult women lined up and shave off the hair on their heads. They did this, because the cult leader likes long hair, and they wanted him to look at bald women to spite him. Reviewers pointed out what the Vigilantes did seems to be uncomfortably close to what the Nazis did in those concentration camps!

** The book ''Sweet Revenge'' has this little gem from the thoughts a stand-up male character named Bobby Harcourt: "He stopped at the receptionist's desk for his messages, hating how sleazy the young woman looked. He'd spoken to Rosemary about the receptionist's appearance and all she'd done was cluck her tongue and ask him if he wanted a lawsuit on his hands. It wasn't just the way the young woman looked, it was her stupid name as well. Sasha. No one named their kid Sasha except maybe a Russian mother. This Sasha was from Mud Creek, Mississippi. White trash, all ninety pounds of her. He rather suspected that Rosemary kept her on because Sasha made her look beautiful, which she was, but she was also a cold, relentless, heartless bitch of a woman. He'd found that out as soon as the honeymoon was over, much to his regret." For such a supposedly stand-up guy, Bobby sounds like he hates people who aren't Americans like him, he sounds mean-spirited towards people from the Appalachians, and he apparently judges people based on their appearance and ''their given name'' before things like morals or personality.

* Gareth in ''The Rebel Prince''. He is told he has to rape the protagonist in order to gain control of her psychic powers, needed to overthrow the evil leaders of the planet. He gets drunk to overcome his reluctance and does so, and feels bad about it afterwords. This is supposed to lead to him finding redemption. Instead, after claiming he is sorry, he continues to insist she is his wife (because they were married against her will) and uses mind control and threats of violence to control her. As well as using mind control to force her to learn pleasurable sex (it's still rape even if she enjoys it). The worst part is {{spoiler|she winds up staying with him at the end because he "loves her"}}.

 

* ''[[iCarly]]'' has Carly and Sam. Sam is a bully who would literally get killed for being nice. All she does throughout the series is make Freddie's life a living hell, and admits that [[For the Evulz|she does it for pure enjoyment]]. Carly because [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|she. Never. Stops her.]] What kind of friend lets another friend bully her other friends? Then in "iMove Out," when Freddie's mom came on the set to humiliate her son, instead of turning off the camera, she points it at Freddie while he's getting embarrassed.

** And that's not even getting into Carly's emotional manipulation of [[Dogged Nice Guy|Fredd]][[The Woobie|ie...]]

** Hindsight has shown that all of Locke's actions up until about mid-season 5 were entirely correct, ''especially'' what he did in the third season finale. Meanwhile, season 6 has somewhat redeemed Jack.

* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' Captain "Designated Hero" Janeway - after stranding her crew in the Delta Quadrant due to reasons largely beyond her control, she forgoes several attempts that would have gotten her back to the Alpha Quadrant, kills one of her crew to restore the status quo, and when given the chance to go back in time and save her crew, rather than preventing them from going to the Delta Quadrant in the first place, she opts to save someone they recruited along the way and abandon nearly a third of her crew to die when they get dragged into the Delta Quadrant.

* In the early seasons of ''[[Smallville]]'' Clark Kent could be seen as this, frequently making morally dubious decisions without being called on them. This improved as the show continued, with Clark eventually becoming the moral centre of the [[Justice League of America]], and frequently calling out the likes of [[Anti-Hero|Green Arrow]] on his actions. In contrast, Lana Lang remained one for her entire run. Despite her frequent betrayals of Clark and his friends, she was consistently treated as being in the right until her exit in Season 8. Following this, Chloe Sullivan picked up the Designated Hero ball and ran with it, constantly going behind Clark and Oliver's backs without any explanation, stockpiling Kryptonite weapons, and making very iffy moral choices. Former [[Big Bad]] Lionel Luthor, post-[[Heel Face Turn]], is seen as this in-universe: the heroes use him for his resources, but [[Reformed but Rejected|don't trust him any farther than they can throw him]].

* The eponymous characters of ''[[Kenan and Kel]]'', especially Kel.

** Somebody is talking with Cabot, the prosecuting attorney, and accuses the police department of harming a suspect. Cabot replies that the injuries were sustained during a fight between two suspects. Her conversation partner acknowledges that this is technically correct... because the suspects were intentionally baited, by the police department, into turning on each other. Cabot does not even bother to reply, she just stands there looking smug for the rest of the scene.

** Stabler and Benson go to a suspect's home, where he lives with his grandfather. They do not have a warrant and cannot enter the house without permission. They tell the suspect something about his grandfather that shocks him and causes him to throw the door closed and run upstairs to confront the grandfather. Stabler ''puts his hand out to keep the door from closing'' and the two detectives chase after the suspect, into the house that they do not have permission to enter.

** In one very serious episode, a young man recognizes that he is a pedophile and turns himself in before he harms someone. Specifically, he fears that he will molest a young relative of his and has actually been drinking heavily in an attempt to forestall his actions. When he accepts that he will not be able to stop himself for much longer he turns himself in to he police in the hope that they will be able to keep him from hurting any little kids. Benson explicitly states that up to that point, no pedophile had ever turned themselves in out of an honest desire to reform. Rather than appreciating the selfless efforts of a very confused person who needs help with a legitimate problem, he is despised by the police force and referred to as a "monster."

** It doesn't help that the detectives and prosecutors tend to have a smug attitude most of the time. Almost veering into [[Smug Snake]] territory.

* Gleefully parodied by French comedians "Les Inconnus":

'''Nathalie''': But why me?

'''Force bleue''': Because you're one of the good guys! }}

** Though at least the implications were that Buffy wasn't exactly being herself, being under even more massive pressure than usually, and having gone through several traumatic experiences in a short time.

** This has been played with several times, from Buffy's temper tantrum that she wasn't allowed to kill Faith and [[Angel]] basically telling her to get stuffed, to her being rejected by the potential slayers, to a storyline where a rogue slayer intends to kill Buffy because of how much of a princess she is.

** Of course, there's also Spike in Season 7. For some reason Buffy and the writers seem to believe Spike is in the right when he tells Robin Wood that he doesn't regret killing his mother, and that she ''never loved him''. And frankly, that's only the worst time by a small degree.

*** The reason we're supposed to agree with Spike saying it is because its happening during a scene where Wood is deliberately torturing Spike to death in a particularly cruel way, after having waited until Spike was already helpless, and during a time period where Spike is not only souled (and he was soulless when he killed Wood's mother) but actually trying to help them. At this point, even many fans agreed that Spike deliberately trying to think of and say the most hurtful thing he can to troll his attempted murderer as he (almost) dies is not exactly the worst thing he's ever done.

* ''[[The Office]]'' has Jim & Pam, who are supposed to be normal, but are actually kinda pricks. Jim knew he wasn't supposed to upset Andy when he was at Stamford, but he did, and he did it again at Scranton. He basically picked on Andy - someone he ''knew'' had anger management issues - enough to make him punch a hole in the wall. He even probably endangered Pam in helping too. Between the two of them, they were basically lusting after each other, regardless of the feelings of the people they were involved with. They also broke company policy in the baby shower ep with the bluetooth and making themselves noticeable enough to warrant investigation. Sometimes Jim's pranks on Dwight go too far (enough to give him a bit of a [[Heroic BSOD]] wen regaling). The writers do notice this sometimes, especially in later seasons. A few episode show Jim being embarrassed by his immaturity, and show Dwight as more of a victim. This depiction is closer to the UK version, where Tim and Dawn were often presented as immature bullies, and not just playful jokers.

** Leonard still lives with Sheldon and hasn't killed him, which in most circles would make him a saint.

** Plus, some of this can be excused as him being socially inept. Penny gets away with a lot more than anyone else, which the writers have recently noticed and are inevitably deconstructing her, resulting in her becoming a thoroughly unsympathetic bitch. That sounds like an overstatement, but in a recent Season 5 episode she tries to do a good thing and ends up pressuring Bernadette and Amy into helping her ''steal from charity.''

* The ''[[Charmed]]'' Ones, in the later seasons, have stopped thinking about saving people and are more about themselves. They cast magic on innocent people and even joined up with a bunch of magical extremists to wipe out free will for the sake of destroying evil. They had faked their deaths and got a new girl to do all the work for them.

* Serena in ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' frequently acts far nastier than Blair, and her protests and apologies just make her seem like a huge liar compared to the others.

** The third season also introduced Kate, who was shilled as brave, compassionate and altogether wonderful even though she was never anything but rude, nasty and shrill to everyone around her, and once demanded that a terrified woman be left to be raped and strangled by her sadistic husband, stating that "she doesn't deserve our help."

* ''[[Big Time Rush]]'': The four characters of the eponymous group all have moments that push them into this category, especially in episodes where they're carelessly destructive (i.e. Big Time Mansion, Jobs, etc). Though not all of them are always like this (sometimes it depends on the episode), you get the idea.

* [[Memetic Badass]] though he may be, Leroy Jethro Gibbs of ''[[NCIS]]'' can definitely be seen as this, with repeatedly assholish behavior to various characters, occasionally bending or even ''breaking'' laws he's supposed to be enforcing, and even some instances of hypocrisy regarding investigations with agents/officers from outside his team.

* Georgia from ''[[Ally McBeal]]'' is generally described by other characters as a really nice, good hearted person. While she certainly can be nice to some people she can also be petty and a quite mean; e.g., badmouthing Nelle, making it clear that she disliked her and even physically attacking her when she tried to break up a fight between her and Ally for the sole reason that she's jealous of the fact she considers Nelle to be prettier than her

* Shamaya Taggert from the ''[[Touched By an Angel]]'' spin off ''Promised Land''. You're supposed to like this character, but she come off ass a bitter self righteous pretentious prick.

* For some viewers at least, ''[[Glee]]'''s Rachel and Finn fall very much into this category.

* The vampires in ''[[True Blood]]''. All of them. Bill murdered many people with Lorena and has deliberately murdered people even in the pesent day. Just about every vampire we've met we know for a fact have killed at least one human, and many of these vamps we know have killed more than that. Even "saintly" Godric murdered Eric's 2 best friends before turning Eric into a vamp. And thanks to Jessica killing a man soon after she became a vampire, there's now no vampire we can definitely state has never killed a human. The Authority might be seen as a benevolent influence...except as their Arbiter they appointed a nasty [[Fantastic Racism|"humans-are-inferior-to-vampires" bigot]] who regarded the fact Bill killed a vampire to save the life of a human as making Bill's crime of killing the vampire worse, not better, and as punishment had a terrified teenaged girl (Jessica) kidnapped and forcibly turned into a vampire by Bill. And we're supposed to be rooting for the vampires and their integration with humans because why, exactly?

 

* Siegfried from [[Richard Wagner]]'s ''Ring of the Nibelung''.

* Subverted as early as [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s ''[[The Yeomen of the Guard]]'', their only tragedy. Colonel Fairfax is often treated by other characters as a great hero. There's nothing they wouldn't do for him. The audience is repeatedly told how great he is, but sees little real evidence. At the end, he is revealed to be an absolutely hateful figure. No wonder audiences treat Jack Point sympathetically as [[The Woobie]], despite him being something of a jerk himself.

* In another Shakespeare example, pretty much all of the Christian characters from ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' can be seen this way, especially Portia, who basically ruins the [[Designated Villain]] / [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] Shylock's entire life, then decides to fuck with her fiance apparently just for the lulz with the whole stupid rings subplot.

 

* Spoofed in ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]''. [[Card-Carrying Villain|Textbook evil]] Mao concludes that the only way he's going to be able to overthrow his father is by becoming a hero. Of course, being unabashedly evil, he does this by mugging the title of hero from [[Heroic Wannabe|some poor sap]] and going on his merry way. {{spoiler|What he doesn't know is that the [[Theory of Narrative Causality]] decides that it's going to remedy this by making him ''act'' like a hero - whether he likes it or not.}}

* Intentionally played with Luke in ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'' for the first third of the game. Our “hero” is a moody, selfish and arrogant [[White Prince]] who is eventually told that he is [[The Chosen One]], which does very little to help his already over-inflated sense of entitlement. This is made even worse by the encouragement of his mentor, the only person he truly respects. Things keep heating up until the big [[What the Hell, Hero?]] moment alienates nearly all his friends, when…

** It's not that simple. {{spoiler|Every nation in Yggdra's world is manipulated by one [[Fallen Angel]] to wage wars on each other so that [[Fallen Angel]] can power up his blade for his own [[Rage Against the Heavens]]; Yggdra's reasoning that all other countries must be defeated to bring peace actually isn't that far off since otherwise Nessiah would keep messing with the world to collect souls for his blade. Also, by the end of the game, she and the royal army know that they are doing exactly the same thing [[The Empire]] did and yet proceeds with the invasion anyway because if they don't take advantage of the situation now, [[The Empire]] will recover and strike again. After all, [[The Empire]] is hardly innocent since they are the ones who invaded and tried to kill Yggdra in the first place.}} It's the case of [[Gray and Grey Morality]], really.

** It's even more complicated than that, actually. The reason Gulcasa conquered Fantasinia in the first place was because {{spoiler|he believed its king, Ordene, was governing badly and making his civilians miserable--Gulcasa had always intended to conquer the world so as to get rid of the rulers he believed were corrupt and forcefully even out the massive class divide. He was very much mistaken about the rulers--because Gulcasa had never experienced that sovereigns who haven't suffered the same way as the poor could rule well, he assumed that it was the same everywhere--but the minorities throughout the world would definitely agree with his complaints about the class divide}}. Yggdra, who was [[Spoiled Sweet|sheltered enough]] to believe that every country was as well-governed as [[Arcadia|her own Fantasinia]], assumed that Gulcasa was nothing more than a tyrant and vilified him for [[You Killed My Father|killing her parents]]. Both sides of the conflict were [[Poor Communication Kills|extremely poorly informed]] and unwilling to reason with each other, leading to a deadlock that couldn't even be broken once Yggdra [[Heroic BSOD|realized the truth]].

* In some ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' storylines, you are this trope. Some storylines are well-supported by lore and interwoven into the game in every way possible, but others are just [[Excuse Plot]]s to loot gear from a new type of enemies in a new setting. For example, in the Mana Tombs dungeon, the enemies that [[Player Character]]s fight are simply graverobbers. Players fight them as mercenaries on behalf of a rival trade consortium. Graverobbers are obviously not nice people, but they're hardly the [[Legions Of Doom]] players are supposed to be fighting across that ruined world. Meanwhile, the major "good" factions, the Alliance and the Horde, are openly examples of [[Gray and Grey Morality]].

** It's [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] at some point, but then ignored again. You get hunting quests in more than one place from a dwarf called Nesingwary and first his son to kill various kinds of animals for gear rewards. Then in Northrend, Nesingwary's minions are evil poachers who massacre animals and whom you have to kill in turn for some druids. These "loot-crazed" hunters have dialogue indicating that they're trying to collect [[Twenty Bear Asses]] to get some new piece of gear as a reward, just like you did. And then you can meet Nesingwary himself again in a different area, and he dismisses all moral questions in passing with one sentence and sends you out on his quests again.

* [[Played With]] in ''[[Baten Kaitos]]''. Kalas is a complete [[Jerkass]] for a good portion of the game, and he only helps people when it coincides with his interests. Then, a little over halfway through the game, it's revealed that {{spoiler|he was [[Evil All Along]]. After you fight him, however, he pulls a [[Heel Face Turn]] and spends the rest of the game as a much better person.}}

* Kratos, at least in ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]] III''. Kratos, who was previously a [[Byronic Hero]] with [[My God, What Have I Done?|a reason directing his violence]], has become so obsessed with [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|"revenge"]] that he's willing to [[Gotterdammerung|kill the gods who are]] [[The End of the World as We Know It|holding the very universe together]].

[[Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy|And he gains virtually nothing out of it]].

* The Argon Federation in ''[[X (video game)|X3: Albion Prelude]]''. We're apparently supposed to think they're the good guys (maybe because of [[Status Quo Is God]]: they were the good guys of the previous five games), even though the [[Space Cold War|Terran Conflict]] turning into a hot war was entirely their fault: an Argon character from ''X3: Reunion'' suicide-bombed Earth's Torus Aeternal, killing millions of Terrans instantly (let alone the people killed by [[Colony Drop|deorbiting debris]]). This was basically a 30th century equivalent of [[War On Terror|9/11]] taken [[Up to Eleven]]; the Terrans' current [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] is self-defense.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** This is really a parody of this trope, since it's obvious from the start that the author wanted the audience to consider both Artax and Yeager, but especially the later, to be a ''[[Jerkass]]''.

* Also occurs in the comic ''[[Black Tapestries]]''. The main star is pretty much a bitch. Also has Designated Antagonist, who manages to be a villain by a compulsive "Shoot the Dog" reflex.

* All the "heroes" of ''[[Sonichu]]''. All the males are shallow bastards who are only interested in fucking and enforcing Chris' draconian rules; all the females are shallow whores who only want to fuck, shop, and cook; the main character is a [[Stepford Smiler]] who uses a psychic hedgehog to spy on his citizens to make sure there are no gay people and shot a guy in the kneecaps after he surrendered. It all comes to a head in Episode 10, where the ''[[Asperchu]]'' crew is brutally tortured by the main character for murdering Simonla, despite the heroes having just come from murdering at least 100 people. Notable examples include Wild telling his daughter, with the mentality of a fourth grader, to tear a guy apart with a drill, and a guy being shocked to death. And yet you're supposed to root for these characters.

** Those 100 people they murdered? Their worst crime can basically be summed up as "[[Troll|making mean pictures]] [[Disproportionate Retribution|on the internet]]." It's a [[Revenge Fic]], what would you ''expect''?

** Or, as was said more than once, the problem many have with them is not that they are ''vampires'', but that they are ''cheerleaders''. Then again, between playing with established tropes and gratuitous "[[Fan Service|fangservice]]", the work explores pack mentality, ambition, power and responsibility (the take on [[Stages of Monster Grief]] alone digs quite a mineshaft). So if it wound up effectively doing so [[In and Out of Character|both in and out of]] the 'verse, this only means these subjects were touched where it actually matters.

 

* Jay Naylor, author of ''[[Better Days]]'', actually created a porn series sold online called "Haukaiu the Hero". People have pointed out that the title character hasn't done ''anything'' heroic, by either the old use or the current one, but has in fact so far been so blatantly unheroic as to not really care that his brain-damaged mother is being used as a sex toy by the men of the village. It is a ''porn'' series, so it's not really supposed to make sense to begin with, and the series are still incomplete, but still...

* In the Online novel series ''[[Tasakeru]]'', Skunk mythology states that their death-goddess loved the male element of the god's love quadangle so much she offered to be sub-dominant to him. The other two, the goddesses of life and time, reacted by infusing her body with poison so whatever she touches dies. They more or less act like horror-movie style sorority bitches, rather than the kind and loving goddesses they're worshipped as.

* [[Half-Life (series)|Gordon Freeman]] is depicted as being like this in ''[[Freeman's Mind]]''. Everyone hails him as a great hero, but really he just sort of bumbles around and saves the world by an accident, while at the same time trying to negotiate with enemy soldiers (it doesn't work), looting things around Black Mesa, and trying to find anything he can to get high (such as animal tranquilizers). A good example is episode 19: throughout the last few episodes, he had been randomly wandering around, pressing buttons because they looked shiny and shooting zombies who attacked him. Turns out he accidentally turns on a rocket engine that burns a giant monster to death (that he had avoided being crushed by due to sneaking and sheer dumb luck).

* [[The Irate Gamer]] himself. He blew up a harmless alien mothership because of E.T. on Atari, murdered the Kool-Aid Man for doing what he does... ON CHRISTMAS, casually pals around with Satan, blew up Ubisoft's headquarters because he couldn't get into their E3 conference, and we're supposed to treat him as the hero. If he was just an asshole that would be kind of understandable, except he has an [[Evil Twin]] [[Hero Antagonist|character]] that hasn't even killed anyone or done anything remotely evil outside of stealing something.

** Actually his evil twin made an unprovoked attempt at murdering him in his first appearance and then carries out many further attempts.

* Mutants in the [[Whateley Universe]]. A number of the mutant characters seem to hold the opinion that mutants are just another minority, cruelly segregated and persecuted by 'normal' people... which, to be fair, is true, except for the fact that most mutants have powers that could easily kill a baseline, many at the school are living weapons of mass destruction, and even the superheroes can be deadly- for instance, the case of the Flying Bulldozer, who tried to stop his long-time nemesis by throwing cars at him. It worked, while injuring dozens and causing over a million dollars of damages.

 

* Like so many of his fellow prepubescent [[Nickelodeon]] protagonists, and despite his scientific mind and regularly learning [[Aesop]]s, ''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius|Jimmy Neutron]]'' has a glaring [[Aesop Amnesia|inability to learn from his mistakes.]] As a result, about 90% of the crises that he solves are ''[[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|set in motion]]'' by him. Once again, like protagonists on other shows, this notion is somehow justified simply by him feeling really bad about it every time at the very end...all prior to doing it yet again in the very next episode. This was lampshaded within the [[Made for TV Movie]] "The Egg-pire Strikes Back", in which Cindy tries to convince the [[Dying Like Animals|townspeople]] to listen to [[Ignored Expert|Jimmy's pleas]] that the Egg-pire is still evil by reminding them of his past heroic exploits, swiftly breezing past the fact that "...sure, they were all his fault in the first place."

** In one episode Jimmy and Cindy were assigned to do a sea life-related project together. Instead of just labeling seashells and getting it over with like Cindy suggested, Jimmy builds a deep sea diving machine and insists on sailing with her, Carl, and Sheen to find some long-lost treasure. Now while at first this may seem like over-achieving and not necessarily wrong, he winds up getting them lost and Cindy takes over and actually finds the freaking treasure, only to be stopped by a scary-looking giant squid. Jimmy actually makes Cindy ''beg'' for him to fix the problem and acts incredibly smug for getting them out of the situation, despite the fact that ''he got them there to begin with and she was getting them out anyway''. Karma promptly bites Jimmy back hard time when he discovers that the treasure he discovered was worthless salt water taffy.

*** To be fair, they were quite delicious.

* During the first season of ''[[Code Lyoko]]'', before the show completely found its groove, the heroes could be this (Example: In one episode, Sissi tricks Ulrich by writing a note pretending to be Yumi, [[And That's Terrible|and that's considered terrible.]] In a different episode, Ulrich and the gang trick Herve by writing a note pretending to be Sissi, [[Moral Myopia|and that's considered perfectly OK!]])

* The ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door|Kids Next Door]]'', particularly in the first season, often come across as self-centered brats more than heroes, most notably when they try to steal the birthday cake of their enemies, the Delightful Children From Down the Lane, apparently because they won't share their cake with anybody else. The first Cake episode actually has the DCFDtL having their party guests tied up and planning to eat the cake in front of them but others just start with the Kids Next Door trying to steal the Delightful Children's birthday cake with no explanation for a new viewer as to why exactly the [[Designated Villain|Delightful Children]] are supposed to deserve this.

** This is taken [[Up to Eleven]] in the episode "Operation: A.R.C.H.I.V.E.", about the origins of the title organization, which states that children only created adults [[Slave Race|to be their slaves]] and generally treating them horribly, and not doing one actual heroic thing the entire episode. [[Justified Trope]] because the episode is not canon, but just the ramblings and speculations of [[Conspiracy Theorist|Numbuh One]], who has no idea what he is talking about.

'''Bart:''' Itchy.

'''Homer:''' Itchy's a jerk. }}

* In ''[[American Dad]]'' most of the cast qualify due to [[Depending on the Writer]] as they alter between [[Heroic Comedic Sociopath]] and [[Villain Protagonist]] in any ep or even within the same episode.

* ''[[Total Drama Island|Total Drama World Tour]]'' makes a big deal that [[Villain Sue|Alejandro]] is a much more evil version of [[Alpha Bitch|Heather]], the former villain; in the end, that makes Heather the "hero" when {{spoiler|they make it into the final two}}. But if you really compare Heather's actions over the course of the series, she's pretty much done every nasty thing Alejandro did—she was just less ''effective'' at it by season three, due to the others' [[Genre Savvy|Genre Savviness]] about her and their perpetual [[Idiot Ball]] about how [[Obviously Evil]] Al was.

** Plus, he is clearly in the wrong in that particular episode.

** Practically everyone in Ponyville became jerkasses during that episode, just so Fluttershy could be depicted as a doormat. It's generally agreed to have been fairly bad writing just to drive the plot.

 

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[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:YMMV Trope]]

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[[Category:Show, Don't Tell]]