Dirty Coward: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Don't eat me! [[I Have a Family|I have a wife and kids!]] Eat '''them!'''"''|'''Homer Simpson''', ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]''}}

{{quote|''"I surrender! Here, eat my friends! Just give me one more second of sweet, sweet life!"''|'''Bender''', ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]''}}

Though the [['''Dirty Coward]]''' may be a sociopath, he's not nearly as cool as the [[Sociopathic Hero]] (nor as funny as the [[Comedic Sociopath]]), and if he's a bastard, he's not [[Magnificent Bastard|magnificent]]. The [[Dirty Coward]] is the slime of the earth, working exclusively for himself and shamelessly [[Cower Power|removing himself from harm's way]] even if that harm was about to hit [[The Messiah]] that [[A Friend in Need|just saved his life two seconds ago]]. He'll take every advantage and [[Combat Pragmatist|use every dirty trick]], but cry and [[It's All About Me|moan every time the tables are turned]]. He's not above using dishonorable tactics and will face defeat like a coward. He is often full of vicious plans for anyone he dislikes, until someone asks [[Who Will Bell the Cat?]].

Even the cleverest [[Dirty Coward]] tends to be short-sighted. Even knowing that if he breaks ranks, he will leave a hole in the defenses that will let the enemy in, leading to far more danger for him, he will generally run (and get shot [[In the Back]]). Or he will badmouth people to their faces, when they can not immediately hurt him, to curry favor with someone who can, even if the latter threat is obviously less in the long run. Dirty Cowards are especially prone to suffering a [[Karmic Death]], usually at the hands of whatever he was trying to run from.

Usually a villain unless [[Played for Laughs|used comically]], although they may sometimes be a certain type of civilian [[Dying Like Animals|that gets in the way]], a [[Designated Hero]], or a character that's supposed to be a loveable coward but comes off as more slimy than funny, the dirty coward may or may not have [[Freudian Excuse|a horrific past to explain his actions]], but it doesn't usually redeem him, at least not in the minds of the audience. When his story doesn't do it for the audience but convinces the hero, it causes a [[Writer Cop Out|major cop-out]]. Unlike most villains, the dirty coward [[Smug Snake|doesn't even have finesse]], which can annoy the audience. The best way to make this character tolerable is to make him at least clever. Some enlightened self-interest can occasionally be mixed in, although much of it means that he's no longer the [[Dirty Coward]]. Often, when used as a villain, this is a cheap way to make the heroes look good in comparison, even if they're not [[Designated Hero|everything they should be]]. Villainous [[Dirty Coward|Dirty Cowards]] tend to fall squarely into [[Neutral Evil]], since they are first and foremost out for their own hides at the expense of others, though it's not too uncommon for certain villains of other evil alignments to display this streak when they come across someone who they cannot deal with by their usual tactics.

The [[Dirty Coward]] is pretty much [[Always Male]], for the [[Unfortunate Implications|dubious reason]] that [[Stay in Thethe Kitchen|women aren't expected to be brave in the first place]], and [[Men Are the Expendable Gender|are allowed to sacrifice others to save themselves]]. As [[Action Girl|Action Girls]]s become increasingly unremarkable, this may start to change in the near future.

* Kishin Asura from ''[[Soul Eater]]'' became a physical font of insanity and evil because he was scared of everything -- whicheverything—which led to paranoia and the desire to become so powerful that no one could harm him, at any cost.

* Yoki from ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' constantly suffers the consequences of his scumbag actions, mostly because he keeps [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|lying and backstabbing]] so he can bribe his way into a higher military rank. Every nasty scheme backfires, landing him in nastier and nastier situations to the point that he's the manga's resident [[Chew Toy]]. One of the characters even points out it's entirely his own fault how he gets into these messes.

* Hol Horse from ''[[Jo JoJoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'' manages to be the only recurring villain in Part Three...by running for his life whenever things go wrong. He also refuses to ever work alone, despite being an assassin; he knows how weak his Stand is against most other Stands, after all. The incident that finally dispatches him even comes about because of his cowardice: told by a fortune-telling book that he'll kill Jotaro at noon, he takes the shot from a far distance and from cover... {{spoiler|which allows for a [[Prophecy Twist]] to send the bullets back into ''his'' head.}}

* Genma Saotome, father of the titular character of ''[[Ranma One Half|Ranma 1/2½]]'', falls somewhere between this and [[Lovable Coward]]. Despite being one of the more formidable martial artists in the locale, whenever trouble arises (and it's often [[Sins of Our Fathers|his fault that it does]]), his plan of action invariably boils down to some variant of "run away" or "make Ranma deal with it". Whether it's pinning the blame on Ranma, telling Ranma that it's his "duty" to handle things, or simply vanishing into the woodwork and leaving Ranma with no choice but to try and handle something he hasn't the faintest idea about, Genma virtually never lifts a finger to help.

* Yajirobe from ''[[DragonballDragon Ball]]'' qualifies as this most of the time. With the exception of [[Single -Stroke Battle|the time he ate Cymbal]] and him crawling out from behind a rock long enough to [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|cut off Vegeta's tail]], he'll constantly hide, cower and be a general wuss. Interestingly, when we first meet him he was seemingly set up as Goku's new [[Rival]], before falling into [[Can't Catch Up]] even faster than all the other characters did.

** Helmeppo from ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]''. He bullies people while hiding behind his tyrannical Marine Captain father Morgan. He gets better though when his father is defeated and he learns to become a great marine.

* Doomsday, the monster that once killed [[Superman]], is normally a mindless bundle of rage and power. When he was granted intelligence, he was revealed to be this trope in the end. All his new intelligence did was make Doomsday painfully aware of his own crippling fear of death -- deepdeath—deep down, he's terrified of anything that could possibly be a threat to his life- which in his mind is ''everything''. (The entire reason he's so powerful is because he was repeatedly cloned and let loose on a [[Death World]] until [[Lamarck Was Right|some bizarre process of Lamarckian evolution]] made him capable of surviving the worst it had to offer. It took a '''LOT''' of clone generations.)

* Subverted by Roderick Kingsley, AKA the original Hobgoblin and enemy of [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]. While his twin brother Daniel really was a spineless wimp who lived up to this trope, Roderick merely made himself ''look'' like a [[Dirty Coward]] to get people to underestimate him. Often he [[Twin Switch| forced Daniel to act as his stand-in]] to maintain the charade. This usually led to him sabotaging his competitors' companies and destroying their reputations before buying them up cheap, or to keep anyone from thinking that he could be a cold-blooded [[Magnificent Bastard]] like the Hobgoblin.

* Beni from ''[[The Mummy 1999 (Film)Trilogy|The Mummy 1999]]'' fits squarely into this role, betraying just about every member of the cast and joining with the villain in order to save his own skin. His [[Karmic Death|comeuppance]] is suitably horrible.

{{quote| '''Beni''': [[Genre Blind|It is much better to be the right hand of the devil than to be in his path.]]}}

* Bernie Bernbaum of the [[Coen Brothers]] film ''[[Millers Crossing|Miller's Crossing]]''.

* Carter Burke in ''[[Alien (Filmfranchise)|Aliens]]''. His meddling directly causes the deaths of everyone in the colony. When called on this he tries to bribe Ripley, then attempts to get {{spoiler|Ripley and Newt}} infected so he can sneak them past quarantine. And to top it off, in order to sell a convincing story to the authorities he was going to kill the rest of the team in their sleep on the way home. Slime ball doesn't even begin to describe him. In fact, being such a Dirty Coward is what leads to his death. When the Aliens attack, he tries to escape on his own, shutting a security door behind him as he does, which seemingly prevents Ripley and the Marines from getting out as well. He then runs straight into a single Alien, which kills him. Doubles as a [[Complete Monster]].

* Luther, leader of [[Gang of Hats|the Rogues]] in ''[[The Warriors (Filmfilm)|The Warriors]]''

* [[The Starscream|Starscream]] seems to almost revel in it. From ''[[Transformers Revenge of the Fallen|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]],'' in an exchange with Megatron that combines this with [[Know When to Fold 'Em]]:

{{quote| '''Starscream:''' Not to call you a coward, Master, but... sometimes, cowards ''do'' survive.}}

* In ''[[Inception]]'', Nash (Cobb's original architect) sells out Cobb and Arthur to {{spoiler|Saito}} to save his own skin. But said person would then [[Rewarded Asas a Traitor Deserves|leave Nash to the mercy of Cobol Engineering]] who would inevitably hunt him down and kill him when they find him.

* Dylan from ''[[Transformers: Dark of the Moon]]''. {{spoiler|He betrayed Earth to the Decepticons just so he would be safe.}}

*** Which at first [[Fridge Logic|kind of leads one to wonder]] why Wormtail was sorted into ''Gryffindor'' of all places. [[Fridge Brilliance| His inner Gryffindor qualities show]] when he {{spoiler|ultimately remembers the debt he owes Harry and hesitates bringing Harry and his friends up to [[Complete Monster|Bella]][[Crazy Awesome|trix]]. This causes his hand, which only lets him obey Voldemort, to turn on him and kill him.}}

* Rincewind from [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'': seriesRincewind tries to play it straight (all he wants is to stay out of danger and doesn't particularly care what happens to anyone else) but subverts this because he's both [[The Chew Toy]] (which means the world really ''is'' out to get him) and a [[Cosmic Plaything]] of Lady Luck, doomed to repeatedly save the world by performing absurdly dangerous heroics.

** It also doesn't help that his conscience is practically an intelligent entity in its own right - several times when he's saved the world, it's because his conscience told him to. [[Good Angel, Bad Angel|In the form of a conversation]].

** In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Interesting Times|Interesting Times]]'', Rincewind also gets to use all his knowledge of cowardice and panic in one magnificent [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when he starts a rumor among the soldiers of the Agatean Empire than Cohen's Silver Horde is most certainly ''[[Reverse Psychology|not]]'' backed up by an army of [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|2,300,009 invisible bloodsucking vampire ghosts]].

{{quote| '''Rebel:''' But there are ideals worth dying for!<br />

'''Rincewind:''' No there aren't! Because you can pick up five new ideals at any street corner, but you only get one life!<br />

'''Rebel:''' By the gods, how can you live with a philosophy like that?!<br />

** Wormtongue from ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' fits this trope pretty well. He was a soldier from Rohan once who betrayed his king and country, to curry favor with Saruman. Though some may say he helped redeem himself in the end by killing Saruman, though I'm pretty sure that wasn't courage, but extreme hatred.

** A few [[Big Bad|Big Bads]]s have some guts, but there are maybe a half-dozen of them over 20+ books.

* [[Shakespeare]] used this at least twice: the [[Miles Gloriosus|braggart]] Parolles in ''[[Alls Well That Ends Well|All's Well thatThat Ends Well]]'' cravenly betrays his fellow soldiers when they make him think he has been captured by enemy forces; more sympathetically is Falstaff

* Paris in ''[[The Iliad (Literature)|The Iliad]]'' might qualify seeing as he was such a bratty little wuss.

* In [[CSC. Lewis (Creator)|CSS. Lewis]]'s ''[[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'', when invisible beings threaten to massacre them unless Lucy goes into the magician's tower and casts a spell, Caspian declares that they are trying to make her do something they are too afraid to let their own daughters do. They agree that he has put it quite nicely. (One reason why Lucy agrees is that she thinks it may not be as bad as they say, as they are obviously great cowards.)

** In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|A Princess of Mars]]'', John Carter describes Tal Hajus as this to force him into battle.

{{quote| ''You are a brave people and you love bravery, but where was your mighty jeddak during the fighting today? I did not see him in the thick of battle; he was not there. He rends defenseless women and little children in his lair, but how recently has one of you seen him fight with men?''}}

{{quote| ''The jeddak knows that in the annals of Manator her jeddaks have ever been accounted the bravest of her warriors. Where my jeddak leads I will follow, nor may any jeddak call me a coward or a craven unless I refuse to go where he dares to go. I have spoken.''}}

* Nom Anor from the ''[[New Jedi Order]]'' series is a self-proclaimed coward- indeed, everything he does is to ensure his own safety, power, and comfort. He's an exception to the rule that a [[Dirty Coward]] cannot be a [[Magnificent Bastard]], however, because he often comes off as the only one of [[Proud Warrior Race|his]] [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|people]] with any common sense whatsoever.

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "[[The Phoenix On the Sword (Literature)|The Phoenix Onon the Sword]]," Dion turns out to be one of these, which is exploited by Thoth-Amon in order to get him on his side against his master Ascalante, whom he knows will have Dion killed when Conan is assassinated. Unfortunately, Dion makes the mistake of telling Thoth-Amon about a "ring of good fortune" that he bought from a Shemitish thief who stole it from a sorcerer of Stygia. When Thoth-Amon recognizes his lost [[Ring of Power]], he promptly stabs Dion to death and reclaims it.

* In [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Memory, SorrowandSorrow, and Thorn]]'', the Hernystyri monk Cadrach is portrayed as an unrepentant thief, liar, and coward who will sell out his trust for wine or convenience. At least until Princess Miriamele, in a fit of sympathy over Cadrach's self-loathing, manages to pry out his backstory in bits and pieces, revealing a once-brilliant scholar who unearthed [[Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]] and fell into an [[Despair Event Horizon|insanity born of despair]]. She struggles to reform him and is rewarded at the end.

* In [[Gene Stratton Porter]]'s ''[[Freckles (Literature)|Freckles]]'', the villains fled on the prospect of capture. Wessner in particular -- Frecklesparticular—Freckles can beat him, free, and so he torments him when [[Bound and Gagged]].

* [[Flashman|Harry Flashman]], eponymous [[Anti-Hero]] of his series (actually a [[Public Domain Character]] from ''[[Tom BrownsBrown's Schooldays]]''); his three self-admitted talents are horse-riding, languages, [[The Casanova|and women]]--to—to which we can add [[Fake Ultimate Hero|credit-stealing]], the ability to live through and run from anything, and total, cutting honesty [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|in his memoirs.]] Interestingly, he does subvert the bit about cowards being short-sighted, which is part of the reason he lived through [[The Gump|all the interesting historical events]] that he did.

* Baltar was this in the original ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic(1978 TV series)|the original ''Battlestar Galactica]]'']].

** Gaius Baltar of the new ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (2004 TV series)|2004 reboot of ''Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'']] is the poster child for this trope. He takes whining, crying, and pleading for his life, not to mention self-pity and refusal to take responsibility, to a whole new level. [[Character Development|He does get somewhat better though, while still remaining fundamentally the same person at heart]].

* Gibbis, from the ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' episode "The God Complex". At first it's [[Played for Laughs]] ("All I want is to go home and be conquered and oppressed, is that too much to ask?"), but ultimately {{spoiler|his actions directly result in the death of a sympathetic character. Worse, Gibbis [[Karma Houdini|survives the episode]] completely unscathed.}}

* Chang in the penultimate episode of ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]'' Season 2. At one point he runs through the paintball wasteland screaming "Does anyone have an alliance I can join?!", {{spoiler|having betrayed at least 3 other groups already (The Study Group, Math Club, and The Cheerleader Alliance).}}

* Lailoken, the soothsayer of King Vortigern in the 1998 ''[[Merlin (FilmTV miniseries)|Merlin]]'' series. He is motivated entirely to keep himself out of danger (makes sense, considering he's around ''Vortigern'' of all people) and preserve his own life. After Vortigern tasks him to try to find out why his tower is collapsing, Lailoken makes a perfect dirty coward quote while at his religious rituals.

{{quote| ''I've been a follower of the Old Ways all my life. Now, that life is in danger, and it's a precious life . . . it's mine!''}}

* The [[Asshole Victim|victim]] of the ''[[Cold Case (TV)|Cold Case]]'' episode ''Justice'' is a serial date rapist who exploited the lax laws regarding date rape to repeatedly perpetuate the crimes, peed himself when several of his former victims confronted him at gunpoint, and then acted unapologetic and unrepentant about his actions once they left. The detectives become so repulsed by what they learned of him that they ''actually tell the killer what to say in court to defend himself''.

** The killer in the episode ''Blood On The Tracks'' was fearful of whatever punishment would be meted out for a crime she, her husband, and their friends were involved in a decade earlier--whichearlier—which the guilt-ridden husband was planning to confess to the cops about. So she enticed her ex-lover--wholover—who clearly still had feelings for her--toher—to help her murder her husband in order to keep his mouth shut, with the promise of them running away together. Instead, she killed her husband and a friend of theirs whom she bore a strong resemblance to, assumed the other woman's life, and allowed her ex to suffer for 20-something years thinking that he had killed her, while she lived the ideal life of a suburban housewife. When confronted by Lily, she feebly denied being a monster, but outright admitted being "a coward".

* Dicky Bennett of ''[[Justified (TV series)|Justified]]''. No other words come close.

* In the [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]] episode "Nor the Battle to the Strong", Jake Sisko gets a [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|Reason You Suck Speech]] calling him this, which [[Heel Realization|he owns up to]] at the end.

* This is a classic heel character in [[Professional Wrestling]]. The Honky Tonk Man made a career out of this character in [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] and [[Christian]] Cage was in this mode following his [[Face Heel Turn]] in TNA.

* Averting this trope is one of the reasons [[Kane (Wrestlingwrestling)|Kane]] is so popular, even as a Monster Heel. He will never back down and has gotten into the ring with guys far bigger than him. In the Royal Rumble match, he will always stare down the biggest guy in the ring, nod, and when it is returned the two will basically ignore everyone else until one of them is eliminated.

{{quote| '''Seagoon''': I'm terribly sorry, but I have a wife and 63 children!<br />

'''Bloodnok''': I too have a wife and children. That only leaves dear old - <br />

[rattle of telephone]<br />

'''Eccles''': Hello, hello, operator? Get me the marriage bureau!<br />

[later]<br />

'''Bloodnok''': Flatten me cronkler with spinach mallets. So, both of you have turned cowards, eh. That only leaves me. Two cowards, and me. You know what this means?<br />

* Thomas in ''[[Old Harry's Game (Radio)|Old Harrys Game]]'' (whose nastiness [[Even Evil Has Standards|disgusts even Satan]]) has many horrible characteristics, but his dirty cowardice is among his defining traits. Though he does occasionally show signs of [[Character Development]], this is nearly always unwound by the end of the episode.

* [[Magic: theThe Gathering|Ib Halfheart]], [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=157923 Goblin Tactician]. His tactical insights include:

{{quote| ''"Everybody but me-- CHARGE!"''<br />

''[http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?name{{=}}Blinking+Spirit "Don't look at it! Maybe it'll go away!"]'' }}

{{quote| '''Cyrano''' ''(To himself):'' [[Love Letter Lunacy|I will write, fold it, give it her, and fly!]]<br />

''(Throws down the pen):'' [[Lampshade Hanging|Coward!]]... But strike me dead<br />

[[Cannot Spit It Out|if I dare to speak to her]],... ay, even one<br />

* Mumkhar from ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]'' should get some sort of award for this, due to the fact that he left his friends to die in the middle of a battlefield just to save his own skin... '''FIVE MINUTES INTO THE GAME!''' {{spoiler|Interestingly, this isn't the case in any of his other appearances. It seems that being transformed into a Faced Mechon caused his sadistic, petty sense of cruelty to override his cowardly tendencies.}}

** Yes, the Spathi can fight quite well -- mostlywell—mostly because their ships are so fast no one can catch them, and because they pelt anything that ''tries'' to catch them with a hailstorm of [[Fun Withwith Acronyms|Backward Utilizing Tracking Torpedoes]] fired out of the back of the ship as it flees.

* One of the main reasons [[Prince Charmless]] is one of the [[The Scrappy|least favorite]] ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' characters is that he's both a [[Dirty Coward]] ''and'' a [[Jerkass]], and makes you do all the work for him on the one side quest where you're forced to take him along.

* Goblins, the weakest unit of the Stronghold Faction in ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] V: Tribes of the East''. In game play, their cowardice causes them to run away from their attackers instead of retaliating. If enough of the stack is killed, they actually ''defect'' to the other side. Storywise, this attitude earns them a great deal of contempt from the rest of the faction, which primarily consists of [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race Guys]]s. As a result, their "comrades" have no problem with letting their Shamans sacrifice Goblins for mana replenishing rituals or with letting the Cyclops treat Goblins as snacks and ''ammo''.

** InSeptimus, ''[[Firethe Emblemboss (Video Game)|Fire Emblem]]:of [[Fire Emblem Tellius (Video Game)|Radiant Dawn]]'', the boss of thes Part 3 Prologue, Septimus, is shown to be [[Properly Paranoid|immensely paranoid]] about laguz attacks and runs off as soon as the player or allied armies get close, leaving his second-in-command to guard the seize point. He later shows up in 3-8, assigned to enter the [[Lethal Lava Land|lava-filled caves]] and bring back the bodies of the enemies that [[No One Could Survive That|no doubt perished there]] as proof that they were dead--anddead—and is ''quite'' dismayed to find them (that's the player's army, again) very much alive.

* The Mean Emcee from ''[[Wario World (Video Game)|Wario World]]'' is this. He is absolutely terrified of Wario and will hide under a cup after he punches him enough.

{{quote| '''Anub'Arak:''' [[This Cannot Be!|It cannot be...]] Look to your defences, Death Knight! Fight as you have never fought before!}}

* Alduin in ''[[Skyrim]]'' turns out to be one of these when faced by someone who can actually hurt him. {{spoiler|It's one of the reasons Odahviing agrees to help you pursue him --— the other Dragons are no longer certain that Alduin deserves to be their leader since a true ''dovah'' would fight to the very end.}}

* In ''[[Impure Blood]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20131006054708/http://www.impurebloodwebcomic.com/Pages/Issue05PAGES/ib105.html their ride dumps them in the city and leaves.]

* Daffy Duck from ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' is a self-admitted one of these characters. He'll sell out his friends in an instant to save his own hide and/or claim wealth for himself. As he puts it, "Sure I'm a louse, but I'm a ''live'' louse!" During the "Hunter Trilogy" of cartoons, he freely admits he's only sending Elmer after Bugs because it's "Really [[Duck Season Rabbit Season|duck season]]".

** Inverted slightly inDuring the "Hunter's Trilogy" of cartoons, he freely admits he's only sending Elmer after Bugs because it's "really [[Duck Season! Rabbit Season!|duck season]]". Also inverted: while he is out for "thelf-prethervation", he also seems ''very'' set on his rival getting his head blown off. The numerous instances Elmer actually turns his attention on Bugs, and naturally screws up, Daffy will actually [[Motive Decay|go up to Elmer and berate him to his face to]] "Shoot him! SHOOT HIM!". On one occasion, he actually snatched the gun from Elmer and attempted to do the job himself, [[Harmless Villain|thewith latter justElmer walkedwalking off bewildered]].

{{quote| '''Daffy:''' I may be a coward, but I'm a ''greeeedy'' little coward!}}

* When the chips are down, Zapp Brannigan from ''[[Futurama]]'' is a coward through and through.

** In one of the ''[[Futurama]]'' movies, Bender, Amy and one other character are trapped by a bunch of orcs in a castle. Bender tells the two ladies he has a plan, and next scene shows him holding them up in the air (and looking like he's about to surrender). SuddenlyBender outright ''tells'' the orcs areto killedtake byhis thefriends [[Bigfirst, Damnjust Heroes]]to causinggive Benderhim toone lookmore relieved.second It'sof prettysweet obvioussweet helife; meantfortunately, tothe sacrificeorcs hisare "friends"killed toby savethe himself[[Big Damn Heroes]].

* ''[[The Fairly Odd ParentsOddParents]]'': King Grippulon, supposedly a fearsome king, frequently uses his wife as a shield when his life is in danger, and is willing to put his son on the throne after there are several assassination attempts.

* Iago from Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]''. For much of the second movie onward, he spent a lot of time looking out for himself almost exclusively although unlike many of the examples here, he can be courageous and selfless. Two examples come up in the second film.

* ''[[Ben 10 (Animation)|Ben 10]]'' con-artists Argit and Simian, although Simian can and will fight if backed into a corner.

* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', Yon Rha, {{spoiler|the man who killed Katara's mother}}, is this. When confronted by his victim's vengeful {{spoiler|daughter}}, he cowers in terror and while he admits that what he did was wrong, he offers {{spoiler|his mother's}} life instead of his own. {{spoiler|Katara}} [[Not Worth Killing|merely gives him a]] [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] [[Not Worth Killing|and leaves]].

[[Category:DirtyDishonor CowardTropes]]