Lovable Rogue/Playing With

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Basic Trope: A character who breaks laws for their own benefit, yet remains charismatic and likable.

  • Straight: Natalie is a sharp-tongued thief who joins Mark's team and becomes a fan favorite.
  • Exaggerated: Natalie is a completely unrepentant thief who gleefully robs people all the time, making no effort whatsoever to hide this from her teammates -- but only targets citizens of The Empire, making it okay.
  • Justified: The Empire is genuinely oppressive; in order to get their heroing done someone in the group is going to end up breaking laws.
  • Inverted: Kevin is a stuffy, Holier Than Thou Lawful Stupid paladin viewed as his series' Scrappy.
  • Subverted: Natalie's likeable until she's revealed to be extorting money from an orphanage of very sick kids.
  • Double Subverted: The orphanage was actually a front for the bad guys; her extortion exposes their scheme, and the charismatic Natalie saves the day and her reputation.
  • Parodied: ???
  • Deconstructed: Natalie's law-breaking gets her companions into trouble; she's forced to choose between continuing her criminal ways or helping her friends, with her Code of Honor hanging in the balance.
  • Reconstructed: Natalie takes a third option, busts her friends out of jail, is Easily Forgiven for the incident and everyone moves on, Natalie having learned to be a little more careful in the future.
  • Zig Zagged: Natalie's likeable until she's revealed to be extorting money from an orphanage of very sick kids, but the orphanage was actually a front for the bad guys; her extortion exposes their scheme, and the charismatic Natalie saves the day and her reputation. It then turns out that Natalie didn't know about the front of the orphanage at the time she was extorting them, but
  • Averted: All of the characters who follow the rules are likable, and those who don't, aren't.
  • Enforced: "Everybody loves that Jack Sparrow guy, let's put someone like him in our show."
  • Lampshaded: "For a known criminal, you sure are popular."
  • Invoked: Natalie wants to keep up her criminal ways, so she works hard to come across as charismatic enough to get away with it.
  • Defied: Natalie is a thief who tries to be convivial and charismatic, but everybody, even her teammates, condemns her wrongdoings.
  • Discussed: "Well, some of what Natalie does isn't exactly legal, but damn if it isn't hard not to fall for her natural charms.
  • Conversed: "Why is it that everyone loves her even though she's a borderline kleptomaniac? It's like they don't even mind when she steals from them."
  • Played For Laughs: Natalie is a compulsive kleptomaniac who pulls off various stunts thanks to the Rule of Funny, such as routinely swiping things from any villain who dares monologue in her presence, like their pipe, their plot trinket, their pants...
  • Played For Drama: Natalie's thievery drives a wedge between her and the more straight-laced members of their team, like Kevin. Though repeatedly asked to choose between focusing on their quest or continuing her life of crime, she continues to dodge the issue, refusing to pick one over the other even as the different lifestyles continue to clash.

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