Anti-Hero: Difference between revisions

* Accelerator from ''[[To Aru Majutsu no Index]]'' becomes this in the Last Order arc.

* The eponymous Nadia from ''[[Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water]]'' is an antihero. Due to an unhappy childhood and [[Parental Abandonment]], she's grown to be gloomy and depressed, somewhat self-centered and very judgemental. She has an empathic connection to animals and is thus a vegetarian, but can't stand the idea of anyone else eating meat either and constantly berates them for it. Her negative persona is lampshaded in one of the omakes, a character profile, where the narrator just keeps rattling off various flaws ("There has probably never been such a selfish heroine.") and expresses incredulity at how anyone can stand her. However, she is still a fundamentally good, caring person, capable of great self-sacrifice and aware of her flaws. (She seems to feel bad about taking her rage out on Jean at various points, to the point where she does something apologetic.) By the time of the [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]], she seems to have matured into a more sympathetic individual.<br /><br />Her personality flaws are ridiculously exacerbated in episodes 23-34, turning her character from a [[Not Good with People]] sort of character to a totally unlikeable, obnoxious [[Jerkass]]. [[Executive Meddling|Then again, those episodes were hardly meant to be part of the story in the first place, as they were added on after the show proved more popular than expected.]]

* The core protagonists of ''[[Slayers]]'', which makes the show as intriguing as it is - Lina Inverse is a well-reputed slayer of bandits and has saved the world, but she's only done the latter if the danger she and her companions were in had reached that point. Otherwise, she slays bandits for personal wealth, has no concern for the welfare of innocents (and entire villages for that matter), and will occasionally go to [[Comedic Sociopathy|sociopathic]] levels to get what she wants, even if it includes hurting her friends. Zelgadis is similar to Lina in those aspects, with the exception being that he's more than willing to either murder or flat-out [[Face Heel Turn|abandon]] those he cares about entirely.

** Princess Amelia is not as much of this as it warrants, but her [[Black and White Morality|naivite]] on peoples' motives inadvertantly make her this - she often relies on stereotypes (such as outward appearances) to determine who is and isn't noble. Gourry the good-natured swordsman would wholly avert this trope if he weren't apathetic to certain worldly events, but that's possibly due to his [[The Ditz|lack of intelligence]]. The only protagonist that joins Lina that isn't this trope completely is [[Yamato Nadeshiko|Sylphiel.]]

** Hell, most of the Colonial fleet counts. While they are the protagonists, they have become ''much'' more distrustful and wary after seeing their friends and family murdered in a vicious surprise attack. The knowledge of that the slightest misstep on their part may result in the extinction of humanity lies heavy on their minds, which leads to numerous instances of [[I Did What I Had to Do]]. Seeing how the Cylons were quite willing to betray them in the first place and they are quick to adopt a 'fool me one shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me' attitude when it comes to their Cylon allies of convenience. Many of the Cylon-human interactions throughout the series go this way: the Cylons approach the Colonials with "genuine" intentions who state their own terms to make the other side sweat a bit but generally accept the deal... at the front. As soon as they have what the Cylons want, the Colonials instantly turn on them and try to extort even more, at the end of which they summarily declare "[[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]" and throw the hapless skinjob (who has the blood of several million on his or her hands) into the brig or out of the nearest airlock.

** True, the Cylons nuked the colonies to cinders. But what the Colonials are doing to them during the series don't even try to fit under the definition of "revenge"; "sadism" is a much more apt term. In fact, it's an open secret that many of the Colonials don't hate the Cylons because of what they did to the colonies, they hate them because they're Cylons, period. [[Sarcasm Mode|Kinda makes one wonder why the Cylons rebelled against them in the first place, don't you think?]]

* ''[[Boston Legal]]'' - [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|Alan Shore]] is lecherous, conniving, snarky to a fault and one of the most dedicated defense attorneys at Crane, Poole and Schmidt, who routinely does tough cases [[Pro Bono]] for friends who need help navigating the law. The best example of his heroism was when he successfully got a man let off for bludgeoning his mother to death with a skillet, and [[Knight in Sour Armor|regretted it]] when the bastard killed again.

* George from ''[[Dead Like Me]]''.

** Most of the squad in ''Mass Effect 2'' also qualify as anti-heroes -- some as soon as you meet them (Jacob, Garrus, Samara), some if you [[Hidden Depths|dig a little deeper]] (Mordin, Miranda, Thane).

* ''[[Disgaea]]''

** Mao, from ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]'' is the Evil Academy's top honor student, a position acquired by disregarding all of the rules and being as much of a [[Delinquent]] as possible. He develops into an anti-hero after {{spoiler|the "Hero" title he stole starts affecting his mind and his repressed guilt over the betrayal of his father surfaces.}} Much like with Laharl, {{spoiler|he refuses to acknowledge [[The Power of Friendship]] in the end.}}

* ''[[Just Cause (video game)|Just Cause]]'' series - Rico Rodriguez, protagonist, will gleefully commit murder on behalf of drug dealers and terrorists if it gets him closer to taking down a dictator.

* Ed from ''[[Fake Knight]]''

* While its difficult to quantify where, precisely, Sixx from [[Collar 6]] falls due to the [[Blue and Orange Morality]] of the series, she clearly isn't a traditional hero.

 

 

*** [[Memetic Mutation|He's the goddamn Batmanta.]]

** And, in the third season, Blackarachnia, who joins the Maximals mainly to save herself, although Silverbolt's constant romantic/chivalric advances may have had something to do with it.

* One of those rare, completely ''uncool'' examples: ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'', detective Harvey Bullock. He despises Batman, works below the board, lies about his accomplishments, has zero respect for people and their privacy, and in the words of Alfred, "looks like an unmade bed". Yet he's also a startlingly skilled fighter and wholeheartedly dedicated to getting rid of Gotham's "scum". He's essentially [[Chaotic Good|the kind of cop who would be a huge supporter of Batman's vigilantism]] [[Alpha Bitch|if his own ego would let him]].

* The title character of ''[[El Tigre the Adventures of Manny Rivera]]'' is a preteen super deciding between the heroic path of his father and the villainous one of his grandfather. Lampshaded when in one episode he's subjected to a machine designed to tell whether one is a hero or villain and it ''explodes''!