Sympathetic Criminal: Difference between revisions

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== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Based on the most-popular version of his origin (the Alan Moore version), [[The Joker]] qualifies. He was just an ordinary non-criminal who had to do one job to help support his pregnant wife...Then again, it's the Joker, [[Multiple Choice Past|so who knows how true that story is.]]

** [[Depending On the Writer]], and to a large extent whether or not its the mainstream comic, [[The Joker]] could just be a [[Complete Monster]] who was a violent murderous criminal even before his acid bath. In that light he just acts insane to get away with the [[Insanity Defence]] and in truth all that happened to him was he developed a love of commiting horrific crimes for attention and thrills, and not just for money or other reasons.

** [[Depending on the Writer]], and to a large extent whether or not its the mainstream comic, [[The Joker]] could just be a [[Complete Monster]] who was a violent murderous criminal even before his acid bath. In that light he just acts insane to get away with the [[Insanity Defence]] and in truth all that happened to him was he developed a love of commiting horrific crimes for attention and thrills, and not just for money or other reasons.

* In the Cyanide&Happiness book there's a comic book when a little boy and his dad are being mugged, the little boy screams for help, his father has a heart attack and his son screams for a doctor, Seizureman comes to save the day but has a "Brain attack" And finally the mugger says "I should call a ambulance".

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* Clive Owen in ''[[Inside Man]]''.

* In ''[[The Italian Job]]'', the audience (especially if they're British) are supposed to feel this way about Charlie Croker and his gang, even though objectively they're not sympathetic at all.

* Denzel Washington in ''[[~~John Q (Film)|~~John Q]]'' holds up a hospital to ensure that his dying son gets the operation he needs.

* Denzel Washington in ''[[John Q]]'' holds up a hospital to ensure that his dying son gets the operation he needs.

* [[Samuel L Jackson]] in ''[[The Negotiator]]''. When he is falsely accused of his best friend's murder, Jackson holds a government office hostage in order to clear his name and learn the truth.

* [[Samuel L. Jackson]] in ''[[The Negotiator]]''. When he is falsely accused of his best friend's murder, Jackson holds a government office hostage in order to clear his name and learn the truth.

* ''[[Public Enemies]]'': I'd bet John Dillinger is the modern [[Trope Codifier]].

** Dillinger went to a lot of trouble to cultivate this persona. It helped that he was gregarious and good at working a crowd. In all likelihood, he might have actually been just a poor farm boy who stole to get a better life, and compared to contemporaries Baby-Face Nelson and Clyde Barrow, he was a nicer or at least more careful criminal.

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== [[Literature]] ==

* Moist von Lipwig is a serial [[Con Man]] and bank robber who's done just about everything short of actually killing people, including use of a shoe as an offensive weapon. He's also a protagonist, an extremely non-violent person if not an [[Actual Pacifist]], and one of the most sympathetic characters in the [[~~Discworld (Literature)|~~Discworld]] books. It helps that he gets a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] every other scene. The fact that in the books {{spoiler|he is a [[Boxed Crook]] at first, a [[Reformed Criminal]] afterwards and runs government offices for most of the time}} might also have something to do with it.

* Moist von Lipwig is a serial [[Con Man]] and bank robber who's done just about everything short of actually killing people, including use of a shoe as an offensive weapon. He's also a protagonist, an extremely non-violent person if not an [[Actual Pacifist]], and one of the most sympathetic characters in the [[Discworld]] books. It helps that he gets a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] every other scene. The fact that in the books {{spoiler|he is a [[Boxed Crook]] at first, a [[Reformed Criminal]] afterwards and runs government offices for most of the time}} might also have something to do with it.

* Lisbeth Salander in The [[Millenium Trilogy]] steals hundreds of millions of dollars by very clever use of computer hacking and disguise, and gets the reader's sympathy for her cleverness. Anyway, the original owner was a nssty villain who in the first place got the money in very nasty ways and who clearly "deserved it". Moreover, Salander had had a hard life and when becoming a multi-millionaire does not any extravagant use of the stolen money - just enough to enjoy life a bit, in between very harsh and dangerous adventures.

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* ''[[Leverage]]'': In the episode ''The Bank Job'', a father and son attempt rob a bank in order to pay off some meth dealers who are holding the mother hostage. Luckily, the Leverage team was in a middle of a con on a corrupt judge who with a deposit box in the bank when this all went down.

** The cast of Leverage itself probably qualifies due to their Robin Hood philosophy of [[Just Like Robin Hood|committing crimes to help people]].

* ''[[~~Quantum Leap (TV)|~~Quantum Leap]]'':

* ''[[Quantum Leap]]'':

** Sam leaped into a masked bank robber, who with his two brothers were trying to steal ''exactly'' the amount their pa needed to pay off the mortgage to the same bank.

** Sam leaped into a man who, along with his friend, robbed a church in order to pay for treatment for his friend's daughter's treatment for fever (which his friend's wife had died of). The church refused to give them any money from the donations as "They said we would spend it all on rum."