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{{quote|''"A man cannot become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall."''|'''[[Aristotle]]'''}}
The [[Tragedy|tragic]] hero is a longstanding literary concept, a character with a [[Fatal Flaw]] (like [[Pride]], for example) who is [[Failure Is the Only Option|doomed to fail]] in search of their [[Tragic Dream]] despite their best efforts or good intentions. This trope is rare on television, perhaps because watching someone fail once teaches a lesson, while watching them fail every Tuesday gets
A Tragic Hero can work as an antagonist or a protagonist. As an antagonist, his goals are opposed to the protagonist's, but the audience still feels sympathetic towards him.
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Definitely [[Older Than Feudalism]], as the trope was used constantly in Greek tragedies starting in the 5th century BCE. [[Aristotle]] analyzed the character in his ''[[Poetics]]''.
Compare with [[Classical
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Utena Tenjou of ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' seeks strength and nobility not for her sake, but to save another person whom she cannot even remember. However, the enemy she faces is vastly older, more powerful and more sophisticated than this 14-year-old girl and manipulates her handily, turning her into the
* The entire cast of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''(including Gendo), but especially Shinji Ikari, who is fourteen years old, shy, indecisive, reclusive, and has ''no'' self-confidence, but must learn to be a
* Kikyo and Inuyasha from ''[[Inuyasha]]'', in regards to how their insecurity issues allowed Naraku to turn them against each other, kill Kikyo and [[Convenient Coma|make Inuyasha sleep]] for 50 years.
* Subaru in ''[[X 1999]]'', oh so very, very much.
* Harry McDowell and Brandon Heat from the ''[[Gungrave]]'' anime are tragic heroes. This is a rare case where both protagonist and antagonist are tragic heroes. Harry McDowell, in his search for power so that he will never have to lose anything, ends up becoming a power-hungry Bloody Harry and kills his best friend Brandon Heat, turning Brandon into [[The Undead|Beyond the Grave]]. The guilt over killing his best friend makes Harry slowly lose his sanity. On the other hand, Brandon Heat, who is loyal to the fault, cannot bring himself to stop Harry even when he knows Harry is obviously going down the wrong path and ends up getting killed. In a way, Brandon is also responsible for the deaths of his other loved ones as Brandon's death causes Harry to hunt down those whom Brandon holds dear (as Harry reasons that those people "took Brandon from him"). At the end of the series, after destroying each other completely, both Brandon and Harry realize that the only time they were truly "free" was when they lived in a slum with three other friends (whose deaths led Brandon and Harry to join the Millenion in the first place) and decide to take the only way out: {{spoiler|[[Together in Death|killing each other]]}}.
** Ends very differently in the videogame-- {{spoiler|Harry allows Grave to kill him, and Grave survives the ordeal. His only concern at that point is Mika's protection, so he leaves the city with her.}}
* Yomi of ''[[Ga-Rei Zero]]''. [[Tear Jerker|So very much...]]
* Arguably, Lucy from ''[[Elfen Lied]]''. By the end of the anime, she even admits that both Diclonii and humans are too proud to surrender and live peacefully with each other.
** One could also call Lucy a
* Interestingly, [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann|Kamina]] fits the concept quite well. His overweening sense of [[Determinator|determination]] & over-the-top [[Hot-Blooded]]-ness are integral to his success, yet in the end are what leads to {{spoiler|his untimely death}}. Also, Lordgenome and even Rossiu to a degree.
* Oskar von Reuenthal from ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes]]'' is one of the greatest examples found in anime, even if he's not the protagonist. A [[Broken Ace]] who is almost as ambitious and brilliant as Kaiser Reinhard - He could become a great ruler, if he weren't simply outshone by Reinhard. Over the course of the series, his conflicting loyalty, ambition, jealousy, his traumatic past and especially his pride eventually lead to his downfall after he is {{spoiler|forced into committing treachery}}. It should be mentioned that he never really became a villain right until the end, despite it all.
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==
* Rorschach, from ''[[Watchmen]]''.
* [[Wolverine]]
* Morpheus, or Dream of the Endless, from ''[[The Sandman]]''. His pride, his stubbornness and his fanatical devotions to his own duties as the aspect of Dream constantly conspire to make his life(?) an eternal mess. {{spoiler|In the end, he has to choose between changing or dying, and as it turns out, he is unable to change himself enough.}}
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== Films -- Live-Action ==
* Anakin Skywalker from ''[[Star Wars]]'' was a
** His main Fatal Flaw was the desire for control- a concept that had evaded him his entire life. As a slave he had no control over his life and neither did he as a Jedi. His fear of death and the death of his loved ones is a rperesenatation of his need to control EVERYTHING even what should be uncontrollable (i.e death). This flaw is tucked away for much of the prequel trilogy with only odd mentions (He mentions a couple of times to Padme how he wants to control the galaxy) but fully reveals itself in the OT where Vader is the eptiome of Tyrrany and Order. With all his loved ones dead or now his enemy all the man has left is his intense need for Control.
* ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (film)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]''. The title character is a barber trying to get revenge on [[Dirty Old Man|Judge Turpin]] for raping his wife and taking his daughter away from him. His [[Fatal Flaw]] was his tendency to take things at face value and his willingness to trust someone he really shouldn't have regarding his wife, and as a result, he unknowingly {{spoiler|kills his wife, who has become a beggar woman}}, just before finally taking vengeance upon Turpin.
* Tony Montana from ''[[Scarface]]'' also counts. His aggressive conquest for power and guts are important factors in his rise to power and his godlike charisma, but they also end up causing his downfall as he refuses to compromise with anyone. He also develops a case of paranoia which is only worsened by his increasing addiction to his own product.
* ''[[Citizen Kane]]'': Kane, all his life was the need to be loved... on his own terms. Lampshaded by Leland.
{{quote|'''Leland:''' That's all he ever wanted out of life... [[Tragic Dream|was love. That's the tragedy of Charles Foster Kane. You see, he just didn't have any to give]].}}
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* Jake from ''Animorphs''. Being the leader is tough when you need to make decisions that cost you the respect of everyone around you.
* The Dragon (Rand) from ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series is doomed to eventually fail, as the goal of the [[Big Bad]] is to destroy the Pattern and the Wheel of Time, and the Wheel of Time will keep cycling until that happens.
* ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' is ''made'' of these; though, since it mostly follows characters exiled for rebellion, [[Justified Trope|it's kind of a prerequisite]].
** Húrin and Túrin Turambar may be the [[Most Glorious Example
* Satan, in ''[[Paradise Lost]]'', could be considered one of these.
* Raistlin Majere from the [[Dragonlance]] Legends trilogy is even called one of these in the ''Annotated Legends''.
* Inspector Javert of [[Les Misérables]] is a man on the side of good and law, but so inflated with extreme self-righteousness that, when confronted with criminal Valjean's nobility he has no choice but to kill himself (damned if I live in the debt of a thief, damned if he's free at the end of the chase).
* Okonkwo in ''[[Things Fall Apart]]'' is a prime example of this. His father is a titleless debtor, he gets exiled because he accidentally killed a man, his son leaves him for a life as a christian, he gets imprisoned by said christians, and he eventually {{spoiler|hangs himself in shame}}.
* In ''[[The Winds of War and War and Remembrance|Winds of War/War and Remembrance]]'' Leslie Slote's [[Fatal Flaw]] seems at first glance to be lack of physical courage. In fact it is more that he panics the first time he is under fire (when it fortunately doesn't matter) and anyway looks, nerdy, pitiful and generally "antibadassy". He is [[Cowardly Lion|brave enough]] later in the plot. His first flaw in the [[Backstory]] is selfishness in being to ashamed to ask a Jew to marry him but enjoying her as lover and thus allowing another to beat him to the draw. Once he does in fact [[Let's Just Be Friends|accept]] that she is another's wife he is a pitifully loyal [[Platonic Life Partners|Platonic Life Partner]] and in fact when he gives up on rescuing her, he goes off and dies in battle in despair. His first flaw is selfishness. Paradoxically his second is loyalty which is a virtue in his case (it is only a flaw in the sense that it brings him to his doom not in the ordinary sense) but can only be partly repaid.
* [[Fate/Zero]]'s first line really says it all about Kiritsugu: {{spoiler|''Let us tell the story of a certain man. The tale of a man who, more than anyone else, [[Wide-Eyed Idealist|believed in his ideals]], [[Fatal Flaw|and by them was]] [[Despair Event Horizon|driven into despair]].''}}
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' definitely fits the
* Assuming his eventual downfall or assassination, [[The Sopranos|Tony Soprano]] is probably the biggest example of a tragic hero in modern television. He actually wants to be a good person, a good father and a good husband, and he tries hard, even getting flashes where you hope he'll improved (such as when he realizes that the stripper Frankie just murdered was the same age as his daughter), but is incapable of overcoming his own narcissism, shortsightedness and lack of empathy. And the fact that he's, you know, a ''mob boss''.
* Craig Manning from ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'' is smart, charming, artistic, sensitive, romantic, and a perfect gentleman. But he inevitably breaks the heart of everybody around him, and himself, due to his [[Fatal Flaw]]
** Ashley Kerwin is responsible, hard-working, and the most decent of all the popular kids. She is slowly destroyed by bad luck, unscrupulous
** In a similar vein, student Rick (who had pushed a fellow student into a rock, leaving her in a coma) underwent anger management before going back to school, and genuinely tried to be a nice person... which failed, because essentially the entire school hated him for what he had done before. It got to the point that, after being dumped on with goo at an event Carrie-style, he took a gun to Degrassi and shot a fellow student in the back, paralyzing him, then threatening to kill one of the main characters before dying in a struggle with another student, Sean, over the gun.
* ''[[Six Feet Under]]'', where characters and plot action alike were primarily defined by the tragedies they encompassed.
* More than you can shake a stick at in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', but perhaps most notably Isaac.
* Pick anyone you like from ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', but the two main characters' flaws are different flavors of desperation (Sam's obsession and Dean's devotion). Or maybe the same
** Dean's so desperate to ''have'' a family that he has no sense of self-worth outside of it. His reason for living is so that he can [[Big Brother Instinct|protect his little brother]]; his perfect fantasy is a world where he's worthless (but most everyone else is happy and his mother is still alive); he's been [[Driven to Suicide]] by [[Guilt Complex|guilt]] and [[Despair Event Horizon|loss]] from his father sacrificing his soul for him and his brother dying just for ''starters''.
After dealing with the torments of hell, suffering a serious case of [[It's All My Fault]] since he's responsible for breaking the First Seal and initiating the beginning of the [[Signs of the End Times]], and finding out he's [[The Chosen One]] to become a [[Destructive Saviour]], it's losing faith in his brother that makes Dean willing to go along with the angels' [[Apocalypse Wow|destructive]] [[Utopia Justifies the Means|plan]] to end the Apocalypse. And in a show of [[Flaw Exploitation]] by his own brother, it's [[The Power of Trust|Sam's faith]] in ''him'' and the need to not disappoint his brother that keeps Dean from doing it.
Dean is so focused on his brother that he doesn't want Sam to sacrifice himself even if it's the only way to avert the Apocalypse, and he gets called out on it:
{{quote|'''Bobby''': ...What exactly are you afraid of? Losing? Or losing your brother?}}
** Sam is so desperate to ''[[I Just Want to Be Normal|not]]'' be the [[Black Sheep|failure and freak]] he always felt like and avert [[Bad Powers, Bad People]] that he [[Horrible Judge of Character|believes]] demon Ruby when she tells him he's [[The Only One]] who can save the world. He allies with and has romantic liaisons with Ruby, getting addicted to the consumption of the [[Psycho Serum|demon blood]] that fuels his ability to do [[Bad Powers, Good People|something seemingly good]], exorcising demons with his mind and without hurting the hosts. It also makes him feel in control and ([[Pride|overly]]) confident. He lies to his brother repeatedly, and after Dean [[You Monster!|calls him]] a [[Berserk Button|monster]] while he's high on demon blood, nearly kills Dean in their fight before leaving with Ruby to kill [[Big Bad]] Lilith
** {{spoiler|Castiel}} becomes a [[Tragic Hero]] in Season 6, as he desperately tries to prevent {{spoiler|Raphael from restarting the Apocalypse}}. In this case, his [[Fatal Flaw]] would be [[Pride]], as he's convinced that [[Knight Templar|everything he does, regardless of what it is, is ultimately right so long as it's for this goal]]. This leads to him being [[Deal with the Devil|making]] an [[Enemy Mine|alliance]] with {{spoiler|Crowley}}, and ultimately [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]] by {{spoiler|absorbing [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|all the souls in Purgatory]] and [[A God Am I|declaring himself the new God]] after [[Moral Event Horizon|killing]] one friend and [[Mind Rape|maiming]] [[Kick the Dog|another]]}}. By that point, it's hard to call him a [[Villain Protagonist|"hero"]] anymore.▼
Sam [[Heroic BSOD|doesn't take it well]] when he finds out he was being [[Unwitting Pawn|manipulated]] into [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|starting the Apocalypse]], and his [[Self-Sacrifice Scheme|plan]] {{spoiler|to put Lucifer [[Heroic Willpower|back in his Cage]] with a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]}} at the end of season 5 is the classic response of a [[Anti-Anti-Christ|tragic hero]] who realizes [[Must Make Amends|how badly he's screwed up]].
▲** {{spoiler|Castiel}} becomes a
* Londo Mollari in ''[[Babylon 5]]'' is a definite example of a tragic hero; while at first he seems to be a self-absorbed drunken buffoon, he is a true patriot who really does want his people to rise up from their malaise. {{spoiler|He ultimately does lead the Centauri to glory, but the price he pays is too high, and he dies first.}}
** Lennier was a faithful and devoted servant who never seemed to ask anything in return. But his [[Fatal Flaw]] was a jealousy he barely admitted to himself.
* Captain Benteen on the hour long ''[[Twilight Zone]]'' episode ''On Thursday We Leave For Home''. For years he lead a colony of people stranded on a hot, desolate planet. He helps them survive, holds them together and gives them hope for a rescue. When a spaceship finally arrives to take them home to Earth everyone is overjoyed including him. However {{spoiler|Benteen feels the power he once had slipping away. When he learns that many of the colonist don't want to stay together when they return to Earth he becomes angry. He tells them that Earth is a horrible place and tries to destroy the ship. He refuses to go on the spaceship which will not return and chooses to stay. Only when he sees the ship leave does he realize he wants to go back home to Earth.}}
* Frank Sobotka of [[The Wire]] just wants to make sure the Baltimore stevedores are going to stay in business. Unfortunately this means keeping slightly unsavory company...
* Ryubee Sonozaki of ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]''. Despite being the lead antagonist, he's a
* In some extent Gaius Baltar in the Battlestar galactica 2003 serie (not in the original ones, where Count Baltar is more of a [[Manipulative Bastard]] ): he actually has a LOT of [[Fatal Flaw|Fatals Flaws]] , the main of which would be pride and overconfidence. However, he strives to protect humanity (and therefore the fleet) from utter destruction on numerous occasions.
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== Videogames ==
* Kratos of ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]'' was tricked into killing the only two people he ever loved and the Olympian gods refused to get rid of his memories of this, even though he {{spoiler|killed Ares, which they wanted}}. He's a total asshole, but still sympathetic - an apt hero for a game based on Greek mythology.
** Kratos is a
* The ''[[Metal Gear]]'' series is ''all about'' these characters.
** The first two ''[[Metal Gear]]'' games cast protagonist Snake as a tragic hero, who rapidly realises he doesn't actually care about his orders, is being exploited by his bosses and manipulated by the villains, who together constitute his only friends and family.
** He's press-ganged into doing it all again in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', but in the end, he gets to disappear and chase after his own goals.
** ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' casts newcomer Raiden in a similar, but more [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Shinji]]-esque exploited hero role.
** ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'' puts Snake's progenitor, Naked Snake, through the wringer to explain his turn to villainy, in an interesting contrast to Snake's own decisions.
** In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'', Snake is still a free man, but he has {{spoiler|only months left to live}}.
*** Of course in the end, they do manage to [[Earn Your Happy Ending|earn a happy ending]] [[Bittersweet Ending|of sorts]]. The world is a better place when all is said and done, so they didn't really ''fail''. The main characters get a shot at happiness too: {{spoiler|Meryl and Johnny get married, Campbell can finally start to bond with his daughter Meryl, Raiden/Jack is reunited with his lover and their son for a chance to begin anew as a family, Big Boss finally dies in peace knowing that the world will no longer suffer from his mistakes, and though Snake/David will only have months to live he can do so as a free man for the first time in his life. He doesn't have to fight anymore.}}
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* Archer from ''[[Fate/stay night]]''. His [[Fatal Flaw]], ironically enough, was his idealism. Eventually, it killed him.
** To expand upon this one: {{spoiler|Archer used to be Shirou, who was eventually the winner of the Fifth Holy Grail War. After the war, he continued to pursue his ideals by becoming a hero, and he continuously saved people. At one point, in order to save a few hundred people, Archer made a [[Bargain with Heaven|contract with the world]]. Now with his new power, he continued to be a hero. However, he was used as a scapegoat to all the catastrophes that occurred due to the face that he never talked because he had nothing to talk about, and he never asked for a reward because for him, the sole act of saving people was his reward. After dying and becoming a Counter Guardian, he found himself going against his ideals. Instead of saving people, he was forced to kill them because his duty as a Counter Guardian was to end the threat to humanity at the source, which was people. He found himself betrayed by his ideals, and became cynical and bitter, with his only solace the hope to be summoned into the Grail War, and kill his past self so he could end the pain of being betrayed by his ideals. [[Generation Xerox|Just like dear old dad]], Kiritsugu. So much so that the very sentence in the beginning of [[Fate/Zero]] that describes Kiritsugu also describes Archer.}}
** Other heroic spirits in the Fifth Grail War are
*** As was the Fourth War's [[King Arthur|Saber]], [[Celtic Mythology|Lancer]] and {{spoiler|Berserker}}.
* ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' has {{spoiler|Ammon Jerro. Originally a kindly, eccentric court magician, once he learned about the [[Big Bad|King of Shadows]], he decided to take it upon himself to combat him in order to protect the world. However, as time went on, his determination to defeat the King of Shadows slowly became a dark obsession, and he gradually began to lose himself, taking more and more extreme measures to defeat the King. These ultimately resulted in him selling his soul to the Abyss in order to gain an army of Demons under his command, and began a rampage throughout Faerun in order to obtain the shards of the only weapon that can harm the King of Shadows, perfectly willing to kill countless people that (knowingly or not) stand in his way. It's not until he accidentally kills Shandra, his own granddaughter, in a blind rage that he realizes how far he's fallen and how much his actions have harmed both the people he had sworn to protect, and most importantly, himself.}}
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* {{spoiler|Fain}} in the [[Backstory]] of ''[[Lusternia]]''. {{spoiler|The Elder Gods faced a [[Hopeless War]] against [[Cosmic Horror|The Soulless]]. Knowing that the Soulless [[Cannibalism Superpower|devoured]] Elders and lesser Soulless alike to increase in power, Fain and his followers pioneered an elixir made from fallen Soulless essence, fighting fire with fire. The [[Psycho Serum|side-effects]] caused the other Elder Gods to reject its use, so Fain and his followers continued drinking it in secret. ''They turned the war around single-handedly''. But as [[The Dark Side Will Make You Forget]], Fain - and his followers - became [[He Who Fights Monsters|steadily more monstrous]]. They were exiled by the other Elders while on the cusp of victory, derailing and dooming the entire war effort. By the [[Time Skip|time of the game]], Fain's [[Face Heel Turn|twisted]] in [[Beauty to Beast|appearance]] and [[Manipulative Bastard|motivation]], and harbors an insane grudge against the world.}}
* Harpuia in ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' wants a world in which humans and reploids can live in peace. Too bad he's so blinded by pride that he can't see the truth. For extra irony, his goal makes him [[Not So Different]] from the leader of the Resistance. Becomes subverted in later games when he's capable of differentiating between a rebel and a psychopath and turns his wrath on the later first.
* Both mage party-members (besides Bethany) in ''[[Dragon Age II]]''.
** Merrill wants to restore the lost heritage of the Dalish Elves, but is willing to mess around with extremely dangerous [[Blood Magic]] and the [[Magic Mirror|Eluvian]] to do so. Her entire clan, including mentor Marethari, considers this a Very Bad Idea and are terrified of what she'll end up doing, but she's convinced that it's worth the risk and they'll understand when it's over. {{spoiler|Marethari ends up sacrificing herself to keep Merill from getting possessed, and the rest of the clan may turn on her depending on dialogue choices.}}
** Anders wants human mages to be able to live free of Templar oppression, and gets less and less picky about how this happens; by the game's end, he's basically Dragon Age's answer to Redcloak.
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== Western Animation ==
* The Brain, of ''[[Animaniacs]]'' spinoff ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'', who is doomed to failure every episode because of his tragic flaw, [[Genre Blindness]]. His plans have been shown at points to be purely power-hungry, but he's also shown to be wanting to rule the world because he thinks he can do a far better job (that appears to be Pinky's position at
* Jet of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. His parents were killed and his village was destroyed when he was eight. He became the [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] leader of a [[La Résistance|group of rebels]] who tried and failed to destroy the village the Fire Nation was occupying. He tried to move on and become a refugee, but was [[Brainwashed]] for speaking about the war, and ultimately is killed the instant he breaks free from the brainwashing (see: [[Redemption Equals Death]]).
** Zuko also spends most of Season 2 and late Season 1 as this - until he {{spoiler|succeeds in getting his honour back, discovers that he really didn't want it after all, and sets out to join the Gaang.}}
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Tragedy]]
[[Category:Tear Jerker Tropes]]
[[Category:Lit Class Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
[[Category:
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