What the Hell, Hero?/Literature: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Examples of "[[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]]" in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
* ''[[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]]'': [[Deadpan Snarker]] Bartimaeus does this constantly to Nathaniel; it is practically the basis of their relationship. Sadly, Nathaniel rarely seems to get the point. This is especially ironic because Bartimaeus is a borderline [[Noble Demon]] and Nathaniel is ostensibly the [[Kid with the Leash]]. It is open to interpretation whether Bartimaeus actually ''cares'', or just gets his kicks seeing Nathaniel squirm.▼
* In [[Bernard Cornwell]]'s ''Saxon chronicles,'' the hero, Uhtred, spends the first couple of books as a violent, arrogant, murderous thug whose only real virtues are loyalty to his oaths and being one of the best fighters around. Halfway through the second book, a prostitute tells him exactly what she thinks of him, and he's forced into something of a personal re-evaluation. He doesn't ''stop'' being arrogant, murderous and unfaithful to his wife, but he does start to feel a little guilty about it.▼
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* Gaunt, in [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' novels, manages to [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|avoid shooting his own men despite it being his]] ''[[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|job]]'' [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|...most of the time]]. When he does attempt to fulfill his role as a commissar, it results in a confrontation with [[The Medic|Doc Dorden]].▼
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** Oddly enough, whenever Gaunt does go into a WTH, H moment (drinking, giving up, etc.), it is normally Rawne, one of the most morally grey characters of the series that sets him back on the straght and narrow. Normally by being an utterly [[Magnificent Bastard]].▼
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** [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s [[Ciaphas Cain]], [[Fake Ultimate Hero|HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!]] gets one of these near the end of ''For the Emperor'', when he shoots a pair of troopers with no warning or provocation. The surrounding soldiers initially freak out, and then he explains his [[The Virus|reasons]].▼
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* In ''[[Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows]]'', we learn that back before Dumbledore was a hero, he was about to abandon his mentally ill sister to [[Ambiguously Gay|go off with Gellert Grindelwald]] on a mad chase for power and glory when his brother called him on it. The ensuing fight, and its [[Dead Little Sister|tragic consequences]], led Dumbledore to rethink his path and ultimately become the nearly universally admired man he was.▼
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** Harry mentally applies this trope to {{spoiler|his dad}} in ''Order of the Phoenix''. After entering one of Snape's memories, Harry is appalled to see his teenage father casually attack and humiliate Snape for fun in front of a crowd of people (something Harry had experienced himself several times).▼
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** When Lupin {{spoiler|decides to abandon his pregnant wife and unborn child and Harry, in a fit of [[Parental Abandonment|anger]], calls him a coward, says he's [[Even the Dog Is Ashamed|ashamed]], and informs him that it's very much not what James would have wanted.}} Lupin, usually quite reasonable, {{spoiler|comes to realize the error of his ways after a brief fit}}.▼
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** McGonagall to Harry, after he uses the Cruciatus curse.▼
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*** That was much less "What the hell, Harry" and more "What the hell are you ''doing'' here, you idiot?!?"▼
*** Agreed. She in fact called his actions "gallant." What the hell, McGonagall.▼
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*** But Harry's actions ''were'' gallant, once you consider he used the [[Agony Beam|Crucio]] spell on a [[Sadist Teacher|''teacher'']] who had been, through the whole year, instruction [[Complete Monster|the students that muggles are total filth and even taught a few students to use Crucio on students who disagreed with her]].
** Snape gives one [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|memorable]] [[What the Hell, Hero?]] speech to {{spoiler|Dumbledore}}, when Dumbledore reveals that {{spoiler|Harry, whom Snape has been protecting out of his love for Harry's mother, must die in order to defeat Voldemort.}}
** Dumbledore gives one of his own to Snape when he realizes that
* In ''[[Warrior Cats]]'', Foxleap's plan to save a group of a cats from a hawk goes wrong and one Tribe cat gets killed. One Tribe cat scolds him harshly for not listening when he was told to not interfere.
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** Eragon then delivered his own [[What the Hell, Hero?]] to Sloan, calling him out for betraying his entire village to inhuman monsters whose primary diet consisted of [[I Am a Humanitarian|humans]] as well as [[What an Idiot!|trusting them to keep their word]] when they kidnapped his "beloved daughter", who he ALSO sold out to them out of a petty grudge toward Eragon's cousin(who wished to marry her and wound up getting mauled by those abominations) as well as irrational superstition.
**** Remember he also murdered a night watchmen in order to rat out his village to the Ra'zac.
** Later, Elva calls out Eragon for his actions (namely, trying to reverse the magic that he had just done, which got rid of Elva's compulsion to help those in pain) by comparing him to Gallbatorix. This seems to have more of an effect on him.
*** As with many, ''many'' things in the [[Inheritance Cycle]], this is ''highly'' subjective. Especially the situation with [[Asshole Victim|Sloan]]. But one [[What the Hell, Hero?]]? cannot be denied, and that is the nameless soldier in Feinster who calls out Eragon for helping to perpetuate a brutal war when the majority of the empire just wants to go about their lives. Even the people who don't see Eragon as a [[Heroic Sociopath]] cannot deny how effective that particular WTHH? was.
** Perhaps the best WTTH? in Inheritance is the poor soldier Eragon and Arya meet on their way back to the Varden. "Why are you doing this, you're a monster!" he screams as he surrenders. Eragon still [[Psycho for Hire|murders him because "he was a threat"]]
** The heroes of the ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'' often have [[My God, What Have I Done?]], but Eragon and Orik are definitely [[Squick|squicked]] when Angela the witch poisons the enemy soldiers. They see it as dishonorable; she sees it as just good strategy.
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** What makes this particular moment all the more chilling is how understated it is.
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** A twofer in the person of Kyp Durron. Durron ''destroys an [[Apocalypse Wow|entire inhabited solar system]]'' while [[Drunk on the Dark Side]], and when he sobers up Luke takes him in with no questions asked. Luke is called out for this by Corran Horn and his own future wife Mara later on, while Durron hears about it [[Never Live It Down|for the rest of his life.]]
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*** Worth noting, however, that Rand did all this using Balefire, a spell that destroys the fabric of reality. Using it can possibly be justified in small cases, but in the amounts he did...those who called him on it were almost certainly right to do so.
** But any discussion of this grey morality was promptly thrown out the window since
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* In Book 3 of the ''[[The Aeneid|Aeneid]]'', Aeneas and his men stop on an island and prepare for a meal, when a bunch of harpies come down and ruin the food (because that's what harpies do). So they prepare again, this time concealing weapons: when the harpies return, they attack. But not only are the harpies invulnerable (so the meal is still ruined), once they've flown to safety, one of them, Celaeno, gives a What the Hell, Hero speech, pointing out that the harpies were there first, and it's a little disproportionate to start a battle over some ruined food.
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** An earlier one is when [[The Spymaster|Varys]] tells the imprisoned
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** In ''The Wide Window'', the orphans briefly give Aunt Josephine one when she offers to let Olaf have them if he wants, so long as he lets her live.
** In a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], at the end of ''The Vile Village'', Hector finally overcomes his fear of [[It Makes Sense in Context|stuffed crow hats]] to call out the village elders for their horrible treatment of the orphans, pointing out that the children have had nothing but poor treatment since their parents died, that the village was called upon to take care of them, and instead they just used the children as cheap labor. Of course, the village elders are only "heroes" in the sense that they aren't affiliated with Olaf...
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**** To be more fair, Harry could probably cause much more pain and suffering {{spoiler|if he is Mab's toy. Good thing he planned for that...}}
***** And to be even more fair, a substantial chunk of the next book, ''Ghost Story'', features Harry mentally applying a [[What the Hell, Hero?]]? to ''himself'' for the lines he crossed in ''Changes''.
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*** Actually this novel has quite a few [[What the Hell, Hero?]] moments, as far as Murphy's concerned.
* In the French short story "The Blanket," the main character, having fallen on hard financial times, considers sending his elderly father away on his wife’s advice, [[Ungrateful Bastard|despite his father having done much for him, including paying a dowry to secure his marriage]]. He then sends his son to get a blanket for his father (the boy's grandfather) to use when he’s away, and the boy cuts the blanket in two, [[Calling the Old Man Out|telling his father that the other half is for him when he gets old]]. The main character then realizes what he’s done and apologizes to his father.
* In Chekov's story in the [[Star Trek: The Original Series]] book ''Kobayashi Maru'', he gets called out for his actions during a training exercise where the cadets are told the scenario is one where one of them was [[The Mole|a traitor]]. Chekov's solution, which is what he imagines his hero, Captain Kirk, would do? [[Kill'Em All|Stun all the other cadets]], including the ones who had allied with him, to make sure he wouldn't be taken out by the traitor. No cadet actually had been designated as a traitor; the exercise was to see how they dealt with a situation that could cause paranoia. (Kirk's solution had been to get everyone to ''cooperate''.)
* In ''[[Temeraire|Victory of Eagles]]'', Captain Laurence is sent to take a group of dragons and interfere with French foragers, thus disrupting Napoleon's supply lines, and is told to "give no quarter", meaning that if any Frenchmen try to surrender...too bad. Eventually another character shows up and says, "Laurence, what are you doing?"
* Joseph Rosenberger's ultra-violent ''COBRA'' novel series often has its "heroes" - a group of secret operatives - crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]] for the sake of a mission. In one of the books a colleague challenges the team leader, Jon Skul, when Skul indicates that he needs to kill a police car full of cops in order to prevent them from interfering in a mission. Skul replies with a "put up or shut up" statement and proceeds to follow through with his plans.
* ''[[In Death]]'': Eve got this from Peabody in ''Ceremony In Death'' and ''Witness In Death''. It made Eve feel bad. Eve, on her part, got to pull some epic ones with Don Webster in ''Judgment In Death'' and Karen Stowe in ''Betrayal In Death''.
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* The prominence of [[Black and Gray Morality]] in ''[[Chronicles of Magravandias]]'' means that [[What the Hell, Hero?]] is almost the status quo of the series. The heroes of the story, such as they are, constantly disagree, do questionable to deplorable things, and argue with each other over who is less wrong.
* ''[[Skulduggery Pleasant]]'': Valkyrie gets this from Fletcher on a number of things in ''Death Bringer''. It even makes her pause and consider her actions. For a moment.
* No one is really happy with anything John does in ''[[A Dirge for Prester John]]'', and he is often called out for his prejudice. Even Hiob, several centuries later, judges John for falling away from Christian teaching.
* [[Chronicles of Thomas Covenant|Thomas Covenant]] gets a few of these in ''Lord Foul's Bane''. The most deserved is when he's called out for {{Spoiler|raping Lena}}, an act he eventually comes to [[What Have I Done|regret]].
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