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  3. What is an anti-hero?

What is an anti-hero?

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  • U [email protected]

    There are no wrong answers, only your opinions 🙂

    Personally, I think an anti-hero is a bad guy that does good things. He might cheat on his wife, steal, gamble, etc, but when it "matters," he ends up on the side of what's good.

    Han Solo is an example that comes to mind.

    R This user is from outside of this forum
    R This user is from outside of this forum
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    wrote last edited by
    #15

    There's a lot of overlap with villains but whereas true villains are irredeemable, anti-heroes show some humanity or empathy or ethics in some context and have vulnerability.

    U 1 Reply Last reply
    1
    • U [email protected]

      There are no wrong answers, only your opinions 🙂

      Personally, I think an anti-hero is a bad guy that does good things. He might cheat on his wife, steal, gamble, etc, but when it "matters," he ends up on the side of what's good.

      Han Solo is an example that comes to mind.

      jordanlund@lemmy.worldJ This user is from outside of this forum
      jordanlund@lemmy.worldJ This user is from outside of this forum
      [email protected]
      wrote last edited by
      #16

      John Constantine is a good example. He will do the right thing, even if it means sacrificing one of his oldest friends to eternal damnation to do it.

      And his past is littered with people he's done that to. It's not a one off "Oh, sorry mate, only way to get this done is to... you know, infest you with a swarm of demon bugs..."

      1 Reply Last reply
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      • R [email protected]

        There's a lot of overlap with villains but whereas true villains are irredeemable, anti-heroes show some humanity or empathy or ethics in some context and have vulnerability.

        U This user is from outside of this forum
        U This user is from outside of this forum
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        wrote last edited by
        #17

        Great distinction.

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • U [email protected]

          There are no wrong answers, only your opinions 🙂

          Personally, I think an anti-hero is a bad guy that does good things. He might cheat on his wife, steal, gamble, etc, but when it "matters," he ends up on the side of what's good.

          Han Solo is an example that comes to mind.

          C This user is from outside of this forum
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          wrote last edited by
          #18

          For me it’s chaotic good vs lawful good.

          D&D divides character alignment along two moral axes, good vs evil, and lawful vs chaotic. Both can be neutral, and if you’re neutral in both you’re True Neutral. Heroes are good, but most are lawful good, like Superman in American comics and All Might (My Hero Academia) in Japanese ones. For chaotic good, that’s someone like Batman. I think that’s an anti hero.

          Whereas villains can be lawful evil or chaotic evil, that doesn’t seem to matter as much. Darth Vader is lawful evil — he is evil, but he follows a set of laws. The Sith code or whatever. Trump is more chaotic evil, he makes his own rules and just wants to see the world burn.

          I think most of us are close to true neutral. We might lean towards good but I don’t think most are pure good like a hero would be. Some of us lean toward lawful but aren’t pushing it like lawyers, judges, good cops I suppose… and some lean toward chaos (like say movie pirates) but they’re not trying to make the world burn, they just wanna watch stuff for free. The four extreme alignments are really reserved for heroes, villains — the movers and shakers.

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          • U [email protected]

            There are no wrong answers, only your opinions 🙂

            Personally, I think an anti-hero is a bad guy that does good things. He might cheat on his wife, steal, gamble, etc, but when it "matters," he ends up on the side of what's good.

            Han Solo is an example that comes to mind.

            whaleross@lemmy.worldW This user is from outside of this forum
            whaleross@lemmy.worldW This user is from outside of this forum
            [email protected]
            wrote last edited by [email protected]
            #19

            There is a definition of what a narrative anti hero is.

            https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antihero

            What is this ongoing trend of encouraging opinions to redefine accepted terminology and culture? Just make up your own new words instead of diluting the meaning of existing ones into slop.

            R O S 3 Replies Last reply
            24
            • spankmonkey@lemmy.worldS [email protected]

              A character who either does the right thing for the wrong reason or the wrong things for the right reasons as a kind of twisted version of a hero. Really any hero type character that doesn't do the right things for the right reasons.

              Punisher is an anti-hero because he takes things way too far.

              Han Solo is an anti-hero because he is a scoundrel who happened to do the right thing a few times.

              S This user is from outside of this forum
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              wrote last edited by
              #20

              "The right thing" is also in the eye of the beholder. The killing of that healthcare CEO for example.

              C 1 Reply Last reply
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              • whaleross@lemmy.worldW [email protected]

                There is a definition of what a narrative anti hero is.

                https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antihero

                What is this ongoing trend of encouraging opinions to redefine accepted terminology and culture? Just make up your own new words instead of diluting the meaning of existing ones into slop.

                R This user is from outside of this forum
                R This user is from outside of this forum
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                wrote last edited by
                #21

                Literally.

                1 Reply Last reply
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                • S [email protected]

                  "The right thing" is also in the eye of the beholder. The killing of that healthcare CEO for example.

                  C This user is from outside of this forum
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                  wrote last edited by
                  #22

                  You're right. I saw a mass murderer stopped for good.

                  S 1 Reply Last reply
                  1
                  • U [email protected]

                    There are no wrong answers, only your opinions 🙂

                    Personally, I think an anti-hero is a bad guy that does good things. He might cheat on his wife, steal, gamble, etc, but when it "matters," he ends up on the side of what's good.

                    Han Solo is an example that comes to mind.

                    T This user is from outside of this forum
                    T This user is from outside of this forum
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                    wrote last edited by [email protected]
                    #23

                    A good guy with the affectations of a bad guy.

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • U [email protected]

                      There are no wrong answers, only your opinions 🙂

                      Personally, I think an anti-hero is a bad guy that does good things. He might cheat on his wife, steal, gamble, etc, but when it "matters," he ends up on the side of what's good.

                      Han Solo is an example that comes to mind.

                      B This user is from outside of this forum
                      B This user is from outside of this forum
                      [email protected]
                      wrote last edited by
                      #24

                      If one collides with a hero, they're both annihilated.

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      10
                      • U [email protected]

                        There are no wrong answers, only your opinions 🙂

                        Personally, I think an anti-hero is a bad guy that does good things. He might cheat on his wife, steal, gamble, etc, but when it "matters," he ends up on the side of what's good.

                        Han Solo is an example that comes to mind.

                        M This user is from outside of this forum
                        M This user is from outside of this forum
                        [email protected]
                        wrote last edited by
                        #25

                        Heros and anti-heros are united in that they genuinely want to do good. They just differ in the means (or what they'd allow to use as means) to their ends. For example, a hero will vehemently refuse to blow up a street market while an anti-hero might consider it if they deem it to be sufficiently helpful to their end.

                        I'd rather look at it as a sliding scale with “will never do anything bad” on one end, and “a villain who has good intentions” on the other. And even those two ends are subject to the questions “What do you mean by ‘’bad?” and “What do you mean by ‘good intentions’?” Thus, I think while heros and anti-heros across stories and genres have commonalities, one story's anti-hero might as well be a hero in another story and that the best way to judge a character being a hero or an anti-hero is in the light of the story they're in.

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                        • U [email protected]

                          There are no wrong answers, only your opinions 🙂

                          Personally, I think an anti-hero is a bad guy that does good things. He might cheat on his wife, steal, gamble, etc, but when it "matters," he ends up on the side of what's good.

                          Han Solo is an example that comes to mind.

                          the_grass_trainer@lemmy.worldT This user is from outside of this forum
                          the_grass_trainer@lemmy.worldT This user is from outside of this forum
                          [email protected]
                          wrote last edited by
                          #26

                          Vegeta from DBZ after the Saiyan Saga is an Anti-hero. Fights the bad guys, but only for his own ego.

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • U [email protected]

                            There are no wrong answers, only your opinions 🙂

                            Personally, I think an anti-hero is a bad guy that does good things. He might cheat on his wife, steal, gamble, etc, but when it "matters," he ends up on the side of what's good.

                            Han Solo is an example that comes to mind.

                            donebrach@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
                            donebrach@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
                            [email protected]
                            wrote last edited by
                            #27

                            Han Solo? Really? Are you 5?

                            A A 2 Replies Last reply
                            0
                            • U [email protected]

                              There are no wrong answers, only your opinions 🙂

                              Personally, I think an anti-hero is a bad guy that does good things. He might cheat on his wife, steal, gamble, etc, but when it "matters," he ends up on the side of what's good.

                              Han Solo is an example that comes to mind.

                              A This user is from outside of this forum
                              A This user is from outside of this forum
                              [email protected]
                              wrote last edited by
                              #28

                              An anti hero is someone who's TECHNICALLY (caps because they really push the limits of that technicality) doing heroic things but does so in the most questionable heroic ways.

                              Deadpool: Shoots opposition in the face and several other body parts while laughing and quiping about it. Then shoots the corpse to set up a joke.

                              Harley Quinn: Actively chooses to let her hyenas rip you apart instead of killing you herself because you were cruel to animals so lol at your screams.

                              Jack (Mass Effect 2/3): Will do the most fucked up shit to your entire body, insides and outs, and then power slam you into a singularity because she got dragged into Shepard's nonsense and she just wants to go back to her fucking bed.

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              1
                              • donebrach@lemmy.worldD [email protected]

                                Han Solo? Really? Are you 5?

                                A This user is from outside of this forum
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                                wrote last edited by
                                #29

                                Don't be a fucking jackass.

                                donebrach@lemmy.worldD 1 Reply Last reply
                                1
                                • U [email protected]

                                  There are no wrong answers, only your opinions 🙂

                                  Personally, I think an anti-hero is a bad guy that does good things. He might cheat on his wife, steal, gamble, etc, but when it "matters," he ends up on the side of what's good.

                                  Han Solo is an example that comes to mind.

                                  ideonek@piefed.socialI This user is from outside of this forum
                                  ideonek@piefed.socialI This user is from outside of this forum
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                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #30

                                  Character that use bad means to achive good results.

                                  A 1 Reply Last reply
                                  2
                                  • A [email protected]

                                    Don't be a fucking jackass.

                                    donebrach@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
                                    donebrach@lemmy.worldD This user is from outside of this forum
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                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #31

                                    Do you really think Han Solo is an antihero?

                                    O 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • ideonek@piefed.socialI [email protected]

                                      Character that use bad means to achive good results.

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                                      wrote last edited by
                                      #32

                                      Ozymandias?

                                      N 1 Reply Last reply
                                      1
                                      • donebrach@lemmy.worldD [email protected]

                                        Han Solo? Really? Are you 5?

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                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #33

                                        Nobody under the age of 40 cares about Han Solo, lol.

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                                        • C [email protected]

                                          You're right. I saw a mass murderer stopped for good.

                                          S This user is from outside of this forum
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                                          wrote last edited by
                                          #34

                                          Only to be replaced by a seemingly endless supply of another sooner or later. Shareholders will ensure that.

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