I generally do not care for the anti-hero trope. Far too many of them are some scale of evil, that occasionally do something good, but more by accident than by any actual choice.
However, there sometimes comes along a hero that you ought to sincerely dislike because they do bad things, yet the more you learn about the complexities of this individual and the “code” that they ascribe to, you suddenly find yourself rooting for them.
Currently, my wife and I are finishing up a series (as far as Netflix has the series anyhow), called Peaky Blinders. I won’t go too much into describing the show, but the show has a really good cast of characters and those characters are given depth and dimension.
The main character is Tommy. Tommy is suffering from PTSD, was raised by an abusive father until said Da decided to absent himself from the family. He is rather ruthless, but he has scruples. While much of what he or his family and cohorts do is criminal, Tommy has rules that make him choose to right wrongs. And not always in immediate fashion but more Karmic.
Another good example of an anti-hero is Tony Soprano. He is debased and practically amoral, self-centered and self-serving. But then he goes and does something like with the girl’s soccer coach who was teaching more than soccer skills to at least one of the team. It’s not something most law-abiding citizens would do; not that they don’t think about it and maybe even sincerely want to, but they won’t. James Gandolfini portrayed a very complex character wonderfully and though you may have hated a lot of what he did, you had to like him for those moments he did something, he CHOSE to do something that was almost selfless and morally right, if not legally so.
In the game Dungeons and Dragons, there is a part of building your character where you choose alignment. These 9 alignments dictate a lot of how that character acts and reacts to the other characters and respond to situations.
These range from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil. When it comes to an anti-hero, I feel that most would fall into the chaotic good alignment arena. I just don’t see them as lawful evil (this would be a person who causes intentional harm, be it physical, mental, emotional, financial) but has the rule of law (obviously immoral but legally permissible) or the belief that they are, delusionally, doing the work of a higher calling (i.e. called by God).
Neutral Good and Neutral Evil could fit, but I feel the neutrality of their decision making processes just doesn’t fit, because they are doing thing and making decisions that ultimately cause chaos for their own benefit.
Lawful Neutral, True Neutral and Chaotic Neutral are again not good fits for the anti-hero, though chaotic Neutral has potential (which I will discuss more shortly), but again the neutrality in action sort of takes away from the drive of the character. The anti-heroes that people want to succeed aren’t neutral, but they also are not evil, and the law is generally antagonistic towards because much of what they do is done outside of the law. No, a character whom we sort of hate to love but can’t help but cheer for them is one who is fine with causing chaos, and while they may commit what many would consider to be evil acts, these actions are committed against others who also commit evil acts, and those who consciously involve themselves in illegal actions, but that code that they live with demands that they do all they can to cause no Intentional harm nor take advantage of the innocent.
What say you? Who (real or fictional) do you see as an anti-hero? I purposely left one out of my list above because I didn’t want to stray too far into the realm of whimsy.
Always looking for discussion, so please, by all means I would appreciate feedback and commentary.
However, there sometimes comes along a hero that you ought to sincerely dislike because they do bad things, yet the more you learn about the complexities of this individual and the “code” that they ascribe to, you suddenly find yourself rooting for them.
Currently, my wife and I are finishing up a series (as far as Netflix has the series anyhow), called Peaky Blinders. I won’t go too much into describing the show, but the show has a really good cast of characters and those characters are given depth and dimension.
The main character is Tommy. Tommy is suffering from PTSD, was raised by an abusive father until said Da decided to absent himself from the family. He is rather ruthless, but he has scruples. While much of what he or his family and cohorts do is criminal, Tommy has rules that make him choose to right wrongs. And not always in immediate fashion but more Karmic.
Another good example of an anti-hero is Tony Soprano. He is debased and practically amoral, self-centered and self-serving. But then he goes and does something like with the girl’s soccer coach who was teaching more than soccer skills to at least one of the team. It’s not something most law-abiding citizens would do; not that they don’t think about it and maybe even sincerely want to, but they won’t. James Gandolfini portrayed a very complex character wonderfully and though you may have hated a lot of what he did, you had to like him for those moments he did something, he CHOSE to do something that was almost selfless and morally right, if not legally so.
In the game Dungeons and Dragons, there is a part of building your character where you choose alignment. These 9 alignments dictate a lot of how that character acts and reacts to the other characters and respond to situations.
These range from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil. When it comes to an anti-hero, I feel that most would fall into the chaotic good alignment arena. I just don’t see them as lawful evil (this would be a person who causes intentional harm, be it physical, mental, emotional, financial) but has the rule of law (obviously immoral but legally permissible) or the belief that they are, delusionally, doing the work of a higher calling (i.e. called by God).
Neutral Good and Neutral Evil could fit, but I feel the neutrality of their decision making processes just doesn’t fit, because they are doing thing and making decisions that ultimately cause chaos for their own benefit.
Lawful Neutral, True Neutral and Chaotic Neutral are again not good fits for the anti-hero, though chaotic Neutral has potential (which I will discuss more shortly), but again the neutrality in action sort of takes away from the drive of the character. The anti-heroes that people want to succeed aren’t neutral, but they also are not evil, and the law is generally antagonistic towards because much of what they do is done outside of the law. No, a character whom we sort of hate to love but can’t help but cheer for them is one who is fine with causing chaos, and while they may commit what many would consider to be evil acts, these actions are committed against others who also commit evil acts, and those who consciously involve themselves in illegal actions, but that code that they live with demands that they do all they can to cause no Intentional harm nor take advantage of the innocent.
What say you? Who (real or fictional) do you see as an anti-hero? I purposely left one out of my list above because I didn’t want to stray too far into the realm of whimsy.
Always looking for discussion, so please, by all means I would appreciate feedback and commentary.
