Nouw said:
Dirty Hipsters said:
Nouw said:
May I know how so? I'm not offended I just want to hear a second opinion and a different perspective. I've always been told, and assumed so, that an anti-hero is a main character/protagonist that -with degress- doesn't have traditionally heroic qualities. I'm pretty sure under this description the characters I mentioned count but if you think otherwise based on semantics or the characters themselves I'm genuinely interested to know.
I've always thought that an anti-hero had to do something heroic, for an unheroic reason, or through unheroic means. As such, a character can be a protagonist, but not be a hero or anti-hero, because they are not doing anything heroic.
I mean, by your definition a villain would be an anti-hero if he was the main character, even if it was completely clear that he is the villain and has no redeeming traits.
So under my reasoning someone like Walter White would not be an anti-hero. Well, he might be in the first couple of seasons while he's still in the business for his family and not himself, but definitely not in the later seasons.
Anyway, my description of an anti-hero might not be entirely correct either.
Hmm that's pretty interesting. I've always thought the protagonist was by default a hero, and if not they were an anti-hero or something else. Perhaps I need to be more critical when using the term 'hero.' I'd certainly say it's my childhood entertainment and literature influencing me as characters tend to come in extremes for that audience i.e. the main character is always a hero of some description.
With the mindset I have right now I'd argue that the villain could be an anti-hero depending on how their villainous qualities are portrayed. But then again with this mindset every MC has to be a hero of some description which, if I'm right to say from your perspective, isn't always the case. What are some examples of such characters you have in mind?
Correct or not it's nonetheless eye-opening to see what someone else thinks. Thanks for you response by the way, really intriguing stuff.
Well to be fair to you, there are few instances of villains being the protagonists of a work, so your definition of an anti-hero would hold up in most cases.
Some examples of villains as protagonists that I could think of:
The main character of the game Overlord
Daken (Wolverine's son), had his own series in 2011. He killed people just for the fun of it, and would seduce people with his mutant power and have sex with them just to prove that he could.
All of the protagonist characters from the grand theft auto games, and pretty much every "gangster" video game.
The game Evil Genius basically tasks you to destroy the world with a doomsday device, casting you as a villain.
The entire main cast of Black Lagoon, especially during the first few arcs where they're basically acting as kidnappers for money.
Kratos from God of War basically ends up almost destroying the world for his own revenge against his father, killing tons of innocent people along the way.
Kain from the Legacy of Kain series is a total and complete bastard. He turns into a vampire to avenge his own death, then spends the game slaughtering every he sees, men, women, children, all to rule the world using an army of vampires.
The first Despicable Me is all about a super villain (though a somewhat crappy one) trying to outdo another super villain. The movie is both heartfelt and touching because he ends up loving the little girls he adopted, but he's still a super villain who steals things for a living and who adopted 3 little girls as part of an evil plot.
Anyway, I'm sure there's more, but these are the ones that I could think of.
So the person who is the protagonist isn't always the hero. They don't necessarily have to do anything heroic, or save the world. Hell, their goal could be to destroy the world and everyone in it, and they could still be the protagonist. That doesn't make them a hero, it makes them a villain.
