Superman in
Man of Steel. I don?t want to beat a dead horse, but seriously, the movie seems to just overlook the fact of how much unnecessary destruction Clark causes to Metropolis during his fight with Zod. ?Protector of Earth? he was not.
Goku in
Dragon Ball. If you?ve read the series and see the sheer amount of times he?s allowed such villains as Vegeta to escape just so he can fulfil his battle addiction and ?fight them again sometime?, you should agree with me. I know he?s basically a man-child and
Dragon Ball?s heroes are only heroes in as much as they?re just martial artists with superhuman powers who tend to get themselves embroiled in fights with villains who happen to want to destroy the planet or something (Gohan ? especially when he?s the Great Saiyaman - is the closest we get to a bonafide hero, which is ironic since he never liked fighting in the first place), but it?s really to an unhealthy degree that Goku prides a battle with a worthy opponent over the lives of his family and friends, even after he?s been shown the danger of said action.
Ranma in
Ranma ½. I haven?t read the manga in a long while, but I just always thought he was a cocky little shit that, like Goku, seemed to create the majority of the problems he tried to solve. Same goes for Akane, who borderline-
abuses Ranma because she's the most fucking tsundere character in existence.
Integra from
Hellsing. Technically, the antihero Alucard is the protagonist of the series, but Integra is still classed as a ?hero?. There?s one scene in the series that kind of made me think, ?Even if it?s justified, you still gave your vampire assassin an order to slaughter a crew of innocent, deceived human beings who were just doing their jobs based on the info they?d been given. They weren?t even fucking vampires?. (Good, I said that without technically spoiling anything.)
Solbasa said:
Light Yagami, from Death Note, acting like a villain throughout the entire series.
He's a mass murderer with a God complex. Not to mention the fact that he's a genius, and will do whatever it takes not to be caught by the police. He uses the Death Note he finds to rid the world of its criminals - seemingly a noble pursuit, sure, but it quickly turns questionable when the God complex kicks in and people you like start dying as a result of his overly convoluted (albeit awesomely put together) plans.
The difference is that Light is
meant to be a villain protagonist. The series made it clear, even shortly after the beginning that, while we may be willing to root for him just so we can see his cat-and-mouse game with L, he's an immature narcissist who early on kills a guy (Lind L. Tailor, right?) just because he thought he was the same detective that was questioning his moral authority.
In this series, it's clear that, while he has his flaws, L is meant to be the hero. He's just not the protagonist, so there's less focus on his ideals (if any; even Near seems to care more about the morality or lack thereof of Light's actions than L, who sees Light as his mental equal).
ImperialSunlight said:
In Death Note, I find both L and Near to be... kind of intended to be heroic in a sense, despite being antagonists. At least in the end. But they have little qualm with torture or inhumane treatment and (especially Near) treat serious cases like a game to be won. "If you can't win the game, If you can't solve the puzzle, then you're just a loser", is a rather telling quote from him. And of course Light is obvious, though he clearly wasn't meant to seem like a hero (besides, contrary to what's stated earlier in the thread, his god complex is obvious from the first episode). Really, I think Matsuda is the real hero of Death Note.
OK, yeah,
this I agree with. It seemed like Near cared more about getting revenge on Light for
than stopping Light from killing people (I
do think Near respected L, even if that quote implies otherwise; I think Near was just stating a fact but not caring about the tactless nature of how he said it, since he's that kind of character), even if he disagreed with Light imposing his own morals on the rest of the world. But yeah, Matsuda was the closest to a pure hero we got, as well as the closest to a relatable protagonist character.
