Antihero

Who is your favorite antihero and why? What makes an antihero oh so deliciously evil? Just, you know, wonderin.

Great character development for a villain, huge role in the game, fantastic theme music, and you get to play as him near the end



(Magus from Chrono Trigger, if anyone out there has been deprived enough to never have played it.)

Taco Rubio is my favorite anti-hero, though I'm not sure why.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I'm developing a character, and while the plot and his characteristics are relatively easy to create, I'm having a harder time making him into someone you might empathize with or root on. More suggestions, analysis?

Cristiano is my favorite anti-hero.

Mr Martin from James Thurber's short story The Catbird Seat

Lorelei..... my favorite antihero, is Elric of Melnibone.
Michael Moorcock has written many books on the concept of an "Eternal Champion", a figure doomed to fight for eternity.
Elric is probably the best realised and most tragic incarnation of him.

Shit, just read all Moorcocks work.

OH! There's also the "Monster" from Hal Hartley's movie "No Such Thing"

Some sort of description of *why* the person is such an evil badass, more than just "that's how they are." Easiest in my mind is some form of childhood trauma that would be easy to relate with.

In order for it to be effective though, it would have to be something not widely known by the other characters in the world, and only revealed to the reader (observer, players, whatever) after the character has had their evilness established.

Or were you thinking more along the lines of the protagonist rather than a major villain? I'm not familiar with the words used to describe different forms of characters, so I hope that it helps at least a little...

I like well created villains more than well created bad good guys, anyway

In all seriousness, one of my favorite antiheroes is Joss Whedon's Angel, as portrayed in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel by David Boreanaz. Joss combined a series of traditional antihero elements to create a complex and fascinating character. If I'd like to see one character from the Buffyverse be the subject of a feature-length film, it'd be Angel.

To paraphrase the Furies... mmmmmm... Angel...


And another example of what I was talking about would be Lindsey McDonald from said series. Or Holtz... yikes. He kinda crossed the line from being an empathetic character though.

Or maybe Faith... ^_^

Wesley! Oh my god how could I have forgotten!

There's your antihero right there.

...

If I may be so bold as to offer one of my own characters as an example...

The lead character of my Saga of Suffering series is a vampire named Suffer. He is truly a predator-he's an unrepentant killer. He is cold, cunning, and ruthless, but he does have his redeeming qualities, loyalty, determination, and his own code of honor.

Basically, I decided to write a series of stories that turned the vampire/hunter concept on its ear. Look at Buffy or Blade from the vampire POV. Who is the real villian here? The people living their unlives as best they can, or these intolerant hunters who want them dead for no other reason than they are different?

Anyway, if you decide to give it a look, please keep in mind these are all in first draft stage.

You can find it here: http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/654530

-Kiamat Dusk

Lord Soth.



Or Raistlin, if you haven't followed Soth enough to consider him a hero of any sort:

Ooo, the Roland the gunslinger, from the Stephen King books (The Dark Tower), also if you could consider Wolverine from the X-men comics an antihero, and yes who played ChronoTrigger and didn't like Magus? ... As far as making your antihero someone that people will empathize with and root on, I think the key is having them walk in your character's shoes.

In other words, most villians and antiheros can have a pretty tough life, had to give up and sacrifice many of the things they loved (so they have nothing left to lose). Actually in the Dark Tower(a series of 7 books), one entire book is centered around a flashback to Roland's past love and events with her that shape who he becomes through the rest of the series.

Also, remember at the heart of it all your "antihero" is still a good guy. Don't try to write an "antihero character", write a "hero who's down on his luck and has no other option left but to just kill anyone who crosses his/her path" ;P

Antiheroes...

My favorite still has to be Han Solo. In the original cut. When he shot first.

Another is Jim diGriz, from the Stainless Steel Rat books. How can you miss with the classic, "plucked from a life of crime to become an agent on a mission," plotlines?

I really like the scoundrels.

It's interesting to see all the variations of anti-hero. Its such a broad category, since it is basically any protagonist who is not a hero.

This can range from an "average joe" who has to overcome some difficulty (which is why I chose the catbird seat in my previous post), to a villian who is telling their side of the story (I think John Gardner's Grendal is a great example). Not only that, but it also seems to include flawed heros, which can be a hero who does un-heroic acts in pursuit of a larger good (the vigilante), to someone who acts as a hero without the typical heroic motives (The man with no name was already mentioned along these lines).

What sort of anti-hero do you want to explore?

Abilities:
The hero has some talent or ability that puts them above ordinary people.
One anti-hero would be an ordinary person who rises to meet a heroic challenge.

Motive:
The hero seeks to do "good" usally as defined by his/her society.
One anti-hero would be someone who acts the part of a hero, but for their own reasons. This could be a personal code of ethics, vengence, greed, desire for fame... basically still a hero, but not for altruistic reasons.

Means:
The hero has defined rules of conduct (although they may vary depending on the setting) chivalric behavior is an example.
One anti-hero would be a hero who "breaks the rules" to achieve a greater good.

Goal
The hero seeks to bring goodness, justice, peace, etc.
One anti-hero would be someone whos goals are not for the greater good. This is similar to the motive category, but the distinction is the desired outcome.

Of course there can be anti-heros with combinations of these factors, but the imporatant thing is that somewhere within the anti-hero is some sort of heroic trait that allows us to identify with him/her.

'Mad' Max Rockatansky

one of my favorite antihero is FitzChivalry Farseer from the Robin Hobb's trilogies :

The Farseer Trilogy
The Tawny Man Trilogy

Yeah, that's where it's heading, and it looks like it could be sweeeeet. He has a higher purpose for what he does, just a really messed up way of going about it.

Really good stuff here, Zuzu, and I have a lot to think about now. I had considered a lot of the things you wrote about; I just need to accent them more, I think. Thank you for putting so much thought into it.

Word!

What more can I say? Just started rereading them again. (And, to top it off, watched "The Final Programme" -- based on Jerry Cornelius, the SF analog of Elric, not just another Eternal Champion.)

My favorite antihero would have to be Lucifer *waves to Lucifer* in Milton's Paradise Lost. He is seething, vengeful, dark, and interesting--in a word, sexy.

Dr. Frankenstein and his creation in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein are two parts of a wonderfully complex antihero.

Other characters who would qualify (these are of the comically inept kind):

Ignatius O'Reilly in Confederacy of Dunces
Don Quixote in all of his forms
Candide in Voltaire's Candide
Almost any central character in a Vonnegut novel

Waves back to Roo