• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Who Are Your Favourite Anti-Heroes/Heroines?

This is really difficult for me because really love anti-heroes. Captain Mal, Gene Starwind, Elric, The Hound, The Punisher, Spike Spiegel... the list goes on and on. I just really love heroes with a darker side to them :p
 
Hmmm... Got to be....

Jorg Ancarth - The Broken Empire Trilogy by Mark Lawrence (He's so delightfully twisted and evil)

Sand Dan Glokta - The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie

Prince Calder - The First Law again (Cause Joe Abercrombie.)
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
Elric
Fafhrd and Gray Mouser (if they count)
the members of the Black Company
Ballas (I hated him, actually, which was interesting)
Logen Ninefingers
Faith
Spike
Beatrix (Kill Bill)
Nightfall
Conan (if he counts)
The Stainless Steel Rat
Severian


Those come to mind.
 
Malus Darkblade. The dark elf who damn near murders his entire family to get what he wants, yet he quite a pathetic character sometimes but that works in his favor.
 
Raistlin Majere.... one of my favorite characters. Artemis Entreri is another good one. Jorg Ancrath.... one of the best antiheros. Nagash from warhammer is another.
 
I would say that an anti-hero is not just a character who lacks conventional heroic qualities, but are actually the negative version of the hero. They are attempting to accomplish a "good", but the methods that they use are decidedly "evil". Most MCs are neither heroes nor anti-heroes, they're somewhere in between.

.

Great way to put it. Some think of the anti-hero as the mysterious badass that isn't all about justice and saving the day, but will occasionally help out the good guys because he/she isn't completely without morals.

It's a little more than that.
 
This is really difficult for me because really love anti-heroes. Captain Mal, Gene Starwind, Elric, The Hound, The Punisher, Spike Spiegel... the list goes on and on. I just really love heroes with a darker side to them :p

You see Gene Starwind as a true anti-hero? Interesting. I always thought of him as a reluctant hero with rather strong moral conviction that just needed some coaxing to come to the surface.
 
Would Dexter be considered an anti-hero? There's a lot to his code and his wavering between following and rejecting it. I guess perhaps it depends on whether or not people believe he's a true psychopath.
 
You see Gene Starwind as a true anti-hero? Interesting. I always thought of him as a reluctant hero with rather strong moral conviction that just needed some coaxing to come to the surface.
An anti-hero is someone whose morality is flawed but they are aligned with a good cause. In Beowulf the Danish King and Grendel are both anti-heroes. Dexter is a villain. His sister is an anti-hero.

Sent from my LGMS345 using Tapatalk
 
I think Dexter is a "villain-hero." But he doesn't strike me as being an anti-hero, because even when he does things that help out others—and much of what he does can't be categorized as helping others in a significant way—he's really doing those things for entirely selfish reasons or has little choice because...psychopath.
 
Last edited:

Heliotrope

Staff
Article Team
Tyler Durden (Fight Club, pretty much my all time favourite book/film). Did you know it was based on the Great Gatsby?

And both Jamie and Tyrion Lannister.
 
Last edited:
Do you think a hero who starts as an anti-hero but transitions into good is still an anti-hero or would u describe him/her by the transitory nature of the character. Maturation. It certainly isn't a Trickster figure.

Sent from my LGMS345 using Tapatalk
 

Heliotrope

Staff
Article Team
I guess I see them as one and the same, since they are essentially the same person. He starts out as Tyler Durden as the antihero, and then the 'narrator' becomes the anti hero when Tyler Durden becomes the antagonist half way through.

If Tyler Durden is a figment then aren't all characters figments? I mean, Tyler Durden was a true, living, breathing flesh and blood character (the narrator) he was just the other side of the narrator's psyche. He still existed though, in the concept of the book. Aren't all characters just figments of the author's imagination? Though we accept them as 'real' in the context of the story.
 
Last edited:
I guess I see them as one and the same, since they are essentially the same person. He starts out as Tyler Durden as the antihero, and then the 'narrator' becomes the anti hero when Tyler Durden becomes the antagonist half way through.

If Tyler Durden is a figment then aren't all characters figments? I mean, Tyler Durden was a true, living, breathing flesh and blood character (the narrator) he was just the other side of the narrator's psyche. He still existed though, in the concept of the book. Aren't all characters just figments of the author's imagination? Though we accept them as 'real' in the context of the story.

Well Norton's character didn't realize that Durden wasn't a real person until the end. He was under the assumption that a real person was helping him to change his attitude and actions in life.

A character like Dexter on the other hand realizes his dad isn't there, that he's dead, from the very beginning.
 
Top