Today we talk about a topic that has been hotly requested by my readership: Anti-heroes.

Now, what is an anti-hero?

First, we should probably talk about what an "ideal hero" is. An ideal hero is a hero like Superman or the heroes from ancient Greek myth. A hero that's exceptional in physical and/or intellectual capacities and has an impeccable moral code he never breaks (I will use male pronouns here, as ideal heroes are almost always paragons of masculinity as well as heroism).

"Moral code" depends on the culture of course. Many heroes from ancient mythology had no problems with genocide or rape for example, but that's a different topic. We'll just be dealing with what modern Western culture sees as "heroic" (selflessness, bravery, etc.). Most of the time, the ideal hero will also be incredibly good-looking to boot.

Anti-heroes are heroes that lack traditional heroic qualities but are still heroes. Classical anti-heroes often aren't as competent or skilled as traditional heroes which hinders them from solving the plot. Frodo Baggins from Lord of the Rings is a classical example. He must save the world from Sauron by carrying the Ring to Mt. Doom, but he isn't the greatest survivalist nor the best fighter or anything, so, he struggles a lot. Oftentimes, a classical anti-hero isn't even strong enough to beat the villain by himself. He either must mature into an ideal hero or he must rely on his friends and loved ones to win. This is common in shonen anime and in books like Harry Potter. I mean, when has Harry Potter achieved anything by himself? Spider-Man is another classical anti-hero, as he always struggles with self-doubt he must overcome before he can save the day.

The more modern idea of an anti-hero is a hero who lacks the moral qualities of a traditional hero. Christopher Nolan's Batman is a good example. (Batman from the comics or the cartoons does not apply; I am only talking about Batman as he appears in the Dark Knight trilogy.) Apart from his "no killing" and "no guns" rules, he's willing to do anything to achieve his objective, even torture or mass surveillance (just watch The Dark Knight to see what I'm talking about). Often an anti-hero will have a traumatic backstory that explains why he became that way.

In a nutshell, a classical anti-hero lacks the badassery of a hero while the modern anti-hero lacks the moral qualities of a hero.

In many ways, modern anti-heroes are appealing for the same reasons Wattpad bad boys are appealing. They are different from the rest, they do whatever they want, they flout authority and social rules, they often have dark and tragic backstories, they are badasses, they are what every man wants to be and what every woman is attracted to (if they are male, that is; female anti-heroes exist, but they are rarer).

I think this is no coincidence. The ideal hero and the anti-hero both represent contrasting ideals of masculinity. The ideal hero is the equivalent to the "gentleman guy" you often see in love triangle stories. You know, the guy with lots of wealth and power who still treats the lady with respect. The anti-hero, meanwhile, is like the bad boy, as explained above. This might be why teenage girls love bad boys so much and why teenage boys absolutely love anti-heroes.

Unfortunately, there is one more similarity anti-heroes and Wattpad bad boys share: They can be really, REALLY cringe-worthy if they are written poorly. When anti-heroes commit rape, mass murder, genocide, infanticide, or other atrocities for the sake of shock value, you have to wonder how much can be excused by "revenge".

Anti-heroes are often conflated with power fantasy protagonists, but I like to distinguish between the two. What anti-heroes and power fantasy protagonists have in common is that they lack morals. What distinguishes them is their level of power.

I noticed that, on average, anti-heroes seem to be less powerful than ideal heroes. Superman and Batman provide a good comparison here.

Imagine how terrifying it would be if a living god like Superman had no morals. Superman is invincible and most of his enemies are weaker than him. The question is not if he can beat them (he can), but if he can beat them and still preserve his moral code. Because he is so powerful, Superman has a lot of choice. He can choose to be good or evil and he chooses good.

Christopher Nolan's Batman, by contrast, struggles a lot more against his villains. Gotham City is so cartoonishly corrupt that it's no surprise that villains like the Joker can easily bring it to its knees. Against such overwhelming odds, Batman needs to do everything to win. There are many anti-heroes who don't do anything immoral and who just have a bad attitude. But, even in this case, I think it helps if they direct their jerkass behavior towards people more powerful than them (or, at least, people equal to them). Trust me, that only makes them look even more badass.

Batman isn't the only example. Han Solo has no force powers, unlike Luke Skywalker. Wolverine has far less flashy powers than the other X-men, but both of them are their teams anti-heroes. Terrible Writing Advice calls this the "conservation of coolness". What these guys lack in power, they make up in style and edginess.

Power fantasy protagonists often have all the power in the world. The reason they don't care about morals is that they are inconvenient. They humiliate or kill enemies not because they have to but because it's fun and proves their power. I'm not saying these can't be compelling protagonists (though I personally hate them), but I wouldn't call them heroes. The Punisher is a classical power fantasy protagonist (although, ironically, he is often seen as a textbook anti-hero). He murders most villains he encounters but, because his enemies are so evil, there is a sense of catharsis in him killing them. (Unfortunately, the Punisher is also extremely popular among people who are pro-police brutality, so, there's that.)

To summarize, classical anti-heroes are weak heroes with strong moral codes. They are a bit like a kid who needs to mature or who needs to rely on the help of friends and loved ones to save the day.

An ideal hero is powerful and moral. They are like billionaires or politicians who could abuse their wealth and power, but use it for good.

Anti-heroes are weak (relative to their setting) and amoral. They are like homeless scavengers in the streets or like the protagonists of a zombie apocalypse. They would love to live a normal life, but sometimes, they have to kill and steal to get by.

Power fantasy protagonists are powerful and amoral. They are like high school jocks who get annoyed by nerds and beat them up to prove who is the boss. (Although, in a well-written power fantasy, the writer will establish that the nerds in question deserve it.)

If you want to write a power fantasy protagonist, that's all fine, but if you want your character to still be a hero (on at least some level), better consider if violence is always necessary for your character and if there aren't better options. The real world isn't a video game where we just shoot at every enemy that crosses our way. If there are lives on the line and there isn't much time, killing is easy to justify.

Of course, many anti-heroes still kill even when it's not necessary (like for revenge), but even there, remember that killing people (even in self-defense) is traumatizing. Revenge feels good, but it doesn't solve deep-seated mental issues. Whereas power fantasy protagonists rarely suffer trauma (and when they do, it's just a justification for more violence), anti-heroes suffer the consequences of violence. As such, it's unsurprising that many fictional anti-heroes engage in substance abuse or addiction. Now, I'm aware that some anti-heroes are sociopaths (who don't feel anything while killing), but even then, if they aren't supposed to be pure fantasies, their anti-social behavior should get them into trouble at least sometimes.

It's probably also helpful to distinguish anti-heroes from villain protagonists. Anti-heroes and villain protagonists are both deeply flawed, but whereas villain protagonists succumb to their flaws, anti-heroes push on despite them.

Light Yagami from Death Note is a textbook villain protagonist. The plot of Death Note is that Light finds a notebook with which he can kill anyone whose name he writes into it. At first, he only kills criminals. However, it turns out that murder is still murder, even if it's done to criminals. So, the police start investigating and he needs to kill them, too, if he wants to stay out of jail. He becomes a megalomaniacal serial killer who is searched by everyone and has to kill even his loved ones to survive. He becomes a sociopath with a god-complex and his arrogance leads to his downfall in the end.

Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender  kinda blurs the lines between an anti-hero and an anti-villain. He has been banished by his abusive father and needs to capture the Avatar (the protagonist of the story) to restore his honor. Over his journey, he ends up harming countless people by supporting the genocidal war led by his father against all the other nations. However, while his actions are understandable, he is given a choice at the end of season two. He has the choice between joining the heroes and continuing to support his father. He chooses his father. Later, he learns that everything that he has been taught about family honor or his nation being the best was a lie. He doesn't find fulfillment and realizes that other people hate the Fire Nation (to be fair, he already realized that earlier). Only then does he turn to the side of the heroes and helps them to bring an end to the war.

Now for my favorite anti-heroes

I'm sorry, but I have to end this chapter gushing a little big. A lot of my favorite characters happen to be anti-heroes and I particularly like these four.

First, we have Kiritsugu Emiya from the anime Fate/Zero. The plot is that there is a war between mages about an object known as the Holy Grail which can fulfill any wish. A lot of mages see the war as an honorable, but deadly competition. Emiya does not. While most other mages fight each other face-to-face, Emiya is ready to use underhanded tactics, like blackmail, bombings, and sniping his enemies from cover. He justifies this by saying that there is no honorable thing such as war and he just wants all war to end. He ends up mistreating even his Servant Saber (a Servant is a historical hero, like King Arthur, who fights as your personal Pokemon; it's that kind of anime) and betrays her trust multiple times. In the end, it turns out that the Holy Grail can't fulfill his wish because he is incapable of believing in a happy ending and the Holy Grail is apparently powered by belief. We get a tragic end.

Next of my favorites is Taylor Hebert, from the web-novel Worm. Taylor is just your basic average teenage girl, only that she has the power to control insects and she's bullied at school a lot. The teachers won't do anything against the bullying (even though it would have almost killed her) and her only refuge is in her dream to become a superhero with her bug powers. In her first night out of costume, people mistake her for a villain due to her creepy powers and her creepy costume. She ends up joining a gang of teenage supervillains. At first, she tells herself it's to find out the identity of their boss and to turn them over to the superheroes, but, as the story continues, she can't bring herself to do this. These outlaws are a found family for her. It also turns out that the superheroes aren't as saintly as she thought, so, she tries to bring justice as a criminal. Unfortunately, gang life isn't pretty and she often escalates fights to extreme violence when it isn't necessary and often even takes innocent people as hostages through her bug powers. Even though she always comes out on top, this endless cascade of violence never gives her rest.

Next up, we have Homura Akemi from the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Much like Taylor, she starts the story being bullied at school by everyone until it turns out that there's this girl called Madoka who treats her well. Madoka is a so-called magical girl; meaning she has magical powers and she uses them to fight evil witches. Unfortunately, after they have known each other for only a month, Madoka dies and Homura is lonely again. Homura becomes a magical girl herself by making a contract with an adorable bunnycat called Kyubey who fulfills her one wish. The wish is that she can go back and protect Madoka which she does (through time travel). She ends up living through the month she first met Madoka over and over again (like in the movie Grounday Hog Loop) and tries her best to prevent Madoka from dying. To go that far, she is willing to do anything, from stealing weapons from the military, to causing massive property damage, to threatening to murder her own friends, and to being just a plain jerk around everyone else. She ends up failing (because she isn't the protagonist, Madoka is), so, her story is a tragic one.

Finally, we got Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden from the novel series The Dresden Files. He is a wizard who works as a private detective in Chicago. After his parents died, he got adopted by an evil wizard who abused him for his personal gain. Said evil wizard tried to turn him into a brainwashed slave, so, poor little Harry needed to use magic to kill him. Unfortunately, using magic to kill is forbidden, so, he is treated like an outcast in the magical world. The White Council (the wizard police force) just can't wait until he commits one more misdeed and they can execute him. The people in the normal world, meanwhile, won't believe that he is a wizard, so, he can't find any work and has to live in poverty. When a magical murder happens in Chicago, he is the first to be suspected, as he's the only wizard in Chicago. Because of this and his poverty, he has to solve murder mysteries just to survive. During his investigations, he regularly commits massive property damage and at one point even kills innocent bystanders. He also doesn't hesitate to kill or torture the villains if it's necessary. However, he is probably the most "heroic" of these four overall. He always resists temptations by the bad guys and always puts the needs of the people he protects before his own (especially if they happen to be women). In fact, at the start of the novels, he usually needs to solve murders to survive, but when it's clear that the murderer will kill more people if he isn't stopped, his motivation switches to heroism. Unfortunately, he is kind of a sexist chauvinist, so, he might be the least likable of the four.

If you compare these four, there is a common pattern: All of them have black hair and use guns. Three of them also use magic.

Jokes aside, there are re-occurring patterns. Most of them suffered from great injustices which explain their cynical worldview, are very pragmatic in their methods, and have sympathetic or understandable reasons for what they do.

Not all anti-heroes are like that. Some don't have sympathetic reasons at all, but are still on the good side because, despite only being motivated by bloodlust or vengeance, they only kill bad guys.

The take-away is basically that anti-heroes cover an incredibly broad spectrum of characters.

They can be an excellent way to explore the boundaries between good and evil and to indulge in plain old edginess.