# Evil protagonists. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 5, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445 "2009-03-05T21:40:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/1 "2009-03-05T21:40:45Z")
I’ve been bouncing this idea around in my head for a while. I thought it would be fun to name some book/movie/video game/etc. protagonists who are evil in general or the evil guy in the story. I’ll start: Alex DeLarge from _A Clockwork Orange_. Murdering, raping, stealing, but oh so lovable. Bloody horrorshow. Kratos from _God of War_. He’s out to depose Zeus and the gods of Olympus for his own selfish reasons. He’ll gladly kill anyone as long as it serves his purpose. By far a greater warmonger than Ares ever was. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/2 "2009-03-05T21:48:43Z")
Oh, one more thing: The protagonists cannot be bad guys turned good at the end of the story. They must be unrepentant about their badness, but someone the reader can still like. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/3 "2009-03-05T22:13:30Z")
I’ve only read one of Patricia Highsmith’s _Ripley_ novels, but I found myself at least feeling sorry for him, if not actually liking him. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/4 "2009-03-05T22:15:06Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > Oh, one more thing: The protagonists cannot be bad guys turned good at the end of the story. They must be unrepentant about their badness, but someone the reader can still like. In that case, your first example works only most of the time. 🙂 He does end up intentionally reforming in the original edition of the book. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/5 "2009-03-05T22:21:55Z")
Does Dexter Morgan count? ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/6 "2009-03-05T22:29:15Z")
Tanith Lee’s _Tales of the Flat Earth_ books – particularly _Night’s Master_. Azhrarn is definitely not a good guy, and pretty much a petty bastard, but he’s a magnificent one at that. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/7 "2009-03-05T22:39:21Z")
Tony Soprano on “Sopranos” is pretty much a sociopath. Does he count? ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/8 "2009-03-05T22:44:55Z")
Once again, we must discuss \*Flashman \*by George MacDonald Fraser. Flashman is a coward and a cad, but wonderful fun when telling his story. Plus, he never ever repents. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/9 "2009-03-05T22:50:17Z")
Rock Hudson’s character in _Pretty Maids All in a Row_ (which is also being discussed in [this thread, coincidentally.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=508421) A wonderfully quirky and bizarre dark comedy from the 70s, with quite the startling twist ending. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/10 "2009-03-05T22:51:22Z")
Pat Bateman from _American Psycho._ ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/11 "2009-03-05T23:01:10Z")
Pulp writer Jim Thompson was something of a specialist in evil protagonists; see _The Killer Inside Me_ and _Pop. 1280_, among others. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/12 "2009-03-05T23:16:05Z")
Vic Mackey? I mean…even aside from what he did in the infamous first episode of The Shield, which I think would qualify as being as evil as you can get in pretty much anyone’s book, throughout the whole show it seemed like he did WAY more bad stuff than good. For every criminal that he did bring to justice, it seemed like there were 10 innocent people who wound up getting killed, or screwed in some way, as a result of his corrupt activities and the various mistakes of his “strike team” lackeys. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/13 "2009-03-05T23:18:04Z")
Belkar, from Order of the Stick. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/14 "2009-03-06T00:08:48Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > Does Dexter Morgan count? Came here to mention Dexter too. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/15 "2009-03-06T00:11:42Z")
Most every character in _Pulp Fiction_ ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/16 "2009-03-06T00:17:09Z")
Norman Spinrad’s **The Iron Dream** had Adoph Hitler’s Mary Sue fantasy alterego as a protagonist. Similarly, the movie **Max** has Hitler as one of the protagonists. Beryl Bainbridge’s novel **Young Hitler** does the same. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/17 "2009-03-06T00:29:52Z")
Superhero comics do this a lot. Wanted. In the 70s DC had titles for Kobra, Joker, and the Secret Society of Supervillains. Right now, they have Secret Six, and recently did a series of one-shots called Joker’s Asylum, which featured various Batman villains - Joker, Two Face, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, and the Penguin - and even more recently, the Faces of Evil one-shots - Solomon Grundy, Deathstroke, Kobra, and Prometheus. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/18 "2009-03-06T00:49:49Z")
Just saw _Chicago_ the other night, and Roxy Hart struck me as pretty evil. Cheats on her husband, murders her boyfriend, talks her husband into taking the fall for her, and once she’s in prison, all she can think about is how to parley an act of murder into a showbiz career. All while still shamelessly manipulating her clueless lump of a husband. Never shows an ounce of remorse for anything she does. Kind of a shame she didn’t swing at the end. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/19 "2009-03-06T01:12:45Z")
Laharl, Disgaea. Demon Lord, Evil Overlord… The protagonist of A Night In The Lonesome October, Zelzany. Hm. Got to be a few more… ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445/20 "2009-03-06T03:03:21Z")
Bomb Queen from the Image comic of the same name [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evil-protagonists/488445.md?page=2)