# TV Or Movie Characters Who Are Written To Be Virtuous But Are Really Jerks--Or Vice Versa

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-or-movie-characters-who-are-written-to-be-virtuous-but-are-really-jerks-or-vice-versa/793556>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 13, 2017, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-or-movie-characters-who-are-written-to-be-virtuous-but-are-really-jerks-or-vice-versa/793556 "2017-08-13T17:21:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 8

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**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-or-movie-characters-who-are-written-to-be-virtuous-but-are-really-jerks-or-vice-versa/793556/141 "2017-08-22T20:50:14Z")

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How does one “earn” self-righteousness?

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**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-or-movie-characters-who-are-written-to-be-virtuous-but-are-really-jerks-or-vice-versa/793556/142 "2017-08-22T21:35:39Z")

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> [@Reddy\_Mercury](#):
>
> Ned Stark.
> 
> Don’t get me wrong, I love his character. But while he IS virtuous, his pride/sense of humor and narrowmindedness make him a very simplistic character. In a world where every character is morally grey, Ned Stark being a paragon of virtue almost makes him seem two dimensional, and thus out of place. In any other fantasy universe, he would be the clear cut, admirable, fairy tale hero, but in GoT he comes off as kind of a bullheaded dope.

Yes, this is exactly the point of his character. In a generic extruded fantasy product he would be the heroic paragon with his own code who always makes the noble decision no matter what the lily-livered lickspittles say and always wins against the odds. But George Martin wanted to have a little fun with this particular idea, and so in GoT he ends up with his head on a spike. To be fair, back in 1996 the fact that Ned gets himself killed was a shocking twist, rather than “Of course he got killed because this is how things work in GoT”, because GoT didn’t exist yet.

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**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-or-movie-characters-who-are-written-to-be-virtuous-but-are-really-jerks-or-vice-versa/793556/143 "2017-08-22T21:43:50Z")

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Inasmuch as professional wrestlers count as “TV characters”, I submit for your consideration John Cena.

He has, on at least one occasion, threatened to do a terrible thing to someone in an I-Quit match (like an Attitude Adjustment finisher off the top of a car), only for his opponent to say “I quit” to end the match, only to do it anyway. (Batista.)

He also apparently demanded a match with good guy Rey Mysterio for the WWE Title only two hours after Mysterio had won it from The Miz back in 2011, forcing Mysterio-- who’d fought a grueling contest to win the belt for the first time-- to have to face a fresh Cena for the title.

Neither of those actions make Cena look like a nice guy.

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