# Who’s your favorite anti-hero **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** actor-characters\ **Created:** [February 23, 2023, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-your-favorite-anti-hero/980253 "2023-02-23T19:48:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-your-favorite-anti-hero/980253/101 "2023-02-25T05:12:08Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Eh, while Blondie has moments where he transcends his selfishness, it’s harder to argue that Munny does. He’s pretty much a monster, knows he was, and when push comes to shove, is willing to be again. The whole point of Unforgiven (IMHO of course) is that no one there is fully innocent, they’ve all got it coming as the movie itself says. Then again, with as wide a definition as we’re using, he’d probably still barely make it, just less so than Blondie. I know _The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly_ is considered a Clint Eastwood ffilm, but Eli Wallach totally steals it. I don’t know if Tuco counts as an anti-hero, but he’s the best character in a great movie. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-your-favorite-anti-hero/980253/102 "2023-02-25T09:10:43Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > There was a time when it was assumed that a hero would be law abiding, unambiguously “good guy” The Middle Ages was not that time, though. Plenty of folk heroes there ,who were less than law-abiding or unambiguouslly Lawful Good, from Robin Hood to Cúchulainn to Til Eulenspiegel to William Tell. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-your-favorite-anti-hero/980253/103 "2023-02-25T12:04:37Z")
I think Adrian Veidt is flat-out the villain in Watchmen, and Rorschak is the anti-hero. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-your-favorite-anti-hero/980253/104 "2023-02-25T12:35:54Z")
> [@El\_DeLuxo](#): > > I think Adrian Veidt is flat-out the villain in Watchmen, and Rorschak is the anti-hero Well, let’s start near the end: ARMAGEDDON, or COMPROMISE? Jon: compromise Laurie: compromise Daniel: compromise Adrian: compromise Rorschach: put me down for ‘armageddon’ Just like Jon and Laurie and Dan, he doesn’t claim that Adrian’s conclusion is _factually_ incorrect; he starts there like they do, and then expresses a preference for armageddon the way Jon and Laurie and Dan and Adrian _don’t_. If there’s a flat-out villain in that exchange, I don’t see how it shakes out how you figure; I figure we have a guy doing his best to stop armageddon, and a guy doing his best to bring it on… ---
**Author:** ![pseudograph](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pseudograph/32/19768_2.png) [@pseudograph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudograph)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-your-favorite-anti-hero/980253/105 "2023-02-25T17:48:51Z")
What about Hawk from Robert Parker’s Spenser series? Lest he be disqualified because he’s not the main character, I seem to remember at least one novel where the primary story was his and Spenser was enlisted to help him on his quest. Apparently he also had his own spin off TV series _A Man Called Hawk_, that I wasn’t aware of, so not sure how he was portrayed in that one. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-your-favorite-anti-hero/980253/106 "2023-02-25T21:29:48Z")
The guy who’s trying to save the world just killed millions of people and felt okay about it. And he’s real proud of his big idea and himself for getting it done, too. The question of Armaggeddon doesn’t matter to him as much as his clever trick and his ego being inflated and jerked off for solving the world’s crises by cold blooded murder of a sizable chunk of the population and getting away with it. That paints a pretty villainous picture to me. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-your-favorite-anti-hero/980253/107 "2023-02-25T21:52:05Z")
> [@El\_DeLuxo](#): > > The guy who’s trying to save the world just killed millions of people and felt okay about it. The guy who was trying to get _billions_ of people killed felt — wait, why would I care how he felt? My opinion is the same whether he was happy about it or sad about it or unemotional about it: he was _for_ it. And if, on the question of armageddon, one guy declares ‘for’ and the other ‘against’, what’s interesting to me isn’t the emotional state of the one who looks down to whisper “no” or the emotional state of the one says “yes” — it’s, y’know, the “yes” and the “no”. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-your-favorite-anti-hero/980253/108 "2023-03-04T16:30:57Z")
Upon further consideration, I’d also like to nominate Aiken Drum, from Julian May’s _Saga of Pliocene Exile_. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2023, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-your-favorite-anti-hero/980253/109 "2023-03-04T18:22:14Z")
That’s a very interesting choice D\_D! And extra kudos for bringing up one of my favorite if slightly obscure series (meta-series if we include the rest of the setting)! I would probably put him more in the trickster grouping than the anti-hero setting, and by the end of the series, he could be considered a true hero by the standards of the kingdom he represents (although more thanks to the good examples and love of those around him rather than any strong morality on his own part). But that brings us to Marc… and Marc is a _fascinating_ anti-hero which had not come to mind (and now I have to reread most of my books dammit!) about prior to your comment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-your-favorite-anti-hero/980253.md?page=5)