Anti-Heroes are somewhat the opposite of Anti-Villains; while an anti-villain plays a villain's game and does bad things for noble causes, anti-heroes fight for good with selfish or questionable motives. They lack conventional and important qualities compared to regular heroes as they can be rude, selfish, obnoxious or violent in nature but still fight on the side of good whether they are willing or forced to. They are not as kind, noble or heroic as other heroes but ultimately the heroes of their stories in spite of their attitudes and unpleasant tactics. Simply put anti-heroes are heroes with bad qualities who never stop functioning as such.

However, they do not have to be selfish, rude or criminal all the time; they can be more polite due to not being good or evil but everywhere in between. Another case is that they treat enemies with equality and without hostility which is obviously an unusual trait in heroes. They also can be a True Neutral depending on their alignments (though anti-heroes are not necessarily True Neutral). Alternatively, characters meant to be seen as heroes but not really all good such as Heroes by Proxy are usually this.

One thing most anti-heroes have in common is that they live by the philosophy "the ends justify the means", meaning they employ harsh or pragmatic methods to reach their goals. Due to these characteristics anti-heroes sometimes have been classified as villains as well, particularly those who have so much bad qualities to the point that their good qualities are overshadowed.

Types[]

There are five types of anti-heroes:

Classical Anti-Hero[]

This type of anti-hero is the mirror image of a classic hero; they are flawed, insecure, and morally ambiguous. They still have ethical actions in their behaviors, but their personality and certain quirks make their actions come off less like an archetypal hero. Some classical anti-heroes on the movies in this type like Jeffrey Lebowski in The Big Lebowski or Catwoman in the Batman franchise.

Knight In Sour Armor[]

"Knight in Sour Armor" exhibit the same kind of behavior as the classical anti-heroes. They can contradict right and wrong, and don't do anything out of the ethical. But as their nickname suggests, their antithesis lies in their ideology. They usually act because of their ideals and never join the fights unless it involves them personally. They're also are usually not the friendliest or even the most compassionate people in the world when doing so. They're also known as Tragic Heroes. The examples of this type of anti-heroes are William Somerset in Se7en, Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise, Jason Bourne in the franchise of the same name, Alhaitham in Genshin Impact or Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Pragmatic Hero[]

These types of characters are more willing to perform questionable actions than other heroes, but they will never enter villain territory, and they will still have their own ethical standards. They are clearly on the side of good, but will do anything to reach their goals, at the cost of honor. Pragmatic Heroes belong in the Pragmatists category, as they often follow the conventions of pragmatism and are the opposite of Honorable. Though they will not cross lines the Unscrupulous Hero might, their actions can still sometimes be in the wrong. Pragmatic Heroes have a chance of turning into Unscrupulous Heroes, such as Billy Butcher. The examples of this type of anti-hero are Tyrion Lannister in Game Of Thrones, L Lawliet and Near in Death Note, Jack Bauer in 24, Wolverine in X-Men movies, Moon Dong-eun in The Glory, Raiden in Metal Gear Rising, Daryl Dixon in The Walking Dead, Karma Akabane in Assassination Classroom, Mary Saotome in Kakegurui or Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series Sherlock.

Unscrupulous Hero[]

These kinds of characters are almost the same as the Pragmatic Hero. They also will do anything to reach their goals. But there is a big difference: if the other anti-heroes have their own ethics like no killing or stealing, with this type of anti-heroes, this limit is very frugal or none. But in the end, their actions is still good, or helpful for the world. This type of Anti-Hero also overlaps with the Well-Intentioned Extremist type of Anti-Villain. Well-Intentioned Extremists on this Wiki also fall under the Unscrupulous type of Anti-Hero. Examples of this type of anti-hero are John Wick in the franchise with the same name, Bryan Mills in the Taken film series, Frank Miller's Batman, Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise, Saya Otonashi in Blood+, Nagito Komaeda in Danganronpa, Vegeta in the Dragon Ball franchise or Sasuke Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha in the Naruto franchise.

Hero In Name Only[]

These characters aren't just anti-heroes, they're the most morally grey. This is the farthest end of the sliding scale of anti-heroes where anti-heroes may actually be worse than the lighter shades of anti-villains, often having qualities associated with villains or jerks. They may technically be on the side of good, but their motivations are not normally based on suppressed morals like other anti-heroes. Instead, their motivations are neutral at best. The hero in name only, also called the Nominal Hero, may be this way for a multitude of reasons, such as personal revenge, unwanted responsibility, being good solely for another hero, being the best of the worst, and many other reasons which may or may not make many nominal heroes complicated characters.

Many characters that are Heroes by Proxy are this type of anti-hero, as they may just be forced to play the hero by their fictional setting. Others may be a Token Evil Teammate, who only do good because they want to work with another hero as a favor, such as Marcus Kincaid and Hiei. Examples include Huckleberry Finn, Deadpool, Rorschach, Heinz Doofenshmirtz, Rusty Venture, Zig, Noah, Cody Anderson, Beavis & Butthead, Shadow the Hedgehog, Alucard, Travis Touchdown, Kratos, Augus, Shinji Ikari, Sun Wukong, Guts, Alucard, Hiei, and others.

IMPORTANT: Anti-Heroes cannot be Pure Good due to the fact that Pure Goods are incorruptible, friendly, selfless, loyal, civil, polite, merciful, and sympathetic. If an Anti-Hero does become Pure Good, they can no longer be in this category. Many recognize types that may overlap but each sum up a character's overarching traits and should not be entered lightly. While Pure Goods can be former villains, they cannot fall back into said habits willingly as by nature a Pure Good is incorruptible. Even if they used to have anti-heroic moments, they shedded up all of their corruption qualities on their way to redemption (e.g. James P. Sullivan, Twilight Sparkle, Spider-Man (Raimiverse), Buzz Lightyear, Eleven, and Captain America (Marvel Cinematic Universe)). they should go under the False Antagonist, Good Vs. Good, Redeemed Villains, Reluctant Heroes, and/or Virtually Resourceful categories instead.

Additionally, it should also be noted that just because a hero is arrogant, jerk-ish, egotistical, incompetent, lethal, on & off, violent, xenophobic, may fight for good to benefit themselves at times, or isn't honorable doesn't automatically mean their an anti-hero if they don't meet the requirements shown above (e.g. Samus Aran, Revali, Eraser Head, SpongeBob SquarePants, Rainbow Dash, Donkey Kong, Tatsumi, Patrick Star, Mike Wazowski, Star-Lord, Caesar)

See Anti-Hero on TV Tropes, and Analysis for a better understanding of the different types of anti-heroes listed above. The Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains can also be seen on TV Tropes, which is relevant to Anti-Heroes because many characters may fall under both scales, either simultaneously or through character development.