Tropescilloscope: Anti-Hero

A hero who lacks the proper traits of The Hero. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes What You Are in the Dark Suspiciously Specific Denial Slasher Movie Dramedy Cowboy Cop Biopic No Antagonist Frame-Up Bunny-Ears Lawyer Fatal Family Photo Kick the Dog Facial Horror Disguised in Drag Historical In-Joke Evil Laugh Adaptational Villainy Damsel in Distress Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Actually Pretty Funny Unusual Euphemism Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy "Awesome McCool" Name Plot Hole It Will Never Catch On Henpecked Husband Only in It for the Money A God Am I Love at First Sight Meaningful Name Dies Wide Open Epic Movie Black Comedy Unspoken Plan Guarantee The Atoner Room Full of Crazy Film Series Amoral Attorney The Mafia Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Punch-Clock Villain Big Brother Instinct Determinator Foil For Want of a Nail Cool Guns All Men Are Perverts Pay Evil unto Evil An Arm and a Leg Big Damn Heroes Taking You with Me Jerkass Fiery Redhead Accidental Murder Instant Death Bullet Vomit Discretion Shot Insane Troll Logic Tagline Sinister Minister Slashed Throat Naked People Are Funny Cool Shades May–December Romance Groin Attack Did Not Get the Girl Fire-Forged Friends Rule of Three Overprotective Dad Redemption Equals Death Animal Title Index And I Must Scream Disney Villain Death Not So Stoic Does Not Like Shoes What Happened to the Mouse? Call-Back Scenery Porn Light Is Not Good Deliberately Monochrome Alliterative Name True Companions Interrupted Suicide Wham Shot Half the Man He Used to Be Meet Cute Captain Ersatz German Films Not Quite Dead Men Are the Expendable Gender Green-Eyed Monster Evil Counterpart Alpha Bitch Celebrity Paradox Shoot the Shaggy Dog The Smurfette Principle Break the Cutie Agony of the Feet Politically Incorrect Villain Amusing Injuries Hero of Another Story Beard of Evil Obstructive Bureaucrat Horror Films Dramatic Gun Cock The '80s Alas, Poor Villain Jump Scare Badass Boast Unwitting Instigator of Doom Babies Ever After Becoming the Mask Framing Device The Stoic Dirty Coward Vacation Films Villain Opening Scene Badass in a Nice Suit Manly Tears In the Back Documentary B-Movie Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Failed a Spot Check Fat Bastard She's Got Legs Match Cut Paper-Thin Disguise Index of Film Westerns Pragmatic Adaptation Adaptational Heroism A.I. Is a Crapshoot Gainax Ending A Father to His Men Dogged Nice Guy Villain Ball Romantic Comedy Overly Long Gag Rated M for Manly Rasputinian Death Historical Villain Upgrade '80s Hair Adaptational Badass Last-Name Basis Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Cain and Abel Deadpan Snarker Camp Gay Same Language Dub Gilligan Cut Ghost Fiction Hypocrite Up to Eleven Reality Has No Subtitles Gorn Your Cheating Heart Roaring Rampage of Revenge I Have Your Wife I'm a Humanitarian The Load Meaningful Background Event Greater-Scope Villain As Himself Martial Arts Movie No Celebrities Were Harmed Comically Missing the Point Properly Paranoid Action Survivor Real Life Writes the Plot Artistic License – Physics Author Avatar Five-Man Band The Un-Reveal The Musical Superhero The Bad Guy Wins Together in Death There Is No Kill Like Overkill Suddenly SHOUTING! Dumb Blonde Spared by the Adaptation Composite Character Expository Hairstyle Change Insistent Terminology Sassy Black Woman Rule of Symbolism Evil Plan Ominous Latin Chanting Empathic Environment Heterosexual Life-Partners Deliberate Values Dissonance Intergenerational Friendship Villainous Breakdown Nothing Is Scarier Oh, Crap! My Beloved Smother Humiliation Conga Parental Incest Heroes Want Redheads Japanese Films Reasonable Authority Figure Never My Fault Ambiguous Disorder The X of Y Bavarian Fire Drill Everyone Has Standards The Dreaded Fantasy Films O.O.C. Is Serious Business Dual Wielding Deal with the Devil Call-Forward Contrived Coincidence Camera Abuse Mad Scientist Twist Ending Tempting Fate Foregone Conclusion Playing Gertrude Psychopathic Manchild Missing Mom You Killed My Father More Dakka Names to Run Away from Really Fast Heroic Sacrifice Getting Crap Past the Radar Idiot Ball Crazy Jealous Guy "The Reason You Suck" Speech Evil Is Hammy Death by Sex Earn Your Happy Ending Advertised Extra Artistic License – Law Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism He Knows Too Much Heel–Face Turn Sci-Fi Horror Anti-Villain Freeze-Frame Bonus The Ace Say My Name Downer Ending Canon Foreigner Bolivian Army Ending Shirtless Scene Actor Allusion Dying Moment of Awesome N-Word Privileges Captain Obvious Retirony Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Cool Old Lady Fantastic Racism Death Glare Informed Ability Pyrrhic Victory Taking the Bullet Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? All There in the Script Logo Joke Double-Meaning Title Hope Spot The Dragon Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Epic Fail Famous Last Words Pre-Asskicking One-Liner War Is Hell Large Ham Scary Black Man Reality Is Unrealistic Laughing Mad Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Lock and Load Montage Star-Crossed Lovers Cat Scare All There in the Manual Married to the Job Foreshadowing Flashback It's Personal Wrong Genre Savvy Destination Defenestration Lighter and Softer And the Adventure Continues Exactly What It Says on the Tin Closed Circle Homage Danny Peary Cult Movies List Science Fiction Films folderlabel Creepy Child Be Careful What You Wish For It Can Think Time Skip Sacrificial Lion Running Gag Shipper on Deck You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Black Comedy Rape The '60s Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Never Trust a Trailer Important Haircut Calling the Old Man Out Handicapped Badass Take That! Screw the Rules, I Have Money! The Lost Lenore Totally Radical Dwindling Party Fan Disservice Put on a Bus Random Events Plot Cluster F-Bomb Faking the Dead Worthy Opponent Reality Ensues Chiaroscuro Ironic Echo Big Bad Duumvirate Video Credits Victoria's Secret Compartment Translation Convention Re-Cut The Film of the Book Bound and Gagged Irony Chekhov's Gun I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Guile Hero Race Against the Clock Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Knight Templar Anyone Can Die Red Herring Mystery and Detective Films Hollywood Darkness Developing Doomed Characters Sexy Discretion Shot La Résistance Self-Deprecation Bad Boss Whole Plot Reference Double Entendre Friend to All Children It's All About Me All Girls Want Bad Boys Freudian Excuse Mama Bear Well-Intentioned Extremist MacGuffin Catch-Phrase Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Corpsing Depraved Bisexual Silence Is Golden Dropped a Bridge on Him Off with His Head! Back from the Dead I Did What I Had to Do Fanservice Big Applesauce Genre Throwback Not What It Looks Like Works Set in World War II Cat Fight Coming-of-Age Story Blatant Lies Only a Flesh Wound One-Word Title Mistaken for Gay Car Fu Mooks Hero Antagonist Russian Films Christmas Movies Index Pretty in Mink Defiant to the End Revenge Easily Forgiven Gone Horribly Right Evil-Detecting Dog This Is Gonna Suck Eureka Moment Older Than They Look Shown Their Work Mercy Kill Kids Are Cruel Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Even Evil Has Standards The Smart Guy Took a Level in Jerkass Death Seeker Rousing Speech Malevolent Masked Men Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Loophole Abuse Affectionate Parody Take a Third Option Throwing Your Sword Always Works Artistic License – Military Children Are Innocent Motor Mouth Would Hit a Girl The Mole Stepford Smiler Offscreen Teleportation Smoking Is Cool Love Triangle Red Right Hand Shell-Shocked Veteran The Cameo Training Montage Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Red Shirt Big Fancy House Mexican Standoff Here We Go Again! Air-Vent Passageway Novelization Kubrick Stare Ax-Crazy Arranged Marriage Rule of Funny Asshole Victim Implacable Man For the Evulz Grievous Bottley Harm Bilingual Bonus Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Hypocritical Humor Stalker with a Crush No Ending "Shaggy Dog" Story Disproportionate Retribution Big-Bad Ensemble Neck Snap Neck Lift Vomit Indiscretion Shot Not Even Bothering with the Accent Gory Discretion Shot Pet the Dog Despair Event Horizon My God, What Have I Done? Those Wacky Nazis Anachronic Order Due to the Dead Wounded Gazelle Gambit Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Skewed Priorities Ambiguously Gay Those Two Bad Guys The Hero Dies Heel Realization No OSHA Compliance Mundane Made Awesome Curse Cut Short Hooker with a Heart of Gold Obfuscating Stupidity Mood Whiplash Fake Shemp Police Brutality Unusually Uninteresting Sight The Ditz Berserk Button Sole Survivor Stealth Hi/Bye Central Theme Soft Glass Only One Name Plucky Comic Relief Made of Iron Not So Different Deconstruction Imagine Spot Major Injury Underreaction Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Dark and Troubled Past Scenery Gorn Drowning My Sorrows Made of Explodium Manchild Combat Pragmatist Defrosting Ice Queen Shower Scene Manipulative Bastard Our Zombies Are Different Deus ex Machina Meaningful Echo Poor Communication Kills Show Within a Show Bloody Hilarious Artistic License – Geography Psycho for Hire Action Prologue Parental Neglect Daddy's Girl Man on Fire Eiffel Tower Effect Cool Old Guy Sadistic Choice Guns Akimbo Artistic License – Gun Safety Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Department of Redundancy Department Bi the Way Improbable Aiming Skills Authority Equals Asskicking Ascended Extra Exact Words Femme Fatale Betty and Veronica Bloodless Carnage Distracted by the Sexy The Chick Horror Comedy Flipping the Bird No Name Given Cold-Blooded Torture Arch-Enemy Bottomless Magazines Never Found the Body Sports Stories Beauty Is Never Tarnished Nice Guy Evil vs. Evil Adults Are Useless Leaning on the Fourth Wall As Long as It Sounds Foreign Your Head A-Splode Villain Protagonist Intrepid Reporter Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Eldritch Abomination Toplessness from the Back Monumental Damage Cruel and Unusual Death A Date with Rosie Palms The Reveal Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Bullying a Dragon Anachronism Stew Serious Business Left the Background Music On Retired Badass Does This Remind You of Anything? Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Artistic License – History Sir Swears-a-Lot Black and Gray Morality Bad "Bad Acting" Bond One-Liner Black Best Friend Humans Are Bastards Race Lift Anguished Declaration of Love Face Death with Dignity Expy Attempted Rape Ship Tease Evil Sounds Deep Curb-Stomp Battle The End... Or Is It? Smug Snake Tranquil Fury Dark Reprise Trailers Always Spoil You Have Failed Me Dark Action Girl Token Minority Continuity Nod Improvised Weapon Diabolus ex Machina Sanity Slippage Male Gaze Blood Knight Ass Shove No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Batman Gambit Outrun the Fireball Chekhov's Skill Parental Substitute Big Eater Gold Digger Rewatch Bonus Disney Death Card-Carrying Villain Evil Is Petty Badass Longcoat Country Matters Fun with Acronyms Hell Is That Noise Boom, Headshot! All for Nothing Funny Foreigner Straight Gay He Who Fights Monsters Suspiciously Similar Substitute Extremely Short Timespan Hate Sink Genre Savvy Demonic Possession Darker and Edgier Adaptation Dye-Job Antagonist Title Fate Worse than Death Big Bad Ungrateful Bastard Happily Married Chekhov's Gunman Brainless Beauty Needs Wiki Magic Love Vitriolic Best Buds Yandere Adult Fear Not Using the "Z" Word The Bully Manic Pixie Dream Girl Stylistic Suck Anti-Hero Four-Temperament Ensemble Death by Irony Credits Gag Posthumous Character Bowdlerise Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Rape as Drama Book-Ends Get Out! The Oner Costume Porn Brutal Honesty Parental Abandonment Dirty Old Man Maybe Ever After The Alleged Car Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Title Drop I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Black Dude Dies First Off-into-the-Distance Ending Every Car Is a Pinto British Films Brother–Sister Incest Ripped from the Headlines She Cleans Up Nicely A Minor Kidroduction The Sociopath Too Dumb to Live Death by Adaptation Villain Song Evil Brit Hoist by His Own Petard Hong Kong Films Animated Credits Opening Rich Bitch Dramatic Irony Market-Based Title Author Appeal Belligerent Sexual Tension Male Frontal Nudity Drives Like Crazy Cassandra Truth Noodle Incident The Dog Bites Back Badass Bookworm Cloudcuckoolander Award-Bait Song Those Two Guys Spiteful Spit Obviously Evil Abusive Parents Offscreen Moment of Awesome Daylight Horror Protagonist Title Broken Aesop Stealth Pun Jerk with a Heart of Gold The Brute Historical-Domain Character I Need a Freaking Drink Improbable Weapon User As the Good Book Says... Bittersweet Ending All Just a Dream Breaking the Fourth Wall Jerkass Has a Point Creative Closing Credits Naïve Newcomer Storming the Castle Wham Line Would Hurt a Child Product Placement Karmic Death The Ghost Soundtrack Dissonance Enemy Mine Karma Houdini Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Armor-Piercing Question Eyepatch of Power Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Have a Gay Old Time Our Vampires Are Different BFG Artistic License – Biology Knife Nut Blackmail Faux Affably Evil Bare Your Midriff Ms. Fanservice Adaptation Expansion Sequel Escalation Eye Scream Adapted Out From Nobody to Nightmare Big "NO!" Crucified Hero Shot Spell My Name with an "S" Mr. Fanservice Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Canadian Movies Italian Films Adaptation Name Change Ambiguous Ending The Stinger Decoy Protagonist Papa Wolf Dull Surprise Aside Glance Heroic BSoD Hidden Depths No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Covers Always Lie Mythology Gag Determinator aka: The Determinator The Alcoholic Mind Screw Affably Evil Creator Cameo Riddle for the Ages Crazy-Prepared Dissonant Serenity Took a Level in Badass Insult Backfire Redshirt Army Wretched Hive Drugs Are Bad Beware the Nice Ones The Chessmaster Sealed Evil in a Can French Films Eagleland Shout-Out Woman Scorned Aluminum Christmas Trees Killed Mid-Sentence Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Film Noir My Greatest Failure Not So Above It All NO INDOOR VOICE Grey and Gray Morality The Big Guy Line-of-Sight Name The Power of Love Almost Kiss Hollywood Law Final Girl Better to Die than Be Killed Spiritual Successor The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Super Strength You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Zombie Stories Pimped-Out Dress Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Kick the Son of a Bitch Australian Movies The Vamp Historical Hero Upgrade Pragmatic Villainy And Starring Domestic Abuse Moment Killer Serial Killer Bury Your Gays Girl-on-Girl Is Hot After the End Darkest Hour Immune to Bullets Scare Chord Dressing as the Enemy "Well Done, Son!" Guy Mighty Whitey Chewing the Scenery Dirty Cop Funny Background Event Precision F-Strike How We Got Here An Axe to Grind Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Dark Is Not Evil Demoted to Extra Psychological Thriller Loads and Loads of Characters Nice Hat The Stoner Didn't Think This Through Wicked Cultured What the Hell, Hero? Undying Loyalty Based on a True Story Drill Sergeant Nasty Setting Update In Medias Res The Cavalry Adorkable Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Word of God Truth in Television Music Stories Fingore Morality Pet Leitmotif Fatal Flaw Peek-a-Boo Corpse Visual Pun Only Known by Their Nickname Spanner in the Works Brick Joke Pretty Little Headshots Romantic False Lead Fourth Date Marriage Military and Warfare Films Apocalypse How Even Evil Has Loved Ones The Great Depression The Hero Casting Gag Badass Grandpa Public Domain Feature Films An Aesop Early Installment Weirdness 20 Minutes into the Future Jerk Jock Laser-Guided Karma Awesome, but Impractical Kill It with Fire Bald of Evil Early-Bird Cameo Gratuitous English The '90s Villain with Good Publicity Film Noir Index Mr. Exposition Bait-and-Switch In Name Only Reckless Gun Usage No-Sell Leave the Camera Running Sequel Hook Kill 'em All The Faceless Accidental Misnaming Character Development Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Stuff Blowing Up The Quiet One Unresolved Sexual Tension From Bad to Worse Thriller Auto Erotica Unreliable Narrator Small Name, Big Ego Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Slasher Smile "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Corrupt Corporate Executive The Starscream Shut Up, Hannibal! Narrator One-Man Army Retcon Blood from the Mouth Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Crapsack World Conspicuous CG Fanservice Extra Broken Bird Fish out of Water Adaptation Distillation Beta Couple Animal Motifs Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Woman in White Bring My Brown Pants One Steve Limit Butt-Monkey Slap-Slap-Kiss The '70s Face–Heel Turn Action Girl Lampshade Hanging Dutch Angle Only Sane Man Adaptational Attractiveness Bond Villain Stupidity Extreme Doormat Badass Normal World of Ham The Voiceless Fainting Disappeared Dad Pre-Mortem One-Liner Silent Movie Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping The Lancer Non-Indicative Name Body Horror Bloodier and Gorier Arc Words The Remake Gender Flip Annoying Younger Sibling Honor Before Reason Television Movie Index Police are Useless The '50s Abhorrent Admirer Once More, with Clarity! Broken Pedestal Really Gets Around Catapult Nightmare Age Lift Tap on the Head As You Know timeperiod Good Is Not Nice Recycled IN SPACE! Red Eyes, Take Warning Bar Brawl Make It Look Like an Accident Mugging the Monster Red Oni, Blue Oni Break the Haughty Chase Scene The Casanova Driven to Suicide Vampire Fiction Genre Shift Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Hair-Trigger Temper Very Loosely Based on a True Story Refuge in Audacity Stock Footage Jitter Cam Death of a Child Rule of Cool Action Genre Punny Name Real Life Cool Car Let's Get Dangerous! Madness Mantra The Place Establishing Character Moment Bland-Name Product