User blog:Njalm2/Guide: Anti-Heroes

Alright, being the complete nerd that I am I have decided to create an in-depth guide to the several degrees of Anti-Heroism and Anti-Villainy, because indeed, there are several grades of each. For those who don't know what one of, if not both of them are I'll include it in a short summary beneath.

Anti-Heroes: An Anti-Hero can be many different things, although the most common example is a Hero who doesn't quite fit into the norm - this being that they're highly unlikely to help old ladies across the street, save a random princess in a random tower (unless of course they already know her)- and perhaps most noteworthy of all, they can be cold, cynical and in the more extreme cases outright amoral and perhaps even cruel about how they choose to advance their cause. An alternative is a so-called unlikely Hero, who is a character who lacks most of the conviction that drives a normal Hero and who perhaps ain't as handsome or beautiful as any other hero or heroine would be ---these are just simple and generic examples and I will go more indepth later.

Anti-Villains: Anti-Villains are the kind of bad guys who you can sympathize with to an extent; they're those who possess a code of honor and who have a few rules they're not willing to trangress no matter the situation; this rule being, quite unsurprisingly the rule not to harm children or in more extreme cases innocents. An Anti-Villain may or may not work towards a noble or just cause, in the event that they do though, they're often driven by much of the same that drives the Hero, their circumstances are just different.

Anti-Heroes
This section includes a more in-depth analyzis of the Anti-Hero archetype.

Grades of Anti-Heroes
As I stated before there are several grades to Anti-Heroism, ranging from I-V in romical letters which is used to denote the degree they shun away from the principles of your everyday cartoon superhero.

Grade I
This was actually the original understanding of the term, a character who is a protagonist but lacks the qualities of the hero as seen by the Greeks. This is what I previously discussed in the short summary, a character who doesn't fit the standard requirements for being a Hero, in essence a normal person cast into the role of a Hero without second thought. The alternative is a character who while he fits the qualifications of a Hero doesn't do good for the sake of doing good but rather because it simply happens to be the most convenient to him, which means that he or she won't go to great lengths to make sure everyone are alright, which a normal Hero would.

Grade II
The difference between Grade II and Grade I is quite small, generally though - the Grade II is very similiar to an actual Hero only that he or she has a habit of being brutally honest or even sarcastic and ill-minded; they're usually affected by a negative past and therefore lacks most of the positive viewpoints of your everyday Hero: The prime example of this would have to be our very own Ichigo Kurosaki who, while he certainly is a Hero is quite cold and brooding, he's also very guilty about the death of his mother and for that reason he is very protective, almost overprotective of his loved ones. These, like the latter example of Grade I are usually much less designated towards saving humanity as they are towards saving their inner circle of close friends and family, nor are they motivated by the sense to do good.

Grade III
While some of these share the snarkiness associated with a Type II Anti-Hero, they are somewhat darker than the previous version, as their Anti-Hero status is associated with their willingness to do good through "not nice" actions. They're commonly associated with how they don't have a problem with killing their enemy and some of them may indeed be ruthless or be prone to violent actions upon teamates and allies alike, if they're ticked off enough. Furthermore, they're almost always driven by self-interest and most of them are rather ambigeously good-aligned and seem more like neutral characters whos goals simply happen to cross with that of the good guys.

Grade IV
This type of Anti-Hero will recurrently be extremely vicious. They can be very brutal towards enemies and allies alike, are prone to sarcastic and cruel comments and are frequently depicted as ruthless, their code of honor is limited to only a few points and those points can often be bypassed at their discretion - they're likely to include innocents in their battles and can sometimes choose to sacrifice them in order to achieve a greater good. This may also extend to their own teammates and trusted allies if the situation calls for it, although they're normally hesistant to do so where it concerns people they know and care about. At times, these Anti-Heroes can be easily confused with the villain given how their methods are usually very similiar and that they're willing to stop at next to nothing to achieve their set goal or purpose. I can list a single Fanon example of this one so far, which is namely by very own Shigenaga Arma, who is willing to stop at nothing to prove his worth to his Clan.

Grade V
Anti-Heroes of Grade V are characters who are sided with the Heroes for one or more reasons, but who are still very much malevolent. In essence these characters are sociopaths who just happen to be on the side of good - the most prevalent example of this would be Mayuri Kurotsuchi, demonstrated by his utter lack of regard to even his own subordinates, as he actually uses them as bombs to kill his enemies.

more to come!...