TRAGIC HEROES

TRAGIC HEROES

Examples

ANIME

 Utena Tenjou of Revolutionary Girl Utena seeks strength and nobility not

for her sake, but to save another person whom she cannot even

remember. However, the enemy she faces is vastly older, more powerful

and more sophisticated than this 14-year-old girl and manipulates her

handily, turning her into the Tragic Hero through the final third of the

series. (Even so, Utena manages to pull off a win against him — confusing

and puzzling, but a win nonetheless.)

 The entire cast of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but especially Shinji Ikari,

who is fourteen years old, shy, indecisive, reclusive, and has no self-

confidence, but must learn to be a warrior — and, in the end, he doesn't

even succeed at that.

 Kikyou and Inuyasha from InuYasha, in regards to how their insecurity

issues allowed Naraku to turn them against each other, kill Kikyou and

make Inuyasha sleep for 50 years.

 Subaru in X1999, oh so very, very much.

 Harry McDowell and Brandon Heat from the Gungrave anime are tragic

heroes. This is a rare case where both protagonist and antagonist are

tragic heroes. Harry McDowell, in his search for power so that he will

never have to lose anything, ends up becoming a power-hungry Bloody

Harry and kills his best friend Brandon Heat, turning Brandon into Beyond

the Grave. The guilt over killing his best friend makes Harry slowly lose his

sanity. On the other hand, Brandon Heat, who is loyal to the fault, cannot

bring himself to stop Harry even when he knows Harry is obviously going

down the wrong path and ends up getting killed. In a way, Brandon is also

responsible for the deaths of his other loved ones as Brandon's death

causes Harry to hunt down those whom Brandon holds dear (as Harry

reasons that those people "took Brandon from him"). At the end of the

series, after destroying each other completely, both Brandon and Harry

realize that the only time they were truly "free" was when they lived in a

slum with three other friends (whose deaths led Brandon and Harry to join

the Millenion in the first place) and decide to take the only way out: killing

each other.

o Ends very differently in the videogame— Harry allows Grave to kill

him, and Grave survives the ordeal. His only concern at that point is

Mika's protection, so he leaves the city with her.

 Yomi of Ga-Rei -Zero-. So very much...

 Arguably, Lucy from Elfen Lied. By the end of the anime, she even admits

that both Diclonii and humans are too proud to surrender and live

peacefully with each other.

 Interestingly, Kamina fits the concept quite well. His overweening sense of

determination & over-the-top Hot Blooded-ness are integral to his

success, yet in the end are what leads to his death. Also, Lordgenome

and even Rossiu to a degree.

 Light Yagami arguably fits this, to a certain degree.

 Oskar von Reuenthal from Legend of Galactic Heroes is one of the

greatest examples found in anime, even if he's not the protagonist. A

Broken Ace who is almost as ambitious and brilliant as Kaiser Reinhard -

He could become a great ruler, if he weren't simply outshone by Reinhard.

Over the course of the series, his conflicting loyalty, ambition, jealousy, his

traumatic past and especially his pride eventually lead to his downfall after

he is forced into committing treachery. It should be mentioned that he

never really became a villain right until the end, despite it all.

 Akito Tenkawa in the Martian Successor Nadesico Movie.

Mikael from Tenshi Ni Narumon. Overall good-willed, but terribly

misguided and with immense issuses of self-denial. His obsession with

becoming a full angel blinded him to other people's feelings/opinions and

led him to undertake pretty harshful and questionable actions. In the end,

he did realize his wrongdoings and although it was implied that he will

probably never become such angel as he would like to be, he eventually

got recognized as a decent... 1/3 of an angel? Or something like that.

 Unrequited love was the catalyst – not the cause – of Sayaka's downfall;

what really pushed her over the edge was her righteousness. As a coping

mechanism, she tried to become a hero who would uphold ideals. She

believed in justice, but her growing resentment made her shift from

protecting the innocent to punishing the wicked. When Sayaka realizes

how she had come to contradict her earlier aspirations, all the hatred turns

inward. It is precisely because of her unyielding nature that her spirit

shatters. Unable to forgive this transgression, she inflicts her own

punishment: a curse unto herself. From her Soul Gem hatches a mermaid-

knight, a being representing the love and righteousness that she had once

valued.



COMIC BOOKS

 Rorschach, from Watchmen.

 Wolverine

 Morpheus, or Dream of the Endless, from The Sandman. His pride, his

stubbornness and his fanatical devotions to his own duties as the aspect

of Dream constantly conspire to make his life(?) an eternal mess. In the

end, he has to choose between changing or dying, and as it turns out, he

is unable to change himself enough.



FILM

 Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars was a Tragic Hero in the prequels. He

was a hero of the Republic, got the girl, helped win the war, and saved his

Master a number of times. His Fatal Flaw was the fear of losing those he

cared about, which fed a hunger for power to prevent it from ever

happening, and that eventually turned him into the ever-popular Black

Knight Darth Vader.

 Sweeney Todd. He is a barber trying to get revenge on Judge Turpin for

raping his wife and taking his daughter away from him. His Fatal Flaw was

his tendency to take things at face value and his willingness to trust

someone he really shouldn't have regarding his wife, and as a result, he

unknowingly kills his wife, who has become a beggar woman, just before

finally taking vengeance upon Turpin.

 Oliver Stone's Nixon arguably makes Richard Nixon into a very tragic

hero.

 Tony Montana from Scarface also counts. His aggressive conquest for

power and guts are important factors in his rise to power and his godlike

charisma, but they also end up causing his downfall as he refuses to

compromise with anyone. He also develops a case of paranoia which is

only worsened by his increasing addiction to his own product.

 Citizen Kane: Kane, all his life was the need to be loved... In his own

terms. Lampshaded by Leland.



Leland: That's all he ever wanted out of life... was love. That's the tragedy

of Charles Foster Kane. You see, he just didn't have any to give.



LITERATURE

 Eddard Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire, who actually did keep his

nobility of spirit to the end...and it killed him. Everyone else in that series

could also qualify, to a greater or lesser extent.

 Mack Bolan, The Executioner, from the series of novels by the same

name. He knows he can't kill every Mafioso, but he sets out to get as

many as he can. In the end, he ends up faking his death and going to

work for the government.

 David Eddings considers (Bel)Zedar of his Belgariad to be a tragic hero,

although he's really more of an Anti-Villain.

 In the Harry Potter series, both Sirius Black and Severus Snape can very

much be considered tragic heroes.

o Sirius actually suffers from his fatal flaws several times. His hot

headiness is what got him framed for murdering his best friend, causing

him to serve several years in Azkaban. Later on, his cruelty towards

Kreacher ends up playing a pivotal role in the lead up to his death.

 Lily Bart from The House of Mirth. Her fatal flaw is her inability to

recognize how vain and materialistic New York high society is.

 Jake from Animorphs. Being the leader is tough when you need to make

decisions that cost you the respect of everyone around you.

 The Dragon ( Rand ) from The Wheel of Time series is doomed to

eventually fail, as the goal of the Big Bad is to destroy the Pattern and the

Wheel of Time, and the Wheel of Time will keep cycling until that happens.

 The Silmarillion is made of these; though, since it mostly follows

characters exiled for rebellion, it's kind of a prerequisite.

o Húrin and Túrin Turambar may be the Most Glorious Examples.

The former defies Morgoth and is punished by having his whole family

cursed with bad luck, and is forced to watch their fates. The latter, his

son, falls in love with his own sister, whom he had never met, is pursued

by a powerful dragon, and when he finally manages to kill it, the dragon

reveals his sister's identity to him, causing him to commit suicide.

 Satan, in Paradise Lost, could be considered one of these.

 Raistlin Majere from the Dragonlance Legends trilogy is even called one of

these in the Annotated Legends.

 Inspector Javert of Les Misérables is a man on the side of good and law,

but so inflated with extreme self-righteousness that, when confronted with

criminal Valjean's nobility he has no choice but to kill himself (damned if I

live in the debt of a thief, damned if he's free at the end of the chase).

 Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart is a prime example of this. His father is a

titleless debtor, he gets exiled because he accidentally killed a man, his

son leaves him for a life as a christian, he gets imprisoned by said

christians, and he eventually hangs himself in shame



LIVE-ACTION TV

 Assuming his eventual downfall or assassination, Tony Soprano is

probably the biggest example of a tragic hero in modern television. He

actually wants to be a good person, a good father and a good husband,

and he tries hard, even getting flashes where you hope he'll improved

(such as when he realizes that the stripper Frankie just murdered was the

same age as his daughter), but is incapable of overcoming his own

narcissism, shortsightedness and lack of empathy. And the fact that he's,

you know, a mob boss.

 Craig Manning from Degrassi: The Next Generation is smart, charming,

artistic, sensitive, romantic, and a perfect gentleman. But he inevitably

breaks the heart of everybody around him, and himself, due to his Fatal

Flaw — he is thoughtless, rash, and grandiose (eventually revealed to be

due to bipolar disorder).

o Ashley Kerwin is responsible, hard-working, and the most decent of

all the popular kids. She is slowly destroyed by bad luck, unscrupulous

rivals — and most importantly, by her own bitterness from all she goes

through. (Perhaps inevitably, she and Craig wound up as Star-Crossed

Lovers.)

o In a similar vein, student Rick (who had pushed a fellow student

into a rock, leaving her in a coma) underwent anger management before

going back to school, and genuinely tried to be a nice person...which

failed, because essentially the entire school hated him for what he had

done before. It got to the point that, after being dumped on with goo at an

event Carrie-style, he took a gun to Degrassi and shot a fellow student in

the back, paralyzing him, then threatening to kill one of the main

characters before dying in a struggle with student Sean over the gun.

 Six Feet Under, where characters and plot action alike were primarily

defined by the tragedies they encompassed.

 More than you can shake a stick at in Heroes, but perhaps most notably

Isaac.

 Pick anyone you like from Supernatural but Dean might just be the most

glaring due to recent events. He's got no self-worth whatsoever, his only

reason for living is so that he can protect his little brother, his perfect

fantasy is a world where he's worthless (but everyone else is happy and

his mum is still alive), he's been driven to suicide more times than I care to

remember and then the poor bastard was tortured in hell. Even after he

managed to make his way out of Hell, he's now suffering a serious case of

accidental It's All My Fault since he's responsible for breaking the First

Seal and initiating the beginning of the coming of the Apoclypse. Talk

about the fate of all humanity - literally - resting in your hands.

o Actually, Sam is just as straight an example of this trope, and

possibly more in line with the classic Greek tragic hero, given that his

flaw is one of the Greeks' favorites: pride. Sam's breach of the final seal

was, in the end, a product of his ego — he believed he was the only one

who could save the world by destroying Lilith. Moreover, like most Greek

tragic heroes, he does a bunch of horrible things, but seems to have an

almost Lucifer-like ability to justify them to himself. Among the highlights:

allying (and having romantic liaisons with) a demon, getting addicted to

the consumption of demonic blood, lying to and betraying his loved ones,

and beating his own brother to a pulp before nearly choking him to death.

And yet, until Ruby revealed the plot to him after it was too late, he had

no idea that he was playing for the wrong team. His reaction to this, and

his redemptive sacrifice at the end of Season 5, are the classic

responses of a tragic hero who finally realizes how badly he sucks.

o Castiel becomes a Tragic Hero in Season 6, as he desperately tries

to prevent Raphael from restarting the Apocalypse. In this case, his Fatal

Flaw would be Pride, as he's convinced that everything he does,

regardless of what it is, is ultimately right so long as it's for this goal. This

leads to him being forced into an alliance with Crowley, and ultimately

Jumping Off the Slippery Slope by absorbing all the souls in Purgatory

and declaring himself the new God. By that point, it's hard to call him a

"hero" anymore.

 Londo Mollari in Babylon 5 is a definite example of a tragic hero; while at

first he seems to be a self-absorbed drunken buffoon, he is a true patriot

who really does want his people to rise up from their malaise. He

ultimately does lead the Centauri to glory, but the price he pays is too

high, and he dies first.

o Lennier was a faithful and devoted servant who never seemed to

ask anything in return. But his Fatal Flaw was a jealousy he barely

admitted to himself.

 Captain Benteen on the hour long Twilight Zone episode On Thursday We

Leave For Home. For years he lead a colony of people stranded on a hot,

desolate planet. He helps them survive, holds them together and gives

them hope for a rescue. When a spaceship finally arrives to take them

home to Earth everyone is overjoyed including him. However Benteen

feels the power he once had slipping away. When he learns that many of

the colonist don't want to stay together when they return to Earth he

becomes angry. He tells them that Earth is a horrible place and tries to

destroy the ship. He refuses to go on the spaceship which will not return

and chooses to stay. Only when he sees the ship leave does he realize he

wants to go back home to Earth.

 Frank Sobotka of The Wire just wants to make sure the Baltimore

stevedores are going to stay in business. Unfortunately this means

keeping slightly unsavory company...



Ryubee Sonozaki of Kamen Rider Double. Despite being the lead

antagonist, he's a Tragic Hero in true Shakespearean fashion. His Fatal

Flaw of ambition ultimately results in the utter destruction of his family's

happiness and unity and costs him his mind and his life. As much of a

monster as he was, his final moments, which he spends in his burning,

crumbling house laughing like a madman and reminiscing about the good

times he had with his family before his Fatal Flaw took over drive the

tragedy home.

 In some extent Gaius Baltar in the Battlestar galactica 2003 serie (not in

the original ones, where Count Baltar is more of a Manipulative Bastard ):

he actually has a LOT of Fatals Flaws , the main of which would be pride

and overconfidence. However, he strives to protect humanity (and

therefore the fleet) from utter destruction on numerous occasions.



MYTHOLOGY

 Greek Mythology had too many tragic heroes to count. There is the story

of Oedipus who was cursed to marry his mother and kill his father,

Prometheus, Orestes.

o Prometheus accomplished his mission, stealing fire for mortal man.

And tricked the Gods as to which parts of animals the humans were to

sacrifice. It's just... you know... he pissed off the Jerkass Gods in the

process of helping humanity. So Zeus chained him to a rock and had an

eagle eat his innards. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Since he's immortal.

 Contrary to popular belief, he's not even tortured FOREVER.

Hercules breaks him free. Eventually. If anything, it counts as a Heroic

Sacrifice.

o Speaking of, Hercules could go on this list as well. Those famous

12 Labors? Penance, for being driven into a berserk rage (by HERA) and

murdering his own family. Then he gets another wife, who gets

kidnapped by a centaur (and friend of Herc's) named Nessus, I think.

Herc shoots him with a poison arrow (dipped in the Hydra's blood).

Dying, Nessus tells her to rub his blood on Herc's clothes if she ever

thinks Herc is being unfaithful, and it will tell the truth. Blood that is now

laced with the Hydra's poison. It goes as well as you would think.

 Karna from The Mahabharata. Abandoned at birth by his mother who later

became a queen, mocked often for his common origins by the Princes and

for his high origin by his mentor who cursed that he should forgot all the

things he learned from him for disguising himself as a brahmin rather than

the warrior that he was, the Dragon to the Big Bad Duryodhana and

halfbrother to the Heroes, the Pandavas. He dies because he actually had

a sense of honor and that killed him in the end.



THEATER

 Many of Shakespeare's protagonists, of course. Some of the best

examples are Brutus, Othello, and Hamlet.

o If fact, if the title is a main character's name they tend to bite it by

the end. Tragically.

 Macbeth potentially being an exception. He comes NEAR

the ultimate repentance of the Tragic Hero... but pulls out of his

Villainous Breakdown and goes for broke.

o Importantly, Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes have Fatal Flaws

specific to their situation. Put Hamlet in Othello and Desdemona will live.

Put Othello in Hamlet and Claudius will be killed in the first act.

 David Mamet's play Oleanna. A university lecturer about to get his tenure,

with a loving wife and a payment on a house going through, decides to

help a female student falling behind in his class. He makes a few off-the-

cuff, inappropriate comments to the female student (he says "I'm not your

father" in response to her wanting to be told want to do, he relates an

anecdote about the rich copulating with less clothes on to the student),

only to be told by the student in the next act that she's having him done for

sexual harassment because of his comments.

 Arthur Miller intended to create the "modern tragic hero" in his legendary

play Death of a Salesman. Previously, it had been generally thought by

literary critics, academics et al. that for a character to be a tragic hero he

must fall from a great social height- ex. Brutus in Julius Caesar. Miller,

however, argued for years that Willy Loman was a tragic hero who fell not

from the height of social position but from the height of his aspirations and

self-delusions. Eventually, Miller admitted that Loman's character was

pathetic, not tragic because he stubbornly failed to learn anything from his

fall and thought maybe he would have achieved his goal if he had focused

more on Willy Loman's son, Biff.

o In The Crucible, John Proctor definitely qualifies as a tragic hero,

and his fatal flaw would be either his temper or his pride depending on

who you ask.

 If your name is the title of a Greek play that is not a comedy, you fall under

this trope and have an high chance of dying.

 Seymour Krelborn of Little Shop of Horrors is brought down by his desire

for Audrey's love; he makes a Faustian Bargain of sorts with the plant to

win her love. It turns out to be a Senseless Sacrifice: turns out Audrey

loves him all the same, even without the fame brought by the fame.

 Elphaba "My road of good intentions lead where such roads always

lead..." No matter how hard she tries to do what's right, she cannot win.



VIDEO GAMES

 Kratos of God of War was tricked into killing the only two people he ever

loved and the Olympian gods refused to get rid of his memories of this,

even though he killed Ares, which they wanted. He's a total arsehole, but

still sympathetic - an apt hero for a game based on Greek mythology.

o Kratos is a Tragic Hero because for all the impressive feats he

manages, he himself is never able to get over the trauma of killing his

own family. It is his love for his family that prevents Kratos from

becoming a Complete Monster, but at the same time, it's due to that love

that Kratos is unable to get over his feelings of guilt and is slowly driven

insane. Kratos starts working for the gods because they promise to free

him from his nightmares, but as time goes on, it becomes apparent that

1. the gods do not have the power to take away his guilt and 2. the gods

only view him as a pawn. In this regard, his ignorance towards the Gods'

anger (or causing the said anger) is rather understandable.

 The Metal Gear series is all about these characters.

o The first two Metal Gear games cast protagonist Snake as a tragic

hero, who rapidly realises he doesn't actually care about his orders, is

being exploited by his bosses and manipulated by the villains, who

together constitute his only friends and family.

o He's press-ganged into doing it all again in Metal Gear Solid, but in

the end he gets to disappear and chase after his own goals.

o Metal Gear Solid 2 casts newcomer Raiden in a similar, but more

Shinji-esque exploited hero role.

o Metal Gear Solid 3 puts Snake's progenitor through the wringer to

explain his turn to villainy, in an interesting contrast to Snake's own

decisions.

o In Metal Gear Solid 4, Snake is still a free man, but he has only

months left to live.

 Of course in the end they do manage to earn a happy ending

of sorts. The world is a better place when all is said and done, so they

didn't really fail. The main characters get a shot at happiness too: Meryl

and Johnny get married, Campbell can finally start to bond with his

daughter Meryl, Raiden/Jack is reunited with his lover and their son for

a chance to begin anew as a family, Big Boss finally dies in peace

knowing that the world will no longer suffer from his mistakes, and

though Snake/David will only have months to live he can do so as a free

man for the first time in his life. He doesn't have to fight anymore.

 Sigurd of Chalphy in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War starts out

as an upstanding if not idealistic chap on a mission to rescue his

childhood friend, but due to events he had little to no control over he loses

the woman he loves, is branded a traitor and forced to flee his homeland.

It all culminates in his supposed ally Alvis of Velthomer having stolen said

wife for his own and burning Sigurd alive. Alvis himself was being played

by an even bigger bastard, but even so. OUCH.

 Taro Namatame of Persona 4, who started throwing the main characters

into the TV out of a misguided belief that he was actually saving them from

the true murderer (his Shadow represents his delusions of himself as a

savior). If the player manages to convince the others that he's innocent,

Namatame will have a My God, What Have I Done? moment upon

realizing the consequences of his actions.

 The Nameless One is a perfect example of a tragic hero. The happy

ending for the game ends with him choosing to pay his penance and

undergoing torture for eternity.

 Archer from Fate/stay night. His Fatal Flaw, ironically enough, was his

idealism. Eventually, it killed him.

o To expand upon this one: Archer used to be Shirou, who was

eventually the winner of the Fifth Holy Grail War. After the war, he

continued to pursue his ideals by becoming a hero, and he continuously

saved people. At one point, in order to save a few hundred people,

Archer made a contract with the world. Now with his new power, he

continued to be a hero. However, he was used as a scapegoat to all the

catastrophes that occurred due to the face that he never talked because

he had nothing to talk about, and he never asked for a reward because

for him, the sole act of saving people was his reward. After dying and

becoming a Counter Guardian, he found himself going against his ideals.

Instead of saving people, he was forced to kill them because his duty as

a Counter Guardian was to end the threat to humanity at the source,

which was people. He found himself betrayed by his ideals, and became

cynical and bitter, with his only solace the hope to be summoned into the

Grail War, and kill his past self so he could end the pain of being

betrayed by his ideals.

o Other heroic spirits in the Fifth Grail War are Tragic Heroes in their

previous lives. Caster, Lancer, Saber are some examples.

 Neverwinter Nights 2 has Ammon Jerro. Originally a kindly, eccentric court

magician, once he learned about the King of Shadows, he decided to take

it upon himself to combat him in order to protect the world. However, as

time went on, his determination to defeat the King of Shadows slowly

became a dark obsession, and he gradually began to lose himself, taking

more and more extreme measures to defeat the King. These ultimately

resulted in him selling his soul to the Abyss in order to gain an army of

Demons under his command, and began a rampage throughout Faerun in

order to obtain the shards of the only weapon that can harm the King of

Shadows, perfectly willing to kill countless people that (knowingly or not)

stand in his way. It's not until he accidentally kills Shandra, his own

granddaughter, in a blind rage that he realizes how far he's fallen and how

much his actions have harmed both the people he had sworn to protect,

and most importantly, himself.

o The expansion Mask Of The Betrayer had Akachi, who led a grand

crusade to tear down the Wall of the Faithless, where those who refused

to worship a god were assigned to suffer for eternity. He did so to rescue

the woman he loved, who died without dedicating herself to a God, and

he was almost certainly doomed to fail from the start. As a consequence,

he became the spirit eater.

 Tirion Fordring of Warcraft helps an orc who saved his life, and is in turn

branded a traitor, has all his powers taken away, has his family leave him,

and generally becomes a classic tragic hero. Also a subversion, because

the powers were not theirs to take, leaving him ultimately as the founder of

a new and less Jerk Ass order...

 Fain in the Back Story of Lusternia. The Elder Gods faced a Hopeless War

against The Soulless. Knowing that the Soulless devoured Elders and

lesser Soulless alike to increase in power, Fain and his followers

pioneered an elixir made from fallen Soulless essence, fighting fire with

fire. The side-effects caused the other Elder Gods to reject its use, so Fain

and his followers continued drinking it in secret. They turned the war

around single-handedly. But as The Dark Side Will Make You Forget, Fain

- and his followers - became steadily more monstrous. They were exiled

by the other Elders while on the cusp of victory, derailing and dooming the

entire war effort. By the time of the game, Fain's twisted in appearance

and motivation, and harbors an insane grudge against the world.

 Harpuia in Mega Man Zero wants a world in which humans and reploids

can live in peace. Too bad he's so blinded by pride that he can't see the

truth. For extra irony, his goal makes him Not So Different from the leader

of the Resistance. Becomes subverted in later games when he's capable

of differentiating between a rebel and a psychopath and turns his wrath on

the later first.

 Merrill from Dragon Age 2. She tries to rebuild an Eluvian against the

Keeper Marethari's wishes to try to find a missing clan mate and to reclaim

a part of Elvish history. However because the mirror holds the darkspawn

taint she turns to a demon that teaches her blood magic so she can

cleanse it. Because of that she leaves her clan because they fear and

hate her, exemplified by another member choosing to run towards a

monster that kills him as opposed to dealing with her. She can't

comprehend why her clan is so against her rebuilding the Eluvian and is a

bit self-righteous when it comes to defending her actions. In the last act of

the game Merrill becomes so obsessed with fixing the Eluvian she doesn't

leave her house for days on end. When she confronts the demon for the

last time the Keeper reveals the demon was only using her so she would

build a portal out of his prison and he would possess or kill her once he

was out. Marethari took the demon into her own body to prevent this,

becoming an abomination. Merrill is forced to kill the Keeper, who she

admits was like a mother to her. Depending on what dialogue you chose

she might be forced to kill her entire clan if they attack her.



WEBCOMICS

 There are a few in The Order of the Stick:

o Redcloak in Start of Darkness. His goal: improve the goblin race's

lot in life. Initially merely a Well-Intentioned Extremist, his Fatal Flaw

turns out to be the "sunk cost" fallacy, which Xykon ruthlessly exploits.

By the end, he's incapable of ever betraying Xykon, because if he does,

he'll have to face the fact that he killed his own brother - and allowed

many other goblins to die - for no good reason. He does have his

moments of "redemption", such as when he reaffirms the value of other

goblinoids even if they aren't his race of goblin.

o Vaarsuvius seems to have recently arrived in this role, partly as a

result of fan-diagnosed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. V's Fatal Flaw is

Pride in magic, and an increasing inability to admit failure at a task and

requiring the help of others. This leads to selling (leasing, technically)

Vaarsuvius's soul out to fiends and refusing to give up the resulting

power after the rescue of V's threatened mate and children, as "I have so

much to do". Vaarsuvius's exact words were actually "I still have to fix

everything", but the subsequent attempts to do so have allowed V to

realize the mistake made without dying like so many tragic heroes.

Sadly, this bit of wisdom is unlikely to be much help with fixing V's family

life. The aftermath has cemented V's status; after a severe case of Break

the Haughty and his/her mate filing for divorce, V is acting like an elf with

not much left to live for.

o Miko Miyazaki was a self-righteous headcase paladin who was the

most powerful paladin in the Sapphire Guard. She was severely anti-

social; her only friend was her horse. As a consequence the Sapphire

Guard would send her away on long missions so they wouldn't have to

put up with her. She believed that she was an incorruptible force of

goodness and justice. She could not accept that she may be wrong or

have made a mistake, and believed that if she believed something, it had

to be true. Then she killed Lord Shojo in a psychotic breakdown, after

believing that Lord Shojo betrayed the Sapphire Guard, when he really

wanted to protect the sealed rift from the forces of evil. As a result, she

had fallen from grace and lost her paladin powers. When she tried to

gain redemption by destroying the sealed rift to try and stop Xykon and

Redcloak from taking it, she instead destroyed the seal to the rift and

was brutally bisected, and told by Soon Kim's ghost that "redemption

was not everyone". The real tragedy with Miko was that she would never

find redemption, as she could not accept that she had done something

wrong, and so could not atone for her sins.



WEB ORIGINAL

 Dr. Horrible manages to be both this AND a Villain Protagonist. His

hesitation in killing Captain Hammer allows Hammer to break his death

ray and then try to use it. The resulting explosion sends Hammer away

whimpering, but kills Penny, causing Horrible to Jump Off The Slippery

Slope into complete supervillainy.



WESTERN ANIMATION

 The Brain, of Animaniacs spinoff Pinky and the Brain, who is doomed to

failure every episode because of his tragic flaw, Genre Blindness. His

plans have been shown at points to be purely power-hungry, but he's also

shown to be wanting to rule the world because he thinks he can do a far

better job (that appears to be Pinky's position at least — and considering

the intelligence level of the world as depicted in the show... he could be

right). In the Did Not Do Research episode of "Freakazoid!" (where he

travels back in time), it was shown as much in an alternate time-line where

he's president of the U.S.A. and things seem to have worked out pretty

well. He is unable to anticipate the wacky hijinks which will inevitably result

from the fact that this is a Warner Brothers cartoon, and so inevitably

either Pinky's bumbling or his own carelessly chosen reactions end each

plan in disappointment. In one episode, a prognosticative observation

shows a future elderly Pinky & the Brain still locked in their labmouse

cage, still plotting to Take Over the World.

 Jet of Avatar: The Last Airbender. His parents were killed and his village

was destroyed when he was eight. He became the Well-Intentioned

Extremist leader of a group of rebels who tried and failed to destroy the

village the Fire Nation was occupying. He tried to move on and become a

refugee, but was brainwashed for speaking about the war, and ultimately

is killed the instant he breaks free from the brainwashing (see:

Redemption Equals Death).

 Oddly enough, Danny Phantom becomes one in an alternate universe of

the show. Danny Fenton gains ghostly powers and decides to use them to

protect his town from the ghosts and menaces threatening it. The twist

however, is that his friends and family are killed in an explosion, leading

his arch enemy Vlad to take him in. Far MORE twisted is that in a

procedure to rip out his humanity AKA his ghostly half, the ghost half ends

merging with Vlad's ghost half, murdering Fenton, and beginning a ten

year rampage around the entire world and succeeding. Oh, and it was

HIM that caused his family and friends' death! The fact that he's exists

outside of his own alternate Bad Future is just a matter of when he will

break free from his containment. Or would if not for Executive Meddling.

 Rusty Venture from the Venture Brothers is this trope personified. In a

show that the creators have described as being about failure, Rusty may

be a sometimes brilliant scientist, but his flaws- the biggest of which is his

inferiority complex regarding his father- often hold him back while his

brother manages to attain great successes.