Worst examples of designated heroes/villains

[Ultimate Paragon]

Absolutely. I'm a big fan of Jurassic Park, which is why I was so upset with how the two sequels went about their business. The most offensive part of The Lost World is that everything is played straight: there's no hidden message about the good guys really being the bad guys and vice versa, no deconstruction of the idea of the Designated Hero and Designated Villain. The writers really did write it so that Vince Vaughn's eco-terrorist was the good guy and the evil hunters and corporate suits who wanted to put dinosaurs in a zoo were bad guys.

I'd love to do a tabletop RPG campaign heavily inspired by The Lost World, but placing the PCs in the role of the heavily armed yet relatively moral hunters and guards vs. a rag-tag bunch of wannabe good guys who are really just clueless photographers and paleontologists (accompanied by a plucky, annoying kid) who are helping an eco-terrorist because they're too dumb to figure out what's going on.

That would actually be pretty interesting.

[chitoryu12]

I like tabletop RPGs that make the player question their own morality, or force them to deal with bad guys who aren't really "bad guys." Like the zombie apocalypse game that I've spent ages planning out: the PCs may be forced to do unsavory things to survive, and their biggest threat will be innocent people in the exact same situation as themselves who may even be more moral and kind than them.

[Patches]

The "Designated Hero" list can't be complete without the "heroes" of the "Left Behind" series.

In the aftermath of the Rapture, Buck and Rayford discover Christianity and set up a secret church for other new converts.  However, the two of them discover the prophecies decoded from the Bible left by the former pastor, and use this information to... benefit themselves.  The prophecies speak of the Antichrist and his plans for the world, and instead of disseminating this information, Buck and Rayford use it to get swanky, privileged positions on the Antichrist's staff.  Ostensibly to "keep tabs" on him, but they never seem to have any intention to DO anything with this information, and instead stand idly by as the Antichrist murders millions of people and burns cities to the ground, despite knowing about it ahead of time and having ample opportunity to warn people or stop it.  But, see, they're totally not actually accessories to the Antichrist simply because they secretly disapprove of what he's doing, but can't do anything about it because that would jeopardize their sweet Antichrist-sponsored gigs.

[I am lizard]

Absolutely. I'm a big fan of Jurassic Park, which is why I was so upset with how the two sequels went about their business. The most offensive part of The Lost World is that everything is played straight: there's no hidden message about the good guys really being the bad guys and vice versa, no deconstruction of the idea of the Designated Hero and Designated Villain. The writers really did write it so that Vince Vaughn's eco-terrorist was the good guy and the evil hunters and corporate suits who wanted to put dinosaurs in a zoo were bad guys.

I'd love to do a tabletop RPG campaign heavily inspired by The Lost World, but placing the PCs in the role of the heavily armed yet relatively moral hunters and guards vs. a rag-tag bunch of wannabe good guys who are really just clueless photographers and paleontologists (accompanied by a plucky, annoying kid) who are helping an eco-terrorist because they're too dumb to figure out what's going on.

That would actually be pretty interesting.

I've always liked the idea of a comic or movie where the protagonist/s is portrayed like he's the good guy/s, has all the typical features of a good guy/s in one of those movies (Rag-tag, younger, suppose to be whackier, ect.) but the story itself would show how he's clearly reckless and amoral in his actions. In the mean time the "Bad guys" talk like jerks, seem heartless in their mannerisms but the story would focus highly on how their plan makes sense and depict them as all around being more cautious and caring while the "Good guy" causes widespread destruction.

[R. U. Sirius]

Absolutely. I'm a big fan of Jurassic Park, which is why I was so upset with how the two sequels went about their business. The most offensive part of The Lost World is that everything is played straight: there's no hidden message about the good guys really being the bad guys and vice versa, no deconstruction of the idea of the Designated Hero and Designated Villain. The writers really did write it so that Vince Vaughn's eco-terrorist was the good guy and the evil hunters and corporate suits who wanted to put dinosaurs in a zoo were bad guys.

I'd love to do a tabletop RPG campaign heavily inspired by The Lost World, but placing the PCs in the role of the heavily armed yet relatively moral hunters and guards vs. a rag-tag bunch of wannabe good guys who are really just clueless photographers and paleontologists (accompanied by a plucky, annoying kid) who are helping an eco-terrorist because they're too dumb to figure out what's going on.

That would actually be pretty interesting.

I've always liked the idea of a comic or movie where the protagonist/s is portrayed like he's the good guy/s, has all the typical features of a good guy/s in one of those movies (Rag-tag, younger, suppose to be whackier, ect.) but the story itself would show how he's clearly reckless and amoral in his actions. In the mean time the "Bad guys" talk like jerks, seem heartless in their mannerisms but the story would focus highly on how their plan makes sense and depict them as all around being more cautious and caring while the "Good guy" causes widespread destruction.

At least one Discworld book deals with that sort of scenario, with a secret group of rebels trying to overthrow the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Havelock Vetinari. Of course, the rebels are revealed to have their own selfish agenda for that, but overall, Vetinari makes a great background "chessmaster" antihero, acting in ruthless ways to preserve the city.

[Ultimate Paragon]

How about All-Star Batman?

[I am lizard]

How about All-Star Batman?

I think that was less "Designated Hero" and more "HOLY SHIT, BATMANS KILLING PEOPLE,LOOK AT HOW EDGY I AM!!!!111!!!!!
Granted my only experience with the series is from Linkara's review.

[I am lizard]

Absolutely. I'm a big fan of Jurassic Park, which is why I was so upset with how the two sequels went about their business. The most offensive part of The Lost World is that everything is played straight: there's no hidden message about the good guys really being the bad guys and vice versa, no deconstruction of the idea of the Designated Hero and Designated Villain. The writers really did write it so that Vince Vaughn's eco-terrorist was the good guy and the evil hunters and corporate suits who wanted to put dinosaurs in a zoo were bad guys.

I'd love to do a tabletop RPG campaign heavily inspired by The Lost World, but placing the PCs in the role of the heavily armed yet relatively moral hunters and guards vs. a rag-tag bunch of wannabe good guys who are really just clueless photographers and paleontologists (accompanied by a plucky, annoying kid) who are helping an eco-terrorist because they're too dumb to figure out what's going on.

That would actually be pretty interesting.

I've always liked the idea of a comic or movie where the protagonist/s is portrayed like he's the good guy/s, has all the typical features of a good guy/s in one of those movies (Rag-tag, younger, suppose to be whackier, ect.) but the story itself would show how he's clearly reckless and amoral in his actions. In the mean time the "Bad guys" talk like jerks, seem heartless in their mannerisms but the story would focus highly on how their plan makes sense and depict them as all around being more cautious and caring while the "Good guy" causes widespread destruction.

At least one Discworld book deals with that sort of scenario, with a secret group of rebels trying to overthrow the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Havelock Vetinari. Of course, the rebels are revealed to have their own selfish agenda for that, but overall, Vetinari makes a great background "chessmaster" antihero, acting in ruthless ways to preserve the city.

I think I'll start reading diskworld.

[Igor]

Absolutely. I'm a big fan of Jurassic Park, which is why I was so upset with how the two sequels went about their business. The most offensive part of The Lost World is that everything is played straight: there's no hidden message about the good guys really being the bad guys and vice versa, no deconstruction of the idea of the Designated Hero and Designated Villain. The writers really did write it so that Vince Vaughn's eco-terrorist was the good guy and the evil hunters and corporate suits who wanted to put dinosaurs in a zoo were bad guys.

I'd love to do a tabletop RPG campaign heavily inspired by The Lost World, but placing the PCs in the role of the heavily armed yet relatively moral hunters and guards vs. a rag-tag bunch of wannabe good guys who are really just clueless photographers and paleontologists (accompanied by a plucky, annoying kid) who are helping an eco-terrorist because they're too dumb to figure out what's going on.

That would actually be pretty interesting.

I've always liked the idea of a comic or movie where the protagonist/s is portrayed like he's the good guy/s, has all the typical features of a good guy/s in one of those movies (Rag-tag, younger, suppose to be whackier, ect.) but the story itself would show how he's clearly reckless and amoral in his actions. In the mean time the "Bad guys" talk like jerks, seem heartless in their mannerisms but the story would focus highly on how their plan makes sense and depict them as all around being more cautious and caring while the "Good guy" causes widespread destruction.

At least one Discworld book deals with that sort of scenario, with a secret group of rebels trying to overthrow the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Havelock Vetinari. Of course, the rebels are revealed to have their own selfish agenda for that, but overall, Vetinari makes a great background "chessmaster" antihero, acting in ruthless ways to preserve the city.

I think I'll start reading diskworld.

You should, it's amazing. Actually, everyone should.

[Feral Dog]

It's a fanfiction, but Zuko in "Embers". I just roll my eyes and plow through to the rest of the story... It seems the rest of the cast is finally getting their CMOAs as the story nears the end.

[Askold]

It's a fanfiction, but Zuko in "Embers". I just roll my eyes and plow through to the rest of the story... It seems the rest of the cast is finally getting their CMOAs as the story nears the end.

Well the thread never did specify that only published fiction counts. Fanfiction propably has some pretty "good" examples of designated heroes and villains.

[R. U. Sirius]

http://www.cracked.com/article_18417_9-famous-movie-villains-who-were-right-all-along.html

I don't agree with all of these examples, but Cracked makes some pretty good points here.

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

Most of the main characters, other than Huang (who was often portrayed as being "antagonist for the episode" despite being in the right), were this from season 5 onward on Law and Order: SVU, especially Benson and Stabler.

There was one episode where a victim who was being stalked and repeatedly raped by the same man didn't want to make a report because she was frightened of what he might do to her if he found out. Benson's solution was to basically stalk the girl and, if I recall correctly, pulled a gun on her at one point after the victim bought an illegal firearm to protect herself, until she managed to browbeat her into cooperating. Then, when they couldn't make any charges stick to the perp for some bullshit reason, all four of the main SVU detectives started stalking the perp day and night, even showing up at his office events to casual announce that he's a rapist, presumably neglecting other cases to pursue one where the victim didn't even want to file charges.

Then there was the episode where a kid (who was around 13 or so) came into the station to confess that he was having pedophilic urges and wanted help controlling them so he wouldn't end up harming anyone. Instead of being praised for being brave enough to come forward and ask for help, the detectives treat the kid like shit and basically tell him that he's a monster. They also did some investigating to make sure he hadn't harmed his younger bother, which was certainly understandable, but crossed the line again when they pretty much told everyone in the kid's life that he was an incurable monster. Then, instead of getting the kid into counseling, they released him back onto the streets -- now with the stigma of "monster" and "pedophile" attached to him -- and the kid ended up molesting his younger brother. Big shocker. Now, I wouldn't give the kid a free pass here, since he chose to act on his impulses, but it didn't exactly help matters that the detectives treated him like shit, piled a ton of stress on top of what he was already dealing with and then sent him on his merry way instead of, you know, actually trying to help him.

And of course, there were all of the times Stabler beat the crap out of suspects with no repercussions and even sent one guy into a psychotic episode to get information out of him, or all of Benson's "holier than thou" moments, or the various prosecutors suddenly getting a bee in their bonnet over some random bullshit. It's no wonder that I stopped watching the show.

[kefkaownsall]

Yeah Ed rooney and that guy from the Wizard are not only doing their jobs the kids in said movies are breaking the law

[davedan]

The Greeks (Achaeans) in the Illiad and the Olympic Gods.