An anti hero is simply a protagonist who lacks traditionally heroic qualities.
This rather broad type of character has a lot of subtypes from Byronic heroes to annoying
YouTube personas, but we are going to focus on a specific type of anti hero.
You know the one.
The cool one.
Brooding, dark, alone, antiheroes are way cooler than normal heroes because they possess
a special power that the marketers desperately seek; edginess!
Being edgy is the secret to making a good character.
At least I think it is?
It must be given how everyone keeps going on about it.
Regardless, anti heroes have a lot of other perks.
For one, they are really easy to write!
So ready your best flat stare and prepare to brood, or just read nearly any comic from
the 90s and get ready to write an antihero!
Now the first thing our antihero needs is appropriate attire.
Antiheros need darker colors to contrast them with the heroes.
Basically, have him break into the dark lord’s closet and steal his black attire before shaving
off the spikes.
Don’t forget the scar that will only make him look battle hardened rather than ugly
as well as a permanent five o'clock shadow.
Now that we have our anti hero looking the part, we are basically done because most anti-heroes
get like no characterization.
I mean, of course they do, so long as that characterization is brooding and laconic.
Anti heroes speak a special language consisting only of grunts and short sarcastic quips.
In the rest of the scene he spends his time with his back propped up against a wall and
arms crossed.
I mean don’t they ever get tired and need to sit down?
I guess being an roughish anti hero gives them a special power to never get tired.
Maybe their stoic glare recharges their energy or something.
What anti heroes lack in dialog, they make up for in conflict.
Specifically forced, contrived conflict.
Do the heroes have a plan?
Well our anti hero is going to tell his companions all about how it isn’t going to work while
offering no alternatives of his own.
These constant attempts to undermine the leadership of the heroes will always go unchallenged
for fear of making our antihero look uncool.
If fact, why the heroes tolerate such an abrasive individual who constantly disrupts team cohesion
should never be addressed.
Our anti hero should never suffer any repercussions for this antisocial behavior.
Not that it would matter if they kicked him out.
Anti heroes tend to work best when they are loners.
He is his own man.
In spite of his constant trash talking, other characters should still respect the anti hero
because he is beholden to no one yet still like in every crossover team for some reason.
The only people who treat our anti hero like a pariah are those with authority because
he is a loose cannon who doesn’t play by the rules and should turn in his badge!
He’s off the force which means our anti hero will have to purse justice as a vigilante
and go on a bloody, violence glamorizing killing spree.
Be sure to downplay the ‘justice’ part of vigilante justice.
He will mow down enough minions to fill an entire army by himself faster than you can
say “what’s due process?”
Our antihero will not hesitate to kill or torture people unlike those goody two shoes
normal heroes who just don’t have what it takes to get things done, even though larger
systemic problems like crime are better combated by organized teams and legal reform rather
than punching people.
Speaking of punching people, this is what our antihero is really good at.
In fact, the anti hero is one of the few characters who we don’t need to give a ton of super
awesome powers to.
Our anti-hero is so cool he can be awesome just by himself with superpowers being entirely
optional.
This will in no way be glaring when he is surrounded by super powered companions and
hyper powerful villains.
He will win his fights through sheer grit and massive authorial bias.
No need to cleverly resolve the antihero’s fights with guile and underhanded tactics
that emphasize his pragmatic nature when compared to the more idealized heroes.
I mean, writing a cunning hero is like really hard.
Instead, he should hog the spotlight while defeating his opponents with ease and brutality.
However, if our antihero is the focus of the story rather than a side character, then we
need to go to the other extreme instead and give him a slew of game breaking powers.
He should slaughter all of his foes with relative ease to the point where the only true challenge
in the story is for the audience as they endure the antihero’s increasingly terrible one
liners.
It helps to remember that all characters are simply a collection of abilities and not like
actual human beings with emotions.
Don’t worry.
I am sure the antihero’s innate coolness will distract the audience from his complete
lack of depth.
Now adding depth to an anti hero is entirely optional.
I don’t really see how it could make him any cooler, but I suppose it couldn’t hurt.
Normally keeping our anti-hero’s backstory a secret adds mystery, and not just because
we are too lazy to give him a motive.
However, adding subtle hints to his past can be useful especially if we suggest a tragic
youth full of emotional scars that can only be healed in hurt comfort fics.
The only motive to drive an anti hero is usually revenge.
Revenge could work as a motive for our anti-hero because it acts a foil to the more heroic
character’s ideals and creates a dark shadow of the traditional portrayal of the impartial
and objective pursuit of justice.
But the real reason is so our anti hero can drop cryptic hints about his bloody quest
for vengeance that we will totally detail and not forget to resolve by the end of the
story.
I mean, we really don’t have time to actually make up a good reason our antihero is a bitter
lone antisocial jerk so vengeance is a good fallback.
If we actually did resolve his vengeance plot then how will our anti-hero brood?
Brooding is a very important part of our anti-hero’s coolness because it suggests that he is engaged
in dark internal monologue allowing the audience to imagine that he is struggling with his
inner demons when he’s probably just thinking about what he is going have for lunch.
He probably isn’t thinking about the love triangle with the main heroine either even
though the anti-hero always wins the love triangle in the end.
And even if he ignores the love triangle completely you can bet the fan-fiction writers wont.
Nor will they ignore his rivalry with the main hero.
Is the antihero jealous of the main hero, or is his interest something more?
Well it doesn’t matter because slash fic writers will ship him with the main hero regardless.
Hmm…
I wonder why?
Could it be because the contrast between the anti-hero and the traditional hero is the
one of the reasons anti-heroes tend to resonate with audiences?
If that were the case, then perhaps a good way to write an antihero would be showcase
his vulnerability to maximize the contrast with his strengths.
Also adding a few genuinely heroic traits could also help balance his character while
still keeping his darker edge and even make it stand out all the more.
Moreover, it provides the author a prebuilt character arc.
Will our antihero become a tragic figure where his character traits ultimately lead to his
downfall or will the antihero open up to the others over the course of the story and finally
become a good person?
Perhaps the antihero will overcome his deep flaws and finally become a true hero!
But he’s probably not going to have any luck with the ladies after that though.