How would you write a good antihero?

[WilliamPamer446]

[MCheetah]

I'd just write myself.

But really, an anti-hero is a Neural-Good or Chaotic-Good character. They do the right thing, but for the wrong reasons, like The Punisher. And anti-villains are most Progressives/social justice warriors: they're destructive selfish assholes who do the wrong thing, but "for the right reasons" (in their minds) and "for a greater good."

All that matters is, "at the end of the day, has this character done what they believe is true to their purpose?" Yes for anti-heroes, no for anti-villains.

[WilliamPamer446]

Yeah, I think that first thing you said is a good start. Anti heroes are more like real people than the conventioanl hero character. We're not perfect hero archetype or follow illusionary standards of good, we have our own values and our own goals we set for ourselves. We can help other people and help ourselves. Neither is wrong. You gotta do both. Real people can do good, neutral or bad things. They need time to become a "hero" or whatever. Anti heroes are not perfect and neither is anybody else.
Anti heroes can be similar to a hero, they can fight bad guys, have cool action scenes, they can stop a villians plan, they can stop bad guys, or rescue or save people, or avenge people, but what separates them is there more like real people and your not limited to making them perfect hero figures. They can set a goal for themselves in the beginning, and the bad guys get in the way, and they can avenge other people, and they can eventually start helping and saving others. You can do whatever with them, you have more creative room. They can be more good, or more bad, or somwhere in a neutral gray area thats complex and hard to define but over time they become more defined. They aren't as limited as hero or villain, because there is a lot of room for realistic gray area.

[WilliamPamer446]

I like antiheroes because they give me more room to make a cool, creative, complex character. They can be cool and have swag, they can be tough guy, they can have charming traits, they can have ambiguos traits that the audience may like, or criticise, but it can be like a tragic shakespearian thing. They can have controversial goals that are ultimately good. or a goal thats bad and they dont know. you can give them more interesting real person stories, and there not forced into a hero or villain role right away.

[purplepoppy]

There's no such thing as an anti hero, you're either a hero or your not. What makes so called anti hero's different is they're more relatable to real people. It's like angels and demons one clearly purely good the other totally evil. Humans aren't like that so it's hard to relate to either. But someone who's essentially good but flawed and has emotional baggage is something we can connect with.
Everyone's got something negative in their past that's shaped them. A good anti hero asks the reader how they'd have developed differently had they extra powers.

[WilliamPamer446]

There is no such thing as an antihero you're either a hero or you're not"

Your obviously not familair with what the term antihero means.

[WilliamPamer446]

It's a literary term

[purplepoppy]

I'm familiar with the definition, I just don't agree with it.

[WilliamPamer446]

I think the title is a bit murky but I think its a fine concept of having a morally complex character that reflects more like real life people

[WilliamPamer446]

a lot of cool, badass, or simply different and eccentric, or broken misunderstood, or simply selfish characters

[purplepoppy]

In other words they have human traits and flaws. But in my mind that doesn't make them an anti hero. It just seems a fairly modern title created to make the hero sound more exciting. I'd argue you could class any hero with a well constructed back story as an anti hero.

[WilliamPamer446]

yah but anti heroes aren't necessarily heroic. and there's different types of antiheroes.
Punisher,

[WilliamPamer446]

Punisher, great antihero.

Deadpool, another good example.

Jack Sparrow, fantastic example. he's an selfish pirate who charms the audience and who ends up doing heroic things and becoming a "hero"

Black Adam, another good recent great example

Walter White, good exmaple

Omar Little from the Wire, another good example

[Anonymous]

Give them a valid reason to do what they do, but make the methods ethically gray or wrong.

For example, a classic. Someone kills the heros family, but the hero can't find the killer. But he finds his family and friends, and kills them all one by one.

[BCA6010]

Take the general outline of a story you would write for a knight-in-shining-armor captain patriotism w/e type of hero, but make it so that the character's motivations and methods are anything but heroic. Vigilantes or vengeance-driven characters are by far the most common in this respect, but there's a multitude of other ways you could do it, depending on if this is a real person, a semi-realistic character like the Punisher, or a full on superhuman.

[WilliamPamer446]

I usually try to make chaotic good, rebellious, likable antiheroes. They are like badass and cool. They do questionable stuff at times. They have sympathetic traits. They only do questionable stuff out of circumstance. They do the right thing that is seen as the wrong thing. There more misunderstood than anything. They have relatable and sympathetic flaws. There self oriented goals aren't bad. They have flaws that are sympathetic and understandable. But some times, I like to make the ones that are kinda "bad" and that flair to them, that rebellious bad boy asthetic kinda. They can be kinda harmful. They start out as rogeuish thieves or troublemaker or something and try to improve themself over time.

[WilliamPamer446]

I often like to do a Protector type of antihero that is rebellious and/or brutal or a interesting complex self oriented goal.

[BCA6010]

I don't usually think of someone with good intentions and negative consequences as being an antihero, but that's an interesting angle to take when done well.

[WilliamPamer446]

neutral intentions and good intentions work I think right?

[WilliamPamer446]

Alright what I mean is like when you have to do seemingly morally ambiguos things out of situation and environment to fix the problem but the law or society is not on your side so you gotta thinks that may look bad to society

or someone who is oppressed and does morally ambiguos things for survival and to help others