For you, what is the line between an antihero and evil protagonist?

SsemouyOnan

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Personally, it would be... PRESENTATION!

Now seriously, it's how they conduct themselves in pursuit of a goal. Ex: we have a potato farmer in search of the perfect potato. If one of his steps were to kill his son, then the antihero potato farmer would deliberate and may even choose to not go after the perfect potato. The evil potato farmer would kill that son of a bitch and maybe try to justify it afterwards.

Your opinion?
 

Jailbreak571

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For me, an anti-hero just has a twisted moral compass and will always do what they think is right in their own way. An evil protagonist will always do something for the sake of their own selfishness and his own goals ignoring the consequences that they might have caused. Or, they are just outright evil for no reason.
 

Esper

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Anti-hero's will not ACT very heroic, but they do things that in the end would be considered, if without the person that did them, good or heroic.
A evil protagonist will can ACT heroic, but their actions or end goals cannot be considered good or heroic, even without the person conserned.

Example: Holding a young girl at gun point.
Anti-hero: Is doing it because (insert bad guy) needs that girl for (insert reason). They may shoot the girl in the leg, but in the end he won't kill the girl, and may even patch her up.


In this example the motive is heroic, and if someone considered what happened, without the fact he made threats or so on, they would realize this was probably the best outcome, as the villain was not able to get the girl and had to let the guy go.

Evil protagonist: Is doing it because (insert any person) needs that girl for (insert reason). They would be very willing to actually shoot the girl for no greater reason than they want the girl more than the other people, so if they can't have her NO ONE can.

In this example the motive is not heroic, and if someone considered what happened, without the fact he made threats or similar (anything bellow the actual murder), they would still realize their could have been a better outcome, as the other people may have needed the girl and now either she's dead, or in the hands of a evil being.
 

LilRora

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For me, anti-hero is someone whose morals, actions, and motives stand in opposition to heroes. It doesn't necessarily mean they are evil, though it can, if they are selfish. Generally anti-heroes commits actions that general populace would deem evil, yet they are not evil from objective point of view, and they do not act for their own gain, unlike villains.
 

BearlyAlive

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Heroes do good for the sake of good. Villains do evil for the sake of evil.
By definition that means Anti-heroes do evil for the sake of good.
Anti-Villains do good for the sake of evil.

So yeah, presentation.
 

ArcadiaBlade

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Anti-heroes and evil protagonist is basically just two people going into hell.

One is just forced to go into hell while the other is willing to skydive deep into hell.

Or my best representation is:

One is a rotten watermelon while the other is a watermelon with worms. The rotten one, while bad its still curable. The other is basically infected and not only that, it can still spread all around the other watermelon and infect others.

The rotten watermelon is the anti-hero while the infested watermelon is an evil protagonist.
 

LesserSarcasm

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Anti hero does what is necessary to get the job done at the detriment of someone / a groups morals, evil similar but its usually at the detriment of a society morals
 

Viktor_sov

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Anti hero is "we get dirty and the world stays clean"
Evil Mc Is " I piss on the world and call it rain "

An anti hero is the person who pursue a moral goal but with dubious methods who knows that to sometime you gotta treat evil with evil but his ultimate goal is "good"
An evil Mc is a miserable cunt who wants to achieve his goals by any means possible
 

RockiesRetriever

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Personally, it would be... PRESENTATION!

Now seriously, it's how they conduct themselves in pursuit of a goal. Ex: we have a potato farmer in search of the perfect potato. If one of his steps were to kill his son, then the antihero potato farmer would deliberate and may even choose to not go after the perfect potato. The evil potato farmer would kill that son of a bitch and maybe try to justify it afterwards.

Your opinion?
I think you're correct, in that a lot of it is presentation. You will have people rooting for characters you'd never want to be around in real life because you've seen the whole gambit of what they've gone through. You've seen that they have good in them, and feel the fear that they have, when something comes to ruin their chances of being good eventually.

It eventually however will cross a line.

Consider The Count of Monte Cristo. We see the awful pain the character experiences, we root for them to succeed... but then what starts out as some well deserved justice becomes horrible, too extreme.

Of course, there is that part of us that even if we aren't rooting for villainous characters to succeed, they are extremely fun to watch.

I would say though it is a matter of personal definition whether a character is a villain or an anti-hero, and whether their actions cross a line.

In terms of advice for authors, make sure that whatever route you take, the reader gets some idea of what kind of story this is going to be. If you start your story off as a light hearted romance, and it then proceeds ten chapters in to have the girl hiding her boyfriend's body, you may find the audience unsatisfied as you are not giving them the story and characters they wanted.
 

Daitengu

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Antiheroes and villains kill. The difference is the antiheroes aim to kill only those they believe will always be evil. While a villain has no problem killing everyone in an area to get those who "wronged" them.

It's why I stopped reading CN cultivation novels. The protags are constantly wiping out sects/villages/planets/realms because revenge or to prevent revenge.
 

Ilikewaterkusa

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Personally, it would be... PRESENTATION!

Now seriously, it's how they conduct themselves in pursuit of a goal. Ex: we have a potato farmer in search of the perfect potato. If one of his steps were to kill his son, then the antihero potato farmer would deliberate and may even choose to not go after the perfect potato. The evil potato farmer would kill that son of a bitch and maybe try to justify it afterwards.

Your opinion?
Ideology
 

SsemouyOnan

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Thanks for the responses, I made this cause they were both tags on the main site
 

XianPiete

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How do you define evil? Murder, violence, theft? Is it murder if that person is in the middle of a war? Is it violence if the violence happens in self-defense? Is it theft when you are stealing food at a time when you are in danger of dying if you don't eat?

Anti-hero usually applies to a heroic protagonist that is pushing the boundaries of right and wrong. For example, the protagonist sees a young man punching an innocent older woman and knocking her out. So the protagonist kills that young man. Did the young man really deserve to be murdered?

An evil protagonist might be the one punching the innocent older woman in order to steal her purse. The evil protagonist might then murder anyone who tries to stop the theft.
 

LesserSarcasm

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Evil is defined by the society you live in, if murder rape theft is needed for that society to continue chances are it wont be illegal or authorities will turn a blind eye to it.
Eg.
Chronicles of riddick the necromongers had a society philosophy around murder and theft. Not only was it not illegal it was actively encouraged. They were the bad guys in the movie but point still stands.
 

beast_regards

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The Hero is the person who does the right thing in the right way and has heroic personal qualities to the boot. He is the poster boy (by society standards)
The Anti-hero is the person who does the right thing but doesn't have the necessary personal qualities associated with the hero. (he doesn't fulfil society's standards usually only due to personality flaws, but does the right thing anyway)
The Anti-Villain tries to do the right thing with the wrong methods. (His methods to achieve things are abhorrent by standards of his own society but his goals may be technically acceptable)
Villains do the horrible thing for horrible reasons (by standards of society)
 
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