I agree, I really liked when she was a anti-heroic villain but then she became a hero and in 25 2 I stopped the series for now at least. Will she become later a villain again. I quite respect anti-heroic villains because they truly committ to their ideas or goals that they think are heroic or good even if they have to be evil. The difference to an anti hero is that they are not as extreme and the anti heroic villain doesn't necessarily wants the greater good or their greater good isn't really good to most (like Taylor). And yes I value every good villain that I can find.
In Taylor's case, it's all part of her plan to get Jack. Her deal is that she gets obsessive about things like that. It's what made her a villain, and it's also what made her stop being a villain so she could use the resources of the hero society. IMO, that kind of obsession is still pretty villainesque even when she's in the hero role.
That said, I think the author's real point in how they wrote Taylor is that she specifically defies the hero - villain labels. It's in the description of the series. She "does the wrong thing for the right reasons." Every single step, that's always the guiding ethos of the series. This is to the point where you can even argue her becoming a hero is 'the wrong thing.' (It's worth noting that she was still a villain during 20, and you know how that one went.)
Anyway, I won't spoil exactly what she does, but at the end of the series she winds up doing something that, under absolutely any other circumstances, would have been kill-order worthy. Her doing this is also shortly after renouncing her hero title. She doesn't "formally" declare herself a villain again after this, thus hinting more toward what I said about her being someone who defies those labels completely, and this is followed by the single most controversial thing she does in the series. (And that's also the point where you discover you've been reading a Greek-style tragedy this entire time, with Tattle Tale even going so far as to do a mild 4th-wall break to say what her fatal flaw was.)
I like making totalistic statement, mostly because it can be fun saying extremistic things and sometimes when I haven't enough information to get a more eh nuanced opinion but I definitely tend to be totalistic or at least if it means having oversimplified and extreme thoughts.
Yeah, that comment was really more to take the piss out of the guy there. I mean, I can see why some people might criticize Shield Hero and pull it down from the hype, but that guy had made a comment that you just couldn't begin to argue with because there was just so much that was verifiably wrong with it. So, the only way to start was to point out how blatantly ridiculous he was being.
(Note, I quite deliberately phrased it as an immediately hypocritical statement, of the style that "I'm absolutely sure that nothing is absolute in this world," or "don't fucking swear.")
There are no bad tropes only bad executed and overused tropes.
And, to keep this post at least a little on topic, I suppose I'll also respond to this one.
I admit I've actually seen a few instances of this trope somewhat decently executed. I think my favorite is probably this one....
Read I'm Glad They Kicked Me From The Hero's Party.. But Why're you following me, Great Saintess? Online For Free. The latest Manga Chapters of I'm Glad They Kicked Me From The Hero's Party.. But Why're you following me, Great Saintess? are now available.
manga4life.com
That said, once you include it in the context of all the others, even the absolute best execution of this trope becomes a bad execution just because of the fact that they treat it in such a cookie-cutter manner. I think, this being the case, Shield Hero could likely be counted as the one and only good use of this trope due to just how much it dresses up the plot and gives it a real body rather than the numerous carbon-copies of one another that the rest of them are.
(But, I gotta admit. If a game series like Dynasty Warriors managed to produce so many titles and is also somehow still pushing out more, then I guess this is a testament to how things like this actually CAN and DO work.)