Is a vigilante an anti-hero?

[DanielPotter]

What the heading says.

 

[Aaqil]

It depends on the vigilante,

 

[LilRora]

Can be, but not necessarily. Normally a vigilante is someone upholding law in place of the institutions that are supposed to do that, but for whatever reason don't.

An anti-hero often fights with the law, seeing that it is unjust, stupid, or whatever else, and a vigilante often has values or morals of a hero. The best example of a vigilante who is not an anti-hero is someone catching criminals on their own regardless of what police and other organizations think about it. You could call someone like that a wannabe hero.

 

[K5Rakitan]

It depends on the values of society.

 

[gogo7966]

what k5rakitan said. i'd say the vigilantism is curently seen as a heroic thing and so being one dosn't make a charcter an anti-hero

 

[TotallyHuman]

Likely yes. But imagine a mad moron who crawled out of mom's basement and decided to uphold justice after overdosing on anime - so he goes and brutalises some poor sod who cat-called a girl. Or who goes killing people who are being badmouthed on the forums without any evidence except for personal opinions. Or who decides that skinwalkers have been replacing people, so he goes on a killing spree. Is this still a vigilante? That certainly is not an anti-hero tho.

 

[Le_ther]

Depends. Some are vigilante that simply hates the term hero(depending on the circumstances) which causes a anti-hero belief, while some are vigilante because they couldn't become a hero which causes them to fall in neutral.

 

[Reborn_Cat]

A lot of antiheroes don't really believe in stuff like justice or helping others, there is always a personal vendetta or goal for them like money or revenge. They won't necessarily be evil or bad guys, but more along the lines of neutral to people who don't care about others but won't harm others unnecessarily

 

[Drytron]

Is the vigilante the author's SI? Then yes.

 

[Brandondee]

Likely yes. But imagine a mad moron who crawled out of mom's basement and decided to uphold justice after overdosing on anime

I'm watching an anime like that right now called Shadow in Eminence lol

 

[DanielPotter]

Likely yes. But imagine a mad moron who crawled out of mom's basement and decided to uphold justice after overdosing on anime - so he goes and brutalises some poor sod who cat-called a girl. Or who goes killing people who are being badmouthed on the forums without any evidence except for personal opinions. Or who decides that skinwalkers have been replacing people, so he goes on a killing spree. Is this still a vigilante? That certainly is not an anti-hero tho.

Interesting....

 

[Forestbear]

I guess in comic terms, batman is a vigilante while red hood is an anti-hero.

 

[Twin]

Vigilante are more like people who don't follow the law and punish those who don't work according to their own sense of right and wrong. (As far as I know.)
Anti-heroes would be people who act in self-interest but label it as being done for the greater good. (As far as I know.)
So the difference is simply based on the fact that an anti-hero would never really break morality or laws to pose as a hero while vigilante is not as shallow. He would always act against laws for multitude of reasons including self-interest or perhaps because he finds the law to be inadequate. For the same reason he may be percieved as a hero or villain depending on the point of view of perspective.

 

[Daitengu]

No No No.
Vigilantism is when a person takes the law into their own hands. Which is outside government control.

Superman, Spiderman, etc are all vigilantes. Saitama was a vigilante before he joined the hero association.

Hero vigilantes try to follow the law while working outside of it.

Your Punishers and Constantines care less about law and more about their own justice. Which usually aligns with more public opinion. That's what an antihero vigilante is.

 

[Just.Another.Adult.]

It depends on the vigilante,

like Aaqil says, it entirely depends on the vigilante...
they could be the lone paragon of truth and justice in a horrible corrupt and brutal police state, the holy paladin or revolutionary underdog.
they could be a total fucking psychopath that just does the job as an excuse to kill people, no one bats an eye when you're murdering criminals.
they could be a jaded or ambivalent ex-cop, kind of a PI type, that's only doing it because they know nothing else.
basically, however you want to write a vigilante can make them an anti-hero or not, but that's just part of it~

the setting also matters, because if the world they are in is just and fair, but they're still breaking the law on their quest for whatever, even if it's the assist lawbringers or follow their own sense of justice, they're kinda just the villain, charismatic or otherwise.
if the world they're in is a grim vile place full of nasty evil people and they're actually trying to make it a better place, that's a hero, no anti about it, even if they're breaking the laws of that world...
if they're just as bad as their setting, or an adjacent but not quite the same level of fucked, like characters in Sin City, i suppose they're all just anti-heros then.
there are shades of grey to the shades of grey, if you get what i mean.

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

Likely yes. But imagine a mad moron who crawled out of mom's basement and decided to uphold justice after overdosing on anime - so he goes and brutalises some poor sod who cat-called a girl. Or who goes killing people who are being badmouthed on the forums without any evidence except for personal opinions. Or who decides that skinwalkers have been replacing people, so he goes on a killing spree. Is this still a vigilante? That certainly is not an anti-hero tho.

Me

 

[Ellen_Dunkel]

Vigilantes can be heroes too, especially in superhero fiction, and are also commonly villains, especially in works with sympathetic monsters

 

[Nekroz]

Typically not. At least in fiction.
Take spider man for example, he is a vigilante. He is also, most certainly, a hero.

Now let's look at Deadpool. He's an anti-hero. He's also a criminal. The punisher Is an anti-hero though, and he's a vigilante, he's also a complete criminal.

So no vigilante does not equal hero nor does it equal anti-hero.

 

[yurinium]

Depends on the presentation of the vigilante and the justice itself.

e.g if the justice system is corrupt and the vigilante is doing the right thing, then he's not an anti hero.

 

[DanielPotter]

like Aaqil says, it entirely depends on the vigilante...
they could be the lone paragon of truth and justice in a horrible corrupt and brutal police state, the holy paladin or revolutionary underdog.
they could be a total fucking psychopath that just does the job as an excuse to kill people, no one bats an eye when you're murdering criminals.
they could be a jaded or ambivalent ex-cop, kind of a PI type, that's only doing it because they know nothing else.
basically, however you want to write a vigilante can make them an anti-hero or not, but that's just part of it~

the setting also matters, because if the world they are in is just and fair, but they're still breaking the law on their quest for whatever, even if it's the assist lawbringers or follow their own sense of justice, they're kinda just the villain, charismatic or otherwise.
if the world they're in is a grim vile place full of nasty evil people and they're actually trying to make it a better place, that's a hero, no anti about it, even if they're breaking the laws of that world...
if they're just as bad as their setting, or an adjacent but not quite the same level of fucked, like characters in Sin City, i suppose they're all just anti-heros then.
there are shades of grey to the shades of grey, if you get what i mean.

I get it.