get ready cuz today we're going to have some fun we're going to talk about the five anti-hero cliches that I hate the most now people love anti-heroes for many reasons sometimes it's because they're darker heroes or they have a special Swagger about them or because of the moral complexity that these characters offer there's a lot to like but there are also some annoying cliches surrounding these characters and I want to talk about five of them what I'm going to do I'll list out each cliche I'll explain why it sucks and I'll give you an example
of each before we go any further here's your sport SP warning the ones in red contain the heaviest spoilers cliche number one is the code breaker Now personal codes of Ethics often make an anti-hero interesting as well as keep them from wandering into villain territory but sometimes an anti-hero violates their own moral code and when a personal code is broken it might lead to some interesting consequences but if it doesn't all it does is cause the story and the character to lose some of their magic for an example let's look at Batman Begins typically Batman
is portrayed as a violent anti-hero with the moral code that prevents him from using guns or killing people this connects back to the tragic backstory surrounding his parents' deaths and it helps make him a compelling character early on in Batman Begins he trains under razag ghoul and vows to become someone who doesn't kill I will go back to Gotham and I will fight men like this but I will not become an executioner but then at the end of the movie after battling for control of Gotham Batman defeats Raz and leaves him to die I won't
kill you but I don't have to see I've seen people argue that Batman's decision is reasonable because he saved Roz's life once before and that led to nightmarish results but this doesn't work for me Batman's supposed to stand for something greater that's what his code is there for and if he has an opportunity to prevent loss of life he should cliche number two inconsistent morality this is when an anti-hero carelessly waivers between good and bad behavior often their actions feel contrived their motivations feel undercooked and the plot or bad writing dictates what they do for
an example let's look at the 2004 movie Catwoman I watched this for the first time recently and I couldn't believe how much fun I had the unintentional comedy is off the chart tell you the whole time I was watching this I was hopping up and down clapping like a monkey it's legitimately hilarious and the next time you're having a rough day you need to watch it anyway this one starts with about an hour's worth of opening credits before we get introduced to patience Phillips she works as a graphic designer for this evil Cosmetics company and
their latest product is a beauty cream that makes women look like The Walking Dead when patient stumbles upon this info the company higher ups squirt her out of a tunnel and she dies before getting revived by a magical Egyptian cat from there the movie feels like a copy paste of the crow after being killed she acquires animal superpowers and then she sets out to get revenge on the people who killed her not the worst idea but whereas the crow uses this situation to explore its anti-hero in compelling ways Catwoman has this inconsistent Jackal and hide
Dynamic going on where she's bad good good bad good bad good or whatever she needs to be at a given moment there's no logic or sense to it she steals a motorcycle breaks into a jewelry store then she stops a group of Thieves before stealing things herself and she returns them the next day later she makes it her mission to stop the zombie cream people and this is like the most important thing in the world to her but she still has time to take a break to ride this broken Ferris wheel with the guy from
Mis Congeniality then she nearly kills him before going out to eat sushi with him or did she eat the sushi first I don't know I I'm my my brain is broken from this movie but anyway then there's this finale sequence where she rescues him from the evil zombie cream lady and instead of bravely fighting her Catwoman runs away like a coward so they can have the final boss battle in a more dramatic location there they try to kill each other and Catwoman wins before deciding that she wants to save the evil zombie lady's life but
the lady dies anyway and the movie ends with Catwoman sending her boyfriend a sad letter and running across rooftops so to sum it all up there's no consistency to her character or actions nothing makes sense this movie sucks and you should definitely watch it third cliche that I hate is the switch flipper this is an anti-hero who abruptly becomes a hero or villain it involves a rushed character Arc that leads to an unnatural and unearned transformation and it usually is done for plot purposes for an example let's look at jimie Lannister from Game of Thrones
now in the early Seasons he undergos one of the best Transformations you'll ever see he starts as this smug disgusting villain who shoves kids out windows and shags his sister and then then his world gets rocked with a series of challenges that break him down and force him to reinvent himself into a redeemed anti-hero his journey not only makes us forgive him but it also makes us root for him then season 8 happens and it assassinates his character by abruptly changing him back into the man he once was initially he fights bravely alongside the good
guys and hooks up with Brienne of Tarth but then the switch flips after years of strong development Jamie goes down the drain in the span of about two episodes not only does he Scurry back into the arms of his sister SL L but he also declares that he doesn't care about innocent lives and in the process he stabs every one of his fans right in the heart fourth cliche that I hate is the laughably Unstoppable anti-hero this is an anti-hero who is so badass that nothing can stop them not even death or other brutal challenges
this is plot armor maxed out Beyond level 99 it hurts the story's credibility and problems are not only solved but they're ignored for an example let's look at Jack Bower from 24 if you follow this channel you know I love this show to death it's my all-time favorite but even as a mega fan I have to admit that some of the things Jack overcomes are ridiculous now when it comes to action heroes we usually give them some leeway when they escape explosions or survive shootouts I have no problem with that what I do have a
problem with though is how Jack dies in both seasons 2 and four and yet death barely trips him up his season 2 death is especially wild because after having his heart stop he launches right back into action action without any meaningful consequences then there's this heroin addiction subplot from season 3 the first episode shows Jack battling addiction and the next few episodes show him suffering from its effects but then his boss gives him a magical Miracle pill that instantly ends his addiction and that's it now part of the draw with a character like Jack Bower
is that he's a one-man Army he's clever he's fearless and he always finds a way and I love that about him but sometimes the show kicks itself in the nuts by refusing to let him find a more realistic way to struggle with and overcome his biggest problems finally the fifth cliche that I hate is the squeaky clean anti-hero this is an anti-hero whose darker qualities are toned down usually to make the character more kid-friendly it's a case of contrived writing preventing the character from getting their hands dirty and ultimately their behavior seems inauthentic and they
feel like they're holding back probably the most notorious example of this is Han Solo in the special edition of Star Wars A New Hope as I'm sure many of you know in the original 1977 version of the movie Han encounters a bounty hunter named greo while at the Cantina greo threatens to kill Han and before the situation can get messy Han blasts greo and makes him into a mess it's a great part of Han's early characterization and it shows how Sly and resourceful he can be but fast forward to the late '90s and the special
edition of the movie makes an adjustment to this scene instead of having Han take initiative and eliminate greo greo shoots first so that Han looks like less of a coldblooded killer but here's the problem with this revision it takes a strong straightforward moment and turns it into a cluttered one you got two lasers firing at once and greo somehow misses his Target from right across the table in the end greo looks like a [ __ ] and Han looks like someone who's more lucky than clever worst of all there's no need to justify Han's actions
here him shooting a bounty hunter who's explicitly threatening to kill him is a move that's completely understandable and the more you think about it the more you wish Lucas had left this scene alone so I hope this helps question of the day what anti-hero cliche do you hate the most let us know in the comments section below thank you for watching if you want to support the Channel please pick up a copy of either one of my books and be sure to leave reviews on Amazon bad parts is great if you like small town horror
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