How to Write Anti Heroes & Heroes (Patreon)

So, discussing anti heroes gave me a thought, curious what you wonderful people think.

A big thing with heroes of any stripe, tends to be a degree of power or escapist fantasy. It's not the only part but I do think it's an element even if one doesn't want it to be & needs to be thought about during writing.

Because its very easy regardless of what type of hero or protagonist one is writing to end up with something that goes from just. "This is fun to watch" to a dull or kind of obnoxious degree of wish fulfillment fantasy that just becomes too much for some or even most audiences.

This is obviously counteracted by the challenges the characters face, but as they also have to overcome those challenges and the story usually ends if they don't that only does so much. This can also easily affect narrative tension, character tension and the like, so what is a writer to do?

Consequences.

Namely, they settle on sort of natural or logical consequences for the path the protagonist has chosen, that may be 'challenges' but they are not the type one overcomes in an episode or with a minor training arc.

But these need to be off-set by something, namely the emotional reward for the character and audience for the path chosen.

A failure to meet these criteria, and more to the point to balance them between each other & everything else can be detrimental.

Many have noted how it can become frustrating for heroes to be getting in trouble when they are off saving the world, but as a result cut class.

So when it comes to heroes and anti heroes, I think there need to be distinct consequences and emotional or thematic rewards from each other.

A Hero, like say Spectacular Spiderman's Peter Parker, opts out of buying a cool thing for himself with his reporter money. To instead help Aunt May with the bills. Obviously its not great that a teen needs to do these things but it is reality for many families. What's more, while he denies himself the fun thing, he gets the satisfaction of knowing he made the right decision.

In contrast I think Ani Heroes, as opposed to satisfaction instead get catharsis. This may come from a greater degree of security, stability or simple from revenge but the end result is the same. They alleviate the weighing pressure with their more mixed morals & get catharsis. But as a consequence, they need something to counterbalance it.

I think for Anti Heroes it works best that the consequence be ripple effect. They got the satisfaction of killing the one who slew their family, but that person has someone who cares about them that might be kind of pissed about it. Or their more invasive, brutal methods, mean the public views the vigilante with more distrust; because sure you're protecting us, but you seem to like hurting people too.

& so on and so forth.

I feel there could be something to this, especially as it also works for villainous spirals in both cases, IE:

A hero who is always satisfied and confident in their moral righteousness can easily become a dangerously extreme knight templar, super zealot who is as terrible as any given villain.

In the same vein, an Anti Hero who is willing to cross more lines, or fights for more selfish reasons, can easily get more ruthless and selfish until there's no distinguishing them from a villain.