TRAGIC HEROES
Examples
ANIME
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Utena Tenjou of Revolutionary Girl Utena seeks strength and nobility not
for her sake, but to save another person whom she cannot even
remember. However, the enemy she faces is vastly older, more powerful
and more sophisticated than this 14-year-old girl and manipulates her
handily, turning her into the Tragic Hero through the final third of the
series. (Even so, Utena manages to pull off a win against him — confusing
and puzzling, but a win nonetheless.)
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The entire cast of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but especially Shinji Ikari,
who is fourteen years old, shy, indecisive, reclusive, and has no selfconfidence, but must learn to be a warrior — and, in the end, he doesn't
even succeed at that.
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Kikyou and Inuyasha from InuYasha, in regards to how their insecurity
issues allowed Naraku to turn them against each other, kill Kikyou and
make Inuyasha sleep for 50 years.
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o
Harry McDowell and Brandon Heat from the Gungrave anime are tragic
heroes. This is a rare case where both protagonist and antagonist are
tragic heroes. Harry McDowell, in his search for power so that he will
never have to lose anything, ends up becoming a power-hungry Bloody
Harry and kills his best friend Brandon Heat, turning Brandon into Beyond
the Grave. The guilt over killing his best friend makes Harry slowly lose his
sanity. On the other hand, Brandon Heat, who is loyal to the fault, cannot
bring himself to stop Harry even when he knows Harry is obviously going
down the wrong path and ends up getting killed. In a way, Brandon is also
responsible for the deaths of his other loved ones as Brandon's death
causes Harry to hunt down those whom Brandon holds dear (as Harry
reasons that those people "took Brandon from him"). At the end of the
series, after destroying each other completely, both Brandon and Harry
realize that the only time they were truly "free" was when they lived in a
slum with three other friends (whose deaths led Brandon and Harry to join
the Millenion in the first place) and decide to take the only way out: killing
each other.
Ends very differently in the videogame— Harry allows Grave to kill
him, and Grave survives the ordeal. His only concern at that point is
Mika's protection, so he leaves the city with her.
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Subaru in X1999, oh so very, very much.
Yomi of Ga-Rei -Zero-. So very much...
Arguably, Lucy from Elfen Lied. By the end of the anime, she even admits
that both Diclonii and humans are too proud to surrender and live
peacefully with each other.
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Interestingly, Kamina fits the concept quite well. His overweening sense of
determination & over-the-top Hot Blooded-ness are integral to his
success, yet in the end are what leads to his death. Also, Lordgenome
and even Rossiu to a degree.
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Light Yagami arguably fits this, to a certain degree.
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Oskar von Reuenthal from Legend of Galactic Heroes is one of the
greatest examples found in anime, even if he's not the protagonist. A
Broken Ace who is almost as ambitious and brilliant as Kaiser Reinhard He could become a great ruler, if he weren't simply outshone by Reinhard.
Over the course of the series, his conflicting loyalty, ambition, jealousy, his
traumatic past and especially his pride eventually lead to his downfall after
he is forced into committing treachery. It should be mentioned that he
never really became a villain right until the end, despite it all.
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Akito Tenkawa in the Martian Successor Nadesico Movie.
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Mikael from Tenshi Ni Narumon. Overall good-willed, but terribly
misguided and with immense issuses of self-denial. His obsession with
becoming a full angel blinded him to other people's feelings/opinions and
led him to undertake pretty harshful and questionable actions. In the end,
he did realize his wrongdoings and although it was implied that he will
probably never become such angel as he would like to be, he eventually
got recognized as a decent... 1/3 of an angel? Or something like that.
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Unrequited love was the catalyst – not the cause – of Sayaka's downfall;
what really pushed her over the edge was her righteousness. As a coping
mechanism, she tried to become a hero who would uphold ideals. She
believed in justice, but her growing resentment made her shift from
protecting the innocent to punishing the wicked. When Sayaka realizes
how she had come to contradict her earlier aspirations, all the hatred turns
inward. It is precisely because of her unyielding nature that her spirit
shatters. Unable to forgive this transgression, she inflicts her own
punishment: a curse unto herself. From her Soul Gem hatches a mermaidknight, a being representing the love and righteousness that she had once
valued.
COMIC BOOKS
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Rorschach, from Watchmen.
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Wolverine
Morpheus, or Dream of the Endless, from The Sandman. His pride, his
stubbornness and his fanatical devotions to his own duties as the aspect
of Dream constantly conspire to make his life(?) an eternal mess. In the
end, he has to choose between changing or dying, and as it turns out, he
is unable to change himself enough.
FILM
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Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars was a Tragic Hero in the prequels. He
was a hero of the Republic, got the girl, helped win the war, and saved his
Master a number of times. His Fatal Flaw was the fear of losing those he
cared about, which fed a hunger for power to prevent it from ever
happening, and that eventually turned him into the ever-popular Black
Knight Darth Vader.
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Sweeney Todd. He is a barber trying to get revenge on Judge Turpin for
raping his wife and taking his daughter away from him. His Fatal Flaw was
his tendency to take things at face value and his willingness to trust
someone he really shouldn't have regarding his wife, and as a result, he
unknowingly kills his wife, who has become a beggar woman, just before
finally taking vengeance upon Turpin.
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Oliver Stone's Nixon arguably makes Richard Nixon into a very tragic
hero.
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Tony Montana from Scarface also counts. His aggressive conquest for
power and guts are important factors in his rise to power and his godlike
charisma, but they also end up causing his downfall as he refuses to
compromise with anyone. He also develops a case of paranoia which is
only worsened by his increasing addiction to his own product.
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Citizen Kane: Kane, all his life was the need to be loved... In his own
terms. Lampshaded by Leland.
Leland: That's all he ever wanted out of life... was love. That's the tragedy
of Charles Foster Kane. You see, he just didn't have any to give.
LITERATURE
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Eddard Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire, who actually did keep his
nobility of spirit to the end...and it killed him. Everyone else in that series
could also qualify, to a greater or lesser extent.
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Mack Bolan, The Executioner, from the series of novels by the same
name. He knows he can't kill every Mafioso, but he sets out to get as
many as he can. In the end, he ends up faking his death and going to
work for the government.
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David Eddings considers (Bel)Zedar of his Belgariad to be a tragic hero,
although he's really more of an Anti-Villain.
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In the Harry Potter series, both Sirius Black and Severus Snape can very
much be considered tragic heroes.
o
Sirius actually suffers from his fatal flaws several times. His hot
headiness is what got him framed for murdering his best friend, causing
him to serve several years in Azkaban. Later on, his cruelty towards
Kreacher ends up playing a pivotal role in the lead up to his death.
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Lily Bart from The House of Mirth. Her fatal flaw is her inability to
recognize how vain and materialistic New York high society is.
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Jake from Animorphs. Being the leader is tough when you need to make
decisions that cost you the respect of everyone around you.
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The Dragon ( Rand ) from The Wheel of Time series is doomed to
eventually fail, as the goal of the Big Bad is to destroy the Pattern and the
Wheel of Time, and the Wheel of Time will keep cycling until that happens.
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The Silmarillion is made of these; though, since it mostly follows
characters exiled for rebellion, it's kind of a prerequisite.
Húrin and Túrin Turambar may be the Most Glorious Examples.
The former defies Morgoth and is punished by having his whole family
cursed with bad luck, and is forced to watch their fates. The latter, his
son, falls in love with his own sister, whom he had never met, is pursued
by a powerful dragon, and when he finally manages to kill it, the dragon
reveals his sister's identity to him, causing him to commit suicide.
o
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Satan, in Paradise Lost, could be considered one of these.
Raistlin Majere from the Dragonlance Legends trilogy is even called one of
these in the Annotated Legends.
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Inspector Javert of Les Misérables is a man on the side of good and law,
but so inflated with extreme self-righteousness that, when confronted with
criminal Valjean's nobility he has no choice but to kill himself (damned if I
live in the debt of a thief, damned if he's free at the end of the chase).
Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart is a prime example of this. His father is a
titleless debtor, he gets exiled because he accidentally killed a man, his
son leaves him for a life as a christian, he gets imprisoned by said
christians, and he eventually hangs himself in shame
LIVE-ACTION TV
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Assuming his eventual downfall or assassination, Tony Soprano is
probably the biggest example of a tragic hero in modern television. He
actually wants to be a good person, a good father and a good husband,
and he tries hard, even getting flashes where you hope he'll improved
(such as when he realizes that the stripper Frankie just murdered was the
same age as his daughter), but is incapable of overcoming his own
narcissism, shortsightedness and lack of empathy. And the fact that he's,
you know, a mob boss.
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Craig Manning from Degrassi: The Next Generation is smart, charming,
artistic, sensitive, romantic, and a perfect gentleman. But he inevitably
breaks the heart of everybody around him, and himself, due to his Fatal
Flaw — he is thoughtless, rash, and grandiose (eventually revealed to be
due to bipolar disorder).
o
Ashley Kerwin is responsible, hard-working, and the most decent of
all the popular kids. She is slowly destroyed by bad luck, unscrupulous
rivals — and most importantly, by her own bitterness from all she goes
through. (Perhaps inevitably, she and Craig wound up as Star-Crossed
Lovers.)
o
In a similar vein, student Rick (who had pushed a fellow student
into a rock, leaving her in a coma) underwent anger management before
going back to school, and genuinely tried to be a nice person...which
failed, because essentially the entire school hated him for what he had
done before. It got to the point that, after being dumped on with goo at an
event Carrie-style, he took a gun to Degrassi and shot a fellow student in
the back, paralyzing him, then threatening to kill one of the main
characters before dying in a struggle with student Sean over the gun.
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Six Feet Under, where characters and plot action alike were primarily
defined by the tragedies they encompassed.
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More than you can shake a stick at in Heroes, but perhaps most notably
Isaac.
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Pick anyone you like from Supernatural but Dean might just be the most
glaring due to recent events. He's got no self-worth whatsoever, his only
reason for living is so that he can protect his little brother, his perfect
fantasy is a world where he's worthless (but everyone else is happy and
his mum is still alive), he's been driven to suicide more times than I care to
remember and then the poor bastard was tortured in hell. Even after he
managed to make his way out of Hell, he's now suffering a serious case of
accidental It's All My Fault since he's responsible for breaking the First
Seal and initiating the beginning of the coming of the Apoclypse. Talk
about the fate of all humanity - literally - resting in your hands.
Actually, Sam is just as straight an example of this trope, and
possibly more in line with the classic Greek tragic hero, given that his
flaw is one of the Greeks' favorites: pride. Sam's breach of the final seal
was, in the end, a product of his ego — he believed he was the only one
who could save the world by destroying Lilith. Moreover, like most Greek
tragic heroes, he does a bunch of horrible things, but seems to have an
almost Lucifer-like ability to justify them to himself. Among the highlights:
allying (and having romantic liaisons with) a demon, getting addicted to
the consumption of demonic blood, lying to and betraying his loved ones,
and beating his own brother to a pulp before nearly choking him to death.
And yet, until Ruby revealed the plot to him after it was too late, he had
no idea that he was playing for the wrong team. His reaction to this, and
his redemptive sacrifice at the end of Season 5, are the classic
responses of a tragic hero who finally realizes how badly he sucks.
o
o
Castiel becomes a Tragic Hero in Season 6, as he desperately tries
to prevent Raphael from restarting the Apocalypse. In this case, his Fatal
Flaw would be Pride, as he's convinced that everything he does,
regardless of what it is, is ultimately right so long as it's for this goal. This
leads to him being forced into an alliance with Crowley, and ultimately
Jumping Off the Slippery Slope by absorbing all the souls in Purgatory
and declaring himself the new God. By that point, it's hard to call him a
"hero" anymore.
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Londo Mollari in Babylon 5 is a definite example of a tragic hero; while at
first he seems to be a self-absorbed drunken buffoon, he is a true patriot
who really does want his people to rise up from their malaise. He
ultimately does lead the Centauri to glory, but the price he pays is too
high, and he dies first.
Lennier was a faithful and devoted servant who never seemed to
ask anything in return. But his Fatal Flaw was a jealousy he barely
admitted to himself.
o
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Captain Benteen on the hour long Twilight Zone episode On Thursday We
Leave For Home. For years he lead a colony of people stranded on a hot,
desolate planet. He helps them survive, holds them together and gives
them hope for a rescue. When a spaceship finally arrives to take them
home to Earth everyone is overjoyed including him. However Benteen
feels the power he once had slipping away. When he learns that many of
the colonist don't want to stay together when they return to Earth he
becomes angry. He tells them that Earth is a horrible place and tries to
destroy the ship. He refuses to go on the spaceship which will not return
and chooses to stay. Only when he sees the ship leave does he realize he
wants to go back home to Earth.
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Frank Sobotka of The Wire just wants to make sure the Baltimore
stevedores are going to stay in business. Unfortunately this means
keeping slightly unsavory company...
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Ryubee Sonozaki of Kamen Rider Double. Despite being the lead
antagonist, he's a Tragic Hero in true Shakespearean fashion. His Fatal
Flaw of ambition ultimately results in the utter destruction of his family's
happiness and unity and costs him his mind and his life. As much of a
monster as he was, his final moments, which he spends in his burning,
crumbling house laughing like a madman and reminiscing about the good
times he had with his family before his Fatal Flaw took over drive the
tragedy home.
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In some extent Gaius Baltar in the Battlestar galactica 2003 serie (not in
the original ones, where Count Baltar is more of a Manipulative Bastard ):
he actually has a LOT of Fatals Flaws , the main of which would be pride
and overconfidence. However, he strives to protect humanity (and
therefore the fleet) from utter destruction on numerous occasions.
MYTHOLOGY
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Greek Mythology had too many tragic heroes to count. There is the story
of Oedipus who was cursed to marry his mother and kill his father,
Prometheus, Orestes.
o
Prometheus accomplished his mission, stealing fire for mortal man.
And tricked the Gods as to which parts of animals the humans were to
sacrifice. It's just... you know... he pissed off the Jerkass Gods in the
process of helping humanity. So Zeus chained him to a rock and had an
eagle eat his innards. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Since he's immortal.
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Contrary to popular belief, he's not even tortured FOREVER.
Hercules breaks him free. Eventually. If anything, it counts as a Heroic
Sacrifice.
o
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Speaking of, Hercules could go on this list as well. Those famous
12 Labors? Penance, for being driven into a berserk rage (by HERA) and
murdering his own family. Then he gets another wife, who gets
kidnapped by a centaur (and friend of Herc's) named Nessus, I think.
Herc shoots him with a poison arrow (dipped in the Hydra's blood).
Dying, Nessus tells her to rub his blood on Herc's clothes if she ever
thinks Herc is being unfaithful, and it will tell the truth. Blood that is now
laced with the Hydra's poison. It goes as well as you would think.
Karna from The Mahabharata. Abandoned at birth by his mother who later
became a queen, mocked often for his common origins by the Princes and
for his high origin by his mentor who cursed that he should forgot all the
things he learned from him for disguising himself as a brahmin rather than
the warrior that he was, the Dragon to the Big Bad Duryodhana and
halfbrother to the Heroes, the Pandavas. He dies because he actually had
a sense of honor and that killed him in the end.
THEATER
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Many of Shakespeare's protagonists, of course. Some of the best
examples are Brutus, Othello, and Hamlet.
If fact, if the title is a main character's name they tend to bite it by
the end. Tragically.
o
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Macbeth potentially being an exception. He comes NEAR
the ultimate repentance of the Tragic Hero... but pulls out of his
Villainous Breakdown and goes for broke.
o
Importantly, Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes have Fatal Flaws
specific to their situation. Put Hamlet in Othello and Desdemona will live.
Put Othello in Hamlet and Claudius will be killed in the first act.
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David Mamet's play Oleanna. A university lecturer about to get his tenure,
with a loving wife and a payment on a house going through, decides to
help a female student falling behind in his class. He makes a few off-thecuff, inappropriate comments to the female student (he says "I'm not your
father" in response to her wanting to be told want to do, he relates an
anecdote about the rich copulating with less clothes on to the student),
only to be told by the student in the next act that she's having him done for
sexual harassment because of his comments.
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Arthur Miller intended to create the "modern tragic hero" in his legendary
play Death of a Salesman. Previously, it had been generally thought by
literary critics, academics et al. that for a character to be a tragic hero he
must fall from a great social height- ex. Brutus in Julius Caesar. Miller,
however, argued for years that Willy Loman was a tragic hero who fell not
from the height of social position but from the height of his aspirations and
self-delusions. Eventually, Miller admitted that Loman's character was
pathetic, not tragic because he stubbornly failed to learn anything from his
fall and thought maybe he would have achieved his goal if he had focused
more on Willy Loman's son, Biff.
In The Crucible, John Proctor definitely qualifies as a tragic hero,
and his fatal flaw would be either his temper or his pride depending on
who you ask.
o
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If your name is the title of a Greek play that is not a comedy, you fall under
this trope and have an high chance of dying.
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Seymour Krelborn of Little Shop of Horrors is brought down by his desire
for Audrey's love; he makes a Faustian Bargain of sorts with the plant to
win her love. It turns out to be a Senseless Sacrifice: turns out Audrey
loves him all the same, even without the fame brought by the fame.
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Elphaba "My road of good intentions lead where such roads always
lead..." No matter how hard she tries to do what's right, she cannot win.
VIDEO GAMES
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Kratos of God of War was tricked into killing the only two people he ever
loved and the Olympian gods refused to get rid of his memories of this,
even though he killed Ares, which they wanted. He's a total arsehole, but
still sympathetic - an apt hero for a game based on Greek mythology.
Kratos is a Tragic Hero because for all the impressive feats he
manages, he himself is never able to get over the trauma of killing his
own family. It is his love for his family that prevents Kratos from
becoming a Complete Monster, but at the same time, it's due to that love
that Kratos is unable to get over his feelings of guilt and is slowly driven
insane. Kratos starts working for the gods because they promise to free
him from his nightmares, but as time goes on, it becomes apparent that
1. the gods do not have the power to take away his guilt and 2. the gods
only view him as a pawn. In this regard, his ignorance towards the Gods'
anger (or causing the said anger) is rather understandable.
o
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o
The Metal Gear series is all about these characters.
The first two Metal Gear games cast protagonist Snake as a tragic
hero, who rapidly realises he doesn't actually care about his orders, is
being exploited by his bosses and manipulated by the villains, who
together constitute his only friends and family.
He's press-ganged into doing it all again in Metal Gear Solid, but in
the end he gets to disappear and chase after his own goals.
o
o
Metal Gear Solid 2 casts newcomer Raiden in a similar, but more
Shinji-esque exploited hero role.
o
Metal Gear Solid 3 puts Snake's progenitor through the wringer to
explain his turn to villainy, in an interesting contrast to Snake's own
decisions.
In Metal Gear Solid 4, Snake is still a free man, but he has only
months left to live.
o
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Of course in the end they do manage to earn a happy ending
of sorts. The world is a better place when all is said and done, so they
didn't really fail. The main characters get a shot at happiness too: Meryl
and Johnny get married, Campbell can finally start to bond with his
daughter Meryl, Raiden/Jack is reunited with his lover and their son for
a chance to begin anew as a family, Big Boss finally dies in peace
knowing that the world will no longer suffer from his mistakes, and
though Snake/David will only have months to live he can do so as a free
man for the first time in his life. He doesn't have to fight anymore.
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Sigurd of Chalphy in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War starts out
as an upstanding if not idealistic chap on a mission to rescue his
childhood friend, but due to events he had little to no control over he loses
the woman he loves, is branded a traitor and forced to flee his homeland.
It all culminates in his supposed ally Alvis of Velthomer having stolen said
wife for his own and burning Sigurd alive. Alvis himself was being played
by an even bigger bastard, but even so. OUCH.
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Taro Namatame of Persona 4, who started throwing the main characters
into the TV out of a misguided belief that he was actually saving them from
the true murderer (his Shadow represents his delusions of himself as a
savior). If the player manages to convince the others that he's innocent,
Namatame will have a My God, What Have I Done? moment upon
realizing the consequences of his actions.
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The Nameless One is a perfect example of a tragic hero. The happy
ending for the game ends with him choosing to pay his penance and
undergoing torture for eternity.
Archer from Fate/stay night. His Fatal Flaw, ironically enough, was his
idealism. Eventually, it killed him.
To expand upon this one: Archer used to be Shirou, who was
eventually the winner of the Fifth Holy Grail War. After the war, he
continued to pursue his ideals by becoming a hero, and he continuously
saved people. At one point, in order to save a few hundred people,
Archer made a contract with the world. Now with his new power, he
continued to be a hero. However, he was used as a scapegoat to all the
catastrophes that occurred due to the face that he never talked because
o
he had nothing to talk about, and he never asked for a reward because
for him, the sole act of saving people was his reward. After dying and
becoming a Counter Guardian, he found himself going against his ideals.
Instead of saving people, he was forced to kill them because his duty as
a Counter Guardian was to end the threat to humanity at the source,
which was people. He found himself betrayed by his ideals, and became
cynical and bitter, with his only solace the hope to be summoned into the
Grail War, and kill his past self so he could end the pain of being
betrayed by his ideals.
o
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Neverwinter Nights 2 has Ammon Jerro. Originally a kindly, eccentric court
magician, once he learned about the King of Shadows, he decided to take
it upon himself to combat him in order to protect the world. However, as
time went on, his determination to defeat the King of Shadows slowly
became a dark obsession, and he gradually began to lose himself, taking
more and more extreme measures to defeat the King. These ultimately
resulted in him selling his soul to the Abyss in order to gain an army of
Demons under his command, and began a rampage throughout Faerun in
order to obtain the shards of the only weapon that can harm the King of
Shadows, perfectly willing to kill countless people that (knowingly or not)
stand in his way. It's not until he accidentally kills Shandra, his own
granddaughter, in a blind rage that he realizes how far he's fallen and how
much his actions have harmed both the people he had sworn to protect,
and most importantly, himself.
o
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Other heroic spirits in the Fifth Grail War are Tragic Heroes in their
previous lives. Caster, Lancer, Saber are some examples.
The expansion Mask Of The Betrayer had Akachi, who led a grand
crusade to tear down the Wall of the Faithless, where those who refused
to worship a god were assigned to suffer for eternity. He did so to rescue
the woman he loved, who died without dedicating herself to a God, and
he was almost certainly doomed to fail from the start. As a consequence,
he became the spirit eater.
Tirion Fordring of Warcraft helps an orc who saved his life, and is in turn
branded a traitor, has all his powers taken away, has his family leave him,
and generally becomes a classic tragic hero. Also a subversion, because
the powers were not theirs to take, leaving him ultimately as the founder of
a new and less Jerk Ass order...
Fain in the Back Story of Lusternia. The Elder Gods faced a Hopeless War
against The Soulless. Knowing that the Soulless devoured Elders and
lesser Soulless alike to increase in power, Fain and his followers
pioneered an elixir made from fallen Soulless essence, fighting fire with
fire. The side-effects caused the other Elder Gods to reject its use, so Fain
and his followers continued drinking it in secret. They turned the war
around single-handedly. But as The Dark Side Will Make You Forget, Fain
- and his followers - became steadily more monstrous. They were exiled
by the other Elders while on the cusp of victory, derailing and dooming the
entire war effort. By the time of the game, Fain's twisted in appearance
and motivation, and harbors an insane grudge against the world.
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Harpuia in Mega Man Zero wants a world in which humans and reploids
can live in peace. Too bad he's so blinded by pride that he can't see the
truth. For extra irony, his goal makes him Not So Different from the leader
of the Resistance. Becomes subverted in later games when he's capable
of differentiating between a rebel and a psychopath and turns his wrath on
the later first.
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Merrill from Dragon Age 2. She tries to rebuild an Eluvian against the
Keeper Marethari's wishes to try to find a missing clan mate and to reclaim
a part of Elvish history. However because the mirror holds the darkspawn
taint she turns to a demon that teaches her blood magic so she can
cleanse it. Because of that she leaves her clan because they fear and
hate her, exemplified by another member choosing to run towards a
monster that kills him as opposed to dealing with her. She can't
comprehend why her clan is so against her rebuilding the Eluvian and is a
bit self-righteous when it comes to defending her actions. In the last act of
the game Merrill becomes so obsessed with fixing the Eluvian she doesn't
leave her house for days on end. When she confronts the demon for the
last time the Keeper reveals the demon was only using her so she would
build a portal out of his prison and he would possess or kill her once he
was out. Marethari took the demon into her own body to prevent this,
becoming an abomination. Merrill is forced to kill the Keeper, who she
admits was like a mother to her. Depending on what dialogue you chose
she might be forced to kill her entire clan if they attack her.
WEBCOMICS
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There are a few in The Order of the Stick:
o
Redcloak in Start of Darkness. His goal: improve the goblin race's
lot in life. Initially merely a Well-Intentioned Extremist, his Fatal Flaw
turns out to be the "sunk cost" fallacy, which Xykon ruthlessly exploits.
By the end, he's incapable of ever betraying Xykon, because if he does,
he'll have to face the fact that he killed his own brother - and allowed
many other goblins to die - for no good reason. He does have his
moments of "redemption", such as when he reaffirms the value of other
goblinoids even if they aren't his race of goblin.
o
Vaarsuvius seems to have recently arrived in this role, partly as a
result of fan-diagnosed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. V's Fatal Flaw is
Pride in magic, and an increasing inability to admit failure at a task and
requiring the help of others. This leads to selling (leasing, technically)
Vaarsuvius's soul out to fiends and refusing to give up the resulting
power after the rescue of V's threatened mate and children, as "I have so
much to do". Vaarsuvius's exact words were actually "I still have to fix
everything", but the subsequent attempts to do so have allowed V to
realize the mistake made without dying like so many tragic heroes.
Sadly, this bit of wisdom is unlikely to be much help with fixing V's family
life. The aftermath has cemented V's status; after a severe case of Break
the Haughty and his/her mate filing for divorce, V is acting like an elf with
not much left to live for.
Miko Miyazaki was a self-righteous headcase paladin who was the
most powerful paladin in the Sapphire Guard. She was severely antisocial; her only friend was her horse. As a consequence the Sapphire
Guard would send her away on long missions so they wouldn't have to
put up with her. She believed that she was an incorruptible force of
goodness and justice. She could not accept that she may be wrong or
have made a mistake, and believed that if she believed something, it had
to be true. Then she killed Lord Shojo in a psychotic breakdown, after
believing that Lord Shojo betrayed the Sapphire Guard, when he really
wanted to protect the sealed rift from the forces of evil. As a result, she
had fallen from grace and lost her paladin powers. When she tried to
gain redemption by destroying the sealed rift to try and stop Xykon and
Redcloak from taking it, she instead destroyed the seal to the rift and
was brutally bisected, and told by Soon Kim's ghost that "redemption
was not everyone". The real tragedy with Miko was that she would never
find redemption, as she could not accept that she had done something
wrong, and so could not atone for her sins.
o
WEB ORIGINAL

Dr. Horrible manages to be both this AND a Villain Protagonist. His
hesitation in killing Captain Hammer allows Hammer to break his death
ray and then try to use it. The resulting explosion sends Hammer away
whimpering, but kills Penny, causing Horrible to Jump Off The Slippery
Slope into complete supervillainy.
WESTERN ANIMATION

The Brain, of Animaniacs spinoff Pinky and the Brain, who is doomed to
failure every episode because of his tragic flaw, Genre Blindness. His
plans have been shown at points to be purely power-hungry, but he's also
shown to be wanting to rule the world because he thinks he can do a far
better job (that appears to be Pinky's position at least — and considering
the intelligence level of the world as depicted in the show... he could be
right). In the Did Not Do Research episode of "Freakazoid!" (where he
travels back in time), it was shown as much in an alternate time-line where
he's president of the U.S.A. and things seem to have worked out pretty
well. He is unable to anticipate the wacky hijinks which will inevitably result
from the fact that this is a Warner Brothers cartoon, and so inevitably
either Pinky's bumbling or his own carelessly chosen reactions end each
plan in disappointment. In one episode, a prognosticative observation
shows a future elderly Pinky & the Brain still locked in their labmouse
cage, still plotting to Take Over the World.

Jet of Avatar: The Last Airbender. His parents were killed and his village
was destroyed when he was eight. He became the Well-Intentioned
Extremist leader of a group of rebels who tried and failed to destroy the
village the Fire Nation was occupying. He tried to move on and become a
refugee, but was brainwashed for speaking about the war, and ultimately
is killed the instant he breaks free from the brainwashing (see:
Redemption Equals Death).

Oddly enough, Danny Phantom becomes one in an alternate universe of
the show. Danny Fenton gains ghostly powers and decides to use them to
protect his town from the ghosts and menaces threatening it. The twist
however, is that his friends and family are killed in an explosion, leading
his arch enemy Vlad to take him in. Far MORE twisted is that in a
procedure to rip out his humanity AKA his ghostly half, the ghost half ends
merging with Vlad's ghost half, murdering Fenton, and beginning a ten
year rampage around the entire world and succeeding. Oh, and it was
HIM that caused his family and friends' death! The fact that he's exists
outside of his own alternate Bad Future is just a matter of when he will
break free from his containment. Or would if not for Executive Meddling.

Rusty Venture from the Venture Brothers is this trope personified. In a
show that the creators have described as being about failure, Rusty may
be a sometimes brilliant scientist, but his flaws- the biggest of which is his
inferiority complex regarding his father- often hold him back while his
brother manages to attain great successes.