“ | Who is Spider-Man? He's a criminal, that's who he is! A vigilante! A public menace! | „ |
~ J. Jonah Jameson condemning Spider-Man as a villain (again). |
“ | Look, I'm not the one with the problem, okay? It's the world that seems to have a problem with me! People take one look at me and go "Aargh! Help! Run! A big, stupid, ugly ogre!"... They judge me before they even know me... That's why I'm better off alone. | „ |
~ Shrek explaining to Donkey why he isolates himself. |
“ | You did this. You won’t let me live, you won’t let me die. | „ |
~ Superman’s response to Batman when revived. |
Scapegoats are heroes who are being subjected to upsetting situations. These heroes are often wrongfully mistreated and accused of being evil or somehow in the wrong even though they are trying to act in a benevolent manner. Often times heroes are turned into scapegoats by a villain or antagonist so as to get them out of the way of their goals. However, these characters are submitted to other circumstances that can be harsh, unfair, or even downright cruel, and because of this it could cause them to become a villain. They can be:
- The Butt Monkey/The Chew Toy: Heroes who are constantly on the receiving end of jokes, such as being awfully abused/humiliated in an unusual or slapstick manner, such as Tom Cat, Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., Homer Simpson, Charlie Brown, Meg Griffin, the Grand Duke or Scrat.
- The Cosmic Plaything: Heroes that have a terrible life that rarely improves or gets even worse such as Guts, Ragna the Bloodedge, Donald Duck, Severus Snape, and Squidward Tentacles.
- The Failure Hero: Heroes who repeatedly fail at whatever they set out to accomplish. Prime examples include Rean Schwarzer, Jaime Lannister, The Bear, and Rock.
- The Cartwright: Heroes who repeatedly lose people close to them, usually lovers, such as Jesse Pinkman, James Bond, Albert Heinrich, Beelzebul and Wanda Maximoff and many versions of Spider-Man.
- The Love Martyr: Heroes who stay with their loved one in spite of their major personality flaws. A good example would be Mikiya Kokutou, who continues to stay with Shiki Ryougi even after she attempted to kill him, albeit with deep remorse on her part. Another example would be Dodge, whose fatal flaw was her unconditional love for a lesbian she could never be with, one who played her and got her ripped from her physical form out of childish bitterness and spite, all of which is fully unprovoked domestic abuse.
- The Hurt Immortal: Characters who are killed and constantly revived just to be killed all over again such as Kenny McCormick, Rory Williams, Scratchy, and many Happy Tree Friends heroes.
- The Hero with Bad Publicity: Heroes who are viewed with contempt by the public in spite of all the good deeds they do, usually due to someone smearing their reputation. Good examples include Albus Dumbledore, Gwen, Mr. Incredible, Maddie, Ren Amamiya. Saitama and Shiroe count as well, except they smear their reputations on purpose.
- The Rudolph: Heroes who are viewed with contempt or fear by everyone around them just for being different, such as Inuyasha, Balto, Shrek, and Chicken Little.
- The Designated Victim: Heroes who are constantly targeted or kidnapped by the villains. Good examples include Princess Peach, Kairi, Mary Jane Watson, Princess Elise, and Daphne Blake.
- The Disaster Inventor: Scientists who create and use inventions to benefit themselves or others, but their creations usually backfire, causing unintended consequences: Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory, Mametchi from Tamagotchi and Jimmy Neutron and Wallace are good examples of this.
- The Abel: Heroes who are forced to fight and, in some cases, kill a sibling. Good examples include Starfire, Olivia, Luke Cage and Saya Otonashi.
- The Disposable Pawn: Pawns that are unjustly mistreated or killed by their cruel leader/master or other villains for their disobedience or once they have outlived their usefulness: Quasimodo by Judge Claude Frollo (in the Disney version), Zuko by Fire Lord Ozai, Vegeta by Frieza, Scorpion (from the series of Mortal Kombat) by Quan Chi or Rowf and Snitter by Dr. Boycott.
- The Woobie: Tragic heroes that suffer from traumatic experiences that could cause them to fall in Despair Event Horizon as it caused the audience to feel pity for them: Asura had a horrible premonition about the death of his wife, Durga, and the kidnapping of his daughter, which led to his dark path for vengeance; Fiamma Corona who is raped by Miss Gribben and ostracized by Di and eventually dies in her rapist's arms; and Luke Skywalker is rent with unbearable guilt for his act of attempted nepoticide that resulted in his already unhinged nephew's understandable turn to the dark side and the fragmentation of his new Jedi Order, causing Luke to spent the remainder of his life in exile to punish himself.
- The Tykebomb: Heroes who were raised for combat from a very early age and so had no chance to live a normal life. Often, these heroes worked for villains before defecting to the good side. It usually takes another hero to bring out the good in them. Good examples include Shang-Chi, River Song, Bloodsport, Shana and Sousuke Sagara.
- The Unfavorite: Heroes who, for some completely petty, unfair, and often ridiculous reason, are regarded as a disgrace by their family, to the point that they might even get disowned by them. Peter Petrelli, Kazuma Yagami, Ikki Kurogane, Mirabel Madrigal, Sirius Black, and Kyo Sohma fit this perfectly.
- The Remorseful Git: Former jerks or villains who wanted to apologize to their loved one(s) for getting angry with them, only for the latter to die before they could. Example: Homer Simpson refused to love his mother ever again because she has been faking her death too much to hide from the government. Feeling bad for what he has done, he goes downstairs to apologize, but she has already died.
- The Possessed/Brainwashed: Possessed/Brainwashed heroes who had to be killed in the end to save others as it is sometimes too difficult or even impossible to snap out of their influences. Old Yeller was bitten by a rabid wolf and Travis had to shoot him in the end. Jacob Keyes is another example; he was assimilated by the Flood and Master Chief had no choice but to permanently end his misery. Gandrayda, Rundas, and Ghor suffered terminal corruption caused by exposure to Phazon and Samus Aran had to fight them before they were ultimately killed by Dark Samus.
All items (6545)
A
- Amleth
- Amos (The Walking Dead)
- Amumu
- Amy Crystal
- Amy Rose (Sonic Boom)
- Amy Rose (Sonic the Hedgehog)
- Amy Rose (Sonic X)
- Amy Santiago
- Amy Szalinski
- Amy Wong
- Ana (The Child)
- Anakin Skywalker (LEGO Star Wars)
- Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars)
- Anastasia (Once Upon a Time in Wonderland)
- Anastasia Romanov (Don Bluth)
- Anastasia Tremaine
- Andre Wright
- Andrea Davenport
- Andrea Harrison (TV Series)
- Andreas Sanchez
- Andrei Ivanovich Yermak
- Andrew Clark
- Andrew Hartford
- Andrew Norris
- Andrina
- Android 17
- Android 18
- Android 21
- Android 8
- Andromeda Shun
- Andros
- Anduin Wrynn
- Andy Barclay
- Andy Barclay (Remake)
- Andy Bernard
- Andy Bogard
- Andy Carradine
- Andy Dufresne
- Andy Johnson
- Andy Larkin
- Andy Panda
- Andy the Apple
- Anew Returner
- Angel (Belle)
- Angel (Buffy)
- Angel (Lady and the Tramp)
- Angel (Monica's Gang)
- Angel Batista
- Angel Dust
- Angel Investigations
- Angela Balzac
- Angela de Marco
- Angela Jitrenka
- Angela Orosco
- Angelia
- Angelica Pickles
- Angelica Rapha Redgrave
- Angelise Ikaruga Misurugi
- Angie (Shark Tale)
- Angie Piper
- Angry Grandpa
- Angry Video Game Nerd
- Angus Grimaldi
- Angus O'Shaughnessey
- Aniq Adjaye
- Anita Lesnicki
- Anivia
- Ann (Ann)
- Ann Darrow
- Ann Takamaki
- Anna (Fire Emblem)
- Anna Matthews
- Anna Myers
- Anne Boonchuy
- Anne Hale
- Anne Von Blyssen
- Annie Sawyer
- Anon Chihaya
- Anora "Ani" Mikheeva
- Anorak
- Anthony (The Dark Pictures)
- Anthony Carmine
- Anthony Johnson
- Anthony Tivoli
- Anthony Wiggle
- Antoine D'Coolette
- Antoine Depardieu
- Anton (The Amazing World of Gumball)
- Anton Nobokov
- Anu (Barbie)
- Anxiety
- Anya (Mouthwashing)
- Anya Amasova
- Anya Oliwa
- Ao Haidong
- Aoi Asahina
- Aoi Sakuraba
- Aplegatt
- Apollo Creed
- Apollo Justice
- Appa (Avatar)
- Apple Kid
- Appo
- April O'Neil (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem)
- April O'Neil (TMNT 1987)
- April O'Neil (TMNT 2003)
- April O'Neil (TMNT)
- Aqua (Kingdom Hearts)
- Aqua (KonoSuba)
- Aqualad (Teen Titans Go!)
- Aquaman (DC Animated Movie Universe)
- Aquila Yuna
- Aragog
- Aragorn
- Aramina
- Arataki Itto
- Arbiter
- Arcade Gannon
- Arcana
- Archangel (Marvel)
- Archer (Fate/stay night)
- Archie Andrews
- Archie Andrews (Riverdale)
- Archie Hopper
- Arcturus (Ninjago)
- Ardeth Bay
- Ares (Warriors Orochi)
- Argos
- Ari the Ram
- Aria Montgomery
- Ariel (Disney)
- Ariel Hanson
- Aries
- Aris Tendou
- Arkin O'Brien
- Arle Nadja
- Arlene (Garfield)
- Arlo (UnOrdinary)
- Armed Detective Agency
- Arnice
- Arnold Perlstein
- Arnold Rimmer
- Art Lean
- Art3mis
- Artemy Burakh
- Arthur (Fire Emblem Fates)
- Arthur Dayne
- Arthur Hastings
- Arthur Kirkland
- Arthur Morgan
- Arthur Pendragon (Disney)
- Arthur Pendragon (Shrek)
- Arthur Radley
- Arthur Read
- Artur Braus
- Artus Cimber
- Aruto Hiden
- Arvin Russell
- Arwen Undómiel
- Arya Stark
- Asahi Kōbe
- Asajj Ventress
- Asgore Dreemurr
- Ash (Sing)
- Ash Lynx
- Ash Williams
- Asher Forrester
- Ashi
- Ashley Graham
- Ashley Hammond
- Ashley Mizuki Robbins
- Ashley Williams
- Asia Argento
- Asta (Black Clover)
- Astolfo
- Astra Militarum
- Astrid Hofferson (DreamWorks)
- Asuka (Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger)
- Asuka Kazama
- Asuka Langley Sohryu
- Asuna Yuuki
- Asura (Asura's Wrath)
- Asura (Samurai Shodown)
- Ataru Moroboshi
- Athena (Tomorrowland)
- Athena Asamiya
- Atsuko Kagari
- Atsushi Nakajima
- Atticus Finch
- Audrey (Little Shop of Horrors)
- Audrey and Victor
- Audrey Drew
- Augustus Sinclair
- Aunt Bee
- Aunt Cass
- Aunt Marie
- Aunt May (Spider-Verse trilogy)
- Auto
- Autobots (Transformers One)
- Ava (The Walking Dead)