Poll of the Day > Criminal protagonists?

(+) Yeah! (+)

In fiction, what's the worst crime a protagonist can commit and you would still feel sympathetic to them?

For me, I'd say murder due to some "justifiable" reason (self-defense, they were just ordered by someone higher up, not premeditated, or something like that.)

You're talking about antiheroes. Like Tony Soprano, or Walter White, or Don Draper.

papercup posted...

You're talking about antiheroes. Like Tony Soprano, or Walter White, or Don Draper.

That's probably the word for it!

Yeah; same. The movie Law Abiding Citizen comes to mind.

PikachuMaxwell posted...

they were just ordered by someone higher up

"Just following orders"

Where have I heard of that before...in a historical context....

John Marston

In Escape from LA, Snake Pliskin intentionally puts humanity back in the dark ages by activating the device to render all technological advancements useless just to stick it to some jerks

Batman spearing Harvey off the building.

Eren Yeager did nothing wrong

The Saint

too bad he's so obscure and unmarketable, cuz The Saint is a cool character

I'm not sure if he's my precise limit, but in G Senjou to Maou, the teenage protagonist is the intelligent bookkeeper/assistant for his brutal yakuza boss father and regularly has to witness his atrocities and support him in his endeavors. He never pulls a trigger but he's grease for the organization, half out of obligation and half out of fear. The first scene with his father involves them having a nice family dinner while the corpses of two men who disappointed the father lay bleeding facedown on the table. I can't say more without significant spoilers but his development and state of mind are really well written

While I LOVE villainous characters, my limit for sympathizing with them is pretty low. I like Walter White and Tony Soprano because they're terrible human beings

SOA when Opie executes the fuck outta Agent Stahl , been a long time since i've seen the show but that was so satisfying.

TomNook posted...

"Just following orders"

Where have I heard of that before...in a historical context....

There were some sympathetic characters in the Tales series that killed others but were just following orders from authorities in their countries....

PikachuMaxwell posted...

In fiction, what's the worst crime a protagonist can commit and you would still feel sympathetic to them?

Considering this is one of my favorite fantasy novels/series of all time...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Foul's_Bane
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheChroniclesOfThomasCovenant

...and the main character in the book rapes a 12-year old girl yet still manages to remain somewhat sympathetic in his own way (especially as character development takes place over time), my willingness to suspend judgment of a protagonist is apparently pretty forgiving.

PikachuMaxwell posted...

In fiction, what's the worst crime a protagonist can commit and you would still feel sympathetic to them?

Black Hat from the cartoon Villainous is apparently the source/cause of all evil in the world, meaning a lot of horrible atrocities in history are technically his fault in-universe.

Yet he's just so damn funny that he's impossible to hate.

I guess there's a bit of a difference between a criminal protagonist and a Villain Protagonist

ArchonKnight posted...

John Marston

Him and Arthur Morgan are what first came to my mind

Cullen Bohannon is a good example from "Hell on Wheels".

Worst crime I could feel sympathy for is murder, depending on their motivation, victim and whether or not they regret it.