History Main / HeroicWannabe

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', Emperor Belos is ultimately revealed to be this. [[spoiler: As spelled out by the Titan in the finale, all of Belos' actions in the series--including trying to genocide the witches of the Boiling Isles--are driven by his incessant need to be the hero of his story, uncaring of who he hurts along the way.]]

* In the episode "[[Recap/TeenTitansS4E2CyborgTheBarbarian Cyborg The Barbarian]]" from ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', the antagonist is a barbarian named Krall who conspires with a witch to send an army of slug-like monsters to attack his people so he can defeat them and become a hero. However, [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor the creatures prove too strong for Krall]], so he asks the witch for strength to defeat them and [[JerkassGenie she brings Cyborg from the future]]. When Cyborg finally learns of Krall's treachery and confronts him, he begs the witch for the power to defeat Cyborg and is turned into [[HumanoidAbomination a larger version of the slug-creatures]]. He then attacks his people a final time, now commanding the monsters.

** Interestingly, it's strongly implied that [[DarkMessiah Lelouch Lamperouge]] is this, as indicated by several in- and out-of-universe factors. For example, he's a fan of {{Tokusatsu}} and WordOfGod says that his voice actors[[note]]Creator/JunFukuyama, who is practically typecast as TheHero, and Creator/JohnnyYongBosch, best known for being a [[Franchise/PowerRangers Power Ranger]][[/note]] were chosen in order to show that Lelouch is trying very hard to be something that he's not.
** His best friend [[TheFettered Suzaku Kururugi]] is also this -- Suzaku has the heroic motivation of making things better for his people, does not believe that the ends justify the means, and tries to sort things out diplomatically with his enemies in the hopes of getting them to see his point of view and end conflict peacefully. The problem is that he's in service of TheEmpire, which does not care about his people at all and fights tooth and nail to avoid being changed. His claims that the ends do not justify the means prove hypocritical because the empire he's supporting is complicit in such evils as ''genocide'' and any attempts to be an InternalReformist are hampered by the fact that said empire could not care less about him. In fact, he often comes off as ''worse'' than Lelouch, due to his views occasionally dipping into BlackAndWhiteInsanity. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that this is because Suzaku killed his own father to avoid the latter getting Japan wiped out when Britannia first invaded. Suzaku harbors immense guilt not only for killing his father, but never being punished for it. While he does believe his rhetoric to some degree, his real motivation is to die in battle to atone for his sins]].

* The William Burnside ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, the infamous "Commie-Smasher" Cap, was retconned into this. He was a fanboy of the original Captain America and tried to become Cap during the Korean War, going so far to surgically modify his looks and voice to resemble Steve Rogers. When America lost the Korean War, Burnside lost his chance... until the Communist Red Skull appeared and he and his young sidekick Jack Munroe donned replica costumes of Cap and Bucky and used a Nazi reverse-engineered Super Soldier Serum to save the day. Too bad the serum was missing an important component and the two went crazy in their anti-Communism attacks

* ''Fanfic/SpectacularSeven'': Moondancer sees herself as the hero of her story, but her arrogance, need for attention, and jealousy at Sunset for "stealing" Twilight from her clouds her judgment. [[spoiler: She is so obsessed with getting her way, she would risk the world and release Tirek for a chance at glory]].

* Syndrome from ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'', an AscendedFanboy who ended up as the BigBad -- someone willing to engage in serial murder to upgrade his HumongousMecha so that [[MonsterProtectionRacket he'd be the only one who could stop it.]]

-->'''Nuka:''' I should have been TheChosenOne. (...) I could be a leader if she'd just give me a chance!\\

* [[AdamWesting Catman]] from ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' keeping trying to be a hero, but he's so stupid and crazy that he just becomes a nuisance.

* In the episode "Cyborg the Barbarian" from ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', the antagonist is a barbarian named Krall who conspires with a witch to send an army of slug-like monsters to attack his people so he can defeat them and become a hero. However, [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor the creatures prove too strong for Krall]], so he asks the witch for strength to defeat them and [[JerkassGenie she brings Cyborg from the future]]. When Cyborg finally learns of Krall's treachery and confronts him, he begs the witch for the power to defeat Cyborg and is turned into [[HumanoidAbomination a larger version of the slug-creatures]]. He then attacks his people a final time, now commanding the monsters.

* In ''Literature/{{Dragonsbane}}'' by Creator/BarbaraHambly, shiny-eyed Gareth loved heroic ballads and dreamed of great deeds... but he met his hero and other participants of the feat.

* Overdrive in ''ComicBook/TheSuperiorFoesOfSpiderMan'' is an odd example. He's not just not a hero, he's a fully-fledged villain, albeit one who tends to fanboy over superheroes in the middle of fights. But he's a villain who hasn't given up on his original plan to be a superhero and points out that the HeelFaceTurn path to ComicBook/TheAvengers worked for people like Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch.

* Khamsin from ''VideoGame/MetalGearRising'' is the only member of the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Winds of Destruction]] to have actually heroic intentions (liberating Abkhazia), and actually could be a hero if he could only work on his [[NoSocialSkills complete lack of social skills]] and [[DumbMuscle get a brain in his skull]]. He's a lot like a [[Film/StreetFighter certain depiction of Zangief]] in that he works for the "Winds of '''Destruction'''" and doesn't realize he's working for the bad guys.

* Billy Billions of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' decides to create his own hero team in order to compete with Ben. It barely lasts more than a week before the teammates tear each other apart.

* Overdrive in ''Comicbook/SuperiorFoesOfSpiderMan'' is an odd example. He's not just not a hero, he's a fully-fledged villain, albeit one who tends to fanboy over superheroes in the middle of fights. But he's a villain who hasn't given up on his original plan to be a superhero and points out the HeelFaceTurn path to Comicbook/TheAvengers worked for people like Comicbook/{{Hawkeye}}, Comicbook/{{Quicksilver}}, and the Comicbook/ScarletWitch.

* A bumpkin mouse dressed up as WesternAnimation/MightyMouse to impress his girlfriend. She's not, and the little guy is overcome by bullying cats. Just as they're about to pounce, the ''real'' Mighty Mouse arrives, beats up the cats and lets the bumpkin take credit for it.
* Booster Gold from ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' is a thrill-seeker from the 25th century who traveled back to our time to become [[NominalHero a hero for fame and fortune]], and because of this he is only trusted with the absolute lowest-profile jobs like crowd control. Ironically he ends up saving the day, [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold unbeknownst to anyone else in the league]] (as they were busy fighting Mordru) when he saves a scientist who had been left with a black hole in his chest after a bungled experiment. He doesn't get any fame or glory; in fact, he gets outright chewed out by Batman for abandoning his crowd control post, but at least [[LoveInterests Dr. Tracy Simmons knew of his heroism and invited him out to dinner]].
* Princess Morebucks from ''Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls'' dreams [[IJustWantToBeSpecial of becoming a Powerpuff Girl]], but her brattiness, ineptitude, and sheer poor disposition make her a terrible hero, to say the least.
* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': In "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS1E11TheLittlestPlaneteer Littlest Planeteer]]", a young boy named Jason is obsessed with becoming a hero and saving the day. Since he keeps charging forward without thinking and trying to use things he knows nothing about (up to and including the Fire Ring), he just keeps making things worse.
* ''WesternAnimation/GreenLanternTheAnimatedSeries'': Prince Ragnar of Betrassus was obsessed with becoming a Green Lantern. When he was told that the power rings seek out new wielders upon their current ones' death, he decided to murder Duloc, his planet's current Green Lantern hoping that the ring would come to him. It didn't work as the ring instead went to his sister, Queen Iolande, so he tried to kill Kilowog to get his ring but was found out. He eventually did get the power he sought in the form of a Red Lantern Ring, [[ThePowerOfHate fueled by his rage and newfound hatred for the Green Lanterns]].

* The unifying trait of the Lucha Family, most obvious with Leva Bates, who styles herself a superhero and feels the need to stop members of the locker room she knows have bad intentions but in a more subtle way, both Los Ben Dejos(Jay Rios and Eddie Cruz) think of themselves as motivational role models whose job is to elevate the spirits of the audience and locker room, which often sees them suffer indignities. Mia Yim meanwhile is another example of a wrestler who is big and strong but not quite to the extent she thinks she is.
* Wrestling/AlbertoDelRio's gimmick after [[FaceHeelTurn turning heel]] in the process of defeating Wrestling/DolphZiggler. He thinks of himself as a hero to the Latino people, but as Ricardo Rodriguez points out, Del Rio doesn't do much that is actually heroic. He was also matched up against Wrestling/RobVanDam, who was a baby {{face}} variety(unless you consider {{jobb|er}}ing heroism).

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