History Main / NominalHero

* ''Manga/HybridXHeartMagiasAcademyAtaraxia'': As of Volume 8, [[MadScientist Nayuta Hida]] has joined the protagonists in their battle against the [[PhysicalGod Deus Ex Machina]]. Nayuta has no regrets about what she has done for her [[AGodAmI pursuit of godhood]], such as the way she treated her children, and makes no attempts to redeem herself. For their part, [[TheHero Kizuna]] and the others know this and only accept her help because she is the best chance they have against the Deus Ex Machina.

* ''LightNovel/HybridXHeartMagiasAcademyAtaraxia'': As of Volume 8, [[MadScientist Nayuta Hida]] has joined the protagonists in their battle against the [[PhysicalGod Deus Ex Machina]]. Nayuta has no regrets about what she has done for her [[AGodAmI pursuit of godhood]], such as the way she treated her children, and makes no attempts to redeem herself. For their part, [[TheHero Kizuna]] and the others know this and only accept her help because she is the best chance they have against the Deus Ex Machina.

* [[Characters/MarvelComicsSabretooth Sabretooth]] usually tends to be this. If he's working with the heroes, it's because he was forced to and/or had something to gain. Other instances, he's tried to do right by a love interest. Holly & Bonnie are examples. He's not a hero when he meets either of them, but was very protective of them, and would've possibly settled down with them had they survived. During the ''{{ComicBook/AXIS}}'' event, Creed was [[HeelFaceBrainwashing inverted]] into a hero due to a spell gone wrong by Characters/ScarletWitch. He starts off as a truly heroic figure wanting to atone for his sins, even refusing to kill for a time. During ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen2016'', his nominal hero tendencies returned after developing feelings for [[Characters/MarvelComicsMonetStCroix Monet St. Croix]], whose well-being he cared more about than anyone else. He's still inverted and repentant, but when Monet is around, [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl his priorities shift]].

* In ''ComicBook/SinCity'', Miho's motives are unknown since she is mute, but she seems to have loyalty almost exclusively to Old Town. She has assisted Dwight in the past only because he once saved her life but that didn't stop her from essentially threatening to kill him if he interfered while she was torturing a corrupt cop in the middle of a street. Otherwise, the best you can say about her is that she doesn't target innocent people. In the first movie, she does seem like an UnscrupulousHero, but only because it covered her more heroic actions.

* In ''ComicBook/New52'', ComicBook/{{Superboy}} is this initially. This version of Superboy has no interest in heroics beyond what it takes to survive/gain his freedom. Between the first and second issues, he kills many of his captors by reflex and feels no remorse or guilt, tortures a group of soldiers who hold him at gunpoint, and flat out threatens to kill anyone who stands in his way. Issue #4 steers him towards being a KnightInSourArmor, and he eventually becomes an All-Loving Hero.

* All the protagonists of ''Film/KellysHeroes'' are disgruntled US soldiers, who intend to abscond to Switzerland with 16 million dollars in NaziGold. They never do anything outright evil, and are all fairly sympathetic in that they are repeatedly pissed on by their superiors and blamed for things they had no power over, but are also very blatantly only out to line their own pockets and don't care much about what they have to do to get what they want.

** Arios Orlando is a deconstruction. He's a hero only because he has the Hero skill "Limit Breaker", which he inherited, and allows him to be humanity's champion against the Demon Lord and its armies. However he's an arrogant, entitled asshole who thinks all the people in the world only exist as part of his personal heroic tale. He has no moral scruples and believes he can do whatever he wants to whoever he wants without consequence just because of his Hero title. He's also a SoreLoser who wants murderous vengeance against the protagonist Rein Shroud that he kicked out of the party at the start of the story because Rein wasn't outright ''begging'' to be let back in the party when the party needed him to do something, fully intending to kick him out again, and instead fighting back when Rein dared to defend the honor of this new BattleHarem party. Arios lost and was forced to apologize. The instant he [[spoiler:loses his "hero" title because his crimes are too grievous, he turns on the rest of the party and joins up with the Demon Lord to get revenge on humanity for the "disrespect" he's getting in not being recognized as a hero anymore]].
** The rest of the Hero party also qualifies for being Arios's escorts on his assigned quest against the Demon Lord. The commoners ''loathed'' them for their snobbery and being suck-ups to nobility and the wealthy while treating the commoners as dirt beneath their boots and they're even shown outright abandoning people in distress the moment they lose the tactical advantage and passing off the blame to others, and enforcing this shift of blame with black-mail and threats of force. [[spoiler: It's not until Arios himself turns on them that they realize that they're not heroes at all.]]

* Raistlin Majere is this in the original Literature/{{Dragonlance}} ''Chronicles'' trilogy. Really the only thing keeping him with the Heroes of the Lance is some lingering affection for some of them and the presence of his brother Caramon. [[spoiler: Even during ''Chronicles'' Raistlin started drifting towards becoming the TokenEvilTeammate and the FaceHeelTurn was complete by the next trilogy ''Legends''. Still he did earn his RedemptionEqualsDeath and had a few PetTheDog moments.]]

* ''Series/TwentyFour'' protagonist Jack Bauer skirts along this trope during the show's eight seasons but manages to stay away from it for the most part. The sequel mini-series "Live Another Day," however, shows that he's officially entered this territory due to how much his experiences in the show's original run have soured him. He comes out of hiding to save the day again solely because he learned that his old flame Audrey and her father and his former boss James Hellar were in danger, and displays a much more ruthless attitude than he did during the original series, including shooting a group of people in order to incite a riot for a diversion and [[spoiler:outright murdering the main villain of the first half of the season with little provocation even after she's been successfully captured, a stark contrast to the original seasons where he primarily killed only in self-defense or if someone [[ItsPersonal murdered someone important to him]]]].

** In Seasons 3 and 4, Sandor "The Hound" Clegane, having abandoned his position as a Kingsguard for the tyrannical Lannister regime, works to return Arya Stark to her family, which is a heroic goal, though his primary motivation is the ransom he expects to be paid for her. He's still not by any means a good person, as he robs innocent peasants on two separate occasions, on the first barely being convinced not to murder his unconscious victim by Arya, and on the second leaving a kindly farmer and his young daughter to starve [[UngratefulBastard after the man had invited him into his home, given him a free meal and offered him a job]]. However, he despises (and helps Arya kill) monsters like [[spoiler:the Frey soldiers who murdered her family at the Red Wedding]] and PsychoForHire Polliver, and by the end of Season 4 he has come to care for Arya enough that he is now looking after her with no hope of a reward. [[spoiler:After a near-death experience, he returns in Season 6 as a much more heroic character, albeit still not a particularly [[GoodIsNotNice nice]] one, fighting to save the world from the White Walker invasion for purely noble reasons.]]
** Bronn is a mercenary who fights for whichever side pays him best, including propping up oppressive monarchs like Joffrey and [[spoiler:Cersei]], resorts to dishonourable tactics in battle, and, in his time as Commander of the City Watch of King's Landing, uses extreme measures to keep the peace such as having every known thief in the city rounded up and summarily executed. Though he does have some standards, being clearly disgusted by Joffrey having Sansa Stark beaten by Meryn Trant in front of the Royal Court, the only reason he qualifies as a hero at all is because the characters he spends most of his time working for are Tyrion and Jaime, who the audience are generally inclined to sympathise with.

* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': Rachel Matheson reveals herself as this in "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E17TheLongestDay The Longest Day]]", when she directly tells Aaron that she wants to turn the power back on not to help anyone, but to give the other factions the power to kill Monroe as revenge for killing her son Danny.
* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': In this 2010 BBC modernization, Sherlock Holmes describes himself as a "high-functioning sociopath," and cautions Dr. Watson: "Don't make people into heroes, John. Heroes don't exist; and if they did, I wouldn't be one of them." This shows that his motivations are not those of a typical straight hero and that he's possessed of a very cynical worldview. His motivation is quite explicitly boredom and a need for intellectual stimulation.

* In [[VillainBasedFranchise heel based promotions]] such as Fuyuki Army, Oz Academy, Kai En Tai Dojo, and Perros Del Mal Producciones or on heel based shows like ''Wrestling/{{n|ewWorldorder}}Wo Souled Out'' or the Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA Wildside "Elite" events, it is incredibly easy for a heel not associated with the dominant PowerStable to become a face by default, as Wrestling/EddieGuerrero discussed when the nWo were taking over Wrestling/{{WCW}}.

* Nagash is one of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}s'' biggest douchebags, and likely the single most evil person in the setting. He still has a vested interest against Chaos destroying the world however, and so for a good chunk of the lore he's technically been a "good guy". The quote marks are very much justified, and in ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'' it's no real surprise when he finally gives in to his baser urges. It's fair to say he was only prevented from betraying everyone in ''TabletopGame/WarhammerTheEndTimes'' because one of the other "Why are we friends with this guy again?" characters, his subordinate Mannfred von Carstein, betrayed ''him'' before he had the chance. It speaks to Nagash's character well that the moment his soul was released from imprisonment in Age of Sigmar and ascended to godhood, one of his first actions was to bring Mannfred's soul back in a continually decaying part of his empire just to torment Mannfred by making him his servant again.

* In ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', the Scourge, which in the distant past has destroyed entire galactic civilizations in its efforts to defeat Mythos monsters. SociopathicHero Jobe Wilkins may fall in this trope as well.

** Zapp Brannigan is a selfish, womanizing, ignorant {{Jerkass}} whose incompetence is of epic proportions, and whose battle plans often if not usually call for callously sacrificing thousands of lives in order to further his own career. Nonetheless, he is a key asset for [[TheFederation DOOP]]. In many appearances, though, he's a functional or outright antagonist due to his habit of screwing over the Planet Express crew.

* ''WesternAnimation/MegasXLR'': Coop can come across like this much of the time. He views M.E.G.A.S. as less like a vital weapon in Earth's defense and more like a fancy toy he can show off and play with. In many episodes, Coop only fights the villain because they did something to offend him and the only reason he is relied upon to pilot M.E.G.A.S. is because he modified it in such a way that only he can pilot it.

* WebOriginal/{{Ultimate}}: Ultimate serves as a deconstruction of this. Being that when you don't have any heroic traits, people tend to see you as a villain. ''Especially'' when you screw over heroes as much as you fight villains.

* WebOriginal/{{Ultimate}}: Ultimate serves as a deconstruction of this. Being that when you don't have any heroic traits, people tend to see you as a villain.''Especially'' when you screw over heroes as much as you fight villains.

* Virtually the entire superhero community in ''ComicBook/TheBoys''. Thanks to the massive media empire built around them by [[EvilInc Vought-American]], they don't even have to save anyone to be considered heroes as embellished comic lines surrounding their supposed "adventures" are made, and many let the fame and money go to their heads and end up becoming narcissistic sociopaths. Several of them used to even be supervillains but only switched to the "hero" side because it pays better.

* Jane Douglas's character, Prudence, in ''WebVideo/OutsideXbox'''s games of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. She's a moderately sadistic, demon-descended Cthulhu cultist who specialises in Eldritch Blast, who seems to care about nobody besides the other Oxventurers.

* All the protagonists of ''Film/KellysHeroes'' are disgruntled US soldiers, who intend to abscond to Switzerland with 16 million dollars in NaziGold. They are all fairly sympathetic in that they are repeatedly pissed on by their superiors and blamed for things they had no power over, but are also very blatantly only out to line their own pockets and don't care much about what they have to do to get what they want.

* [[LawfulEvil Lawful examples]] of this trope find themselves "stuck" to the good side by [[IGaveMyWord a deal]], contract or some similar bind, or ([[RousseauWasRight more ideally]]) simply out of a sense of loyalty to the heroes.

-->-- '''[[Webcomic/EightBitTheater Red Mage]]''', ''[[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2007/11/15/episode-920-we-could-be-heroes/ 8-Bit Theater]]''

* Crowley in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' starts off as this. He's no less evil than the other demons, but he is the only one to realize that it's in his best interest to [[spoiler:stop [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]] from destroying humanity]].

* The vast majority of Gaulish villagers in ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' are like this. They're only heroic at all because they're fighting against TheEmpire, which they mostly just pick on, usually for fun, rather than make any serious rebellion against them. They have two reasons for fighting them -- they love fighting (even turning on each other when Romans aren't available) and they're incredibly set in their ways, usually even when the Roman way is better. They started out intended more as a RagtagBunchOfMisfits LaResistance, but got {{Flanderiz|ation}}ed into this mostly because it's funnier. Asterix, Obelix, and Getafix are much nicer people, though.

* ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'''s John Constantine is also a milder case. But being an AntiHero, many of his battles are because he was being forced to comply, for personal gain (ready to sacrifice anyone), or simply just being bored and want to do some shit.

* [[Characters/MarvelComicsSabretooth Sabretooth]] usually tends to be this. If he's working with the heroes, it's because he was forced to and / or had something to gain. Other instances, he's tried to do right by a love interest. Holly & Bonnie are examples. He's not a hero when he meets either of them, but was very protective of them, and would've possibly settled down with them had they survived. During the ''{{ComicBook/AXIS}}'' event, Creed was [[HeelFaceBrainwashing inverted]] into a hero due to a spell gone wrong by Characters/ScarletWitch. He starts off as a truly heroic figure wanting to atone for his sins, even refusing to kill for a time. During ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen2016'', his nominal hero tendencies returned after developing feelings for [[Characters/MarvelComicsMonetStCroix Monet St. Croix]], whose well-being he cared more about than anyone else. He's still inverted and repentant, but when Monet is around, [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl his priorities shift]].

* The third ComicBook/{{Captain Marvel|MarvelComics}}, Genis-Vell, ending up becoming this during a period of madness (caused by Entrophy.) Genis became something of a VillainProtagonist with a severely warped sense of justice and rabid sense of entitlement. Rick Jones, to whom Genis was molecularly bonded, constantly opposed him and (rightly) questioned Genis's sanity. On one occasion, Genis bestowed powers upon a serial killer whom his friend Rick Jones had testified against in order to get the killer to stalk both Rick and his wife, Marlo. After putting Rick through absolute hell to the point where death seemed certain, Genis then executes the serial killer and explains to Rick that all of this was to teach Rick that he only lived on Genis's own whims and that he was ''never to question him again''. He does get better once freed from Entrophy's control.

* Everyone knows who James Bond is, but ''Literature/JamesBond'' in the original Ian Fleming novel is a homophobic and sexist character who has no problems showing his disdain towards women doing work associated for men and the existence of lesbians. Ian Fleming noted in an interview that this was intentional.

* Brazilian novel ''Macunaíma'' follows the adventures of the eponymous character, who is labeled as the "hero without virtues". One of his first "heroic" acts is to rape the queen of the Amazons, which earns him the title of King of the Jungle. Later on, he sets out to São Paulo to reclaim a mystic amulet from a man-eating monster, though he spends most of his time enjoying himself in the city's brothels. Finally, his envy towards his own brother leads him to pull a prank that accidentally leads to the deaths of all his family members.

* Max Dembo from ''Literature/NoBeastSoFierce''. He's an ex-convict making a genuine attempt to reform, but it's motivated entirely by pragmatism and he's shown to be racist, homophobic, misogynistic, short-tempered, and amoral. He does have a few PetTheDog moments, but after enough rejections and humiliations he dovetails right back into being a criminal.

* ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett'': Boba Fett is a crime lord whose sole motivation is to consolidate his newfound power. The only things making him worth rooting for are his strict sense of honor, desire to rule with respect rather than fear and the fact that his enemies are also notorious crime lords who are far worse than him.

* ''Series/FatherTed'': Father Jack Hackett is a violent, selfish, perverted alcoholic and flashbacks suggest he was once a bullying fire and brimstone preacher and a paedophile. The only thing keeping him from being a VillainProtagonist is that his alcoholism and old age usually renders him too docile to harm anyone. And sometimes they do the exact opposite.

** In the spin-off series, '' Series/DangerForce,'' when the Danger Force teens become Captain Man's sidekicks, they too start out like him, and even go as far as promising that even though they respect and admire Captain Man as a mentor, they'll never become like him, only fighting crime for the fame and attention. However as the series goes along, especially in the second season, it becomes apparent that they're becoming more and more like Captain Man and that he's rubbing off on them way more than they'd probably be willing to admit , especially when it comes to only fighting crime because they want the fame, glory, and attention and because they like the romantic attention from their young teen peer fans who have romantic crushes on them.

* ''Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy'': Magna-Defender is like this. He may assist the rangers taking down a monster or two and want to take down Scorpious, but he's only doing it for the revenge. This definitely becomes clearer when he tries to destroy Terra Venture because it might destroy Scorpious. Although he gets better, [[RedemptionEqualsDeath near the end]].

* Invasion angles have a tendency to create faces by default, since no matter how disagreeable a heel is he still represents the company the fans came to see, that those jerks are getting in the way of. Ray Gonzales, who was directly responsible for bringing Wrestling/{{AAA}} luchadores into WWC in the first place and only fell out with them when they stopped doing what he told them, is a prime example, since, hey, he's still a Puerto Rican fighting the foreigners in the Puerto Rican company. In fact, this can apply to invaders that have simply been around longer than more recent arrivals, such as the W*ING wrestles becoming {{face}}s in Wrestling/{{FMW}} when IWA Japan and Víctor Quiñones's Puerto Rican Army came in. [[ForeignWrestlingHeel The Dominican]] Los Compadres and Los Broncos becoming faces when different foreign wrestlers came into WWC and the Dominicans were nominal faces again when wrestlers from the ''Puerto Rican'' independent circuit came into WWC. There are a few aversions though, as Wrestling/{{Carlito C|olon}}aribbean Cool remained a heel when Savio Vega invaded WWC with IWA PR (mainly because his argument to Vega about not being a tecato just made fans think he was {{lazy|bum}} instead). Another was Averno, El Texano Jr and El Terrible taking advantage of first Los Independientes attack on Wrestling/{{CMLL}} to blindside Brazo de Plata, Jon Strongman and Wrestling/{{Mistico}}, as they ran out to stop the independent circuit invaders.
* In [[VillainBasedFranchise heel based promotions]] such as Fuyuki Army, Oz Academy, Kai En Tai Dojo and Perros Del Mal Producciones or on heel based shows like ''Wrestling/{{n|ewWorldorder}}Wo Souled Out'' or the Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA Wildside "Elite" events, it is incredibly easy for a heel not associated with the dominant PowerStable to become a face by default, as Wrestling/EddieGuerrero discussed when the nWo were taking over Wrestling/{{WCW}}.

* Nagash is one of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}s'' biggest douchebags, and likely the single most evil person in the setting. He still has a vested interest against Chaos destroying the world however, and so for a good chunk of the lore he's technically been a "good guy". The quote marks are very much justified, and in ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'' it's no real surprise when he finally gives in to his baser urges. It's fair to say he was only prevented from betraying everyone in ''TabletopGame/WarhammerTheEndTimes'' because one of the other "Why are we friends with this guy again?" characters, his subordinate Mannfred von Carstein, betrayed ''him'' before he had the chance. It speaks to Nagash's character well that the moment his soul was released from imprisonment in Age of Sigmar and ascended to godhood, one his first actions was to bring Mannfred's soul back in a continually decaying part of his empire just to torment Mannfred by making him his servant again.

** Eugene Greenhilt swore a BloodOath to defeat Xykon the Sorcerer because the latter killed his mentor, but he was the one who muttered "yeah, whatever," afterwards. He was a horrible father, an inattentive husband, and the small amount of interest he has in Xykon being defeated is only because that oath he swore is keeping him from resting. He's only ''barely'' inside heaven in the afterlife. When his son Roy died and went to heaven, Roy was able to get much further inside heaven because unlike Eugene, he actually gave a damn and did everything he could to fulfill the family oath.

** WebAnimation/DrBees is an odd case, in that he does seem to want to do good... it's just that [[BlueAndOrangeMorality his conception of "good"]] is "adding swarms of angry bees to any given situation." Despite this, he seems to be respected as a genuine superhero by the people, and has even pursued the defeat of a supervillain, The Comforter... [[HarmlessVillain whose acts of villainy]] consisted of [[PokeThePoodle making people more comfortable]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MegasXLR'': Coop can come across like this much of the time. He views M.E.G.A.S. as less like a vital weapon in Earth's defense and more like a fancy toy he can showoff and play with. In many episodes, Coop only fights the villain because they did something to offend him and the only reason he is relied upon to pilot M.E.G.A.S. is because he modified it in such a way that only he can pilot it.

* The third [[Characters/MarvelComicsMarvels Captain Marvel]], Genis-Vell, ending up becoming this during a period of madness (caused by Entrophy.) Genis became something of a VillainProtagonist with a severely warped sense of justice and rabid sense of entitlement. Rick Jones, to whom Genis was molecularly bonded, constantly opposed him and (rightly) questioned Genis's sanity. On one occasion, Genis bestowed powers upon a serial killer whom his friend Rick Jones had testified against in order to get the killer to stalk both Rick and his wife, Marlo. After putting Rick through absolute hell to the point where death seemed certain, Genis then executes the serial killer and explains to Rick that all of this was to teach Rick that he only lived on Genis's own whims and that he was ''never to question him again''. He does get better once freed from Entrophy's control.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'' is a NobleDemon SociopathicHero. He easily eclipses even Comicbook/ThePunisher, as he frequently finds it ''funny'' to casually torture, dismember, and murder people. Though in later years, Deadpool has become more and more heroic, to the point where he's a solid AntiHero in the place of his old Nominal Hero status. [[spoiler: To the point where he was the OnlySaneMan and the conscience of the X-Men's Black Ops squad under Wolverine who thought that killing the kid who was Apocalypses' reincarnation is just wrong. Throughout the arc, he became more and more heroic too via CharacterDevelopment, and even convinced the kid to join the Jean School for the Gifted so he can use his powers for good instead of evil.]]
* The Clipper, a "hero" from the Great Depression era who is mentioned in Franchise/TheFlash. While he gunned down poor people driven to crime by desperation and then cut off the tips of the ears of the survivors, he lived in a fancy mansion and had it easy. He's quoted as having said "it doesn't matter if they're guilty, it matters if they're dead!" indicating he didn't even bother to check if his victims were innocent.

* ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk can frequently turn into this. While he generally dislikes the "puny humans" (and understandably so, given how often they [[BullyingADragon provoke him]] or [[{{Misblamed}} misblame him for things that are someone else's fault]]) he nonetheless ends up doing a lot of good by smashing villains whose plans threaten humanity, even if it's only because they [[YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry made the mistake of pissing him off.]] This is especially pronounced with the more intelligent varieties of Hulk, such as Joe Fixit or the Green Scar, who are entirely cognizant of the damage they do and don't tend to particularly care.

* DependingOnTheWriter, ComicBook/{{Lobo}} is sometimes portrayed as one, instead of a SatireParodyPastiche of an unstoppable villain-full-stop. Considering that he is literally worse than Hitler, ''without any hyperbole involved'', [[WhereIWasBornAndRazed as he wiped out his own]] PillarsOfMoralCharacter utopian species for kicks and giggles... when he was a teenager, this reveals a lot about media conventions in general.

* The head of ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'' ComicBook/AmandaWaller. DependingOnTheWriter she is either this or a KnightTemplar; her job is always in the government's best interest, but she sometimes uses methods that tend to be too extreme. Her plans are not limited to recruiting supervillains to get the job done but extend to outright hunting superheroes.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': ComicBook/{{Hercules|Unbound}} tries to be heroic, but this is hampered by DeliberateValuesDissonance and the fact he cares little for the people he is supposed to save, expecting them to pretty much grovel at his feet. It also doesn't help that he's [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil a rapist]] perpetually stuck in a HeelFaceRevolvingDoor, for a given value of "face".

* Uhtred Ragnarsson of Bebbanburg, the main protagonist of the [[Literature/TheSaxonStories Saxon Stories]], is this in his halfhearted service of Alfred the Great. Although he would much rather accompany the Danish invaders, certain events forced him to make an oath of service to King Alfred that he refuses to break.

* ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett'': Boba Fett is a crime lord whose sole motivation is to consolidate his newfound power. The only things making him worth rooting for are his strict sense of honor, desire to rule with respect rather than fear and the fact that his enemies are also notorious crime lords who are far worse than him.

* In [=ItsJustSomeRandomGuy's=] Website/YouTube ''WebVideo/ImAMarvelAndImADC'' sketches, this trope is played around with. ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} [[LampshadeHanging says to]] [[Comicbook/{{Watchmen}} The Comedian]], "[[{{Dissimile}} You kinda remind me of myself at your age ... except I've got ethics... and I'm not a sociopath... or a rapist... you know what, maybe you remind me of someone else.]]"

* Franchise/SherlockHolmes. In the early stories particularly, he's more interested in fighting crime for the ''novelty'' of it, and the fact that the more unusual cases give him something to do; if he gets too bored he starts doing cocaine. Later stories shy away from the drug use and make him a bit more classically heroic, though his main fascination with his work is still the strangeness of his cases. He rarely shows an interest in financial gain; he even states that "my work is its own reward." Holmes's motivation is really a combination of a sense of justice but also of a desire for a worthy challenge. He takes cases whose riddles he will enjoy trying to solve. You could say that he is a heroic foil of [[Characters/BatmanRoguesGalleryPart2 The Riddler]] who enjoys creating riddles.

* The titular character of ''WesternAnimation/BlackDynamite'' is brutal, aggressive, [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero prejudiced]], commits crimes on a regular basis, and rarely does anything out of altruism unless it affects one of his friends (and sometimes, not even then). He's mostly the good guy because he opposes TheMan, and The Man is much, much worse. In the original film, he was closer to an UnscrupulousHero, willing to stick up for the black community as a whole even if it would endanger him.

* Invasion angles have a tendency to create faces by default, since no matter how disagreeable a heel is he still represents the company the fans came to see, that those jerks are getting in the way of. Ray Gonzales, who was directly responsible for bringing Wrestling/{{AAA}} luchadors into WWC in the first place and only fell out with them when they stopped doing what he told them, is a prime example, since, hey, he's still a Puerto Rican fighting the foreigners in the Puerto Rican company. In fact, this can apply to invaders that have simply been around longer than more recent arrivals, such as the W*ING wrestles becoming {{face}}s in Wrestling/{{FMW}} when IWA Japan and Víctor Quiñones's Puerto Rican Army came in. [[ForeignWrestlingHeel The Dominican]] Los Compadres and Los Broncos becoming faces when different foreign wrestlers came into WWC and the Dominicans were nominal faces again when wrestlers from the ''Puerto Rican'' independent circuit came into WWC. There are a few aversions though, as Wrestling/{{Carlito C|olon}}aribbean Cool remained a heel when Savio Vega invaded WWC with IWA PR (mainly because his argument to Vega about not being a tecato just made fans think he was {{lazy|bum}} instead). Another was Averno, El Texano Jr and El Terrible taking advantage of first Los Independientes attack on Wrestling/{{CMLL}} to blindside Brazo de Plata, Jon Strongman and Wrestling/{{Mistico}}, as they ran out to stop the independent circuit invaders.

* Wrestling/AllysinKay's HeelFaceTurn in Shine Wrestling began with Kay [[TakeThatAudience insulting her own fans]] and ended with her embracing them after all her friends "betrayed" her and she had no one else to turn to. This betrayal consisted of Kay's friends proclaiming that Kay was NOT TheLeader of their PowerStable and making what they thought was a good business decision even though Kay was against it. All the initial violence in the resulting feud was instigated by Kay, something ''Sweet Saraya'' called [[EvenEvilHasStandards her out on]], and when not feuding with her former friends Kay continued to try and force the Shine promotion to give her what she wanted by "destroying innocent girls". What made Kay a baby face was that the friends she betrayed had made five on one {{no holds barred beatdown}}s of genuine baby faces their modus operandi, the business she was against was them merging with an even [[TheBully crueler]] power stable and after her face turn none of the "[[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter innocents]]" Kay was destroying [[AssholeVictim were actually innocent]].

** WebAnimation/DrBees is an odd case, in that he does seem to want to do good... it's just that [[BlueAndOrangeMorality his conception of "good"]] is "adding swarms of angry bees to any given situation." Despite this, he seems to be respected as a genuine superhero by the people, and has even pursued the defeat of a supervillain, the Comforter... [[VillainyFreeVillain whose acts of villainy]] consisted of [[PokeThePoodle making people more comfortable]].

* WebVideo/DrBees is an odd case, in that he does seem to want to do good... it's just that [[BlueAndOrangeMorality his conception of "good"]] is "adding swarms of angry bees to any given situation." Despite this, he seems to be respected as a genuine superhero by the people, and has even pursued the defeat of a supervillain, the Comforter... [[VillainyFreeVillain whose acts of villainy]] were ''[[PokeThePoodle making people more comfortable]]''.

* Creator/HarryPartridge's ''Starbarians'' are so profoundly unheroic that multiple episodes have suggested they're a bigger threat to the galaxy than any threat they've ever stopped. One even has the mass-murdering criminal they're attempting to collect the bounty on reveal that, in fact, ''he's'' trying to collect the bounty on ''them'', which is ten times larger than his own. Later episodes have Hogstrong at least attempting to be more heroic, while Killgar wants to just keep murdering people for money and fun.

* [[Characters/MarvelComicsSabretooth Sabretooth]] usually tends to be this. If he's working with the heroes, it's because he was forced to and / or had something to gain. Other instances, he's tried to do right by a love interest. Holly & Bonnie are examples. He's not a hero when he meets either of them, but was very protective of them, and would've possibly settled down with them had they survived. During the ''{{ComicBook/AXIS}}'' event, Creed was [[HeelFaceBrainwashing inverted]] into a hero due to a spell gone wrong by Characters/ScarletWitch. He starts off as a truly heroic figure wanting to atone for his sins, even refusing to kill for a time. During ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen2016'', his nominal hero tendencies returned after developing feelings for [[Characters/XMen2010sMembers Monet St. Croix]], whose well-being he cared more about than anyone else. He's still inverted and repentant, but when Monet is around, [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl his priorities shift]].

* The head of ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'' [[Characters/SuicideSquadComics Amanda Waller]]. DependingOnTheWriter she is either this or a KnightTemplar; her job is always in the government's best interest, but she sometimes uses methods that tend to be too extreme. Her plans are not limited to recruiting supervillains to get the job done but extend to outright hunting superheroes.