History Main / NominalHero

* Sebastian in ''Webcomic/TrueVillains'' is a LivingLegend who took on heroic exploits more for the thrill and reward than any real benevolence. He becomes a VillainProtagonist more or less [[http://www.truevillains.com/comic-2007-12-08~N-To%20Be%20Expected-jpg.htm as soon]] as he gets a more interesting offer from a demon he'd intended to vanquish.

* At the start of ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'', Otto Octavius who took over Spider-Man's body and poses as Peter Parker (ItMakesSenseInContext) just wants to prove he's better as being Spider-Man than Peter and one of the best superheroes the world would see. In fact he lost nothing of his arrogance and pathos from his villain days as [[Character/MarvelUniverseOttoOctavius Doctor Octopus]]. He later gets some CharacterDevelopment in the original run.

* At the start of ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'', Otto Octavius who took over Spider-Man's body and poses as Peter Parker (ItMakesSenseInContext) just wants to prove he's better as being Spider-Man than Peter and one of the best superheroes the world would see. In fact he lost nothing of his arrogance and pathos from his villain days as [[Character:MarvelUniverseOttoOctavius Doctor Octopus]]. He later gets some CharacterDevelopment in the original run.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'': Beavis and Butt-Head are selfish, amoral delinquents whose goals range from getting laid to getting rich; most of their "heroic" acts are [[AccidentalHero completely unintentional]]. In fact, the only reason they qualify as "heroes" is because their enemies sometimes [[BlackAndGreyMorality make them look like saints by comparison]].

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Galadriel of the Second Age is defined by her selfish desire for revenge. She has no problem risking the lives of her own troops, threatening with genocide, or manipulating Halbrand and Miriel in such a way the queen puts the troops of Numenor at her disposal.

* Varrick from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. He's pretty friendly and helpful to the heroes, but he's motivated by self-interest and the villains just happen to be cutting in on his business. Come Book Four, however, [[spoiler:[[CharacterDevelopment he's actually started to grow a conscience]], and with some (heavy-handed) prompting from Bolin, he joins the heroes for good]].

* Rick on ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' is a very, ''very'' extreme example, bordering on VillainProtagonist. He's a reckless, insane StrawNihilist who is blatantly emotionally abusive towards his family and has been repeatedly shown to always be only one night of heavy drinking away from turning into a full-blown OmnicidalManiac. Even so, he has a handful of PetTheDog moments and fights even more evil beings often enough to avoid being an outright villain: it helps that he ''clearly'' [[PapaWolf cares very deeply for Morty]], no matter how much he denies it or abuses Morty in the process.
* Eric Cartman from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' can be one of these when he's working with the other boys towards any kind of cause. He usually comes across as helping out for his own personal amusement, but it is just as likely that he simply has mutual interests - in "Kenny Dies" he wanted to reinstate funding for stem cell research. He had 33 aborted fetuses he wanted to sell.

* In ''Series/TheWire'' many policemen and public servants don't really care about fighting crime or improving the city and would only perform good deeds when it furthers their own agendas.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'': Beavis and Butt-Head are selfish, amoral delinquents whose goals range from getting laid to getting rich; most of their "heroic" acts are [[AccidentalHero completely unintentional]]. In fact, they only reason they qualify as "heroes" is because their enemies sometimes [[BlackAndGreyMorality make them look like saints by comparison]].

* In ''Film/JohnWick'', John himself. He massacres dozens of mobsters simply because the son of their boss, Iosef, killed his puppy and flat-out threatens to kill [[TheDon Viggo]] if he doesn't hand over Iosef. He's kept from being a full-on VillainProtagonist by a strict sense of honor (for starters, [[NeverHurtAnInnocent he takes great pains to avoid collateral damage]]) and the fact that, well, he's going up against TheMafiya.

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

** 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 blackmail 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.]]

* Season 4 of ''Series/BreakingBad'' has protagonist Walter White slip into this. [[spoiler: He's still a nasty piece of work, but the Juarez Cartel (represented by the FauxAffablyEvil Don Eladio) and Gus Fring are much ''much'' worse than him.]]

* ''Series/KamenRiderOOO'': Ankh is only helping Eiji against the other Greeed because it's in his own best interests, and has no qualms about who is hurt so long as he gets what he wants. [[spoiler: though he gradually transitions into a KnightInSourArmor by the end.]]

* Sentinel Prime from ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' is technically on the side of the good guys, being a member of the high-ranked Autobot Elite Guard, but is a pompous, arrogant, incompetent GloryHound JerkAss with [[FantasticRacism a truly appalling level of anti-organic bigotry]]. He hates the Decepticons, but that's about the only thing "heroic" about him. He manages to get even ''worse'' as we learn more about him, and discover the reason for his hatred for [[NiceGuy Optimus Prime]]: [[spoiler: way back when they were both cadets together, they had a female friend, Elita-1, until one day Sentinel and Elita-1 talked Optimus into making a trip to a forbidden, organic-inhabited planet to search for the wreck of a Decepticon battleship and retrieve its lost stockpile of Energon. Despite the fact that, as he repeatedly pointed out, this was both illegal and highly dangerous, Optimus eventually went along, mostly to keep them out of trouble. As expected, things went disastrously wrong when they were attacked by a colony of {{Giant Spider}}s and the Energon stockpile blew up; Optimus managed to drag Sentinel to safety, but Elita-1 was presumably killed. This got them both court-martialed, but because Optimus took all the blame, only he was expelled from the Elite Guard Academy. Sentinel [[NeverMyFault never admitted he was the one who led them to the planet, nor stopped blaming Optimus for Elita-1's death]]. And just when you think he couldn't get worse, when he finally meets Blackarachnia, the transmutated Elita-1, he is so disgusted by her technorganic state that he outright tells her that she should have ''killed herself'' rather than living like this, making Blackarachnia, herself no fan of her state, protest that it's not ''that'' bad. He truly cements his JerkWithAHeartOfJerk status when he promptly attacks her and tries to kill her himself]]!

** The titular ''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.

* [[Wrestling/{{Kane}}]] is treated as a demonic, rage-filled force of nature who nobody wants to cross even as a face.

* Similarly, Wrestling/RandyOrton still acted as a heel after his 2010 [[HeelfaceTurn face turn]], [[KickTheDog beating]] [[KickTheSonOfABitch up]] anyone who gets in his way.

* Characters/{{Deadpool|WadeWilson}} 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.]]

* ''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.

** ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}: Pussy Galore is a full participant in Goldfinger's plot to set off a nuclear bomb at Fort Knox, which would kill 60,000 people and cause economic chaos in the entire western world, and is motivated solely by money. While she eventually pulls a HeelFaceTurn and does more to stop Goldfinger than even Bond himself, her motivations for this are a combination of falling in love with Bond and realizing her partnership with the dangerously psychopathic Goldfinger is doomed anyway rather than any sudden change in morality.
** ''Film/{{Goldeneye}} and ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'': Valentin Zukovsky is an ex-KGB operative turned Russian mafia head. He helps Bond in the former film only because Bond bribes him with military equipment, and in the latter out of revenge for Elektra King betraying him and killing his nephew. Though he develops a begrudging respect for Bond as a WorthyOpponent and possibly even a friend, he is still an unrepentant criminal who will help save the day only when this aligns with his personal interests.

* WebOriginal/{{Ultimate}}: Ultimate (The central character.) 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.

* Season 4 of ''Series/BreakingBad'' has protagonist Walter White slip into this. [[spoiler: He's still a nasty piece of work, but the Juarez Cartel (represented by the FauxAffablyEvil Don Eladio) and Gus Fring are much ''much'' worse than him. After losing the BigBad status to Jack in Season 5, he returns to something of this status in ''Granite State'' and ''Felina'' despite being TheAtoner.]]