History Main / RebelliousSpirit

Sometimes, this person is the AntiHero or even TheUnfettered. Can often prove to be a CombatPragmatist when the fighting starts. May feature in an AllGirlsWantBadBoys plot.

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* Toph from ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', in spite of -- or because of -- her upper-class background and upbringing.

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* ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'''s John Constantine is the very definition of a Rebellious Spirit.

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* Billy/Dr. Horrible in Creator/JossWhedon's supervillain musical ''WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog''.

-->--'''Malcolm Reynolds''', ''Film/{{Serenity}}''

* Lisbeth Salander of ''TheMillenniumTrilogy''. She is not only this, but borderline-insane.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* Yusuke Urameshi from ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' fits this trope to a T at first. Since LonersAreFreaks he eventually changes to fit a more heroic archetype.
** [[spoiler: It turns out he was picked as Spirit Detective for this ''very reason.'' The former Spirit Detective was too straight-laced and [[GoMadFromTheRevelation went crazy finding out that humans were capable of worse acts than demons]].]]

* Manga/{{Naruto}} Uzumaki hated the fact that his village ignored him. So what does he do? Defy all the rules and uses his ninja skills to play pranks on unsuspecting villagers/ninja(including the Hokage), his worst prank being when he defiled the somewhat sacred Hokage monument. Of course he got more heroic as the series went on, but he still has a problem with authority, preferring to do things his own way instead of listening to his superiors. Considering his early experiences with adults, he can't really be blamed.
* Treecko/Grovyle/Sceptile from the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime.

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* ''{{Wolverine}}'' in at least some, possibly most, continuities. [[DependingOnTheWriter It varies depending on the writer]]
* {{Spider-Man}}: Was generally a rogue free spirit hero who defied the local authorities constantly and performed acts of vigilantism. He also generally scoffed at help and was a pure solo act hero contrasted to the Avengers. Nowadays, he's more mature and dedicated to working together with people and being more considerate of the law.
* LokiAgentOfAsgard chronicles the titular trickster's attempts to follow this part of the Loki story...by defying the ''other'' part of the Loki story where they go evil and wreck everything.
-->''I am myself, and will not sit long in any box built for me.''

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''LawnDogs'' has two of these as its main characters. Adult Trent and kid Devon both have no friends their age. Trent does crazy things like holding up traffic just so he can skinny-dip off of a bridge. Devon is even crazier. She violates rules frequently, such as leaving town when told specifically not to, and even breaks the law and steals chickens for fun. She has many weird eccentricities as well.
* Literary / {{Film}} / TruthInTelevision example: ''Literature/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas'' features two characters (Raoul Duke and his attorney Doctor Gonzo) who run a two-week, Sixties-style drug binge through the streets, hotels and convention centers of early-[[TheSeventies Seventies]] UsefulNotes/LasVegas, with no real motivation beyond seeing how much they can get away with. And they get away with a lot: showing up stoned at an anti-drug convention, chasing motorists down the Strip, trashing two hotel rooms, racking up several hundred dollars in room-service charges and never paying... TruthInTelevision part comes in when you realize that this novel is based on two real-life wild weekends spent in UsefulNotes/LasVegas by Hunter Thompson and Oscar Acosta.
** Thompson also viciously pranked friends and strangers alike, set out to spraypaint "Fuck the Pope" on a yacht due to compete in the America's Cup the next day, chronically missed speaking engagements just because they ''were'' scheduled, and, decades before Sascha Baron Cohen, constantly reported people instantly willing to believe vicious and absurd rumours ''he'd just invented''.
*** He's CrazyAwesome because of this behavior, although you may not like the overall lack of ethics.

%%* [[MarxBrothers Harpo Marx.]]
* Charlie of ''DeadPoetsSociety'' drifts into this sometimes; it's not as clear at the beginning, but by the time he [[spoiler: nearly gets himself expelled]] for a prank he is showing more traits of this. When [[spoiler: he actually does get expelled]], though, it's a much more principled matter.

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Good ol' [[Series/{{Firefly}} Mal]]. See above quote. Sure, you follow the rules on his ship (...to a degree...) but he does so love messing with the Alliance for sheer joy of it.

** The Doctor from ''Series/DoctorWho'' was this on his home planet. Partly because he found Time Lord social norms unbearably boring, and partly because he was disgusted and disturbed by their practices and elitism, he stole an antique time machine from a museum and ran away to explore the universe as an act of rebellion, since Time Lords were masters of time travel yet refused to ever use their powers and preached non-interference.

[[folder: MMORPG ]]

* The Minmatar in ''EVEOnline'' are characterised as loving freedom so much after having been enslaved by the Amarr for a thousand years that a large number of them can't even live comfortably with the government they themselves formed.
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[[folder: Professional Wrestling ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]
* The [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orks]] of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' invert this: "[[FunetikAksent Yoofs]]" who have difficulties fitting in with an AlwaysChaoticEvil society may get tired of being told to do whatever they feel like. Some of these malcontents run off to join the Stormboyz, Orks obsessed with military discipline, marching, and uniforms. Since they make good JetPack-equipped assault infantry, the rest of the Orks put up with their deviant behavior.

[[folder: Theatre ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* PowerGigRiseOfTheSixString has the Rise Clan. They will not put up with anyone who exerts any sort of control over them, legal or otherwise, and do not care who knows it. They don't like the Followers of Zhen, whom they feel are chained to a useless restrictive dogma, and see The Riffriders clan as a group that is all talk and spends too much time having fun and not enough actually rebelling against things. The only reason other Rise members can put up with each other is that they all agree that control sucks and don't care what other Rise members, or anyone else for that matter, thinks of them.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* Victor from I Dated A Teenage Cyclops, a story in TheWanderersLibrary.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In "Over Bearing" on ''[[WesternAnimation/CareBearsWelcomeToCareALot Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot]]'', prim and proper Peter becomes this after Funshine Bear and Grumpy Bear start encouraging him to break rules. "I want to break all the rules in Care-a-Lot! I'll jump in the leaves! I'll yell in the house! I'll never follow another rule again! I'm a bear in the woods and I listen to no man! Mine!"
* In WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} the animated series, Electra and her associates are this, with Electra far beyond the others--we don't know why they're against Greek heroes or "the establishment" other than that they seem to be a TakeThat at Goths and Hipsters. Electra is even worse since she can summon the Furies when she's upset, usually when someone disagrees with her views.

* ''AceVentura''.
* [[MarxBrothers Harpo Marx.]]

* ''TheStainlessSteelRat'': an almost childishly rebellious hyperactive action hero. Slippery Jim is at war with normal society as much as the villains, and his greatest weapon is his willingness to transgress the bounds, rules and world-view of other people. That said, he's also TheFettered, being an ActualPacifist.

* The SonsOfAnarchy as a whole were founded on this theme. Then they strayed...

* Alex in ''WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' has elements of this (when she's not being a borderline SuperVillain instead)
* Although not as hard-core as the others, [[ILoveLucy Lucy Ricardo]].
* Damon Salvatore from VampireDiaries

* [[TwoWordsObviousTrope Four words]]: Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin. Four more: Arrive, raise hell, leave. And another three. Trust no one.

* Mugen from ''SamuraiChamploo''. A true ChaoticNeutral, it helps he comes from Ryukyu (think: seediest place of the Edo period) and did all his surviving on the streets. He basically lives to break stereotypes, making him he logical foil to LawfulNeutral [[TheStoic Stoic]] {{Samurai}} Jin.

* {{SpiderMan}}: Was generally a rogue free spirit hero who defied the local authorities constantly and performed acts of vigilantism. He also generally scoffed at help and was a pure solo act hero contrasted to the Avengers. Nowadays, he's more mature and dedicated to working together with people and being more considerate of the law.

* Characters of ChaoticGood and ChaoticNeutral alignments in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and derived systems have this as one of their core traits. While they may acknowledge the usefulness of all people abiding by the same rules, they themselves have trouble abiding by any rules but their own.

* ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'''s John Constantine is the very definition of a RebelWithoutACause.

* ''GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned'' has Johnny Klebitz of the eponymous Lost Motorcycle Club. Almost everyone he meets treats his attempt at sticking it to the man as unimportant, which irritates him more than being treated as a dangerous outlaw would.

* Azaka Kokutou from ''KaraNoKyoukai'' is this explicitly (highlight of this is her unabashedly declaring [[BrotherSisterIncest her love for her brother]] and moving away to be adopted by her uncle and to enroll in a boarding school specifically so Mikiya will stop seeing her as his little sister), thanks in no small part to her origin being ''taboo''.