Mean heroes in western animation.
- From Avatar: The Last Airbender, post-Heel–Face Turn Prince Zuko has shades of this. He's only slightly friendlier than he was in the first season. In fact, pretty much all of the Gaang is like this: when Aang gets pissed, he turns into a cold, ruthless Creepy Child with Glowing Eyes of Doom and the Voice of the Legion; Sokka is not big on sentimentality and always solves problems in a pragmatic way; Katara has shown a nasty, vengeful side when someone wrongs the people she loves; and Toph is a Deadpan Snarker who cons several Fire Nation citizens and sinks a zeppelin full of Fire Nation soldiers in the finale.
- From the Sequel Series, The Legend of Korra:
- Lin Beifong, daughter of Toph and chief of the metalbending police. She can come off as overly harsh at times and appears to be a total hardass. However, she is unquestionably a good person who is trying to keep the peace and protect the innocent. This is made only more clear by her Heroic Sacrifice in the first season which cost her her bending all in the name of protecting the last airbenders in the world which are very important to her ex-boyfriend Tenzin. Another case is her would-be another sacrifice in the third season in order to give her former estranged sister Suyin a shot to kill one of its enemies using herself as a bait. She might be an ass, but she takes her role as a protector seriously, into the point that she considers herself as expendable.
- The true identity of Avatar Spirit, Raava, can also be considered this. She's an extreme version of this during the Beginnings, which also proves to be her undoing in unleashing Vaatu to the world despite pinning the blame to Wan by being dismissive to the human as of why interfering their fight is a bad thing. She mellows out significantly thanks to her unlikely alliance with Wan, the eventual progenitor of the Avatar Cycle by permanently merging with him that enables her remember and understand why the world is worth protecting and fighting for. But she's not to be trifled with if she's crossed and anything who gets in her way in her goals to protect the balance of the world. Whenever Aang went on his rampages in the first series, Raava was probably holding the controls. This includes annihilating the Fire Navy when they managed to kill a spirit of importance of the Water Tribes. It's heavily implied that the reason behind Aang's rampages was because at his time, the world is clearly worse than a Crapsack World, it's basically out of balance with the Fire Nation trying to conquer the world and even managed to commit genocide against the Air Nomads and another transgression against the Water Tribes when they killed the Moon Spirit which would eradicate waterbending as a whole, and given that Wan was once hailed from the ancestors that would form the future Fire Nation, it's like seeing all his work being undone... something that the spirit of light and peace won't appreciate one bit that might as well as she experienced even worse than a culture shock. And not to mention, spending a century being dormant meant also another short time to prepare for the Harmonic Convergence, which she will face her Archenemy Vaatu once again. Small wonder she's damn pissed during the events of the first series, most especially when she and her incarnation via the Avatar State faced Fire Lord Ozai at the finale.
- From the Sequel Series, The Legend of Korra:
- Blinky Bill and his friends are sometimes considered to be downright cruel in terms of behaviour. Considering that he was "toned down greatly" in the cartoon compared to his original literary incarnation, he must have been a real Jerkass in the books...
- Huey Freeman from The Boondocks. Although he has good intentions in building a greater American society, he is quite cynical, pessimistic, cantankerous, and has been labeled — not unjustifiably — as a "domestic terrorist".
- Chad Dickson, f.k.a. Numbuh 274 was so devoted to the cause of the Kids Next Door that he willingly turned traitor and smeared his good name in order to serve as a spy. That does not detract from the fact that he became a jerk as his jealousy for Numbuh 1 consumed him. Eventually, he is so driven by his envy that he tries to kill Nigel in his final appearance on the penultimate episode of the show, despite still being loyal to the organization as a whole. As a result, this prevents Nigel from idolizing him again, as well as restoring their friendship.
- Scrooge McDuck of Disney comics (such as ones by Carl Barks and Don Rosa) and adaptations such as DuckTales (1987) will never resort to illegal or underhanded means to make money (The one time he did, he ended up haunted by a zombie for several years — and Donald got chased as well several decades afterward.), but neither will he donate a single penny to charity. He'll give you a (really low-paying) job at the drop of a hat, though.
- Donald Duck too. Especially when he's put in a blatantly heroic role, such as the Kingdom Hearts series. He might be selfish and temperamental, but when you get right down to it, he's nothing if not loyal to his friends.
- There was a cutaway gag in Family Guy where Peter encounters Kenneth, the bad-ass mail clerk with a heart of gold. Peter is then told by another employee that said clerk donated half his paycheck to orphans with diseases.
- Glitch Techs: While Mitch Williams is the best Glitch Tech in their division, he's also a complete egotist who happily abuses the company's technology to serve his own personal needs and constantly talks down to his coworkers.
- Pretty much sums up the morality of Granamyr from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. He brokers no disrespect from anyone, actual or perceived, and has been known to demand tribute for any help he gives. His enemies also rarely return for a second round once he decides to get involved.
- On Invader Zim, Dib is the Hero Antagonist who wants to save the human race from an evil alien monster. And he often makes it clear that he will enjoy taking part in that alien's autopsy.
- Rex Splode from Invincible (2021) may be a superhero but that doesn’t stop him cheating on his girlfriend, try to antagonize everyone around him, and every word that comes out of his mouth is either to express anger or complain.
- The Legend of Zelda (1989):
- The show portrays Zelda as a hard-edge Action Girl with an occasionally short temper. One episode has Link distinguishing between the real Zelda and the fake one by setting up a kissing contest in which Zelda's evil twin eagerly kisses him whereas Zelda herself slaps him in the face. Link assumes the real Zelda to be the one who slapped him. She's not completely unaffectionate, though, since she agreed to kiss him a few times but they always got interrupted before it could happen. When Link's body is separated from his body, she's able to see him because she's in love with him — the "kissing contest" in hindsight appears to show her reason for hitting Link wasn't because of him asking to kiss her, but because he kissed someone else.
- Link himself could hardly be called "nice" most of the time. He's lazy, selfish, and basically harasses the princess for a kiss. But he's also unwaveringly heroic and courageous. It also turns out that he's not particularly good with a sword if it doesn't shoot beams, because he could actually hurt someone with it rather than simply sending them to Ganon's Evil Jar.
- The main trio of Mao Mao Heroes Of Pureheart may be the town's sheriff's department but they're hardly paragons of virtue. Mao Mao can be quite the tight-ass when it comes to rule enforcement, Baderclops can be quite lazy and doesn't take criticism well. (It's later revealed he used to be a thief), and Adorabat is quite violent for a 5-year-old, to the point where even her father is scared by her.
- In Miraculous Ladybug, Master Su-Han is a member of the Order of the Guardians dedicated to safeguarding the Miraculous and protecting the world from evil. He's also a genuine asshole; he constantly insults Master Fu, who last he remembers was a scared 14-year-old who was forced into inheriting a legacy he didn't want, all of his interactions with Marinette/Ladybug involve him bitching her out for "failures" she couldn't have possibly known about and generally doing nothing to help her improve, and he has no problems using physical force against either of them.
- Skipper from The Penguins of Madagascar is supposed to be the main protagonist, but he's pretty coarse and violent even on his comrades.Alligator: That looks as if it could be violent.
Skipper: If done correctly. - Major Monogram from Phineas and Ferb. He's dedicated to fighting the forces of evil, but he's not a very nice person, especially to Carl, his unpaid intern.
- Spinelli from Recess is hot-tempered, cynical, and has a violent streak, but is still a good friend to the rest of the main characters.
- Benson from Regular Show. He's constantly angry and constantly threatening to fire Mordecai and Rigby, but all he's really doing is his job which includes making them do theirs. Plus, as later seasons show, he can actually be a friendly and fun when things aren't out of hand.
- Rick and Morty: Rick Sanchez admits he falls under this category during his best man speech at Birdperson's wedding. Of course, even calling this guy "good" is a real stretch, but even if only for entirely selfish reasons the guy has saved the world numerous times and does have a habit of saving his family, even Jerry, for no reason other than he might actually care for them."Listen, I'm not the nicest guy in the universe, because I'm the smartest, and being nice is something stupid people do to hedge their bets."
- In Samurai Jack, the Scotsman is Jack's closest ally and probably the closest thing he has to a friend in the future world. He's really not nice. In fact, he's downright rude.
- Hefty as the Smurf Of Christmas Future in The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol leaves Grouchy in the Bad Future where all the Smurfs are captured to be chased after by Gargamel and Azrael.
- South Park has this in spades. Usually Kyle Broflovski or Stan Marsh fits this, particularly when Cartman is the antagonist.
- The Big Damn Movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, has "Ze Mole." A huge Jerkass to everyone, who spews obscenities about God frequently, and goes on about how childish and naive the other boys are, but he still joins the boys to help Terrence and Phillip in the name of freedom and dies in the process. He does get better thanks to the Reset Button, though he's never had a major appearance since.
- Reality, which takes the form of a top hat-wearing villain, in "Safe Space". He attacks an incredibly rattled Butters for filtering everybody's negative comments, and verbally attacks everyone for letting their obsessive fear of criticism push Butters into suicide by having him work to maintain their safe spaces. The townspeople, just make third-world children filter comments for them and publicly hang Reality.
- James Cameron is portrayed as an unbelievably arrogant, egotistical, and gullible "hero" in "Raising The Bar", who is so obnoxious he forces his crew to listen to his theme music while he ignores their insistence that the "bar" is a metaphor. In true South Park fashion the bar is real, he saves the whole world from degenerate media by raising it, and he denies accepting any credit or thanks for what he's done because "James Cameron does not do what James Cameron does for James Cameron."
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- Mr. Krabs can be quite the greedy, selfish jerk, even risking the lives of his fellow employee's just for the sake of making a quick buck, but is still considered a good guy.
- Squidward Tentacles is an Anti-Hero who can at times be meaner than necessary. Despite being a jerk, he's still on Team Krabs for life.
- Star Wars Rebels: After his Heel–Face Turn, Kallus qualifies as this, willing to do morally grey actions, including framing another Imperial officer he'd been on good terms with, in order to maintain his cover.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
- Raphael in all incarnations. He's cool but rude. (As he himself puts it, "I don't do nice!")
- Casey Jones is like this in roughly half the incarnations. (For the other half, he's more a Knight Templar.)
- Sentinel Prime from Transformers: Animated. He's technically a good guy, but is also a Jerkass who hates organics and is willing to work with Lockdown in order to defeat the Decepticons.
