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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29807
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29807
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I don't think I would count Han Solo as an antihero. He may take a little longer to cross the threshold, he may resist the call to adventure a little longer, but in the end he becomes a traditional hero, even to the point of getting a medal in that absurd final scene.

To me, at least, the anti-hero is the character we cheer for not because they represent the virtues we want to see in others but because they justify the vices we see in ourselves. They choose selfishness over generosity, their own happiness over that of others, and we cheer them (if we are so moved) because they give us license to choose selfishness and our own happiness ourselves.

The tension between the role of anti-hero and hero is, of course, a rich vein of story. It is the chief appeal of Malcolm Reynolds in Firefly, for instance. But that tension always resolves to the hero side. The true anti hero in Firefly is Jayne. (Do you want to run this ship? Yes! Well…you can’t!) In Andromeda, it is Tyr. Don Draper is a classic anti-hero in Mad Men. He is never redeemed, but there is a part in all of us that wants to be him. Ditto Tony Soprano.

Even House fails this test. In the end he is redeemed.

Original score: 5