Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

The Moral Question

Issues aside, this was gradual process that took time to set up all the way until the last episode of the show when he finally gives his life for a righteous reason. That is not the kind of setup I see in most Wattpad books. This instead exists as a means of character development for side characters. You're the bad guy, now you are my friend (Dragon Ball anyone?). If you're going to choose to make a character change sides, you need to come up for a darn good reason. If that reason is "temporary" like "I'm pissed at this other bad guy, so let's team up", then his morality hasn't changed, so you can't just have them stay friends after things were resolved. If it's permanent, chances are you need it to be set up, a lot, over the course of the entire story.

Long story short, don't just play a switcheroo. More of this in The Betrayer section.

The Perfect Hero

Ah...the perfect hero. I don't really think this needs a lot of explanation. I've already touched on it while talking about Mary Sues, who are the equally sexist female version of the Perfect Hero. The Perfect Hero is always right. His moralities are impeccable in the world he's in. Everyone on his side will applaud every choice he makes, not matter how brutal that choice may be. Even if he's a revolutionary going up against the government, no one will oppose him other than the government themselves. Even then, after defeating his rivals, many of them will thank him, because they were probably being coerced against their will.

Now remember, no matter how many peons he kills, he's still the good guy. Even if he takes actions that result in more deaths than necessary (attacking a place rather than sneaking in, ect...), he is ultimately still the good guy, and no one will every question the mountains of people that his cause left murdered. Even when this guy destroys a government, something that is universally considered a bad thing which will disrupt the very economics and structure of an entire region, the people, who will likely spend the next 10 years desperately clinging to life as their protection against foreign nations, trade routes, and mercantile activities crumble around them, will still applaud and love this guy.

Although that's starting to sound kind of bad when we put it that way... Wait, we still haven't gotten there yet...

The Bad Guy Hero

There we go. Now, your first question might be "Bad Guy Hero? Don't you mean Anti-hero?" To which I would answer, not exactly. An anti-hero is the guy whose morals aren't necessarily righteous, but ultimately does good through the act of obtaining their goals. Deadpool, obviously, is an anti-hero. He doesn't make the right choice, he makes the convenient choice. However, he's also not one to make evil choices. So he's not really a bad guy.

The Bad Guy hero, on the other hand... is just a guy whose an arsehole. The Bad Guy Hero is the kind of guy who murders people who disagree with him, often savagely, often brutally, just for the sake of his own cause. Sometimes, the bad guy hero goes through a traumatic event. Extreme bullying maybe. Or Torture. Or Betrayal. Whatever the reason, this guy has an axe to pick with the world, and he won't be afraid to do it.

The mind numbing part about the bad guy hero is the lengths authors will go to justify their actions. They'll slaughter completely innocent people, or retaliate against mild transgressions with EXTREME prejudice. Then, everyone in their circle will tell them how great they are and how right they are for being a savage monster.

The Bad Guy Hero will usually be placed in opposition of the perfect hero. The author will then go to great lengths to prove that the "perfect hero" and his tactics would lead to devastation, while the bad guy hero's antics are necessary to survive.

"Other world" fantasies are ripe full of these. Arifureta, The Rising of the Shield Hero, Against the Gods, Depriving the Depriver, heck even the Sword of Truth Series: all these depend on a previously bullied or "wronged" individual gaining power, and then using that power to exact vengeance on other bullies, often with extreme prejudice.