– Soft Protagonist (ex: frodo, luke skywalker)
– Angery Protagonist who slowly learns to let go of their hate and let themselves love others and ends up with a found family
– protagonists who are allowed to fuck up and have flaws. protagonists who learn from their mistakes. protagonists who learn from their mistakes slowly, bc change is hard.
– asshole with a secret heart of gold
– very cute innocent character is actually Terrifying
– morally grey character who eventually joins the Good Guys and is adopted by them
– morally grey character who never becomes definitively Good or Evil and instead is complicated and sympathetic, making very questionable decisions for questionable, but understandable, reasons
– character who has been through hell and back is extremely cynical and angry and hurt, but is welcomed with open arms by a Found Family and slowly slowly, after much gentle coaxing, starts to trust them
– villain whose main goal is to fuck shit up and have a laugh, but is also extremely charismatic, complex, and sympathetic at times. all the while being rotten to the core.
– villain who genuinely believes they’re doing the right thing
– villain who is often times shown to be morally grey and have good/sympathetic qualities: like caring for loved ones or pets, making music or painting in their spare time
I know the point is to be non-specific, but IDing specific examples was a fun game for me, so feel free to ignore this addition.
1. Frodo, Luke Skywalker, Diana (in recent Wonder Woman movie), Buffy Summers
2. Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly), Jyn Erso (Rogue One), Gamora, Daisy “Skye” Johnson (Agents of SHIELD), Melinda May (AOS)
3. Thor, Tony Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Jaime Lannister
4. Han Solo (obvi), Tony Stark, Wolverine, Sandor Clegane (extreme example), Jaime Lannister (again)
5. River Tam, Willow Rosenberg (this is a big Whedon trope)
6. Spike (BtVS), Nebula (GotG), Sandor Clegane (show only; books TBD)
7. Loki (duh), Magneto, Jaime Lannister (he’s really all over the place), Stannis Baratheon, Theon Greyjoy (and I mean before the whole “redemption[?] through pain” thing)
8. Nebula (again), Wolverine, Erik/Magneto sort of in First Class?
9. The Joker (I guess?), earlier comics Loki, I’m reaching here but maybe Ursula from The Little Mermaid
10. Melisandre (though R’llhor knows where she is on the moral spectrum these days), Loki in Thor 1
11. Wilson Fisk/Kingpin from Daredevil season 1, Bolivar Trask from X-Men: Days of Future Past
Loki is the Philosopher King 