How to Play the Sarcastic Hero

[Haffrung Helleyes]

well

I'm not enough of a literary expert to quarrel on this point, but I do vividly recall studying the antihero as part of a literature course I took at the University of Texas, in the late 80s. This particular class had a focus on fantasy literature (starting with Ariosto), and the professor specifically cited Thomas Covenant as an antihero, citing his leprosy (and the fact that he's a rapist) as reasons for that classification.

To be honest though, I think the term antihero is an evolving definition. There are a lot of tropes in modern fantasy that just didn't exist in fantasy in earlier times. Several of the 'good vampire' characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer come to mind.

Ken

 

[Mallus]

All the anti-heroics aside... I think the one absolute requirement for playing a sarcastic character is being legitimately funny. This puts such a character out of reach for a lot of people.

 

[pawsplay]

You want anti heroes? Read Kafka. Anti-heroes as I said, aren't simply a dirty nosed hero. Anti-heroes are vile. Richard III makes a pretty good anti-hero.

Have you read Death of a Salesman? In my lit class, that was the example given for an archetypal anti-hero.

 

[The Right Word]

Read more at http://rpgcentric.com/?p=7.

Nice article. You might go a little further and define sarcasm. I know it seems obvious, but people misuse the term all the time. Sarcasm is when you describe a thing in a positive way only to insult it. "You're such a good little wizard, yes you ARE!" is a bad, annoying example that still gets laughs from the people I call friends. (go figure)


The character I had most fun bringing to life was Sir Sederon the Blamed. Sir Blame, as the party called him, was convinced that his god (Tyr) needed him every bit as much, if not more than Sederon needed his god. He was cocky, elitist, over-dressed and over-fond of his beauty. He was sarcastic, mostly to NPC's but sometimes to PC's as well. You would think the party would hate him, but it's interesting what happened.

Sir Blame became the butt of everyone's joke, the comic relief for the party and the runt everyone picked on. It was great fun because of the way Sederon would respond. He was effective in combat and generally had good ideas, so the other character would follow him as their leader in mock-begrudgment. It was a cool dynamic that didn't work the way I intended, but much, much better than I intended.

 

[reveal]

Nice article. You might go a little further and define sarcasm. I know it seems obvious, but people misuse the term all the time.

Good point. I may do a follow-up later.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Funny how people who claim my link doesn't support my point fail to read the whole article

Batman in the definition isn't an anti-hero and hasn't been for decades. He's an outright hero.

Your freaking wiki link literally and outright states Batman is an anti-hero.

Here's the problem - we've supplied information, facts, and reasons to explain why an anti-hero is not what you define it as. You've said "No, you're wrong." Granted, you did give us one link...but it agreed with us, not you.

Again, vile horrible individuals aren't anti-heroes. They're villains.

 

[Hussar]

Professor Cirno. Please reread the wiki. The last line specifically states that Batman is no longer considered an anti-hero and is considered an outright hero.

I will, however, concede the idea on weakness or cowardice. Death of a Salesman being an excellent example. I was thinking more in terms of fantasy literature, where the anti-hero is, by and large, vile and horrible. Then again, usually weak characters do do vile, horrible things. Thomas Covenant commits rape for example.

Even clearer examples come from Quentin Terrantino, IMO.

 

[Orius]

Well, since every character I play is myself, every character I play is a sarcastic hero. Yes, I do cover the "be useful" angle, largely because I know that moron PCs who do whatever they want whenever they want just end up screwing the party. That also shows a lack of foresight and judgement, and sarcastic doesn't mean stupid.