Antiheroes

I wouldn't call Conan et al antiheroes. They were pulp heroes that went through the world, leaving chaos in their wake, but they weren't immoral enough to be antiheroes.

Now Elric of Melnibone - he was a classic antihero. Sometimes he did good, but he worshiped the Lord of the High Hells and his people had never embraced the concept of "sanity". He filled the hero's role in those stories, but he wasn't a hero.

Goodgulf
Conan was at various times a thief and a pirate, so he was no goody two shoes, as compared to say some of Edgar Rice Burroughs'characters. He became a king by killing the king who held the throne.
And if you have ever read some of Howard's Westerns, many of his characters are a far cry from the good guy cowboy heroes we watched as kids on TV.

True - but his heroes were more pulp heroes, freebooters, than villains in the hero's role. But who is and who isn't antihero is open to debate.

Except for Elric, known as Kin Slayer, Woman Slayer, the last king of a dying people who worshipped chaos... Although that last bit was a retro con. Elric started off as a vagabond wandering sorcerer adventure, then had his background added later.

Truly in my mind one of the most iconic anti-hero's of cartoon lore was the Joker in the Batman Movie. I could easily picture him putting Bat Girl over his knee and cackling with that special laugh as he spanked he leather panty-clad bottom.

Well, that's a fun fantasy for many spankophiles (although I'd be hoping for Batgirl's 'bat-panties' to be lowered at some point), yet as he's generally been portrayed (comics, television and movies), I would hardly consider the Joker to be anything but a villain--sure he's got some degree of style and a bizarrely ironic sense of humor, but the guy is basically a homicidal maniac.

Now Magneto, he's an antihero, I'd venture that there's no serious doubt about that--sometimes he even ends up fighting on the side of Charles Xavier (who addresses him as "old friend") and the X-Men, although he doesn't share Professor Xavier's approach to defending mutantkind.

As to the issue of the spanker's role in a spanking-oriented account, well depending on his/her motivation for administering corporal correction, I'd say that he/she could be hero, antihero or villain, using the term in a broad sense.

Hero/Heroine: The discipline is believed to be clearly deserved, and is delivered at least partially for the spankee's long-term benefit (even if the spanker does get some personal satisfaction from it).

Antihero/Antiheroine: The punishment is administered as part of his/her responsibility, he/she believes that it's justified under some set of rules, but his/her personal emotional involvement is somewhat limited.

Villain/Villainess: The chastisement is applied to the posterior of an innocent victim, one whom the spanker knows is innocent (or possibly he/she doesn't care whether or not the spankee is guilty), the spanker getting a great deal of personal gratification from his/her role.

Obviously, these descriptions are referring to the spanker administering a butt-blistering which the spankee at least consciously would prefer to avoid (even if he/she admits to needing and/or deserving it), of course erotic spanking play is something quite different.

That's my thinking anyway...

--C.K.

Magneto is clearly an antihero - at least in the story arcs that focus on him (allowing him to occupy the hero's role).

Speaking of superheroes and spanking, I've written two stories along that line. Of course I couldn't use published heroes because of trademark issues. Actually, I think "superhero" is still a shared trademark between DC and Marvel. Anyway, those stories are:

Swan Lass & The Cabal of Crime! - is about a sidekick (Swan Lass) who stumbles into a meeting of a new criminal organisation. Now what do you do with an errant sidekick?

The Spanking Lady on Patrol: A low level superhero, one who knows she can't compete in the major leagues, goes around handing out spankings as needed - or at least as she thinks they are needed. More a vigilante than hero, the police usually have better things to do than focus on her relatively minor actions, what with super villains to deal with. Sometimes they even turn a blind eye to what she does because they feel her targets deserve what they get.

I don't think Dumbledore turns into a villain, more a flawed character, in fact, his major flaw throughout is in not trusting Harry with enough information under the delusion that he was protecting him, but this merely makes things worse for Harry.
May I throw another name in the ring? Horatio Hornblower. Whilst he has all the characteristics of the hero in far too great quantities, even insofar as he detests anything in himself which might appear even a tiny bit self aggrandising, or even sympathetic. This in itself makes him an unlikeable hero, who, whilst we might root for him, we certainly wouldn't want to spend any time with him. I'm talking book-Hornblower, not TV series-Hornblower, played by the very likeable Ioan Gruffudd

Walter White from "Breaking Bad" is probably my favourite anti-hero. His ventures into the drug industry probably wrecked many, many lives and he did actually end up cold-bloodedly killing a few people yet he was forced down that road by the American "health care" system and the way in which society disrespects learning but has a higher regard for drug barons than teachers. Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley is another, carefree and cheerfully amoral, murdering when he is cornered and has to but generally sophisticated and likeable.

It takes some skill to write a flawed and even dangerous character who somehow has the reader rooting for them.

Along that lines - Tony Soprano. Some people viewed him as regular protagonist, but he made his money off of drugs, loan sharking, gambling, auto theft, high jacked trunks, prostitution, etc - if there was a criminal way of making money he would try to tap into it.

He was completely amoral rather than immoral, in that he didn't subscribe to any system of morality. Nor did he think he was doing anything wrong when he snared a childhood friend into debt that ruined that man's life - and his family, which included one of his daughter's good friends.

A great series - but it could have used more spanking.

... Mad... Max... ...but then again, he usually does the right thing in the end... all of them does...

How about Mickey Knox in Natural Born Killers?