"Why am I so bad at being good!?" —Zuko,Avatar: The Last Airbender

Like theMinion with an F In Evil, theHero With an F in Good almost always is basically a nice person deep down. While the Minion with an F in Evil became aPunch Clock Villain becauseEvil Is Cool but hisPet the Dog personalityfoils his bosses' plans, the Hero With an F in Good sometimes daydreams of becoming one ofThe Hero'sTrue Companions (or being the hero by himself) but serious character flaws make it a poor career goal. He doesn't have a problem with doing heroic things, but he does have trouble when it comes to other aspects of being good.

Typical Characteristics:

• The Hero with an F In Good has redeeming qualities that make part of him want to be a hero out of a desire to do good or the right thing, in other words aJerk with a Heart of Gold orWell-Intentioned Extremist rather than aJerkass. They can be aJerkass Woobie.
• This character almost invariably has a checkered or mysterious past, or a bad reputation,which makes it difficult for authorities and other heroes to trust them. Perhaps the character was once a villain orNoble Demon who has more recently done aHeel Face Turn.
• They often find thatGood Is Boring and just obeying the law and community decency standards can be difficult or trying at best.
• They may be aNightmare Fetishist,Cloudcuckoolander, etc., who just does not "get" the whole Good Versus Evil thing, becauseEvil Feels Good. If the character has recently done aHeel Face Turn, becauseEvil Cannot Comprehend Good, "behaving themselves" is new to them, and it's hard to unlearn the old ways. Often the characterWants a Prize For Basic Decency.
• The Hero with an F In Good tends to get themselves kicked out of theJustice League,Rebel Alliance, etc. for 'minor' offences (theft, destruction of property, etc.).

This character differs from other related tropes as follows:

• Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: both have a bad reputation, but only the Hero with an F In Good deserves it.
• Designated Hero: both want to be seen as good, but the Hero with an F In Good honestly tries and fails. The main difference is while theDesignated Hero's flaws are only obvious to the audience, the Hero with an F In Good's flaws are readily apparent to the other characters.
• Mr. Vice Guy: the Hero with an F In Good's flaws directly interfere with his status as a hero, and he's not excused for them.
• Noble Demon: while theNoble Demon cultivates his "bad" reputation, this character daydreams of being a hero. Can be the result of aNoble Demon doing aHeel Face Turn and realizing they don't know a thing about being a hero.
• Punch Clock Villain: for the Hero with an F In Good, evil isn't just a job. It's a job they hate, but sometimes the only job that pays the bills.
• Villain Ball Magnet: it isn't the universe that paints the Hero with an F In Good as a villain, it's his own flaws.

Allowing them entry into aSuperhero organization, etc. could cause serious problems for the group's reputation, cohesiveness, etc., so instead a common fate is to becomeFlanderized into a recurringIneffectual Sympathetic Villain who the heroes can still count on when theBig Bad crosses theMoral Event Horizon, becauseEven Evil Has Standards.

In a moreBlack and Grey Morality/Dystopian setting, this character often ends up being the one whoTook a Level in Badass and joins the heroes anyway.

CompareThe Team Wannabe. Compare and contrastNominal Hero.

No real life examples, please;this isn't a compliment.

Anime and Manga

• Sousuke fromFull Metal Panic!. He's (arguably) a good person at heart, but... he justcannot live as a law-abiding citizen, and more often than not, hedoes more harm than good. Ithas been hinted multiple times that the only reason why he's on the "side of justice" is because he just happened to get accepted into Mithril because of Kalinin, and he decided to work alongside Kalinin there.
  • Sousuke isvery law-abiding, it's just that he abides bymilitary law. Sousuke is a formerchild soldier who was brought up in the most war-torn regions of "Khazakastan" and, after his first unit disbanded, grew to his present age serving in one mercenary band or another until he finally came to Kalinin's attention and was recruited for Mithril. He knows absolutelynothing about civilian life and can barely comprehend the blissful ignorance civilians live in. For example, if a person tampers with his locker, he blows it up – because he's probablyseen friends and coworkers die from bombs or poison slipped into personal belongings. Hell, he may have used that method to kill people himself... and hedid use that method to protect his property in theBeach Episode ofFumoffu. While there are times where he genuinely deserves Kaname's exasperated pummellings, there are others where it really can cross intoDude, Not Funny territory: it's basically beating the snot out of him for beingignorant.
• Durarara!!: Shizuo Heiwajima really does want to do good by people—it's just that hismassive anger issues andUnstoppable Rage tend not to discriminate between bad guys and innocents
  • To be fair, how accurate can you be with a thrown vending machine?
• Baccano!
  • Isaac Dian and Miria Harvent work on atoning for their previous (harmless) crimes by stealing large amounts of cash and goods from wealthy familiesJust Like Robin Hood.
  • Half of this show's cast fits this, as even the protagonists are oftenThe Mafia, aNoble Demon, a liquor bootlegger etc. Also noteDurarara's entry as well. The author, Ryhogo Narita, is in love with this trope.
• You're Under Arrest: Strike Man, theWrong Genre Savvy self-proclaimed hero, only causes more damage than good any time he appears.
• Bleach:Don Kanonji was this. He believed he was a role-model for children everywhere, a hero who made life bearable for children everywhere by showing there that there was someone in the world who stood up to the monsters that go bump in the night. And then helearned the tactics he was using were actuallycreating the very monsters he thought he was fighting.
• Itachi fromNaruto might not be theComplete Monster he appeared to be at the outset, but there's still the fact calling him "one of the good guys" is quite a stretch.While Itachi killed the Uchiha family to prevent a devastating civil war rather than simply as a way to test his own powers, he made some rathercomplicated decisions regarding sparing his little brother Sasuke; rather than simply kill him, Itachi decided to spare his life and try and make Sasuke hate him enough that he could commitSuicide by Cop later to turn Sasuke into a hero and let him live free of the shadow-conflict that consumed their family. Unfortunately, he did this by inflictinghorrificMind Rape upon Sasuke on the night of the massacre and later on, emotionally crippling Sasuke for the rest of his life, and Itachi's eventual suicide at Sasuke's hands was implied to be just as much for Konoha's sake and his own self-loathing as it was out of any affection for Sasuke. Unsurprisingly, a lifetime conditioned into obsessive hatred for his brother to the exclusion of all else means Sasuke goes completely batshit insane once Itachi's gone and Madara gives him a slanted account of Itachi's life, but Itachi turns out to have had a plan for this; using Sasuke's erstwhile best friend Naruto as the delivery system, if Sasuke failed to become the hero Itachi wanted him to be, Itachi left behind a posthumous genjutsu that wouldbrainwash Sasuke into protecting Konoha with his dead best friend's mind-controlling eye. While he is depicted as a man who made many sacrifices and tough choices,Itachi is still dangerously close to just being aManipulative Bastard with anOmniscient Morality Licence.
• Tentai Senshi Sunred is a short-tempered, easily irritated bum with a pachinko addiction who survives day-to-day on the sufferance on his girlfriend Kayoko. His glory days ofSentai leadership long behind him, he now fights the monsters ofEvil Organization Florsheim simply because they won't leave him alone, and even then tends to treat it as an annoyance he'd rather be without.
• This is probably the most even-handed way to describe Shinn Asuka fromMobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny without descending into theFan Dumb battles that have raged since the show ended. He's well-intentioned, wanting to protect the innocent, but has severe anger issues and an anti-authority streak that only get worse as he's manipulated by Chairman Durandal and has to deal with Athrun Zala's unintentionally poor mentorship. The moment that divides the fandom isthe death of Stella Lousier, who was killed by Kira Yamato; this permanently ensures that he will never be a part of Kira's team, which means that as Kira gradually startstaking the forefront, Shinn gets portrayed as a mindless attack dog on a wire leash.
  • Making it really sad, the spoilered point above is simply aGone Horribly Wrong version of something Kira himself did in the originalGundam Seed (returning Lacus Clyne to ZAFT). Other than that, can he be blamed for siding with the Chairman,who treated him like a son, rather than Athrun, whoBright Slapped him once for disobeying orders^[1] and once forobeying them?Super Robot Wars (particularlyZ andL)fixes this by having Kirahelp Shinn save Stella instead of killing her, defusing his anger and giving them the chance to become friends.

Comic Books

• Hank Pym fromThe Avengers. He tries to be a hero but his unstable personality sometimes makes him more of a menace. He is another one who's getting over it, what with leading the last Mighty Avengers incarnations who, in-universe, nearly overshadowedNorman Osborn's Dark Avengers. However, his tendency to screw up things is still there too...
• Plastic Man from theJustice League of America is frequently this, betrayed by his criminal background and frivolous, comedic personality.
• Depending on the Writer,Deadpool can be this when he tries to be a good guy. He's too violent and psychotic to really pull off being a hero, too conflicted and silly to really be a villain, and tends to swing betweenAnti-Hero andAnti-Villain like a pendulum. Most of the heroes of theMarvel Universe can't stand working with him (Cable and Siryn being rare exceptions), and considering it's aCrapsack World where even guys likeThe Punisher andThe Hulk are afforded some respect and trust, that's saying something.
  • F in Good or in evil, depending on your side: during theCivil War storyline, he became a registration enforcer… then he attacked superhero groups because he didn't check theyhad registered!
• Max Damage fromIncorruptible. Once aComplete Monster, he got scared straight when the residentCaptain Ersatz ofSuperman snapped and went on a rampage. The entire book's about his struggle to redeem himself, but all he knows about being good is "do the opposite of what you used to do".
• The Spectre, God's Angel of Vengeance, has such a horrifically skewed sense of proportion and priorities that, he needs to be kept bound to a morally upstanding human soul just to reach the level ofGood Is Not NiceSociopathic Hero. That's right, not only did he get an F in good, but God gave him a cheat sheet, and he's still only getting Cs and Ds.
  • TheHal Jordan version of the Spectre is a lot less vengeful, but makes up for it by being incompetent. His more notable deeds include the time he resurrectedGreen Arrow as a soulless amnesiac, and the time he restoredWally West's secret identity by making everyone in the world forget who the Flash was. Including Wally.

Film

• Star Wars: Anakin Skywalker in the prequel trilogy. He's brave and willing to risk himself for others, wants to do what's right, joins the foremost good guy organization... But he's impatient, uncontrolled, unable to accept his place and constantly tempted to just go ahead and (to sum up all the various temptations) do whatever he damn well feels like at the moment. When he does, it ends badly for everyone. After that he becomes an entirely different character who gets an A in Evil easily. Until the end ofReturn of the Jedi, that is.
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Riddick. He is a full-grownSatisfied Street Rat—avicious and remorseless human predator who has killed hundreds of people at torture range. What makes him a "hero" is that though he is a genuinelyAxe CrazyKnife Nut who lives to tear people to shreds simply for the joy of it, he has no interest in killing those who cannot defend themselves, findschildren to be amusing distractions(especially sincethose feelings are usually returned), and treats those thatdo kill the defenseless as animals. He thus finds himself regularly rescuing loads and loads of people by accident despite never intending to.

Literature

• Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Thomas Covenant becomes one of these in the first trilogy, after an act that many consider a rare "heroic"Moral Event Horizon. Covenant himself is sickened and guilty over what he's done andtries to make up for it where he can, but he generally just winds up making thingsworse.For example, he's trying to atone for his rape of the village girl Lena. He knows that Lena lovesthe Ranyhyn, so when he's able to command them at one point, he tells them to visit her annually. Problem is, they're still held by this command when theBig Bad is on the verge of destroying the world, and it keeps them from fleeing to safety. This nearly leads to the extinction of the Ranyhyn. It's worth noting that while Covenant does turn out to be a good person, (very) deep down, it takes three whole books for either him or the reader to admit it.
  • In a very real sense, the entire point of the first trilogy is the psychological redemption of an utterly broken man into someone who can live with himself - the first book setting him up as someone the audience very likely hates as a reflection of how badly he already hateshimself. And since the series very strongly straddles the line between reality and psychological allegory (and occasionally argues that both answers are valid), by definition saving the Land saves his own soul -and vice-versa.
    • This entire framework continues into the second trilogy - except instead of being Covenant's redemption, it's the story of how Linden is ultimately tested and redeemed (and no, all the references in the series to alloys and forging aren't coincidental at all). It's hard to tell if the third (and final) tril... err, tetralogy follows the same pattern, and if so, precisely WHO is being redeemed. As of the third book,it's clearly not Joan, Jeremiah shouldn'tneed to be redeemed, and Roger shows absolutely no sign of showing an ounce of remorse or growth. If anything, the true harrowed character (if any) might be Lord Foul himself, "She Who Must Not Be Named", or the entire world of The Land as a whole.
• Artemis Fowl: For awhile, Artemis'sHeel Face Turn was impeded by his love ofdevious plans, until he realized that aChessmaster doesn't have to be a villain.
• The Once and Future King describes Tristam as one of these. Basically, he's got the rough idea of theKnight in Shining Armor, but doesn't really understandwhy he should act like one—particularly when sex is involved.
• Molly Carpenter , Nice girl, not very good with using moral methods to present moral outcomes. There's a reason there's a death sentence over her head if she gets out of line. It starts with using mind control to get a friend off Heroin, which ended up being moreMind Rape. Oh, and Black Magic is addictive too. She keeps trying to useMind Rape several books later when she feels its worth it (it never is).
• In the obscure children's bookSimson and Samson, Sir Simson looks like and does his best to be a classic heroic knight. He's not very good at it, generally wreaking so much incidental havoc that the peasantry desperately hopes hewon't try to help them with their problems.
• This is why, inTwilight, Jacob is considered inferior to Edward. Jacob is ostensibly nicer, shares more of Bella's interests, lacks Edward's self-loathing issues, and seems like a lot more fun - but unlike Edward he isn't particularly ashamed of his monster side, and has extreme mood swings in which he could do Bella serious harm (wheras Edward has much better self-control). At one point, he even decides to take revenge for Belladying in childbirth bymurdering her baby, because it killed her.

Live-Action TV

• Charmed: Cole Turner. While, admittedly, he is the victim of double standards, he does have trouble doing good, even during the times he isn't beingtreated unfairly. Often end up solving problems using violence.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike from in season 5 frequently falls into this trope, often doing things not because it's right but because it's what Buffy would want.

Spike: I'm not sampling, I'll have you know. Just look at all these lovely blood-covered people. I could, but not a taste for Spike, not a lick. Knew you wouldn't like it. Buffy:You want credit for not feeding off bleeding disaster victims? Spike: Well, yeah. Buffy: You're disgusting. Spike:What's it take?

Video Games

• Yuffie fromFinal Fantasy VII tries to be good, but she just accidentally gets an entiretrope name after her inability to do so.
• Jowan ofDragon Age isblood mage who, unlike the others you meet, is perfectly well-meaning and just wants to live a normal life and do some good. Unfortunately, his efforts at doing so all end in disaster.
• Illidan fromWarcraft desperately wants to be revered and, if possible, be revered for being a hero. However, his attempts to be a hero always end with him crossing anotherMoral Event Horizon.
• MadWorld: Jack, according to himself:

Jack: I don't help people, I kill them.

Web Comics

• Abraham fromEl Goonish Shive basically defines this trope. He's aWell-Intentioned Extremist trying to destroy the "abominations" created by the Dewitchery Diamond—the diamond thathe enchanted. This is lampshaded in-comic: A wizard tells Abraham that every properly trained mage in the world is taught about Abraham, "the idiot apprentice who decided to enchant a diamond to cure his noble friend instead of selling it and getting aid from someone more experienced."
  • Also, the "abomination" in question? Had long since adjusted toher situation and become a beloved cast member. Meaning he was basicallytargeting an innocent just for existing. When this was first brought up, he remorsefully stated that the only reason he continued trying to killher was because he was bound by an oath.
• Amya:Vincent does his job because he needs to get paid - but when things start to go badly he doesn't hesitate to let his abductees loose.
• Oasis fromSluggy Freelance does try,butshegetsan F-.

Kareen Zalia: Great. Nowyou think she's some kind ofSuperhero too! Feng: No way. A superhero wouldn't cut a living human being's ribs out one at a time out of curiosity.

• The Order of the Stick
  • Belkar is a subversion. Being theToken Evil Teammate, he finds a way to do what the rest of the party expects of him, but in the most evil - usually violent - way possible.
  • Elan plays the Trope more straight, sometimes because he'sThe Ditz (to the point at which Roy briefly abandoned him to his fate) and sometimes because he'stooGenre Savvy.
• Gawaine inArthur, King of Time and Space. Heunderstands why Arthur's code of chivalry is better than the old "might is right" philosophy (sort of) but well, hewasraised by Morguase and Lot, so it'ssometimes hard for him to act accordingly.He does try though, at least untilhealth problems lead to him siding more with Agrivaine.
• Vriska Serket fromHomestuck counts. She's on the side of good, but she's a manipulative, backstabbing, self-serving egomaniac all the same, and has quite a bit of difficulty getting over this.
• Jareth in theMega CrossoverfancomicRoommates. So much that it's aRunning Gag... when he succeeds by some miracle thepower ofNarrative Causality gets him. Just take a look at this lovelybanner.
• Cassiel ofMisfile is Satan's niece, and normally just bothers the main characters withPoke the Poodle evil plots (such as serving them sub-par snacks). When she decides to do nice things for her mortal friend, however, she ends up screwing things over pretty bad.
• InThe Non-Adventures of Wonderella this describes the main character to a T. To emphasize it, she tends to die as much as the typical super-hero (as in, rather often) butthe Devil is a little bewildered as to why she is the only one who always gets sent to him as a result.

Web Original

• Captain Courage, of theWhateley Universe. He tries to be a hero, but he has so many illegitimate children and paternity suits that there are more wanted posters out for him than for most supervillains. In most places, he's now known as Captain Condom instead of his real codename.

Western Animation

• The Simpsons: Mr. Burns unsuccessfully tried to be good. He tries his hand at recycling, and ends up using the plastic he recycled to overfish the nearby sea.

Lisa: When you try to be good, you're evenmore evil!

• Bender fromFuturama:

Fry: Now me and Leela are forming an awesome crime-fighting duo. Bender: Wow, crime-fighting. Cool. You say you're a duo? Yeah duos are good. Of course sometimes they're a little short-handed. See ya. With two humans you'd think there'd be a robot in there... to balance things out. But, whatever. I have these three costumes you could use. But, I guess I'll just throw one away. Leela: We'd love to have you on the team Bender. But aren't you more on the supply side of crime?

• InSuperman: The Animated Series, Bizarro thinks he's Superman, so goes around "saving" a building from what he didn't realize was a scheduled demolition, and "fixing" an opening draw bridge, thinking it was falling down, causing a ship to almost crash into it.
  • This sort of action wasplayed for laughs in theDaffy Duck cartoon "Stupor Duck." Daffy, as mild-mannered Cluck Trent mistakes dialogue from a TV drama as a villain's arch plans, so as Stupor Duck, he rights a to-be-demolished building, stops a staged-for-filming railroad demolition, surfaces a submerging submarine, and gets sent to the moon on a rocket.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Zuko yells "Why am I so bad at being good?", but he may not fit the trope. Zuko did waver between bad and good, but it was more a case of wavering betweenMy Country, Right or Wrong andDefector From Decadence than wavering betweenAnti-Villain andAnti-Hero.
  • In the episode "Zuko Alone", he fits the bill better than usually though. He's just beginning to find himself in that episode and gets reluctantly drawn into a conflict with some corrupt Earth Kingdom soldiers that are abusing their position in a small village. He struggles with not wanting to get involved (and of course hiding that he is a Fire Bender), but in the end, saves the day. Of course, hisCrowning Moment of Awesome, when he tells the Earth Bender EXACTLY WHO just beat his ass, turns sour when the townsfolk (including the little boy he just saved) no longer want anything to do with him after seeing his Fire Bending. On top ofthat, the reason the boy was in trouble at all was because Zuko gave the child his own dagger as a parting gift and the boy threatened a guard with it.
  • To clarify, Zuko says this after he accidentally burns Toph. But in theGrand Finale, he is the second most important person in the world to end the war, after Aang.
  • Note that Zuko is prettyineffective as a villain too, though.
• Coop ofMegas XLR. He's a good guy, and far from incompetent (but still within view of it), he's just aDestructive Savior to the nth degree. One episode dealt with some alien superheroes mistaking him for an outright villain, and their nemesis thinking he was trying to pull anEviler Than Thou.
• Plastic Man inBatman: The Brave And The Bold. Recently redeemed and enthusiastic about being a hero, but frequently exasperates Batman with his difficulties being competent and not stealing stuff.
• Justice League: The Huntress gets herself kicked out of the League for attempting a revenge killing. Aside from that one time though, she does a pretty good job at being a Hero.
• InMy Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Princess Luna turns out to be this. She's a genuinely sweet and nice pony, but she's thin skinned and her aggressive awkwardness comes off as creepy or threatening. When she's rejected, she has a tendency to lash out with hordes of spiders and lightning storms, then desperately try to cover it by joking aboutgetting the spiders in the net. She later decides to embraceEvil Is Cool andRule of Scary by playing herself up as a fake, pretend villain. Becauselife's no fun without a good scare.
• InHarley Quinn, the title character'sHeel Face Turn at the end of season 3 starts off badly, starting out as theSociopathic Hero type and brutally killing Professor Pyg during the season 4 premiere. Oddly, she is stillEasily Forgiven by Batgirl and Nightwing, and does seem to be - slowly - adjusting.

• Trope
• No Real Life Examples, Please
• No One Respects the Spanish Inquisition
• Hero Tropes
• Hero with an F In Good
• Competence Tropes