The Anti-Hero and Why Girls Fall for Them

The anti-hero, according to Encylopedia Britannica.com, is "the protagonist of a drama or narrative who is notably lacking in heroic qualities." The anti-hero is not a bad person, he (as we shall call him in this post) is just lacking those qualities that make a hero.



I think it's the idea of falling for the "bad guy" but with a twist. I've never been the one to fall for the bad boys (unless you count back in middle school when they happened to be pretty cute:). The anti-hero, however, is the one that has the possibility to be hero if . . . . It's the anti-hero that will get me everytime. For some reason the "romantic" part of my brain falls for the anti-hero, the one that you see potential in but who just doesn't seem to have everything together. I think that romantic part of me thinks that I can, in some way, fix him.



This is flawed thinking! At least this is what I tell myself. I wish, however, that I would listen. I hope that he'll decide that I am the one that is important enough to change for. This, I feel, is one of the bad things about romantic comedies. If it happens in a movie I can convince myself that it will happen in real life. This is not reality! He will not change for me.



I think of a quote that I read in a book once about a failed relationship. The best friend tells the girl, "He loved you, he just didn't love you enough." And therein lies the downfall of fallling for the anti-hero. The girl is never the maiden to be rescued; she is instead the one to push the knight who forgot his armor to fight the giant anyway. If you see the girl, let her know that the dragon will win because the knight doesn't think enough of himself to even dream of her.