Bingrui's blog

After my research, I decided that my critical research should named ‘The Alchemy of the Antihero – Crafting Compelling Villain Protagonists in Animation’. It mainly focus on the character design of anti-heroes and the narrative of antiheroes.

It will be divided into four parts: The narative of antiheros, how audience reponse to anti-heroes, the analysis of two typical anti-heroes in animation, and at last, the conclusion about what a successful anti-hero character in animation needs.

Shafer, D.M. and Raney, A.A. (2013) ‘ Exploring How We Enjoy Antihero Narratives ‘, Journal of Communication, Volume 62, Issue 6, December 2012, Pages 1028–1046. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01682.x.

This research investigates how audiences enjoy narratives featuring morally ambiguous or flawed protagonists, known as antiheroes. While traditional Affective Disposition Theory (ADT) posits that enjoyment stems from positive moral evaluations of characters, it falls short in explaining the appeal of antiheroes whose actions often violate moral standards. It argues that for antihero narratives, enjoyment is facilitated not through moral monitoring as per classic ADT, but through schema-driven moral disengagement. This process allows audiences to separate their liking for a character from their moral evaluation of their actions. The findings suggest that ADT remains a valid framework but requires integration with schema theory and the concept of moral disengagement to fully account for the enjoyment of complex, morally ambiguous protagonists. Future research should focus on directly measuring these schemas and exploring their potential long-term effects on viewers’ real-world moral reasoning.

Bibliography

Miranda, L. (2017) ‘ The Self is Dead – Alienation and Nihilism in Rick and Morty’, Class, Race and Corporate Power, Volume 5 Issue 3 U.S. Labor and Social Justice, article 9. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48645479.

Koltun, Kim (2018) “Rick, Morty, and Absurdism: The Millennial Allure of Dark Humor,” The Forum: Journal of History: Vol. 10: Iss. 1, Article 12.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/forum/vol10/iss1/12

Who is Rick

He is a Nihilist and has Existential Crisis, he believes the universe is meaningless and life has no purpose. He only believe in science and is extremly rational. At the same time, he rebels against authority and is a deconstructor of systems. He escapes himself through adventures and creating chaos, embodying the “tormented genius.”

Rick as an anti-hero

First, he is lack of traditional heroic morality, he is selfish, dangerous. His motivation are often out of personal desires, instead of noble ideas. But at the same time, even he denies all emotions, he still protects his family (especially Morty) at critical moment, which shows there’s still humanity in his heart. Also, as a nihilist,confronts the absurd with humor and irony, embodying the “American absurd hero” who uses laughter to combat nothingness.