Originally Posted by
Grinning Soul
Your post shows exactly what I'm talking about.
Heroes don't need to be purely altruistic. Heroes are at their best when they feel tempted, yet choose to do the right thing. They are at their worst when they fail to do so. But heroes at their worst can be great stories too!
The point is that those stories will only be great if the hero is an actual hero. If they were tempted, if they made a mistake, if they chose to do the wrong thing in a moment of selfishness or fragility. An anti-hero doesn't care, or cares but shrugs it off. A hero does care, they feel bad about themselves, they don't give themselves excuses or if they do, they eventually realise it and apologise and try to redeem themselves.
Heroes can and should be interesting. But it's like both writers can fans can't really see it that way anymore.