Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck has been a regular cast of the mainstream heroes of Looney Tunes but he is not really a hero, he is more accurately termed as an anti-hero and at times can even become a protagonist villain.

By no means malicious or threatening, the troublesome Daffy can be credited with some rather cruel and unusual incidents throughout his career and has antagonized several notable heroes, such as Bugs Bunny and Speedy Gonzales. It could be argued that the same holds true for all Looney Tunes characters, as, with the exception of 100% good Porky Pig and 100% villainous Yosemite Sam (though note that villainous does not necessarily mean evil) all of them have been consistently portrayed as anti-heroes or anti-villains. However, Daffy Duck has gone one step further than Bugs Bunny or Foghorn Leghorn and actually passed from the occasional anti-hero to the occasional villain; which is why he gets a page on this Wiki.

Normally however most of Daffy's true malice is reserved for his nemesis, Bugs Bunny, who he loathes due to extreme jealousy - yet even this extreme rivalry isn't without some merit and Daffy is capable of forging alliances with Bugs Bunny on occasions: though the two will never truly be friends.

Daffy Duck is often portrayed as a selfish, mean-spirited, attention-stealing braggart and mostly as a greedy con-artist who craves for fame and riches and who does not really care about honesty. se designated victim is the gullible Porky Pic, whom he tricks in selling him many useless things, often with the goal of causing him troubles, so that he could sell him a more expensive and not more useful "remedy".

For some examples of Daffy Duck at his worst one should look to the cartoon "Well Worn Daffy" - in this cartoon Daffy's mean-spiritedness is taken to its extremes and he outright denies a group of mice access to desperately needed water out of sheer malice: this is without a doubt one of the most blatantly cruel things Daffy has done (and, to be fair, is slightly out of character).

It should still be remembered that, while Daffy may have been a villain at some point, he is now fully redeemed and his heroic career unquestionably outweighs his infrequent villainous antics. In Duck Dodgers, for example, he is always the hero. An idiot hero, but still certainly not an anti-hero (there is one exception, see below).

Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage
thumb|300px|rightBelieve it or not Daffy Duck featured as the final boss and main antagonist of the video-game Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage - in this version of events Daffy has taken his rivalry with Bugs to a whole new level and gained the power of the artist in a similar fashion to Elmer Fudd during a famous Looney Tunes cartoon.

Using his newfound powers Daffy Duck causes all manner of mischief for Bugs Bunny but is ultimately resigned to his usual defeat at the hands of his rival.

It is very likely that Daffy Duck was also trying to exact revenge on Bugs Bunny for pulling a similar trick on him in the Looney Tunes cartoon "Duck Amuck".

Duck Dodgers
Also, in Duck Dodgers (a Cartoon Network cartoon show), Daffy Duck (aka Duck Dodgers) serves to protect the galaxy alongside Porky Pig (aka The Cadet) from Marvin The Martian.

While still lazy, dimwitted and sometimes coward, Daffy maintains a heroic status on that series, the only exception occurring on a two-part episode in which he sabotages a peace treaty to prevent losing his job, an act for which the Cadet takes the blame. Dodgers later regrets the sabotage, saves the Cadet from prison and publicly admits his guilt.

Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas
On that TV special adapted from A Christmas Carol, Daffy plays the role of the greedy, heartless and abusive owner of a mega-store who changes his behavior and becomes a generous fellow after being visited by three spirits on the Christmas Eve night; as happened with Ebenezer Scrooge in the original story.