This spring, we've combined the best of March Madness and Sochi to create the Anti-Herolympics. View the bracket, read the pairings and VOTE for the most diabolical anti-hero of all time.
Battlestar Galactica's Starbuck VS. The Walking Dead's Rick Grimes
Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
“You know, I never really liked this place anyway. The air conditioning doesn't work in the summer, the heater doesn't work in the winter, the rent's a crime. After the attack, I never... never pined over any of my old crap, never missed it -- stupid view of that parking lot, broken toilet in the bathroom. You know, everyone I know is fighting to get back what they had. I'm fighting because I don't know how to do anything else.” -- Starbuck*
Battlestar Galactica is one of the most widely respected sci-fi shows, and Lt. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace, the big gun of BSG, is a solider through and through, not to mention humanity’s linchpin for survival. A natural born leader and military strategist, Starbuck would be the first person picked for any apocalypse survival team. (Actually, she was). I mean, don’t let the blond hair or small stature fool you, this girl’s fighting skills are out of this world. She’ll drink you under the table, knock you out of the ring, and leave without saying a word in the morning. All you other anti-heroes can stand in line behind Starbuck -- Disagree and we’ll throw you out an airlock.
Though she had an arsenal of weapons, her greatest asset was always her willingness to sacrifice herself for the greater good. Brawny should use her as their new spokeswoman, because she was always cleaning up after other people’s messes. Okay, and some of her own. She saved that caravan of spaceships more times than can be counted, not to mention every Viper pilot on two Battlestars, with her decisive yet outside-the-box thinking. Yeah, she had a serious drinking problem. Yes, she may have been responsible for her lover’s death. Sure, she slept with her dead boyfriend’s brother. So what? She witnessed the genocide of her people and the destruction of her planet. I think that earned her some hangovers and rack time… Don’t you?
Even when she thought she’d finished fighting the good fight, the universe called her number again and resurrected her character and purpose. Dead or alive, she’s humanity’s greatest hope. So say we all. The woman burned her own body in a funeral pyre, guys. If that’s not badass, then I just don’t know what is. Spoiler alert: she basically created humanity as we know it. Even though she spent the later half of the series as some sort of ghost/angel of death, she’s still light years ahead of some of these other competitors in the Anti-Herolympics.
Give this girl a drink, a cigar, a viper and she’ll take over the Universe.
*What did she worry about when the world ended? Her belongings? Her apartment? No, her cigars. -- Matt Nicholson
Rick Grimes
How does a true anti-hero solve a problem? By slamming a machete into that problem's skull.
When Rick Grimes cleaved his new friend Tomas's brain in Season 3 of The Walking Dead, he set a new precedent for cold-blooded murder. Sure, he had killed scores of undead zombies before, but this was a real human being. It wasn't a conflict that was built-up for six episodes. It happened quick... and Rick didn't bat an eye, he just said,"Shit happens." (Rick is a lot of things, but he is not eloquent.)
This is not the only case of gory human-on-human violence Rick has been privy to since the world ended. He also shot two guys in a bar just because they were from Philly, strangled a biker dude for breaking into a house that he broke in to first, and gut-stabbed his best friend / his wife's baby daddy. All for the good of the slowly dwindling group of survivors Rick has been doing his damnedest to protect.
Here's what makes Rick a truly badass anti-hero: In Season 4, he gave up the violent life to instead plant soybeans. He had hit his murder quota and didn't want to become a villain in front of his son. So now he's like a former hardcore heroin addict, someone who earned his wisdom and his scars. He's a grizzled Vietnam vet who has been in The Shit and is now fighting for a normal life again.
That fight might end up being the toughest one Rick has to face... and one he can't win with a machete. -- Jack O.
Final Winner: Rick Grimes
These characters are both so great, this was a hard call to make. But the fact is -- and it is a ridiculous fact -- both of these characters have LEGIT seen ghosts at one time or another. Since grief induced visions of Rick's dead wife are more only slightly more believable than Starbuck's dad teaching her piano lessons from beyond the grave, we've got to give it to Rick.