Brandon Sanderson, author of the bestselling Cosmere multiverse of novels, made a few waves recently after mentioning in one of his streamed lectures on the craft of writing that the pop-culture concept of the "antihero" has lost a fair amount of meaning in recent years. One of the main examples Sanderson uses is Marvel Comics, whose characters like the Punisher and Deadpool have led to some confusion in the collective pop-culture consciousness as to just what an antihero is.

It's important to that while antiheroes are generally protagonists, they're very different in character from a true hero. Heroes rise to the occasion, with irable character traits that both aid and hinder them as they travel through the narrative on their journey. Antiheroes, on the other hand, are often bereft of the moral qualities we praise in heroes; while they may undertake actions with heroic outcomes, such as overcoming villains, those actions are done for selfish reasons, not virtuous ones.

Brandon Sanderson is no stranger to writing antiheroes, deuteragonists, and all sorts of other unconventional protagonists; the Cosmere is full of morally gray or even outright morally bankrupt characters taking actions for the benefit of something greater than themselves. Among that stable, three of Sanderson's antiheroes stand out as his best use of the archetype.

3 Vasher

First Appeared In Warbreaker (2009)

The grim, laconic swordsman Vasher first made his appearance in Warbreaker by being thrown in a dungeon, breaking out of it in order to go deeper inside, and then killing a man. By the end of the book, Vasher and his sentient, soul-sucking sword Nightblood have left quite a body count behind them – along with the revelation that Vasher is one of the near-immortal undead Returned, who had helped found the kingdom of Hallandren three centuries before.

Sometime between the events of Warbreaker and Words of Radiance, Vasher left his homeworld of Nalthis and traveled to Roshar, where he lost Nightblood, took up the name Zahel, and began to work as a scholar and swordmaster in the camp of Dalinar Kholin. There he spent some time training Adolin Kholin and Kaladin Stormblessed in blade techniques, all the while keeping an ear to the ground about Nightblood.

While Vasher has worked tirelessly in the name of demonstrable social good, like when he helped shatter the tyrannical regime backing the nation of Hallandren that he had helped found, he also has a unique perspective on morality and motivation. In part, this comes from his nature as one of the Returned; having lost all memories of his first life upon being resurrected, Vasher lacks much of the emotional context that normal humans use to ground their moral choices.

In the war to found the kingdom of Hallandren, Vasher did his best to build something that would bring peace to the world of Nalthis, but he also fell in love with a fellow Returned, Shashara, the woman who created Nightblood. In order to prevent the secret of Nightblood's creation from spreading, Vasher killed her with it, despite his feelings for her. Since then, he's killed countless more in pursuit of his goals.

Vasher is very much a classical antihero, long past the point of concern about blood on his hands. His goal is to undo the horrible things he helped come to , namely the creation of Nightblood and the chance that others in the Cosmere might figure out how to create more Type IV BioChromatic entities, but it rarely seems that Vasher is concerned with what means he uses in order to achieve that goal. Much like Marvel's Punisher, Vasher is content to allow the ends to justify whatever means he is forced to use along the way.

2 Hoid

First Appeared In Elantris (2005)

Long considered Brandon Sanderson's most enigmatic character, Hoid first appeared in Elantris – and then shortly after, Mistborn: The Final Empire – as a beggar and informant. Then he showed up in Warbreaker as a storyteller, using the power of Lightweaving to regale Lightsong the Bold and Siri with the story of Vo, the First Returned. Finally, in 2010's The Way of Kings, Hoid appeared on Roshar, in his guise as the King's Wit of Alethkar and much more openly involved in the increasing chaos on that planet surrounding the conflict on the Shattered Plains.

With well over a dozen aliases on possibly as many worlds, Hoid remains one of Sanderson's oddest antiheroes. Between his flippant dialogue as Wit, details revealed about him by other characters, and the extensive epigraphs in the Stormlight Archive books that frequently use excerpts of letters exchanged between him and other major figures in the Cosmere, it's clear that Hoid has spent no small part of his near-immortal life since the Shattering of Adonalsium working merely to gather power for himself. In fact, he may be one of the most Invested people in the Cosmere.

Given that Hoid's full backstory will stay a mystery for likely another decade, it's impossible to know his full motivations at this point. Clearly, Hoid has a sympathetic side, which leads him to help people (or at least, aid them long enough so that they can help him in turn) like Triss and Kaladin; yet for some reason, Hoid was one of the conspirators who helped destroy the Cosmere's creator god, and then the only one who refused to take up one of Adonalsium's Shards.

Hoid once said to Dalinar Kholin, "And while I am your friend, please understand that our goals do not completely align. You must not trust yourself with me. If I have to watch this world crumble and burn to get what I need, I will do so. With tears, yes, but I would let it happen." (Words of Radiance, chapter 67) While this may have been some degree of bluster that was intended to keep Dalinar at an emotional distance, it's also very much par for the course with Hoid's unique moral view.

Hoid's ultimate goal is something that Brandon Sanderson has only described vaguely as "make that which once was," which could mean anything from wanting to the rise of Retribution – and woe betide anyone, friend or foe, who stands too long in his way.

1 Kelsier

First Appeared In Mistborn: The Final Empire (2006)

Worshipped all across his homeworld as the mythical Survivor, and now functionally immortal thanks to his incarnation as a Cognitive Shadow that once held the Shard of Preservation, Kelsier's whole existence has continually been one of being in deep over his head. Whether as the leader of his crew of skaa thieves in Luthadel, as a revolutionary figure, or as the mysterious head of the Ghostbloods, Kelsier has always led with his heart – one which still bleeds from wounds left by the Lord Ruler.

Despite his status as a religious icon of self-determination on modern Scadrial, Kelsier has always been driven by his connections to other people, rather than his conscience. Before kicking off the Skaa Rebellion, Kelsier was content to be a criminal and a nuisance in and around Luthadel; it was the death of his wife Mare at the Lord Ruler's hands, combined with Kelsier's traumatic sentencing to labor in the Pits of Hathsin, that not only Snapped him as a Mistborn, but also gave him the very personal goal of destroying the Lord Ruler and everything he built.

[Kelsier] was able to , or possibly found, the Ghostbloods, making him the head of one of the most powerful organizations in the Cosmere…

After his own death, Kelsier continued to exist, much to his surprise, and after exploring Scadrial's Cognitive Realm found himself with far more questions than answers. Somehow after that point, he figured out how to visit other worlds, although his limits as a Cognitive Shadow keep him from fully leaving Scadrial; yet he was able to , or possibly found, the Ghostbloods, making him the head of one of the most powerful organizations in the Cosmere.

There's no question that Kelsier was, at least initially, driven by a deep need for vengeance. Yes, that vengeance took the form of the Skaa Rebellion and the dethroning of the Lord Ruler, which was objectively good for the people of the Final Empire, but that still very much fits the classic antihero mold: Kelsier was content to use violence, torture, and chaos in order to achieve his goal, and even failed to survive long enough to see his plan succeed.

Now, Kelsier continues to work to protect the world of Scadrial, using the Ghostbloods' activities on Roshar to stockpile stormlight, and working to fortify Scadrial's people in anticipation of a conflict with the dark god Trell – or rather, the Shard Autonomy, which is supposedly pulling Trell's strings. Death seems to have cooled Kelsier's impulsiveness somewhat, but it still remains to be seen – likely in Mistborn: Ghostbloods – whether he's still willing to let his need for vengeance override his desire to protect his home.