Plays by His Own Rules

""Win if you have to, lose if you must but always cheat!""

- Jesse Ventura

Trailers Always Lie, right? And they're not too original about it, either. It's always stuff like In a World where tropes are discussed, described and examplified in internet wikis, One Man holds the only key to the internet, and he Plays by His Own Rules''!

That's right -- according to trailers (and other forms of publicity of the piece of fiction), a bunch of heroes are practicing anarchists.

Be he a Bandito, a Cowboy Cop, a regular Cowboy, a Rebel without a Clue, or even a cool kid who skateboards in the parking lot all day, one thing you can count on: He has a illogical hatred of any form of authority, be it a Sadist Teacher or even a Reasonable Authority Figure. For him (and it's the kind of guy who is Always Male), it's not what the order is that matters, but just the fact that it is an order.

The idea is that, unlike you, loser, who spends most of his time taking orders from everyone from your mom to your boss, this Hero stands up for himself. And, that's a big part of his appeal - he's free from bureaucrats, evil bosses with cash-padded pockets, and the evils of organized religion, allowing him to be much more productive in his battle against the forces of evil.

And remember, All Girls Want Bad Boys.

"Mike: He's a nurse's aide who doesn't play by the rules!"
 * In Family Guy, Meg falls for a guy like this.
 * In The Fairly OddParents, Timmy wishes he was one of these guys.
 * Demolition Man.
 * Dirty Harry.
 * Real Life Example: The Anarchist Cookbook is a 1971 book that inspired numerous BBS text files in the early 90's.
 * Something Awful parodies said text files here.
 * Mannix.
 * T. J. Hooker.
 * Mystery Science Theater 3000 mocks this trope (and the main character of the film) in parts: the clonus horror.


 * Persona 3's Shinjiro Aragaki, and Strega in general.
 * Sonic the Hedgehog, so freaking much.