Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24098614-20180508224452/@comment-5430952-20181203054446

ElderWqnd wrote:It's simple: If Salem is on the "hero/good side", which is Ozpin's side, and she has selfish motives/immoral actions, she is an anti-hero. If Raven is on the "villain/bad side", which is Salem's side, and she does things that she considers good or noble or has heroic qualities, then she is an anti-villain. This is frankly the definition. It really comes down to what side she is aligned with, no matter how much you can make an argument for if she does too many good or bad things. I'm afraid that's not true. It's not a matter of who a character sides with that determines their alignment, it's their actions. And Raven's actions have been all but completely evil (sacking villages, killing innocent people and leaving others to die when the Grimm attack, abandoning her family in Patch in hopes of Salem not targeting her, murdering the Spring Maiden for not living up to her expectations, trying to manipulate Yang into staying with her, and then selling Yang and Qrow out in order to save her own skin), her heroic deeds are very few in comparison, hence why she's an anti-villain.

If you want an example of an anti-hero, look at Batman. He punishes, and sometimes maims criminals in order to protect innocents, but he never kills. Never. He knows where to draw the line.

Another example, in-universe, would be Qrow: he went behind Tai's back in order to get Ruby to go to Mistral, and to encourage Yang to find Raven and bring her back to the "good side," so to speak. Coupled with his rather crass behavior and tragic past, he just screams "Anti-Hero," since it's all to save the world from destruction. Big difference from Raven, who's given up the fight in order to save her own skin.

So no, allegiance doesn't determine one's alignment, actions do.