This recent poll result really comes as a surprise to me. Is this maybe a trauma people on here have? I know that alot of manga MC's are weakwilled could that be a reaso for it? Also what does moral integrity even mean? Those "betrayed hero gets gory revenge" mangas seem very popular these days.

I don’t think a hero who’s after revenge after a betrayal is moral integrity. I think instead people are thinking about classic heroes in shounen manga. Like, people who won’t betray their ideals and their friends, and who help others.

Plus, if the poll said ‘hero,’ then the results will be different than if it said ‘mc.’ The results aren’t necessarily what’s most popular for an mc, but they’re definitely the most popular characteristics of a hero.

the survey is a product of the people who take it
it's not likely that there's a great number of those fans of 'betrayed hero gets gory revenge' at MU at least not in sufficiently large numbers to influence a poll
are revenge fantasies a topic commonly shared and discussed in depth with acquaintances?
I think light novels and sims have a done a lot to allow younger people to explore taboo feelings generated by inexperience in a safer environment; coomers the exception.

if the same poll question was posted in a non-interactive community like Netflix the answer might be significantly different than here at MU
I don't understand the appeal of John Wick; they made Crying Freeman 50 yrs ago and he had a hot body to boot!

Well those two are the basics of idealised heroes, and quite standard qualities almost everyone wants to have/ see reflected in the MCs. Even if the canon of what a hero is differs from one country to another, the hero concept was usually used as a symbol.

Technically moral integrity is, to be honest and firm in your moral principles. So edgy heroes also adhere to those ... Most Asian heroes I know of embody the ephemeral concept of "justice" and solve everything with violence. I feel part of the incongruity is that other characters of Chinese/Jap lore take the role of thinking and a big part of their philosophy is based on social order from the family upwards.

Since there is no tradition of antiheroes, they don't know where to put a hero that isn't secretly a prince, the after tale or what to do with the failed heroes ... We end up getting weird stories of what would happens with those that belong nowhere in the social structure; are violent/dumb as their archetype; and lust for the ending the prince would've had.

I mean there is a whole genre of Spanish novels "novela picaresca" of antiheroes, even the historical hero "The Cid" gets humiliated for his origins. There are also other corresponding protagonists in English, French, German... stories/novels of protagonists that barely get by like in "Tom Sawyer" and so on that were posible thanks to heroes of humble origin and end.We also have the archetype of prince charming, but Greek tragedies amongst others gave way to other "unfair" endings.