Ulquiorra, Anti hero or a villain?

[Big Brother Spain]

Tbh, for some reason, I cannot classify Ulquiorra as villain. He is not a villain who blatantly kills people. He seems like a flat 2-D character but his personality & morals are extremely complex, imo. He kinda seems like Ichigo's direct antithesis, but not necessarily evil like Aizen. To me, it seems like Ulqui is following Aizen's crap for his own motives. (Since apparently, he disobeys the hell out of Aizen's orders for his own curiosities..) Where would Ulquiorra fall in in terms of villain and antihero? I don't consider Ulquiorra pure evil, just a misunderstood character for others who aren't willing to look past his heartless facade.
 

[duskcrawler]

You have a very interesting perspective on his role. To be honest, he is neither. Being an antihero refers to being a protagonist and clearly, he is not a protagonist. Being a villain is as you said, an antagonist that is very evil. He is a combination of both: the antivillain. He follows orders, yet he has his own curiosity that is not in anyway, shape, or form, evil. He antagonizes Ichigo because he is ordered to, not because he wants to. An example of an antivillain would be Starrk and Harribel who are both follow Ulquiorra's example of a not-so-evil yet not-so-good antivillain.  

[Whispering Mink]

Well, I have always loved to use the term 'anti hero' to describe Ulquiorra, but I think there's more to him than just that.
He may act out of his own interests once in a while, and he may follow orders when they work out to his own good, but he's not exactly the definition of a 'hero' just because he doesn't follow orders blindly.
But even so, he's not solely out there to do harm.
He claims that he wants to show 'despair', but when it comes down to it, he's really not that bad and violent.
The best example of this is the multiple times where he has actually shown mercy and saved! people. I honestly don't think he gets enough credit for that.
He saved Yami from Urahara when he was hurt, he pulled Grimmjow back when he was about to lose against Ichigo and Shinji in the human world, and he also, of course, saved Orihime from getting 'Getsuga-Tenshou'ed from a careless Ichigo. He didn’t have to do any of those things, but even so he did! Do them.
He's not out there to kill, and even when he fought against Ichigo the first time, he didn't kill him when he had every right to do so. He fought him, deemed that he was trash and couldn't bring the woman home, and then tried to explain that he would never win and should just give up.

Remember the second time Ulquiorra and Ichigo fought? That was when it all turned for the worse. Ulquiorra specifically stated that he couldn't allow Ichigo's existence anymore, and that's why the lust chapters showed him losing every sense of logic and his cool, and the feelings being replaced by anger, envy, pride and all that good stuff the 7 deadly sins are about. His pride was at stake! Ichigo had the abilities to take the woman away and Ulquiorra couldn't accept that. He had! to show Ichigo despair. In fact, it was not so much about killing Ichigo that was the point, it was the fact that Ichigo had! to crumble and realize that he couldn't fight and should just accept his defeat.
Ulquiorra was never a killing machine… in fact, he’s probably the most merciful Espada together with perhaps Stark and Halibel.

And now I ended up rambling... gonk  

[duskcrawler]

Whispering Mink

Well, I have always loved to use the term 'anti hero' to describe Ulquiorra, but I think there's more to him than just that.
He may act out of his own interests once in a while, and he may follow orders when they work out to his own good, but he's not exactly the definition of a 'hero' just because he doesn't follow orders blindly.
But even so, he's not solely out there to do harm.
He claims that he wants to show 'despair', but when it comes down to it, he's really not that bad and violent.
The best example of this is the multiple times where he has actually shown mercy and saved! people. I honestly don't think he gets enough credit for that.
He saved Yami from Urahara when he was hurt, he pulled Grimmjow back when he was about to lose against Ichigo and Shinji in the human world, and he also, of course, saved Orihime from getting 'Getsuga-Tenshou'ed from a careless Ichigo. He didn’t have to do any of those things, but even so he did! Do them.
He's not out there to kill, and even when he fought against Ichigo the first time, he didn't kill him when he had every right to do so. He fought him, deemed that he was trash and couldn't bring the woman home, and then tried to explain that he would never win and should just give up.

Remember the second time Ulquiorra and Ichigo fought? That was when it all turned for the worse. Ulquiorra specifically stated that he couldn't allow Ichigo's existence anymore, and that's why the lust chapters showed him losing every sense of logic and his cool, and the feelings being replaced by anger, envy, pride and all that good stuff the 7 deadly sins are about. His pride was at stake! Ichigo had the abilities to take the woman away and Ulquiorra couldn't accept that. He had! to show Ichigo despair. In fact, it was not so much about killing Ichigo that was the point, it was the fact that Ichigo had! to crumble and realize that he couldn't fight and should just accept his defeat.
Ulquiorra was never a killing machine… in fact, he’s probably the most merciful Espada together with perhaps Stark and Halibel.

And now I ended up rambling... gonk

You friend have summed up why Ulquiorra is far from being evil. Sure he's not the most benign person, but he's definitely nowhere close to evil territory. If you want evil, look at Szayel or Aaroniero. They were both mustache twirling villains that tortured their enemies. Ulquiorra did no such thing out of joy, but out of necessity to keep Orihime from being taken away and his pride as well. His pride was his downfall, but he immediately saw the error of his ways and if he returns, he will surely fix his errors so that never happens again. Besides, I believe Ulquiorra simply served Aizen to spy on him. Ulquiorra probably wanted to go rogue against Aizen but never had the time to and he saw Ichigo as a threat, so he had to deal with him. As for how Orihime fits in the picture, I have no idea. If that happened, then Ulquiorra would be an antihero rival to Ichigo.