PALADIN’s ICON:

“I played in eleven movie Westerns and was kicked or shot or hanged and nobody noticed me,” said Boone. “Then I played the biggest villain of all time, Pontius Pilate, in The Robe. Nobody cared. So you can guess how grateful I am to Paladin, who made me respectable.”

ANTI-HERO?

Saw someone who thought that Paladin was an Anti-Hero?
Anti-Hero Definition (Wikipedia) :
“One who may lack some conventional heroic qualities and attributes,
such as idealism and morality.”
Well …
Only The Lone Ranger could shoot the gun out of a badguys hand.
(heck of a knack I’d say!) And yeah, Paladin did kill a few people (Badguys). And he also wore a black hat. (black everything actually!)
BUT …
I’d say Paladin was highly “moral” and often/usually
resisted violence if reason could be achieved.
He was a Goodguy – A Hero.
A Paladin:
“A knight without armour” the song goes.