Our relationships to fictional characters can be complicated. We all love stories but ideally we'd rather spend our time with characters who aren't insufferable. (There's a wonderful essay by the feminist writer Roxane Gay titled "Not Here to Make Friends" in which she takes the literary establishment to task for its disdain for unlikeable female protagonists. We really don't make the same demands of male protagonists.)
"Who is your most hated character, not someone you 'love-to-hate' or 'badly written', but genuinely you want them to suffer and die in the worst way possible because of their character?" –– This was today's burning question from Redditor DreamConsumerist and it's an eye-opener.
"That wasn't enough..."
Mr. Harvey from The Lovely Bones. I don't care that he died a quick and painful death. That wasn't enough and was too benign for his crimes.
"I cannot watch..."
The Mayor and Faith from Buffy Season 3. I cannot watch that season for all the freaking rage I feel. I'm so busy hating them I can't get into anything else happening.
"At first..."
Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2.
At first he was just funny, a bad guy clearly but still somehow likeable. And then he killed Bloodwing. Something about it, how he did it, how that whole mission and fight went down, made me hate him so much I almost felt sick with it. It's not like it was a betrayal, and the signs were there from the start what kind of monster he was. I guess I didn't really take him seriously until then. Maybe I hated him all the more for the fact that he had made me like a psychopath.
Very well written though.
"Not one specific character..."
Not one specific character but all of Gilead on The Handmaid's Tale. I stopped watching after the second season because I got a sense things would never get better.
I can stomach a lot of cruelty and evil when I know there is a comeuppance coming, like Game of Thrones, I knew sooner or later Joffrey and Ramsay would meet their ends.
But The Handmaid's Tale just felt like endless torture porn and I couldn't stick with it without the hope that the women would rise up (and maybe Canada would help) and I would eventually get to see all these religious fanatics get guillotined.
I don't think I'm going to give it another watch regardless cause it's just too much, so if anyone still watching wants to spoil it feel free, but I have a feeling this was never going to be a happy ending show.
"If only..."
Cersei Lannister.
If only there was a season 9 for her to be resurrected to die again (and hopefully in a more fulfilling way).
"A clear example..."
Daisy from The Great Gatsby. A clear example of how to ruin everybody's life around you just because you don't want to get your s*** together.
"He is more than just..."
Snape. Literally him.
I mean sure everyone hated Umbridge. But there is something about Snape. He is more than just a greasy heartbroken goth spy. He is obsessed with a woman, and went to great lengths to 'win' her, at the cost of her family. He never cared, never had a conscience. He just switched sides for her.
He is also a bully and held grudges against kids!
"Couldn't stand him..."
The Governor from The Walking Dead. Sociopathic and unable to cooperate - which literally leads to his downfall (which I cheered at). Couldn't stand him, causing problems for the sake of it.
"His whole character..."
Kirito from Sword Art Online. That whole show was bad but he's the most unlikable protagonist in anything since Brad Pitt's character in Moneyball.
His whole character is designed around being the best at something without trying, not even caring that he's good, and getting defensive whenever people recognize him for anything. That show is 25 episodes of girl after girl wanting to ride his nuts seconds after meeting him and he's always completely indifferent. He never learns from his many mistakes because he never has to. He just broods for 20 minutes and then the universe hands him a win on a silver platter in the 11th hour. The only time he shows a shred of human emotion is when an AI literally designed to elicit feelings from emotionally disturbed people shows up.
He's a brooding, smarmy, stupid, oblivious, defensive, manipulative, unlikable asshole who solves problems by ignoring them and antagonizing everyone around him, but everyone still loves him anyway.
"Every time..."
Alexander Skarsgård's character Perry Wright, Nicole Kidman's husband in Big Little Lies. Every time he came into the room I had to leave.
"I was reading the uncut version..."
Trashcan Man from The Stand. I was reading the uncut version and was like 500 pages into that beast and stopped reading it because I HATED that character and from where I was, it wouldn't change perspectives for like another 80 pages. Eff that.
"He knew Tom..."
Dumbledore. I hated his ass so much - he was a chessmaster who didn't really care about the pawns so long as he could win against Voldemort. Yeah Voldie was a monster, but he could have helped him so many times and then is just like "Yeah, he was evil as a child and it's because he was a child of rape - you just can't be a good person if you're born from someone under a love spell" Like wooooooow really?
He knew Tom was in a s*** situation, he saw the orphanage and can I remind you that Tom was a child during WW2 and probably was one of the reasons he wanted to stay at Hogwarts in the summer where it was safe and not to mention where he got to eat good food and not be in a dirty run down orphanage?
Tom was kind of a s**** kid, sure, but you don't just say oh well when someone is begging you for help - and then he put Harry with people he was explicitly told by McGonnagal were really s**** people. No one ever did a wellness check or anything for 11 years and Harry did the same thing as Tom and asked if he could stay at Hogwards and not go home where he's abused and starved (Why oh why is Harry having to dodge being hit with a frying pain in the beginning of the first book played for laughs???)
Dumbledore just wanted Harry to have as few connections as possible to protect him and only didn't let him get killed til the right time when it would affect Voldemort the most after sending three children on a suicidal mission to collect all these items he didn't for some reason when he had the chance.
"I'm not sure if her character..."
Tara from Sons of Anarchy. I'm not sure if her character was written (purposely or not) to be that f*cking obnoxious or if it was the actress making her that way, but seriously. Everytime she was in a scene, I couldn't stop myself from yelling, "Shut the f*** up!!!". Just thinking about her and typing this sends me into a fit of rage.
"She's self-absorbed..."
Carrie from Sex and the City. She's self-absorbed, shallow and a pretty bad friend but I assume she's supposed to be likeable and relatable given she's the protagonist and narrator.
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