Hero you hate the most.

Have you ever rooted for evil? Or just disliked some good guy character so much, you just wished for him to fall off a clip in a movie?

I hate Harry Potter so much I bought the game only to watch him deliberately die over and over again. He is a smug bastard, that can't do shit without his companions who saves his ass, the chosen one, on numerous occasions.

I regularly root for the bad guy, It's the reason I find super heroes so dull. And John Cena for that matter. I remember an old Power Rangers two part episode where Rita won! It was my favorite episode. Of course she failed in part two, but I was glad for something different.

Having said that, I don't want it to happen all the time, because then the opposite would be true.

It's the one thing wrestling tends to get right, because it never ends, bad guys win more than 50/60% of the time. At least they used to, that is dropping now I feel.

I know this isn't the wrestling thread so I guess Mario is the number 1 offender in games. That Italian plumber never fails... What a boring asshole :p

(PS. Mario rocks)

Good point on the wrestling remark. Might have to look into that some more. Cheers.

I have a nearly pathological dislike of one-man-army style characters, like Jason Bourne. I don't care how good you are, no one can look in all directions at once, and when you look in the wrong direction, you die. The more a character disobeys this rule, the more I root against them.

John Cena I find him corny as hell and I hate the way he wrestles he is one the major reasons why I stop watching WWE back in 06. Also Ryan Reynolds there is something about this guy I just can't stand.

I personally never hate anything. There is too much of that in the world without me adding to it. If I really dislike a protagonist that much, I simple avoid the series, I dont need that in my life. There are so many other universes filled with characters I can like and enjoy, so I spend my time on them instead.

This, 100%

I can't say I hate him but he does kind get on my nerves with his asspulls and that's Goku. It's mostly movie Goku have a problem with. He's less a character and more of a Goku ex machina.

I will say Goku is the coolest dude in Dragonball until right up until the ending of the Frieza Saga. After that Gohan and Vegeta steal show from him.

I despise the "one" archetype. It's lazy and overdone. The charming rogue takes a second place to that one, followed in a close third by whiny existentialist types.

Anyone destined for greatness. I freakin hate chosen one bullshit.

Also the guy in the first TWD telltale game was a damn moron.

@sparky_buzzsaw: Agreed, Rider (or is it Ryder? who cares..) from Mass Effect Andromeda fills all three archetypes in that he's whiny, snarky and has a one of a kind AI that gets him out of most situations making him feel like he has super powers. Also he's a Pathfinder, which I hear is super important, and he wont let you forget it.

I also dont like Harry Potter or Catness Everdine (or most tween heroes) just due to how unbareably self-righteous they can be. My least favorite are the whiny ones though, I tried watching Attack on Titan and Sword Art Online because a lot of people seemed to like them for whatever reason but I couldnt take the protagonists of either. So much damn angst.

@bamse: It's funny, but most traditional Gundam shows run on this. It seems to be part of the formula for the main character to be as unlikeable as possible (mostly angsty teen existentialist type). It plays into the theme of humanizing all the soldiers who go to war, Zeeks and Feddies alike, in order to further the "war is hell" motif. They play with it an absolute shit ton in Code Geass as well (Suzaku vs Zero, and who is even the antagonist), it was one of my favorite aspects of that show.

Outside anime, I tend to go for the evil options in games with choices, just for variety. You're so often forced to be the pure good guy, that if devs offer the option to be bad I'll always take it just to see how committed the devs actually were...how far they were willing to push it. For example, with Mass Effect, I felt "Renegade" is aptly named, since it's not so much evil as it is rebellious. Someday I want to play Tyranny, just because playing a minion of an evil empire sounds like a really interesting departure.

I hate the arsehole protagonist in stories that are then orchestrated around defending that character's arseholishness and proving them right.

Aiden? From Watch_Dogs

That guy sucked.

Superman because he is boring and lame as shit

Gordon Freeman. I like the games but I find him to be extremely overrated. People often praise him for all the wrong reasons. I'm also not a fan of silent protagonists. In most games it's fine but in a well known series with a protagonist that has a face and history, you'd think he started speaking by now. Maybe he was supposed to in Half-Life 3 but I guess we'll never know.

I'm of the mind that there are no bad characters, just bad writers. I hate Spider-Man right now, but that's Dan Slott's fault.

@genericbrotagonist: Hahaha yes. All of Marvel comics is pretty bad right now but the years long national nightmare that is Dan Slott's Spider-Man run is at the top of the garbage heap.

On topic the only recent examples that spring to mind are Ryder from ME:A and the PC from Fallout 4. Fallout wasn't as bad but I felt like you were kind of a corny doofus the whole time. Ryder, I wanted to reach into the TV and strangle at times. While I enjoyed both games on the whole, an intense disconnect from my character is never something I want in an immersive RPG.

Oz from Oz the Great and Powerful. What an asshole.

I could see spiderman's quips going on a slippery slope down to annoying.

All the fucking Gary Stus and self-inserts in anime and manga. I'm not saying those characters can never be entertaining, but Jesus fucking Christ, do 99% of authors not even try. The harem aspect is usually the most cringe-inducing part because girls will literally throw themselves onto the MC for literally no reason. Then again, in almost every case, the girls in those types of series exist for no other reason than to appease a specific fetish so I shouldn't be surprised.

It bothers me because a lot of those kinds of series have an entertaining premise and you kinda go "Hm...I could see myself watching that to kill time." and then 3/4 of the runtime of each episode/chapter is devoted to catfights and side characters explaining why the MC is the mostest special awesomest person in the whooole wide world.

Batman is too arrogant for his own good.

I can't stand a silent protagonist anymore.

It's gotta be the good old Mary Sue, that classic too-good, too-perfect wish fulfillment character that cheapens everything around them

It becomes a real challenge to stay invested as soon as there's a whiff of that in any creative work

I'm looking at you, Rey

I've never got all the Superman hype - there were much more interesting characters knocked up during that period of comic book creation that fell by the wayside. I always get a bit bummed out that Superman was the one that lasted. Man he's boring.

This 110%. Altough, let's not forget about the Mary Sues. They are way fewer in number but they exist. I'm looking at you Medaka Kurokami.

By the way, it's been years since I regularly watched anime (the only one I watched this whole year was Boku no Hero Academia) so I'm not up to date on this topic: are harem shows still a thing?

@whatshisface: The last Harem anime I can think of is Monster Musume. I kind of enjoyed that one because of its ridiculousness. Most Harem animes try to have the viewer to want to be the protagonist. This is one of the few ones that I've seen that makes me say, "Fuck that."

I definitely root for villains a lot. The safe bet is always on the hero succeeding, so I get excited on the rare occasion when the protagonist's plot armor fails beyond the chance of deus ex machina bullshit and you truly don't know what's going to happen next. Besides, villain motivations tend to be more interesting than the hero's, so I want to learn more about them. Also, a lifelong diet of horror movies in which the villain is the entire reason you're watching.

I can't think of many heroes I really hate, though. Superhero-wise, I don't like Superman or Captain America, but it's more a general disinterest in their characters. Neo, maybe? Not so much Neo himself as the over-obsessed portion of the fanbase, to be fair. ... Yeah, I got nothin'.

Interestingly, I've always liked the "baddie-turns-good" idea. I've always wanted to see a movie in which a Jason or even Freddy-like killer just... gets over it. Tries to integrate into society, get a nice apartment, make some friends... no joke, I'd be way into that.

Heroes without flaws are pretty annoying, as well as those that seem to stay alive and succeed by pure luck despite being stupid and incompetent. "The One" is the one I really hate. Most chosen ones and heroes destined for greatness make me want to stop playing if that's all the depth the character has. If the whole universe is at stake, it's even worse. The universe seems to be on the brink of destruction in too many movies and games and I hope writers would try to make the plot carry weight by some more subtle means instead of going the easy route so often.

Ryder from ME:Andromeda was mentioned before and is the the last one I remember being really annoying.

I also agree on avoiding series with annoying protagonists, but sometimes, like with ME:A, there's no way to know before buying the game. After starting the game I'll rather keep going and hate the hero rather than stop and/or refund.

Without a doubt, Tinker.

I totally roll my eyes when a story has a child who navigate the world successfully because they are a so-called "genius". I think Ender's Game is a fun book, but it is a fundamentally fantasy book that employs the crutch of "the one"combined with the narrative crutch of a "genius child" who is a prodigy military tactician.

Wouldn't say hate, but when it comes the comic books I've never really been a fan of The Hulk, Superman started to grow on me after I watched MoS. I also agree that Dan Slotts superman is the worst.

These four morons are so inept, they completely ruined the plot of the otherwise lovely Bravely Default. Their continued inability to ever have a meaningful conversation with each other about what they were doing and why led this game to boringly circle the drain, going nowhere.

@psykhophear: I don't dislike Gordon Freeman in any way, but to say he's the best video game character ever? Just... How? I'm still bewildered by the GameSpot polling back in 09 I think it was that said he was the best video game character ever through a huge selection, where that even led to a big Steam game sale to celebrate it. Also damn, that was 2009!? Jeez.

---

Anyways, my personal choice would probably be Jason Brody of Far Cry 3. I was excited that they were bringing back a voiced character that has some personality after that was lacking in two, and then nope, it would have been better if he was silent.

@shishkebab09 said:

These four morons are so inept, they completely ruined the plot of the otherwise lovely Bravely Default. Their continued inability to ever have a meaningful conversation with each other about what they were doing and why led this game to boringly circle the drain, going nowhere.

I liked all these guys except for Agnes because she spent like several hours trying to prevent a full party from forming.

LIke god damn I know what kind of game this is quit fucking me over.

I usually root for villains these days, they're usually better fleshed out and more charismatic.

The best part of Batman movies is the great villains and their actors, Batman himself is dull in comparison.

I do hate "chosen one" heroes and "evil for the sake of being evil" villains. It's lazy as fuck.

Luke

Lightning. As the main character across two, 60-hour games, and featuring heavily in a third, she has an obscene lack of character development. At the same time, everyone in the games acts like she's the best thing since sliced bread, yet she does precisely nothing to earn all this adulation. She's spectacularly dull. But then, nearly everyone in the entire trilogy is an insufferable douchebag, so...

@rigas: I think I am the shadow version of you...

The player character in NBA, what 2K16? God that dude was just a dumb asshole. Maybe it's my fault for making him look ugly as sin.

@mage_ said:

ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff...

Good call though, tbh...

Finn from the latest Star Wars.

I honestly don't mind the PTSD Storm Trooper storyline, but when they made him into a "lovable goofball" that made it easier for them to market his character, it just really brought me out of any immersion I had, even more so than Rey I would say. It seemed like for every serious scene that Finn might have had, they added 4 comedic bits to round it out, which would have been fine if he wasn't introduced as a Storm Trooper that is disturbed by his actions and death around him, only for him to blast Tie Fighter pilots into space and cheer madly about it 30 minutes after his panic attack.

@mage_ said:

Nope, I can totally relate to him. I always wonder how his detractors would compose/handle themselves if thrown in his place suddenly.

@ripelivejam said:

@mage_ said:

Nope, I can totally relate to him. I always wonder how his detractors would compose/handle themselves if thrown in his place suddenly.

Yeah it's funny, I watched NGE really late (like 2 years ago maybe). And I had heard so much shit talk about Shinji beforehand, so I went into it bracing for a whiny brat. But I actually think he is quite well realized as a character for what he's supposed to be. In general honestly I think the characters are one of the strongest parts of the show. I don't like Asuka as a person, but she sure reminds me of a few actual humans I've met...

But as far as Shinji goes we don't speak of the last two episodes or the beginning of EoE. That shit is pooooooooor.

Naw, I almost always root for the hero. I don't mind a lot of the tropes mentioned so far.

I find myself having a very vicious visceral reaction to 'hypocritical' characters. The 'do as I say, not as I do' type. They are not often heros, but when they are it really really rubs me the wrong way. Which makes sense, all the actions and explanations/statements the person who wrote the character to have are meant to be "from the good guy" which is bound to annoy me when I view those actions as anything but heroic/good/cheer-able.

The most recent example I can recall having such a strong 'Don't even get me started!' reaction too was...Anita Blake. No, not for the "the books all become sex filled nonsense' later on, no not for the mary sue stuff. It was for what I perceived to be actions that I often see people with a hard-on for hating on feminism describe to all women.

She'd turn around and lay into a man holding the door for her, then turn around and play the "What you think I can't hold the door for you cause I'm a chick? how dare you?" She'd get extremely anger when someone say, wanted to protect her "What I can't protect myself cause I'm a woman?", but then get extremely defensive "What I can't protect you cause I'm a woman?" when someone said they didn't need protecting from her. And...so on.

Like I don't count myself among the guys who think most woman (any woman) think like that. But here was a character who is to me was clearly written to be a 'strong independent woman' acting like the most stereotypical feminist as written by a chauvinistic moron. I just..could not stand it. At some point I put the series down in frustration (About the time she starts collecting a harem, while making it a point that anyone daring to try and collect women as sexual trophies is a monster) and I just..lost it.

Its a hard thing to discuss, cause in general I dislike being critical of characteristics others are throwing at people who don't deserve them, but in this case it felt totally justified. At the very least it wasn't the content of the hypocrisy but the hypocrisy itself that upset me so much. Using that same example, if she was the "How dare you open the door for me, you don't see me expecting you to let me do it for you". I might have been a bit turned off for the on the nose 'See? See? she's a strong independent woman!' writing, but it wouldn't upset me.

I'm sure there are less potentially controversial examples of heros in popular media who would equally annoy me. That's just the first one to come to mind.

Heroes are often pretty boring, but rooting for villians isn't something I do. I can see enjoying a villian's performance or character design. Wishing for the world to succumb to the will an evil mastermind is just weird. Unless we're talking about Pinky and the Brain.

Can't think of too many heroes I hate. Toby Maguire as Spider-Man I never liked. He was akward in a way that was cringy, but not relatable as a nerd.

People in this thread: say what a character is from! Holy shit there are so many names in this thread I can't place.

Nathan Drake, I hate him so much.

Han Solo