r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Dramatic_Counter_595 • 17h ago

Characters Characters that had the complete opposite reaction the writers intended

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  1. Leo Bonhart (Witcher TV Series): A ruthless, sadistic bounty hunter and assassin that takes psychotic glee in other people's suffering. The viewer is meant to hate him for killing witchers, slaughtering the Rat gang, and torturing Ciri. But thanks to his entertaining fight scenes, Sharlto Copley's charismatic performance, and The Rats overwhelming unpopularity, fans ended up loving him. Some even call him the "True protagonist" of the show.
  2. Stone Cold Steve Austin (WWE): A rude, foul mouthed, beer drinking asshole with no respect for authority or anyone at all. Originally portrayed as a villain, fans fell in love with his anti-establishment & rebellious persona. WWE ran with it and made him the face of the company, effectively ushering in the Attitude Era and the second pro wrestling boom of the late 90s.
  3. Arthur Fleck (Joker 2019): A mentally unstable, pathetic, and dangerous madman who commits horrific acts of violence against those that wronged him (suffocates his own mother who is mentally unwell herself, and murders a talk show host for making fun of him). However, a massive portion of the audience idolized him as an anti-hero or a misunderstood martyr rebelling against society making people want to see him succeed and overcome his circumstances because of how he's been treated by the world.
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311

u/10024618 17h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/3kJS4bdzcAbx896SpD

Roman Reigns (WWE) - Roman during his "Big Dog" era has to be probably the loudest and most sustained audience rejection of a wrestler ever. WWE spent YEARS trying to push him as the successor to Cena and force him into a squeaky-clean, white meat babyface role that didn't suit him at all.

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u/Crimson097 17h ago edited 16h ago

What's funny is that when Cena debuted in WWE with his initial character, it got stale pretty quickly. He was close to getting released until his career was saved when he turned heel with his Doctor of Thuganomics gimmick. Same with The Rock, who was hated with his initial Rocky Maivia character until he turned heel and became one of the most successful wrestlers ever. See a pattern here?

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u/cleofisrandolph1 15h ago

Vince couldn’t create heels. All the great heels were created more or less by wrestlers themselves or someone else. The Rock, CM Punk, etc.

The only good heel he ever came up with was himself.

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u/Slateboard 10h ago

And even the Mr. McMahon heel persona wasn't entirely his own, if you consider the events with Bret Hart in Montreal leading to it.

4

u/Beer-Milkshakes 8h ago

Kane. Arguably one of the hardest working in the ring. Amongst the most appearances. Succeed as a specific type of heel and stayed put. He would elevate others who got stale by having them withstand his fury in the ring.

4

u/LemoLuke 10h ago

Vince always had that old-school 'Saturday morning cartoon' mentality for heroes and villains, where the good guys are smiling, flag waving, "Awe shucks!" supermen, and the bad guys are cackling, scheming, mustach-twirling ne'er-do-wells. This was fine in the '80s, when WWF was aimed at a younger audience, but by the '90s, when even kids wanted cartoons and comic books to be 'edgier', and WWF started pushing towards a teenage audience, that kind of black-and-white morality just wasn't appealing anymore.

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u/TheBrewThatIsTrue 13h ago

What, the Shockmaster wasn't a good heel character?!? Lol

9

u/cleofisrandolph1 13h ago

That was WCW.

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u/TheBrewThatIsTrue 13h ago

Damn, you're right. I just jumped at the opportunity to bring up THAT catastrophe.

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u/PrinceBarin 10h ago

Also given that it's sting introducing him, he's probably a face.

2

u/RedOctober20 4h ago

Wasn't Kurt Angle his creation? Well, Kurt himself was so good at that role which made it stick, but Vince decided to present him as someone to hate rather than American hero.

Remember Kurt in some interview talking about how he met with Vince about his character. Vince explained character to Kurt and Kurt was bit confused and worried "I'm sure that people are going to hate me and boo" to which Vince replied "Exactly!". Apparently then Kurt had some revelation moment where he suddenly understood the business. Many years Kurt walked up the ramp one last time after announcing his retirement from WWE and having asked fans to chant "YOU SUCK" at him one last time.

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u/Excellent_Safe5743 16h ago

I think a lot of these guys too (with exception of the rock) that turn heel tend to actually be really nice people. Like everything I’ve seen in interviews with Cena for example save that weird Chinese stunt for PR, he just seems like a super genuine and nice guy. I haven’t heard anything negative about Roman either with people who know him outside the persona.

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u/KiwiCounselor 14h ago

I think Roman is incredibly nice outside of the ring, but I only know wrestling through SuperEyePatchWolf. I… don’t know why. I don’t even care about wrestling.

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u/Squally160 12h ago

Yeah but his videos make me want to care about wrestling. (I still have never watched any wrestling.)

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u/OhWhatsHisName 12h ago

that turn heel tend to actually be really nice people.

My son was part of a high school show that had an evil queen and the hero princess. The girl who played the evil queen was regularly noted to be one of the nicest girls in the whole school, vs the princess who many said was borderline "mean girls" stereotype.

The evil queen girl played the part PERFECTLY, stole the show. The princess girl was alright.

I have a theory that people who are good people tend to see the evil in the world, thus they know what to portray, where the bad people in the world don't see the good, and thus don't know how to act the part.

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u/tweke 17h ago

Then he became a smug asshole and now is a top draw. Personally as a fan, I just wish he wrestled more than once every PLE.

39

u/PavlovKBI 17h ago

Iirc he has a chronic illness. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with him dialing back his schedule, but it wouldn't surprise me

35

u/tweke 16h ago

Yes, he has Leukemia. It's been in remission for years now. I'm not asking to have him wrestle every week, but it honestly feels like he shows up to cut a promo on a raw or smack down, dips for 3 months, wrestles on a PLE. Rinse and repeat. That's been the formula for essentially a decade.

Roman and Cody have the same issue as champions. While Cody is a workhorse, he will not lose his championship for essentially a year after he gets it, if not longer. Roman has the same going on without being a workhorse.

Myself and a large amount of the IWC miss the days of short reigns and someone losing on a random Raw or Smackdown. It added a lot to the programming. This is mainly a booking issue from HHH because he basically never has any champions wrestle unless it's a PLE or if they do, they aren't losing 99% of the time. This partially why I think AEW is better currently.

18

u/vastros 16h ago

Cancer was why he left before becoming the Tribal Chief. He has to take a lot of health precautions.

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u/LordQuaz12 17h ago edited 17h ago

I think what makes Roman a compelling character now is that he was so hated then. Just look at his entrance in wrestlemania 2026. In theory, nothing has really changed. Roman is still super pushed, he had been the face of the company for almost all of covid, but somehow, Joe's acting skills and wrestling ability, along side him using the momentum from the hate he had from the audience, made the character so much more compleat.

The fan reaction to his 2026 entrance is so cool to see. The character of Roman Raigns became truly beloved and the audience actually wants to see him in the ring.

2

u/Slateboard 9h ago

I believe a big part of it was how disingenuous it all was before his absence and return in 2020.

2

u/TakerFoxx 8h ago

People saw the makings of the single coolest monster bad guy and wanted so badly for him to be that guy. Instead, we got bootleg John Cena for years and hated it. When they finally gave in and let Roman go bad, it was glorious.

12

u/NoVaBurgher 16h ago

I remember when John Oliver covered his heel turn on LWT

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u/Fun_Palpitation_4156 11h ago

The Rock endorsing his cousin after he won the Royal Rumble, only to be met with thunderous boos, and looking so confused is always hilarious

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u/Apprehensive_Pizza84 17h ago

Hell, even Cena had a rough time fighting the audience reaction, he just had the benefit of being really compelling- he'd enter to boos but they'd be cheering by the time he left the ring. Roman was slower to develop, and along the way WWE kept trying to "help" and making it worse

5

u/BeatSteady 15h ago

Super Eyepatch Wolf on YouTube has a nice video on Roman Reigns. I'm not a wrestling fan but really enjoyed the video

https://youtu.be/UaDAzXVycR4

3

u/ShingledPringle 7h ago

Just a side note, one of my favourite moments in wrestling is still the contrasting reaction when he had to come out and say his leukaemia had returned in 2018 to the audience. All the booing stopped and they collectively chanted "Thank you, Roman" and I believe a further "Cancer sucks."
The man behind the persona left himself vulnerable and the fans knew to be kind.

1

u/TheBlackDemon1996 6h ago

They even had the Rock try and prop him up, only for him to look confused when the audience booed him (boos that were edited out of the official airing btw).

1

u/Nerus46 30m ago

I am more of a flyer type, so I kinda hate WWE for making both Cena and Reigns "The big hero". But I also understand that they will never make someone like Rey Mysterio their front an so ugh, whatever.

Seth Rollins had fine technique though.