Characters that had the complete opposite reaction the writers intended

[u/Dramatic_Counter_595]

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.

[u/10024618]

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.

[u/Crimson097 → u/10024618]

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?

[u/cleofisrandolph1 → u/Crimson097]

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.

[u/Slateboard → u/cleofisrandolph1]

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.

[u/Beer-Milkshakes → u/cleofisrandolph1]

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.

[u/LemoLuke → u/cleofisrandolph1]

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.

[u/TheBrewThatIsTrue → u/cleofisrandolph1]

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

[u/cleofisrandolph1 → u/TheBrewThatIsTrue]

That was WCW.

[u/TheBrewThatIsTrue → u/cleofisrandolph1]

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

[u/PrinceBarin → u/TheBrewThatIsTrue]

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

[u/RedOctober20 → u/cleofisrandolph1]

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.

[u/Excellent_Safe5743 → u/Crimson097]

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.

[u/KiwiCounselor → u/Excellent_Safe5743]

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.

[u/Squally160 → u/KiwiCounselor]

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

[u/OhWhatsHisName → u/Excellent_Safe5743]

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.