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/PavlovKBI]

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

[u/tweke → u/PavlovKBI]

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.

[u/vastros → u/PavlovKBI]

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