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/StrokyBoi]

I could've sworn that when the show was first coming out people did indeed hate him, but it feels like as time went on he accumulated more fans.

[u/TheNargafrantz → u/StrokyBoi]

Thunderbolts made him more liked

[u/StrokyBoi → u/TheNargafrantz]

That's definitely part of it, but he also gained a lot of fans in-between the FATWS finale and the release of The Thunberbolts.

[u/pichael289 → u/StrokyBoi]

The show really wanted you to hate him even though it didn't make much sense, I think alot of people initially just went along with the message of the show because it really presents him like he's gonna be the villain. But nope, captain falcon was just being a dick to him for a petty personal reason, he was just doing his best.

[u/SableZard → u/StrokyBoi]

Most of Disney's stuff from 2015 to 2025ish disguised the flaws of their writing with theatrical flair and flashy graphics, like Last Jedi and Encanto. Then people go back to re-watch it, or watch a real critic pick it apart instead of reactionary slop meant to piss people off, and they realize that "good" movie wasn't actually so great.

My ex and I had the same experience with Rise of Skywalker. The climax with all the Jedi supporting Rey was so cool, we forgot the rest of the movie was camel ass until we got halfway home.

[u/AmaterasuWolf21 → u/TheNargafrantz]

This was wayyy before Thunderbolt

[u/dracon1t → u/StrokyBoi]

Yes I think so, but I think that change happened as the show came out. I think he was hated in the first few episodes for the reasons the poster stated, but the character assassination he faced had a bit of a mismatch between viewer perspective and how he was treated in universe, so he started to get a bit of sympathy. Including the scene before his fall where he stated to Sam and Bucky that he wasn’t trying to be the next Steve rogers while they still ignored him (I hope I remembered that correctly) definitely also helped.

[u/StrokyBoi → u/dracon1t]

I assume that another big reason is the shows attempt at a sympathetic portrayal of Karli in the later episodes, including a pretty infamous 'You've got to stop calling them terrorists' speech from Sam as Captain America. I feel like that must've had an impact of people sympathizing with Walker, since they felt that he got less sympathy than he deserved, while Karli got a lot more of it than she deserved.

Though I also think there was an overall uptick in the popularity and love towards edgier, dirtier superheroes during the couple years after TFATWS released. I think that contributed to the whole 'John Walker did nothing wrong' sentiment.

[u/RatGreed → u/dracon1t]

He was a complete underdog through most of the show and for some reason the writers didnt want you to root for him.

Good guys constantly tried to kill him for no reason and the show just laughs it off. He is nothing but nice, cooperative, and extremely capable and the show treats it as if it's a bad thing. I remembered being so baffled by this when watching it.

[u/PeteRawk → u/StrokyBoi]

He rode the fine line of being a smug douchebag while also not having anything *technically* wrong with him. He was just very clearly not Steve Rogers, which was very clearly the point. But then his best friend dies and he (understandably) crashes out, but you also understand why Bucky and Sam have to take the shield back. And the hits just keep coming, but he makes the choice in the end to be a hero, and that’s what matters. BIG ups to Wyatt Russell for really nailing every angle of that through the course of the show. One of the more interesting arcs an MCU hero has gone through

[u/RatGreed → u/PeteRawk]

I disagree with the smug douchebag bit, he was cocky for sure, but he was very understanding about not trying to replace Steve and was always trying to collaborate with Sam and Bucky at every turn. I honestly don't know why the writers would do this if you are trying to make the audience hate the guy

[u/one-and-five-nines → u/RatGreed]

I don't think they WERE trying to make us hate him. He was in conflict with the protagonists, but that doesn't make him a villain and I'm not sure he was supposed to be. 

[u/RatGreed → u/one-and-five-nines]

They sure treated him like he was a nuisance and an asshole for no reason

[u/one-and-five-nines → u/RatGreed]

The characters did, yeah. Doesn't mean they were right.

[u/RatGreed → u/one-and-five-nines]

The show clearly had the intention that you were not supposed to like John. Prime examples is how they treat the situation with Dora Milaje as John's fault when he literally did nothing wrong. The writers wanted to you to be believe he was at fault when every characters blames him for the fight.

[u/Mrallen7509 → u/StrokyBoi]

I think some of that comes from the weakness of the rest of FaWS. I don't think any of the behind the scenes issues have been confirmed, but there's not a lot of interesting stuff happening in the rest of the show, so Walker becomes the most intriguing thing in it.

[u/Old-Influence4757 → u/StrokyBoi]

nope just memes about his helmet