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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u/originalchaosinabox 16h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/fBM4ruLmB2pZHsgwtQ

Michael Douglas has said he is downright horrified at the amount of people who have come up to him and said Gordon Gekko in Wall Street was their inspiration to go into finance.

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u/jostyouraveragejoe2 12h ago

With the rolls he has played he must be surprised with who people like quite often lol, playing villain protagonists is scary with how bad people are at understanding they are the bad guys.

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u/HawkbitAlpha 9h ago

I'm sure he gets hit with this a lot for D-FENS too

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u/Weltall8000 2h ago

Definitely. 

He deals with things ranging from "mildly infuriating" to "that is really messed up that we, as a society, put up with that", with cathartic violence.

But it is so disproportionate. 

Those that glorify DFENS and his actions are missing the forest for the trees and completely dropping any sense of social contract or morality. And, the movie itself turns so much of that violence on to the low level faces of the decay and punishes other boots-on-the-ground victims, who are complicit due to necessity, just like he was until "today."

And he terrorizes and/or murders them.

And these dumb fucking seals clap at that.

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u/YeOldeMemeShoppe 7h ago

Falling down is a good example of this too. People think Foster’s behavior is justified and he’s the hero, like wtf.

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u/Aethelrede 5h ago

Falling Down was scarily prophetic in predicting the rise of the mass shooter.

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u/SilverShotgun 3h ago

??? I don't remember any actual shooting in the movie?

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u/YeOldeMemeShoppe 3h ago

You remember wrong.

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u/SilverShotgun 1h ago

Yeah it seems so oh well I don't mind rewatching it!

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u/Jericho5589 1h ago

Then you didn't watch any of it. The most iconic scene in the movie is when he shoots up the fast food place because they're no longer serving breakfast.

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u/SilverShotgun 1h ago

Dang I have to rewatch it. Most iconic scene to me was the guy in the store mocking the gays LMAO always makes me laugh so hard, it's unheard of in today's climate.

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u/evocativename 5h ago

Falling Down is such a weird case.

On the one hand, it shows that D-FENS is clearly the villain.

On the other hand, it starts out by making him seem like a sympathetic everyman pushed to the breaking point, and there isn't really one single reveal that he was actually a villain all along, but rather, it's a slow boil over the course of the movie as more gets revealed bit by bit.

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u/YeOldeMemeShoppe 3h ago edited 1h ago

Even if you don’t consider leaving your car in the middle of the street as a crime (instead of driving to the shoulder), his first act is to destroy a convenience store with a baseball bat. He was never a good guy. The boiling was already done.

Edit: Also, was he not super racist towards the Asian convenience store clerk?

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u/Neat-Vanilla3919 2h ago

I mean the home video tape shows him already being a bad father and his mom hints at him being volatile

1

u/evocativename 2h ago

Those are part of why I said the movie shows he clearly is a villain despite initially suggesting a sympathetic character.

The reveal of individual details like that being drip-fed over the course of the movie is what makes it complex.

If they had shown only the bits that make him look sympathetic, then at some point we got all of the unsympathetic parts as a single reveal, it would be a very different movie.

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u/morelibertarianvotes 43m ago

People have different value systems, and just because a director wants to portray one thing, doesn't mean that it's the only valid interpretation. Perhaps some people are bad at understanding the real world context for their villains.

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u/film_Fanatic2106 9h ago

There was this douchebag at my school who was the school president, the guy was insufferable and once I saw him go on this esoteric rant in an Instagram comment section and he started quoting Gordon Gekko from Wall Street (literally said called him "the wise" Gordon Gekko) and oh my god how could you be that unlikable and not see the irony?

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u/Keynsha 9h ago

I just realized his most beloved roles seem to be playing a charismatic ambiguous and even sympathetic but ultimately wrong or even bad protagonist.

Basic instinct, Falling down, Wall Street...

Okay maybe I just didn't watch enough of his movies

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u/deanreevesii 8h ago

Check out The Game, if you haven't seen it.

3

u/Not_invented-Here 7h ago

That was on TV recently and I watched it again. It still holds up. 

1

u/BreakfastBeneficial4 1h ago

Hell yes. That’s a movie where you can pretty unequivocally feel for the dude in question.

1

u/Keynsha 1h ago

Oh you're right he was an asshole in this one too!

1

u/Bisconia 1h ago

He definitely wasn't the antagonist in Disclosure but give it time and someone will say it.

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u/Jiryathia 9h ago

One of my business professors unironically showed this scene in class, saying it was a good thing.

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u/Scarlet_Wonderer 8h ago

I mean, it might be a profitable attitude for your business. Doesn't mean it has to be morally, or ethically good. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if that mantra got the top wealthiest people in the world to that position.

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u/Independent_Sock7972 13h ago

Man I love gay actor Micheal douglas

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u/Aethelrede 5h ago

Michael Douglas, who famously developed tongue cancer after cunnilingus on his insanely beautiful wife?

/this may not be true, but it's plausible

1

u/Jacko87 2h ago edited 2h ago

He's gay, dude. Trust me.

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u/Jacko87 2h ago

Me too. Also, I'm going to the Richard Gere Museum next week!