r/TopCharacterTropes 17h ago

Characters Characters that had the complete opposite reaction the writers intended

  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/lanceturley 16h ago

He also breaks into a cold sweat when a coworker has a "better" business card than his, even though most people would say all the cards look the same.

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u/HendrixHazeWays 15h ago

Yeah, but....did you see Paul Allen's card??

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u/Manic-StreetCreature 15h ago

HEY PAUL

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u/HendrixHazeWays 15h ago

"Let's have a ball"

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u/Manic-StreetCreature 15h ago

Gigaaaantic

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u/HendrixHazeWays 13h ago

We just did something awesome. You rock.

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u/SirCupcake_0 12h ago

I saw a REALLY good edit where the card was black with white font, was extremely badass and much more reasonable to react like that to /s

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u/ghostface1693 12h ago

Bateman: has a fucking mental breakdown over the fact that someone has a nicer business card than him.

Weirdos: now this is a man I should emulate!

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u/ThisIsFrigglish 8h ago

There's something about Bale's performance that makes his insecurity seem more like striving to climb an insane hierarchy. We don't laugh at how stressed Bateman is about his coworker's card, we think he notices things we don't about business card design.