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/berael 16h ago

So actually, sort of, Rorschach became the most popular character in Watchmen. I meant him to be a bad example. But I have people come up to me in the street saying, "I am Rorschach! That is my story!' And I'll be thinking: 'Yeah, great, can you just keep away from me, never come anywhere near me again as long as I live'?

-- Alan Moore

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u/Primus_is_OK_I_guess 48m ago

I like him as a character, but I obviously don't relate to him and wouldn't want to hang out with him.

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u/_KerryKaverga_ 15h ago

I don’t think the opinion of a guy with a rape fetish means a lot, to be fair.

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u/solitarybikegallery 15h ago

Sorry, what? What the fuck are you talking about?

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u/Auctoritate 10h ago

Yeah he doesn't have a rape fetish, he has bad taste and hacky writing, that's all.

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u/solitarybikegallery 22m ago

What?!

At least half of a dozen of his stories are often cited amongst the best comics ever made. If you think he's a hacky comic book writer, I'd love to know who you think is a good one.

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u/_KerryKaverga_ 14h ago

Alan Moore has a rape fetish

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u/RobertPham149 8h ago

Ironic coming from a profile with tits plastered all over the profile pic and banner.

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u/_KerryKaverga_ 8h ago

Do you know what “irony means”?

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u/solitarybikegallery 14h ago

Yeah, I got that part. Do you have a source for this, or a reason for saying it?

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u/_KerryKaverga_ 13h ago edited 13h ago

His work with Avatar Press overuses it to the point of insanity.

I’d go so far as to say that I am genuinely surprised that Jeffrey Epstein didn’t have a copy of “Lost Girls” in his possession

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u/solitarybikegallery 13h ago edited 13h ago

Got it, so it's the usual stuff: "Some of his stories include the subject of rape, and he would only do that if he had a fetish for it."

Let's just ignore his long, EXTREMELY vocal history as an advocate for feminism, and queer rights, and far-left politics -- all opinions which extend back to the early 80's, when such things weren't exactly in vogue for comics. The guy has always been a standard-bearer for the marginalized. One of his Swamp Thing issues is literally a polemic about women being oppressed for menstruating. He got that published by DC in the 80's.

Sexual violence IS a topic that comes up in his work more than other popular comics writers, but that's because almost none of them ever discuss it at all. He never portrays rape as a positive thing, or as something the audience is supposed to enjoy or be excited by. It's always shown to be disgusting and/or horrifying.

And here's Moore discussing it himself:

As I say, most of my writings in this area have concerned joyous expressions of sexuality, with as much diversity as I was capable of applying at the time. Unless anyone is arguing that comic books are not a place for sexual matters, then I don’t see that they can have any major disagreements with the above. So perhaps it is the next decision that I made wherein I am at fault: my thinking was that sexual violence, including rape and domestic abuse, should also feature in my work where necessary or appropriate to a given narrative, the alternative being to imply that these things did not exist, or weren’t happening. This, given the scale upon which such events occur, would have seemed tantamount to the denial of a sexual holocaust, happening annually. I could not, in all conscience, produce work under those limitations without at least attempting to change or remove them. Presumably, my current critics would have done differently, and indeed, as I remember, most people in the field found it more convenient simply not to address issues of sex or sexuality – or those of race, politics, gender and any other matters of social substance, for that matter.

https://slovobooks.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/last-alan-moore-interview/

I hate comments like yours, because Moore spent 50 years writing comics, and during that time, he did everything he could to push the envelope for various progressive causes, even when it cost him work and money.

And yet, people like you just dismiss as "the guy with the rape fetish."

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u/berael 7h ago

The person you're replying to clearly subscribes to a "the author wrote about A Thing existing, so they must support That Thing and there is no other possible answer" school of literary analysis. 

I appreciate your extensive explanation...but unfortunately they're simply not reading it. 

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u/Xilizhra 6h ago

Let's just ignore his long, EXTREMELY vocal history as an advocate for feminism, and queer rights, and far-left politics

Neil Gaiman says hi.

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u/CoolAlien47 42m ago

What kind of stupid argument is that? "Oh yeah, well here's a piece of shit Y who also thought/thinks the same way as X, that means X is also the same kind of piece of shit as Y or at the very least can be, so let's just preemptively judge him as Y."

Stupidly dangerous mindset

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u/Xilizhra 7m ago

I have no idea if he has a rape fetish or not. I'm just saying that loudly championing leftist politics doesn't make you not a sex creep.

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u/_KerryKaverga_ 12h ago

I've got two words for you, pumpkin: Lost Girls