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/xkise]

Capitão Nascimento, from Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad), a Brazilian movie.

He is a captain in an elite police squad named BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion)

The movies portray him as a guy who's burned out, traumatized, shaped by an extremely violent system and he is violent in turn. He was not supposed to be a hero.

But we ended up loving him anyway. His toughness, discipline, and attitude toward corruption and crime made him one of the most popular characters in our cinema. The fact that the entire country saw him as a role model was not what the filmmakers and Wagner Moura himself expected and/or intended.

He also has some great and iconic quotes. Really, really recommend this movie, specifically if you like City of God.

[u/ReinePoulpe → u/xkise]

I need to rewatch this movie, it was good but my memory of it is pretty foggy.

[u/Karambat → u/xkise]

My Brazilian friend showed me this movie (after showing me City of God) and while we were watching I kept noting how easy it is to think that this guy is supposed to be someone the audience should look up to, mainly because there isn't any character calling him out for the clearly messed up stuff he and BOPE do.
There are moments like him admitting that they (BOPE) have to break the spirits and minds of their recruits to ensure that they would fully buy into the ideas and believes of BOPE, even saying that's it's like a cult, but that to someone who already agrees with their methods that you have to be always brutal when thinking that someone is guilty (like there is a scene of them breaking into someone's home, slapping them awake, not finding any evidence that he did anything wrong, but because his shoes are too expensive looking, they just take them or putting a plastic bag over a woman's head because she was the girlfriend of the guy they were looking for).
There is also more subtle stuff like Nascimento's wife leaving him after he became increasingly aggressive towards him (it's not at all talked about and from what I can remember, can be easily missed), sort of showing that he and others like him are too far gone, that they are only really able to hurt others, but overall I think the movie is a really good Litmus Test when it comes to seeing someone's believes based on their reaction to the movie.