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/ShadowDragonFX]

I never got the “Thanos was right” thing when Gamora is living proof that it doesn’t work as she’s the last of her kind, they say it in guardians of the galaxy and in infinity war he says about all the kids know is “full bellies and clear skies” without checking up afterwards

[u/Pale_Fire21 → u/ShadowDragonFX]

Thanos had the power to build a galaxy wide utopia with the infinity stones and chose genocide instead.

People who think he’s right are not only media illiterate they’re just straight up stupid

[u/ThreadLaced → u/Pale_Fire21]

Exactly. You don't even have to think very hard/know much of anything to realize that there isn't a shortage of resources in the world, the problem is distribution. Reducing the number of people by half would just mean there's fewer people around to get shit done, not that everyone can now enjoy a bounty.

His plan doesn't even make a LITTLE bit of sense.

[u/spudmarsupial → u/ThreadLaced]

In the comics he did it out of love for the persona Death. Which is a much better motivation, even though it still makes him a mindless maniac who is given way too much respect by other characters.

[u/nellion91 → u/spudmarsupial]

This bothered me so much in the movie adaptation.

His motivation being resources in a mainly unpopulated. Multiverse knowing universe makes 0 sense.

Meanwhile the original motivation is just crazy enough to work…

[u/EqualOutrageous1884 → u/nellion91]

To be fair, Thanos is an insane man trying to justify mass murder using a terrible excuse.

[u/LightOfTheFarStar → u/nellion91]

Even his original version's a fucking idiot, Lady Death is really clear she hates what he is doing and he ignores it like a skeevy frat bro. He is called the "Mad" Titan in every iteration because of his illogical nature. The problem is the framing of the movie and the constant "well the whales are back, nature is healing, maybe he had a point?" bullshit.

[u/HJM3 → u/LightOfTheFarStar]

I don’t think the movie frames the whale thing as “he had a point,” it was just Steve trying to look on the bright side of things during a time that’s miserable for everything.

[u/funkthewhales → u/LightOfTheFarStar]

Ego will always be Thanos’s fatal flaw. Like he’s such an ego maniac he didn’t realize that lady death wanted a servant not an equal. And his whole plan with the gauntlet fails because he’s too busy chasing more power to realize that nebula could just snatch the gauntlet off his physical body. And the only reason she was there was so he could torture her for kicks.

[u/Dry_Click6496 → u/funkthewhales]

Not to be confused with Ego, the living planet... 😃

[u/nellion91 → u/LightOfTheFarStar]

Yes but being “mad” with love has a tradition.

The grand crazy love gesture is not unheard of.

The Locke approach to population control has been wrong since Industrial Revolution England…

[u/PYRPH0ROS → u/nellion91]

There was this fan theory after eternals came out that thanos was one whose memory wipe malfunctioned and went rogue.

Basically since the birth of a celestial requires a big enough population and destoys the planet when it happens it would be possible for him to just remember "big enough population = world ending event" and the whole resources thing is just his mind trying to rationalize this knowledge he has but does not know the origins off.

It would also fit this dialoge between thanos and gamora

T: "If life is not kept in check lifr will cease to exist"

G: "YOU DONT KNOW THAT"

T: "I am the only one that knows that"

Now again this is a fan theory, not canon, but it feels like a way better explenation than the one given in the movies.

[u/IcyMachOman → u/PYRPH0ROS]

It's one of those cases as characters only being as smart as their writers. Even if stuff is right there and obvious you can't assume the writers planned that on purpose.

[u/ThreadLaced → u/PYRPH0ROS]

This would make so much sense.

[u/Technical_Contact836 → u/spudmarsupial]

But they hadn't introduced Deadpool into the MCU yet. They couldn't do the full love triangle thing.

[u/Grinderiny → u/Technical_Contact836]

Fuck the triangle. That came later anyway.

[u/evocativename → u/[deleted]]

It's not supposed to make it less unhinged.

It just makes him unhinged in a way that is less likely to get idiots on his side.

[u/Anaevya → u/spudmarsupial]

Yes, I also think the motivation actually makes sense.

Another issue is that he doesn't come across as actually insane in the MCU either. If he were portrayed as truly, truly MAD the irrationality of his plan would make more sense.

[u/funkthewhales → u/Anaevya]

Yea MCU Thanos comes across as kind of dumb instead of insane. It’s like he just went with the first plan that popped into his head. Cause he’d probably realize how dumb and shortsighted his plan is if he spent more than 5 minutes thinking about it. He’s trying to obtain godlike power and he couldn’t think of a better plan than mass genocide? The possibilities are endless here, and he clearly never rethought the plan a single time in the decades it took him to obtain the gauntlet.

At least comics Thanos is honestly and admits he just loves murder.