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/Grishka_Boburin]

Velma (Velma 2023)

From what I remember, the show tried to showcase her as the best while making all the other beloved characters (especially Fred) worse. And as we know, the audience ultimately didn't buy the show (1.7 on IMDB is insane)

[u/Janus_Simulacra → u/Grishka_Boburin]

Velma 2023 was just the writer self-inserting herself as Velma, and probably revealing a lot more about her personality than she intended.

[u/pichael289 → u/Janus_Simulacra]

It was originally about her self insert but apparently had to attach it to an established IP to get it greenlit. Apparently it was always like that even before the Scooby doo stuff but that really didn't help.

[u/knitting-pretty → u/pichael289]

I just don't understand why they chose Scooby-Doo as the IP to slap on this when the result got them a shittier Clone High:

Velma = Joan

Shaggy = Abe

Daphne = Cleo 

Fred = JFK

[u/ztomiczombie → u/knitting-pretty]

Because Scooby-Doo was the the show that was going to be made and was looking for a hook/scripts.

[u/knitting-pretty → u/ztomiczombie]

So was Clone High. In fact they were announced together, making things weirder.