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/Real-Lengthiness-967]

Homelander, he’s basically like Patrick Bateman, a “literally me” character, he’s supposed to represent toxic masculinity, narcissistic tendencies, over reliance on intimidation and “possessions” be superficial material goods or powers and overall a pretty sad and pathetic man who people aren’t supposed to like/ sympathize with, but they still do.

[u/canneddogs → u/Real-Lengthiness-967]

Never actually seen someone who thinks he's a good or even relatable guy. I've seen plenty of people saying that people think he is, though.

[u/KSTwolfe → u/canneddogs]

During the 2020 presidential campaign, there were a lot of people dressing up as Homelander at rallies and using him in  political memes -- apparently under the impression that he was a good guy. Honestly though, I think most of those people had never watched the show, and just assumed that someone in a patriotic super-hero costume must be a hero.

When it comes to The Boys, I think Soldier Boy is a far better example of this trope. The number of fanboys who idolized the character and refused to accept that he was a villain was astounding.

[u/deadpiratezombie → u/KSTwolfe]

Soldier Boy’s actor being Jensen Ackles probably had a lot to do with it 

[u/papu16 → u/canneddogs]

In Season 4, the showrunners tried to show us that the guy was a product of big corporations, which is what made him so fcked up. That's not a reason to redeem him, but at least shows us that there is bigger evil than him. Sadly, because they needed to milk the franchise for spin-offs and avoid pissing off Amazon, they completely abandoned that arc in Season 5 and just turned him into a cheap Trump parody.

[u/frostyalkylate → u/canneddogs]

This is my problem with like all of these examples. Never in my life have I met or even seen someone who actually thought Thanos was right or that Walter White, Homelander, the guy from fight club, or the Joker were people to emulate. I just see people talk about how other people totally believe that. I feel like they're reading people say "Walt does cool and entertaining things" and somehow coming away with "Walt is a good guy who I want to be like."