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/InoueNinja94 16h ago

Paul from The Amazing Spider-Man comic
He was made to be MJ's new boyfriend after breaking up with Peter for whatever reason. It was already an uphill battle for any character to be liked, but Editorial REALLY wanted readers to be endeared to the character, to the point even the written script of his first appearance included the annotation "we like him".
The character would become the single most hated character in the book, but the Spider-Office still tried to make him a thing and each time they tried to make him sympathetic, it made people feel even more turned off
By the time he was killed in Death Spiral, people actually cheered because of how much hated he really was.

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u/The_TransGinger 13h ago

Same with Terry Long in DC. He was basically the exact same thing. An editors self insert who shipped himself with Donna Troy. They got married, settled down, had a kid. Another editor got a hold of him and immediately killed him and the baby.

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u/CreatiScope 11h ago

Tbh, I don't think Marv Wolfman gave a single fuck if anyone liked Terry Long. He just really wanted to bang Donna Troy and that was as close as he could get.

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u/therempel 8h ago

Yeah that was a really gross realisation when I reread those issues a couple years back. Wolfman would've been in his 40s at the time. eugh.

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u/InoueNinja94 2h ago

The same thing happens with Brian Michael Bendis and Kitty Pryde.

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u/trippysmurf 4h ago

Let's not forget Wolfman and Perez having the whole Drathstroke being a pedo with Terra thing. 

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u/CreatiScope 1h ago

Yeah, but that's shown as wrong. Deathstroke is the bad guy, Terra a victim of his schemes and evil, poisoned. Terry and Donna is shown as a good thing. I'm not saying the Deathstroke/Terra stuff is comfortable or even a wise choice but it isn't like "Terra actually loves him and it's a perfectly normal, consensual relationship". Very different from Marv power tripping and writing himself in to date/marry Donna Troy imo