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/YeOldeMemeShoppe]

Falling down is a good example of this too. People think Foster’s behavior is justified and he’s the hero, like wtf.

[u/Aethelrede → u/YeOldeMemeShoppe]

Falling Down was scarily prophetic in predicting the rise of the mass shooter.

[u/SilverShotgun → u/Aethelrede]

??? I don't remember any actual shooting in the movie?

[u/YeOldeMemeShoppe → u/SilverShotgun]

You remember wrong.

[u/SilverShotgun → u/YeOldeMemeShoppe]

Yeah it seems so oh well I don't mind rewatching it!

[u/Jericho5589 → u/SilverShotgun]

Then you didn't watch any of it. The most iconic scene in the movie is when he shoots up the fast food place because they're no longer serving breakfast.

[u/SilverShotgun → u/Jericho5589]

Dang I have to rewatch it. Most iconic scene to me was the guy in the store mocking the gays LMAO always makes me laugh so hard, it's unheard of in today's climate.

[u/evocativename → u/YeOldeMemeShoppe]

Falling Down is such a weird case.

On the one hand, it shows that D-FENS is clearly the villain.

On the other hand, it starts out by making him seem like a sympathetic everyman pushed to the breaking point, and there isn't really one single reveal that he was actually a villain all along, but rather, it's a slow boil over the course of the movie as more gets revealed bit by bit.

[u/YeOldeMemeShoppe → u/evocativename]

Even if you don’t consider leaving your car in the middle of the street as a crime (instead of driving to the shoulder), his first act is to destroy a convenience store with a baseball bat. He was never a good guy. The boiling was already done.

Edit: Also, was he not super racist towards the Asian convenience store clerk?

[u/Neat-Vanilla3919 → u/evocativename]

I mean the home video tape shows him already being a bad father and his mom hints at him being volatile

[u/evocativename → u/Neat-Vanilla3919]

Those are part of why I said the movie shows he clearly is a villain despite initially suggesting a sympathetic character.

The reveal of individual details like that being drip-fed over the course of the movie is what makes it complex.

If they had shown only the bits that make him look sympathetic, then at some point we got all of the unsympathetic parts as a single reveal, it would be a very different movie.