Character types you hate - any media

[Tiamattt]

The Idiot Dad - Maybe it's just overexposure thanks to so many years of Simpsons and Family guy but I'm so tired of the completely moronic dad that treats his wife, kids, friends and even their job(s) like crap yet never has to deal with the consequences. Their friends and family will forgive them no matter what horrible things they do to them and they'll have their job(s) back by the next episode. I've actually had high hopes for Stan from American Dad since at first he looked like he was going to be different, but sadly enough he just joined the idiot dad club before long. I guess it's what people wants since those shows are obviously so successful but I've gotten sick of that kind of character ages ago.

The stalking love interest - This is something I've sadly bumped into way too many times in my years of anime. A guy or girl(most of the time girl) will be obviously head over heels for the main character, but will be too afraid to admit it. So instead they do the whole watch them from far away thing while whispering their name over and over again. They rarely lead to anything story wise, they're a waste of space since they rarely do anything significant, and it's downright creepy! Although it does lead me directly to

The clueless hero - See the type above? Yeah they're usually really, really bad at the whole "hide their feelings" thing since everyone figures it out within 2 seconds of meeting him/her. Except for the person that's being stalked, that person will never notice for reasons I can't even fathom, unless of course we're supposed to root for a complete moron to save the world

The Scrappy Doo - For anyone that doesn't know(it's been a while since that little guy been anywhere) Scrappy Doo is Scoopy Doo's nephew, who is very small and brave to a fault. He will gladly take his tiny fists and uselessly air punch any threat that comes his way which always leads to him being dragged to safety and him complaining why didn't they let him stay? (And get killed) So pretty much any idiot that's not afraid to charge into things they can't possibly handle and loudly complain why his/her friends save them from being killed.

Ok that should be enough for now, don't want this post going too long

 

[Theodora]

One or two that have started to bother me...

Stereotypical Adorkable female characters... Sorry Zooey Deschanel D:

Teens that are "Wise beyond their years."

 

[b.w.irenicus]

I hva eno problem with certain characters per se. If they are well writen, I give them a pass. A well written smart kid? No problem with me. A well defined tsunere? Ok. Problem is, more often than not they are not. And then they get annoying. A LOT.
Hell, Little Lamplight in Fallout 3 was the only reason I had to install the killable-children-mod.

 

[conmag9]

Tsundere type characters. I know about studies explaining why that behavior is so popular, but in my case, I find the behavior infuriating. The constant rain of psychological (and sometimes physical) abuse does NOT go away just because you're incapable of expressing yourself like a rational human being.

Kids with something to prove are another annoyance. The overcompensation has never been done right for me. I've seen well portrayed children characters, liked them alot sometimes. But when they try so hard to prove how amazing they are for their age, rather than letting things work out naturally (which can include non-forced talents!), it grates on my nerves.

Pointlessly rude people also tend to strike a nerve. Ugly things tend to happen to them in games where I get the chance to...correct their behavior.

There's lots of others, but I think most of them are derivations of these ideas, or similar ones.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Poorly written strong female characters. It's not that hard of a thing to do if you're already used to writing strong male characters; just give the sort of lines you would give to that sort of character to a female character. For some reason though, a lot of writers tend to portray strong-willed female characters as less strong and more as wholly irrational and stubborn. I'm not saying that people who write such characters are sexist, but it definitely has undertones of the same stereotypes that strong female characters aim to subvert.

If it's well written, I am fine with pretty much any character type.

 

[spacemutant IV]

I have a problem with most cop show protagonists. These cops are supposed to be liked by everyone, so everyone can root for them, and that's why they end up as empty shells. IRL, everything you do and like as a character, also says something about the things you don't do, and don't like. That's why these people never enjoy or do anything out of the ordinary, because it would scare part of the audience away from them. The one thing we know about John Luther, for example, is that he likes David Bowie. David Bowie is one of the biggest superstars ever, which is why when someone likes him, it really tells us next to nothing about them.

Of course, most fictional characters are written like this, but it becomes a problem with cops in particular, because these soulless, empty shells, robts almost, who cannot be defined by or criticized for anything, invariably end up judging and criticizing everything and everyone around them. They don't care about anything, they don't identify with anything except their work, and they regularly disrespect the interests, fashions, philosophies, etc. of all the bad guys, who might be assholes, but seem like real people.

I read an interview with the creator of the show Luther (I use this show as an example, and can still somewhat enjoy it), where he said that the character was designed as someone who buys a bulk of the same clothes, because he is so caught up in his work, he can't be bothered to pick a new outfit every day. - And he called this an IDEA he had for what Luther would be like. Dude, that's not an idea. It's a stereotype floating around in the ether, and you didn't write it so much as you just perpetuated it.

 

[Therumancer]

Arrogant dick who mistreats everyone around him but gets away with it because he's just that good.

Examples include Tony Stark in the Marvel movies and Sherlock Holmes from the new-ish BBC show.

Can be funny to watch at first, but quickly gets on my nerves.

I have to agree on the movie version of Tony to be honest, part of what helped humanize him in the comics was that he was a problem alcoholic, and when that exploded and he came back, he mellowed out a lot and just became more of a swashbuckler type (for lack of a better example).

When it comes to Sherlock Holmes, it seems like he's fallen prey (multiple times now) to the modern convention that almost all genius detectives have to be degenerate weirdoes for laughs. It was cute when you had shows like "Monk" doing it, but nowadays it seems like pretty much any brain-oriented crime solver has to be dysfunctional.

-

In following those comments, I guess my big problem in this thread isn't that there is any particular type of character that bothers me, it's when they keep overusing the same gimmicks, again and again, until it gets annoying. For a long time I've felt we've needed more "old school" fairly normal heroes. Sure, that did get boring years ago, but then they went off the deep end with the weirdoes so now that's becoming just as boring and annoying.

I think they need to give the dark pasts and angst a rest, and also understand that such things usually aren't supposed to be what defines a character. The negative aspects of a character are supposed to play off the rest. To use Tony Stark as an example, half the point of his alcoholism was to show nobody could pretty much deal with what he did and act like he did and hold it all up. It wasn't "well, let's make him drunk because it will be funny to have him fly drunk and get into brawls, and shoot off his mouth". What's more it wasn't something he just bounced back from either, or had everyone go "oh hey, you were a problem drinker, good to see you got over it..." 15 minutes later, the guy was in disgrace in the comics for a while. In part because you know... he was a good guy, but he was also kind of a jerk.

 

[DSD12]

Characters that have a brother or sister and don't want you to get close to them so to do this they become a complete ass and treat you like crap.

Also characters that hate you for no reason.

 

[Aesir23]

Probably the "Badass female protagonist" where her personality boils down to being callous and uncaring. They're trying so hard to make her a badass that the character ends up being very one dimensional. I've seen this in so many shows and movies with female leads that it really grinds my gears.

It's the same reason I have a special dislike for another couple of character types. The protagonist that has a deep, dark secret and is the only one that can save the town/country/world or the girl/boy who meets a girl/boy that has a deep, dark secret. These seem to be rampant in the books of quite a few genres but seem to be especially prevalent in fantasy novels. It's actually made it very difficult to try and find a new series now that I'm nearly up to date on the Legend of Drizzt Saga after ten years of reading it.

I fear I may be going on a bit of a tangent here but one thing that annoys me about characters in anime are the females with the really high chipmunk voices. It's just one of the reasons I avoid subs if I can.

 

[angryscotsman93]

Ok so I'm listening to a really good audiobook right now, the Way of Kings/Words of Radiance books by Brandon Sanderson, and I'm loving it....buuuuut.

There is one character in the series that hits almost every one of my "oh for fuck's sake!" buttons. So I felt like partially venting my frustration, and sharing my dislike for this archetype of character.

It's what I usually call the "Girl with a TERRIBAD AWFUL NO GOOD SECRET PAIN AND PAST!!!".

Common traits for this character.

1. She has some dark past crime/sin/transgression that she has mentally locked away.

2. She can't even think about it, and any mention of it will make her shut down and withdraw into a near catatonic state of "not listening, not listening, don't think, don't think, lalalalalal" crap.

3. She has most likely run away from this past, and is pretending to be someone else in another location, and has a pathological fear of anyone finding out who she was, feeling if she can just hide from her past, then it didn't happen to her, and instead was someone else.

4. She will lie, manipulate, cheat, steal, and do pretty much anything morally/criminally wrong to protect her secret, even from her friends/allies. Justifying this behavior as being ok, because anything is allowed to hide her secret.

5. The actions of point 4 frequently will end up making the overall plot much worse for the heroes, and is frequently the driving force behind "Everything turning to shit".

6. When her secret is inevitably revealed, almost every time, her friends will still accept and love her, and not shun her like she assumes they will. So all of her self driven paranoia/guilt is in the end, pointless, and is hand waved away by her friends, without any actual repercussions.

Note to 6: Many times, the action done by the woman isn't actually very bad at all, or is totally justified in the situation e.g. Killing someone in self defense, but she feels she murdered them because of her own fucked up mental processes. Which further frustrates the issue, in that all of the above mentioned shit, was basically only because the woman was wrapped up in her own fucking drama, and couldn't see past herself to do anything productive. And she's then embraced lovingly and all that crap at the end.

I can't accurately describe, without using all caps and many profanities, how much I hate this character type in stories. I just...gah! It pisses me off so much. I find myself rolling my eyes, and growling in frustration when one of them pops up in a book/movie, and fast forwarding through their drama shit to something, anything else.

So what character archetype do you hate?

capcha phrase: Yellow Belly, oddly fitting given the context of my archetype.

Lol, i was literally going to post the exact same archetype (though the dudes who show it annoy me too)

I also hate the stupid scientist archetype, the person who apparently has like a doctorate in everything but who's judgement is that of a deer in the headlights.

Also the helpless kidnapee archetype (damsel in distress, but you see it with male kids too sometimes), especially when they clearly could have done something to help themselves but just didn't.

IS SOMEBODY TALKING SHIT ABOUT SHALAN

YOU ************, I'LL.... Admit I actually agree with you. Her segments can get kinda dull. Still, I'm barely a third of the way through Words of Radiance, mainly because I was distracted by another book.

By the way, if you ever get the chance, look up the book "Pay Me, Bug!" It's a good read.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Poorly written strong female characters. It's not that hard of a thing to do if you're already used to writing strong male characters; just give the sort of lines you would give to that sort of character to a female character. For some reason though, a lot of writers tend to portray strong-willed female characters as less strong and more as wholly irrational and stubborn. I'm not saying that people who write such characters are sexist, but it definitely has undertones of the same stereotypes that strong female characters aim to subvert.

If it's well written, I am fine with pretty much any character type.

Pretty much the same.
I really don't like it when strong female character is just that, a "look how tough I am" lady in fiction. My most primary example is Black Widow. I really didn't like Black Widows character in Iron Man 2; The Avengers and forward, she got better, but she was so "look how tough I am" in Iron Man 2.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Poorly written strong female characters. It's not that hard of a thing to do if you're already used to writing strong male characters; just give the sort of lines you would give to that sort of character to a female character. For some reason though, a lot of writers tend to portray strong-willed female characters as less strong and more as wholly irrational and stubborn. I'm not saying that people who write such characters are sexist, but it definitely has undertones of the same stereotypes that strong female characters aim to subvert.

Yeah, trying to avoid her being meek and demure they make her ridiculously aggressive, avoiding one stereotype by jumping straight into another.

 

[Batou667]

I hate:

- When the protagonist (or group of protagonists) are designated "cool" by speaking in nothing but catty, contrived soundbites, Joss Whedon style.

- Children in the vast majority of movies. Either they're bratty little hellions who get away with literally anything, or they're useless quivering dead weight plot devices to infuriatingly wander off, get abducted, blow the protagonists cover, press the big button marked "do not press", and so on.

- "The sarcastic dude", usually in a zombie or horror film. It's the fuckin' apocalypse, yet this guy is still running his mouth and dividing the group. Why does this guy not have an "accident" in the first ten minutes?

- Randumb characters.

 

[Erttheking]

Tsundere characters. I just...what is the fucking appeal of that!? Ladies, would you ever want to be in a relationship with a person who spends half of the time belittling you and sometimes physically assaulting you? No? Well neither would I!

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

The power of friendship characters.
I hate those characters the most. Though I guess this is more of a plot device.

Tsundere characters can go and eat shit, especially the small ones with height complexes and flat chest complexes.
Seriously, that shit is way overused.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

I firmly believe that no trope is inherently bad, as anything can be done well. However, generally speaking, I tend to hate:

-The emotionless badass. Guh. Why even have that character? If they exist simply to kill the shit the rest of the party can't, and the writer couldn't be arsed to actually write a character with a PERSONALITY, its just lazy writing. I almost hate it more when you get characters like this with one defining characteristic: that they will protect the ones they care about blah blah blah. Attack on titan had some of my most hated examples of both types: levi and mikasa.
-the dense protagonist. (LOOKING AT YOU INFINITE STRATOS) the main character who remains PAINFULLY unaware of the affections of his love interest(s)
-The tsundere, in agreement with Hades above.
-the idiot protagonist. you know, the guy with the amazing hidden power and who is destined to save the world, but can't think beyond a third grade level. You see this alot with child protagonists.
-The one that screws it up for everyone. Think Vegeta for this one: the guy who is so obsessed with something (their ideology, etc.) that they will throw logic out the window just to get what they want. (e.g. the guy that lets the villain power up to maximum just to have a good fight)

As I said at the beginning, anything can be done well. I can think of examples of each of these archetypes that I actually do enjoy, but the majority of them are just painful to me.

Once again, sturgeon's law: 90% of everything is crap.

look, I'm a fate/zero fan so I find Emiya Kiritsugu to be a good version of the emotionless badass type. He has emotions and in the past wanted to be a hero but as time went on and more people close to him died, he hardened into the mage killer he is. The only remnants of his happier self is his relation to Irisviel and Illyasviel.

OT as an anime fan I can say this. Self-insert characters are the worst. The type of bland, underdeveloped near perfect person that we know will win. I hate Kaizuka Inaho and Kirito so much because of this, no tension. hell, the base rule I have is "are you more op than Kira Yamato at the end of SEED (destiny got too much)"; if yes, you are a god damn self-insert.

The harem protagonist thing also pisses me off. I get it, having 5 girls chase after you is not the fantasy everyone thinks it is: bitter rivalries, hurt emotions, a massive social challenge for even the most socially capable person on the planet and a living nightmare for normal people. That said, grow a spine and set your foot down. Yes, feelings will be hurt if you pick someone but that will happen no matter what you do. The harem ending will leave people feeling under appreciated. Loner ending will tear at their hearts. Picking one will cause the others to have pain. you might as well get it out of the way to minimize the damage.

tsundere is a mixed bag. I like Misaka Mikoto but while her tsundere antics are somewhat cute, it's mostly the tragedy of the sisters and the attempt to stop it that made her compelling and the interaction with her friends that made her loveable. The issue comes from if you make tsundere the only personality trait they have without a good backstory to explain it.

 

[DaWaffledude]

Is Kreia a character type? 'Cos fuck Kreia.

"Ooh, look at me, I'm so much better and smarter than everyone and everyone else is wrong and you're stupid for being a good person and you're stupid for being a bad person and everyone listen to me talk about how right I am. What's that? You want me to shut up? Fine, I'll just threaten to leave while insisting you'd never want me to do that."

You know what? Fuck you Kreia, get the hell off my ship.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Characters that are there just to be the figurative punching bag for others. (See: Meg Griffin and Squidward Tentacles)

Also, characters who are stupid assholes who never get their comeuppance for their actions (See: Peter Griffin and Patrick Star)

...I'm starting to see a pattern here...

 

[happyninja42]

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IS SOMEBODY TALKING SHIT ABOUT SHALAN

YOU ************, I'LL.... Admit I actually agree with you. Her segments can get kinda dull. Still, I'm barely a third of the way through Words of Radiance, mainly because I was distracted by another book.

By the way, if you ever get the chance, look up the book "Pay Me, Bug!" It's a good read.

YES! YES I AM!! WANNA FIGHT ABOUT IT?!? CUMMON! *makes fist gestures and bounces around the ring*

She gets better, and she doesn't dip entirely 100% into that archetype that I described, but she's really damn close, like 5/6 of the traits.

Though in the spirit of fairness, Caladin hits on some of my hated male protagonist archetypes too, thought not as much in book 1 as in book 2. But, thankfully, for both of them, they seem to be growing out of it for the most part. This being sort of a driving force of the books really, so I can tolerate it, even if it is with gritted teeth. xD

 

[Guy_of_wonder]

the suave, sexy, mysterious man that uses women like objects. Characters like James Bond and to a lesser degree Indiana Jones. People like them, but i hate them so much. They act like complete assholes and get the girl. After they get the girl they (usually) use them for sex, treat them like shit and throw them out.

I find it disgusting and disgraceful that this is what men wanted to be like back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s (or whenever).