Character types you hate - any media

[Thaluikhain]

The woman "fighter" that prances merrily through the middle of a fight like it's a dance.

Look, I know I'm watching a media fight involving a woman. I know she's not going to get her teeth knocked out, or get injured in any visible way, or even particularly threatened. But can you at least make her look like she's taking the fight seriously rather than treating it like a pun-filled aerobics class?

Yeah, especially when it's always the woman and only the woman. The blokes in her team don't do that.

Only exception I can think of off the top of my head was a bit in Batman Forever, when Robin got a bit of girl-fu going on when beating up brightly painted thugs.

 

[Ishal]

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.

You know, I'd be on board with this if I hadn't seen far worse. Namely...

Spoiler

OT: Your basic tropes for anime characters, and not just the protagonists. Brooding hero, comedic side character who also get's placed in danger because the plot, and the female character who is emotionless as a robot and is a fighting machine. So basically Mikasa from AoT.

Other than that? Incompetent characters who are also the main protagonists. I can handle it to a degree, lot's of conflict can come from a protagonists that has problems, but there is a limit. They need to seem capable and learn things, they need to earn their victories and make the audience feel they deserved them.

They need to not be Korra from The Legend of Korra.

The only thing worse than that are characters who do shitty, disgusting things and face no comeuppance from their actions. It's the mark of terrible writing.

Ahh, and look, we have another example from Legend of Korra.

Spoiler

 

[bringmeahorse]

The 'so cool and awesome' character who has apparently never failed at their special skill before, and the first time they do- ususally against an opponent that's been shown to be stupidly powerful and has beaten several others before you, they instantly fail every time they try that skill again until they go and train again, usually back where they first trained, and suddenly they're brilliant again. Case in point, Crystal from The pokémon adventures manga, we had 2 books show her to be great at catching pokémon, then suddenly she fails to capture Suicine, a freaking near legendary pokémon, and we waste the first 3 or 4 chapters of the next book having her go back to training. Also any character that 'teaches people a lesson/ help them become stronger' by doing hurtful things to a character, case in point Professor Oak from Pokémon adventures, who is the worst character ever (Congrats, you entered a tournament designed for kids, beat a bunch of them thus destroying their dreams, and traumatised a 10 year old girl just to teach her a lesson!), and Vriska from Homestuck, who is a close second. (Yes, clearly smashing somebodys legs is going to make them stronger, as is blaming them when they're unable to go up the stairs you made, instead of ramps like any none jerk would do)

 

[Dragonlayer]

- Horror characters who won't even try to defend themselves, even when *not* being attacked by monstrous abominations
The most immediate example I can think of the whistleblower from the Outlast expansion, where he gets knocked off his feet by the CEO of McEvil Incorporated and just sits there looking up at the man with what I can only assume is a hurt expression that whinningly suggests "B-b-buh you pushed me!". And this is just a normal human being that shoved him over: not an insane asylum inmate (who I contend could be stopped with liberal application of boot to crotch or heavy object to head) or mutant creature, just an average dude. FUCKING FIGHT BACK YOU USELESS TWAT! Yes, I get it, you're not allowed to fight back because of "frightening immersion" or some such bollocks, but at least throw a punch or something! This can also extend to the vast majority of female characters in horror movies in general, who are less realistic humans reacting to extreme situations and more squishy mobile blood-bags that shriek a lot. Yes I know, this the very basis of most horror films but it still irks me.

I have more, but I'll think of them tomorrow when I don't have this sodding assignment to do.

 

[JoJo]

The Canon Sue is a particularly galling one if done badly, I had the misfortune of watching a movie called 'Van Wilder' with a friend last weekend and the main character was the most blatant example I'd seen for years. The protagonist was a college student who happened to be the most popular guy in his school, handsome, unfailingly good-natured (except to the designated antagonists) and also smart enough to pass without doing any real work. Make no mistake, he'd be a great guy if he was real... but for a comedy film, it was utterly boring. Give us an underdog we want to root for, or a terrible person who we can't wait to see what they'll do next, not a perfect idol who never struggles with anything.

As for other types, I don't actually mind the annoying child trope, at-least they're entertaining most of the time. What I don't have time for is the token significant other / child / family. I have no problem with the protagonists having attachments if they're worthwhile characters in their own right, or are simply absent most of the time, but it feels cheap and lazy when they feature heavily and don't seem to have any discernible character other than their relation to the protagonist. A good example would be the wife and son of the solider guy in the new Godzilla film, who seemed to have zero character and never gave a reason to care about them.

 

[DarkRawen]

I don't know if it counts as a character type, but basically the male and female characters that are outright abusive (physically, mentally, very possessive, so on), but the plot/other characters treat them as if they're not doing anything wrong. This includes a number of tsundere characters and such, but it's the whole: "Oh how cute/misunderstood you are" thing that makes it annoying. Sure, have intentionally or unintentionally abusive people as your "good side" characters, but at least have someone or something acknowledge the fact that this person is doing something bad. Having your main character mope over the fact that "they (the main character) must have done something wrong to make them angry," is a bit... :/

Argh, yes. Especially when their enemies turn out to be even worse so it's ok.

"Sure, he was really mean to a total stranger, but the guy turned out to eat children, so it's ok"

Common amongst supernatural creatures. Sure, I'm an evil murderous vampire, but that other vampire is more evil and murderous than me, so I should get credit for that.

And stuff glamourising violent crime in general.

Indeed. While I must admit to having a fondness/interest in characters rather deeply in the "rather fucked up" territory, I still want their horrible actions to be acknowledged, by the plot if nothing else. I mean, yeah, I like that character, but they're a horrible person, and they should be treated/shown as at best a deeeeeeply flawed person whose actions aren't excused. :/

Also, yeah, vampires especially, perhaps because there's so much romance-stuff with them, which makes it rather creepy. >_>

As for glamorising violent crime, personally I'm the kind who doesn't mind characters who commits acts like that, but god, they're bad people and I would never want to meet them in real life. Ever.

I think the most annoying thing about those kind of shows/series/all sorta things is that, as with Dexter for instance, some fans of the show seem eager to defend what he's doing, because "yeah, he's a murderer, but he's killing bad people so it's fine", which is a reasoning I can't agree with.

 

[Thaluikhain]

- Horror characters who won't even try to defend themselves, even when *not* being attacked by monstrous abominations
The most immediate example I can think of the whistleblower from the Outlast expansion, where he gets knocked off his feet by the CEO of McEvil Incorporated and just sits there looking up at the man with what I can only assume is a hurt expression that whinningly suggests "B-b-buh you pushed me!". And this is just a normal human being that shoved him over: not an insane asylum inmate (who I contend could be stopped with liberal application of boot to crotch or heavy object to head) or mutant creature, just an average dude. FUCKING FIGHT BACK YOU USELESS TWAT! Yes, I get it, you're not allowed to fight back because of "frightening immersion" or some such bollocks, but at least throw a punch or something! This can also extend to the vast majority of female characters in horror movies in general, who are less realistic humans reacting to extreme situations and more squishy mobile blood-bags that shriek a lot. Yes I know, this the very basis of most horror films but it still irks me.

I have more, but I'll think of them tomorrow when I don't have this sodding assignment to do.

Really annoying when the character is a soldier in an action movie or something.

Back in the old days of Doctor Who, most of the monsters were immune to bullets, because the soldiers/security guards/whomever would naturally shoot the attacking monster. When that didn't work, they'd try using the bazooka on it (one time they had the bazooka prop, but with extra bits stuck on it and pretended it was a laser). When the laser didn't work, they called for an airstrike. Which is quite reasonable.

But there's so many movies in which the soldiers get killed because they don't try fighting back, so that the hero can later on.

Also, in regards to horror movies, when the victim gets attacked, struggles, knocks the killer over, runs away, falls over and waits for the killer to get back up and get them. Instead of making sure the killer stayed down when they put them down.

Indeed. While I must admit to having a fondness/interest in characters rather deeply in the "rather fucked up" territory, I still want their horrible actions to be acknowledged, by the plot if nothing else. I mean, yeah, I like that character, but they're a horrible person, and they should be treated/shown as at best a deeeeeeply flawed person whose actions aren't excused. :/

Also, yeah, vampires especially, perhaps because there's so much romance-stuff with them, which makes it rather creepy. >_>

As for glamorising violent crime, personally I'm the kind who doesn't mind characters who commits acts like that, but god, they're bad people and I would never want to meet them in real life. Ever.

I think the most annoying thing about those kind of shows/series/all sorta things is that, as with Dexter for instance, some fans of the show seem eager to defend what he's doing, because "yeah, he's a murderer, but he's killing bad people so it's fine", which is a reasoning I can't agree with.

Yeah...Riddick in Pitch Black was done well, IMHO. Sure, he's a murderer, but then the planet is full of lots of nasty aliens, so we shall overlook this and work together to not die.

And yeah, being a supernatural creature is apparently an excuse for being creepy that way.

 

[Ishal]

The Canon Sue is a particularly galling one if done badly, I had the misfortune of watching a movie called 'Van Wilder' with a friend last weekend and the main character was the most blatant example I'd seen for years. The protagonist was a college student who happened to be the most popular guy in his school, handsome, unfailingly good-natured (except to the designated antagonists) and also smart enough to pass without doing any real work. Make no mistake, he'd be a great guy if he was real... but for a comedy film, it was utterly boring. Give us an underdog we want to root for, or a terrible person who we can't wait to see what they'll do next, not a perfect idol who never struggles with anything.

Ahh, but you see, it's comedy. So all those writing skills and things that would normally not fly in other movie? Totally okay here, because comedy... har har. At least, that's what my friends told me when I complained about the exact same movie for these exact same reasons.

Comedic tropes and characters are just getting grating nowadays. It's not just because of the actual material, but also because of the fans. The fans who use "it's comedy, lighten up" to deflect any sort of criticism. It's the same deal with some games, especially Platinum games. It's just so over the top and aware of itself it can do all this stuff, and for that, it qualifies as brilliant, because reasons.

 

[Blow_Pop]

I hate the portrayals of people in rom coms and how stalking is acceptable behaviour more so into the fluff books (I refuse to call them chick lit since I know plenty of male identified people who read them too).

It's mostly portrayed by a male character stalking an uninterested female character and then the female gets herself into some sort of distress and then male steps in and all of a sudden love at first sight. Even though she's told him she's not interested and he basically stalks and harasses her up to this point. I have read very good romance type books that don't fall into this trope but they are few and far between.

Also the whole you have to change yourself completely trope for someone else to love you bullshit. I've read a few books where that hasn't happened and as a result they are more my favourites and I'll re-read them just because they're well done.



Also the "women are always over-emotional" thing. It's boring and tiring. People are multi faceted creatures. Stop giving certain ones only one dimension of character. And for the record, most of the men I know are more emotional than the women.

It's not really a "character type," but it's a plot device that's often used to create conflict between characters and it really bugs the shit out of me: the liar revealed. The story where, whether by accident or necessity, the protagonist has lied about something and at the most crucial moment the people they have lied to discover the lie, feel betrayed, hate the protagonist, and then the protagonist has to do something to earn their trust again and prove they were trying to do the right thing.

It bothers me because you can see it coming a mile away, you know how it's going to end, and it just makes whatever direction the character development was taking and bottlenecks it down the same path a million other stories have gone. It kind of makes all other character development irrelevant because no matter what you've established before everyone ends up slipping into those predetermined molds: Protagonist feels bad, other characters feel betrayed and angry and make stupid decisions because emotions, protagonist saves the day, other characters forgive protagonist and learn to trust again, everybody is happy. It's just soooo boring, and makes me give up on seeing any more character development once they set up the lie.

I like it when it's well done and you DON'T see it coming from a mile away. But I have to agree with this.

 

[Evonisia]

The kid from Walking Dead. Incredibly spooky in his ability to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, as well as being a pain in the arse. Not sure how to condense that into a character type though. 'Crap children' maybe?

Carl Grimes... hate, haaaatttteeee.

In fact, thinking of Carl Grimes, my most hated character type is the mystical plot armour character. More often found in video games and TV than film (seeing as they take place over a longer period of time mostly), but they remove all suspense from the scene because you know they will be fine, and at their worst they get other characters hurt or even killed.

See: Carl Grimes from The Walking Dead TV show.

 

[happyninja42]

It's mostly portrayed by a male character stalking an uninterested female character and then the female gets herself into some sort of distress and then male steps in and all of a sudden love at first sight. Even though she's told him she's not interested and he basically stalks and harasses her up to this point. I have read very good romance type books that don't fall into this trope but they are few and far between.

You might check out the movie Untamed Heart with Christian Slater and Marrisa Torme. It's sort of like this you've described, but also not. I actually really liked it as a romance story.

 

[Kitsune Hunter]

Tsunderes. Why would anyone want to go out with someone so annoyingly violent and bitchy, unless they're some kind of masochist. Oreimo would have been so much better if I didn't feel the need to punch Kirino in the face every time she opened her mouth to her brother. Not to say I hate all tsunderes, I like ones that are done well like Rin Tohsaka from Fate Stay Night.

The useless child character. Oh Stardust Crusaders, I love you so much, but why was she even here to begin with?

Spoiler

 

[The_Darkness]

When a strong female character has spent the entire game, story, or movie with our protagonist connecting ... only for the next game, story, or movie to have her suddenly with someone else for a very stupid reason. I'M LOOKING AT YOU DEAD SPACE 3!! How dare you have Isaac open up with someone as great as Ellie, only to have her rip his heart out at the start of the third game and making her an awful trope... and introducing a love triangle in a HORROR GAME!

Shame on you Spider Man movie series for having Mary Jane switch from Peter to some generic dude for... reasons??

Really tore me up Jurassic Park 3 when you had Dr. Ellie Sattler married and HAD A CHILD with some other dude when the first movie showed how perfect of a couple Dr. Allan and Ellie were. The heck did that come from, with no warning at all?

Don't even get me started on The Dark Knight, or Legend of Korra at the end of Season 1 / start of Seasons 2.

This largely comes from the "True Love is Boring" trope - authors feel that writing a stable relationship doesn't have any conflict or tension in it, so they break the characters up just so they can go through the "Having the characters get together" plot again. Would be nice if they could, for once, explore the work that goes into maintaining a relationship...

Also, DS3's portrayal of Ellie is all kinds of bad. From a character that we first met mowing down Necromorphs in an epic last stand, to never even holding a gun throughout DS3... I have to wonder what they were thinking (and wonder why Ellie wasn't the co-op partner).

(Also - completely off-topic, but I love your current avatar.)

The Canon Sue is a particularly galling one if done badly, I had the misfortune of watching a movie called 'Van Wilder' with a friend last weekend and the main character was the most blatant example I'd seen for years. The protagonist was a college student who happened to be the most popular guy in his school, handsome, unfailingly good-natured (except to the designated antagonists) and also smart enough to pass without doing any real work. Make no mistake, he'd be a great guy if he was real... but for a comedy film, it was utterly boring. Give us an underdog we want to root for, or a terrible person who we can't wait to see what they'll do next, not a perfect idol who never struggles with anything.

Silk, in the SpiderMan comics, is rapidly heading in Canon Sue direction.

It's particularly frustrating because the original character concept (someone else that got bitten by the same spider, and has been hanging around in the background throughout Spidey's entire career) has some serious potential... Especially when early previews suggested she would be a villain. Someone with Spidey's power set, but without the "Great Power, Great Responsibility" thing? Who seemed to be working behind the scenes against Spiderman? Sign me up! Looks like the perfect character to contrast against Spiderman.

Instead - nope, she's just been locked up all this time, she's essentially flawless, and apparently she's a perfect romantic partner for Peter for... um, reasons. Spider-Sense-ey reasons. For goodness sake, they were already kissing by the end of her reveal issue... (Of course, I'm still sore about One More Day, so that doesn't help...)

 

[monopandora]

I don't know if this is because of the translator or the Japanese manga writer, but the annoying teenage protagonists (especially any manga/anime that involves romance) whose response to any situation includes one of the following: eh, Eh, eH, EH, EH!!!, EH!!??!!

Maybe I've just been reading mangas for too long but I just get really angry every time I see it.

 

[Blow_Pop]

It's mostly portrayed by a male character stalking an uninterested female character and then the female gets herself into some sort of distress and then male steps in and all of a sudden love at first sight. Even though she's told him she's not interested and he basically stalks and harasses her up to this point. I have read very good romance type books that don't fall into this trope but they are few and far between.

You might check out the movie Untamed Heart with Christian Slater and Marrisa Torme. It's sort of like this you've described, but also not. I actually really liked it as a romance story.

I think I might have heard about that but I'll keep that in mind while I'm doing book/movie catch ups (currently doing books this week next week will be more movies)



OT: Another that I thought of that might or might not be mentioned

Strong female character who suddenly turns to inability to do shit once she meets attractive male character.

Or Female character that's been training for years for in comes male protag and training montage and suddenly is now in male character's capable hands. That really pisses me off

 

[Vault101]

I hate the portrayals of people in rom coms and how stalking is acceptable behaviour more so into the fluff books (I refuse to call them chick lit since I know plenty of male identified people who read them too).
.

does that make it any less "chick-lit"? I mean if its designed to appeal to female readers (in a certain way) but some male readers happen to like it you can still call it "chick-lit"

 

[Blow_Pop]

I hate the portrayals of people in rom coms and how stalking is acceptable behaviour more so into the fluff books (I refuse to call them chick lit since I know plenty of male identified people who read them too).
.

does that make it any less "chick-lit"? I mean if its designed to appeal to female readers (in a certain way) but some male readers happen to like it you can still call it "chick-lit"

Perhaps but I don't like the negative connotations that chick lit gets. Hence why I call it fluff.

 

[Mahemium]

The righteous hero. The one who strongly believes in a universal, objective morality in particularly morally ambiguous circumstances and situations and tries to enforce that on others.

"You can't kill him?"
"But he just killed X!"
"Don't bring yourself down to their level"

stfu

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Comic relief characters who do or say stupid shit while otherwise serious things are happening. I've always hated that shit, always.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

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.

You know, I'd be on board with this if I hadn't seen far worse. Namely...

Spoiler

OT: Your basic tropes for anime characters, and not just the protagonists. Brooding hero, comedic side character who also get's placed in danger because the plot, and the female character who is emotionless as a robot and is a fighting machine. So basically Mikasa from AoT.

Other than that? Incompetent characters who are also the main protagonists. I can handle it to a degree, lot's of conflict can come from a protagonists that has problems, but there is a limit. They need to seem capable and learn things, they need to earn their victories and make the audience feel they deserved them.

They need to not be Korra from The Legend of Korra.

The only thing worse than that are characters who do shitty, disgusting things and face no comeuppance from their actions. It's the mark of terrible writing.

Ahh, and look, we have another example from Legend of Korra.

Spoiler

Mako, that fucking guy. Seriously, what a first class arsehole. If I was the ghost of Mako Iwamatsu, I'd very upset that this wanker was my 'tribute'.