Incompetent Protagonists

[Fox12]

Also. Grave of the fireflies. The brother was an idiot, and this severely decreased my ability to care about him. I was invested until the end, where it turns out he had money in the bank the whole time. There was even a scene earlier where his sister is starving. The doctor tells him to give her food. His response is a gut wrenching "where the hell am I supposed to find food?"

How about you use the money in the bank? How about you go back to your aunt, and beg her to take your sister? How about you look for work? Instead he just loafs around. He even gets them kicked out of their aunts place because he won't try to find a job to support the family. He's burden on everyone in the story, and in the end he gets people killed. I'm not mad he couldn't protect his sister, I'm just mad he didn't even seem to try.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

The protagonist from Amnesia (the anime based on the visual novel) comes to mind. She has to be one of the worst female characters I've ever seen. She constantly need to be dragged around and told what to do by one of the many handsome males that surround her, and anytime she doesn't do what she's told or tries to do something on her own she, she fails miserably. Her and Orion makes for one of the most hilariously incompetent duos I've seen. It doesn't help that she had no personality, character, and rarely ever emotes or react to anything.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Anybody in a horror movie will be incompetent for at least 90% of the duration, if not entirely.

 

[Saltyk]

Yeah, I could never get into Pokemon. Probably because it was the type of show to tell basically the same story each episode with only a change in environment and virtually no character development. The only incentive to watch is if you are interested in the Pokemon World, which I am not.

That type of show can be done well (season one of Avatar: The Last Airbender comes to mind), but Pokemon is not one that does.

Anyway, he was already mentioned in passing, but Vaan from Final Fantasy 12. I couldn't take him seriously after the group arrived in the floating city and both Balthier and Basch tell him not to tell anyone he is with them specifically. Not even five minutes later, he introduces himself to some random kid and tells the kid he is with Baltheir and Basch. That kid also happens to be the son of the Emperor. The worst part is the looks on Balthier and Basch's faces. Like even they couldn't believe how stupid Vaan is and they were seriously regretting bringing the mentally handicapped kid along.

Seriously, fuck Vaan. He was only added into the game to give a young character that players could relate to. He wasn't even originally planned to be in the game.

He also asked Fran her age and every other character called him an idiot for that. It was rather vindicating.

 

[Zhukov]

In "One flew over the cuckoos nest" I spent most the time thinking "this guy is just a fuck up" and "nurse Ratchett isn't THAT bad"

WHAAAAAAT!?

*spits drink*

Okay, okay, it's been a while since I read it. A long while. But, uh... doesn't she shame a guy into suicide? A guy she knew full well was mentally and emotionally unstable? An act for which she shows zero remorse?

Oh, and doesn't she get people sent to shock therapy as punishment? (As opposed to, y'know, therapy.)

Of course, that's on top of being thoroughly unpleasant and abusing her power throughout.

 

[Erttheking]

In "One flew over the cuckoos nest" I spent most the time thinking "this guy is just a fuck up" and "nurse Ratchett isn't THAT bad"

Which one? McMurphy or Bromden? Oh right...Bromden kinda got sidlined in the movie. I'd recommend the book, its much better. It helps that it's told from the perspective of Bromden which gives us a better perspective of the cruelty inflicted on the inmates.

 

[Roofstone]

Walking Dead. Everyone but that redneck with the crossbow, he was pretty pragmatic.

To be fair, zombie shows kinda need the protagonists to be stupid, or else they would win, since zombies pose no real threat to someone thinking and not rotting. But geez, these guys are DUMB!

 

[Asclepion]

To everyone complaining about Shinji Ikari:

Did I mention he's 14 fucking years old?

 

[Something Amyss]

I was too old for Pokemon so all this talk of Ash makes me think of Evil Dead. That Ash was far from incompetent!

You are NEVER too old for Pokémon! NEVAH!

Anyway, the thread title made me think of Harry Potter. Pretty much everyone is a moron. Even Hermione can be fairly stupid when it comes to plot points, and she's still the brightest bulb. But that never put me off the books or movies, so I guess it doesn't fit so much.

And while I'm talking, pretty much everyone in Doctor Who that uses a gun. Indestructible killing machine? Shoot it! Mirage? Shoot it! Forcefield? Shoot it more!

Walter fucking White. I cannot fucking stand how completely moronic he can be at times. Even when he's supposedly a "villain" he's still not threatning. He's just a fucking idiot the entire run.

What put me off more was the way people conflate "being a shitbag" with "being complex."

He wasn't bright, though.

To everyone complaining about Shinji:

Did I mention he's 14 fucking years old?

So? I When I was 14, I was saving the world, and I didn't even complain!

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Square Enix seems to have quite a few that fit this bill

Edge from Star Ocean the Last Hope. Everything he did he F'ed up, at least for the first....90% of the game. He blew up Earth....well A Earth.

Why didn't I think of him. God damn I hated him. Of course that's nothing compared to the SRF guys who thought it'd be a good idea to let teenagers lead their space exploration missions. I know Square-Enix has a thing for teenage protagonists, but Christ! Can you just imagine how that meeting went down with the SRF.
SRF guy 1: Ok we're going to launch some ships to explore deep space. We'll need some highly trained men and women to command these ships.
SRF guy 2: Nah, let's just round up a bunch of teenagers. That'll do.

 

[Robert Kalmar]

Well, my bet would be on Sora from Kingdom Hearts. I mean he is a competent fighter, but come on... how dumb can he be? He is around the age of 18 in Kingdom Hearts 3D and he is still a totally clueless goody-good doer who calls someone his friend after like 2 seconds.

Neku: "Shut up, you are annoying."
Sora: "But we are friends!"

Why isn't Riku the main protagonist by now?...

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Katniss Everdeen from Catching Fire (movie version, I only read the first book).

Contrary to how I remembered in the first book, Katniss is constantly the least capable person she's with. Sure, she can shoot arrows at mooks, but the second there's some real sense of danger... she screams and cries, and someone else comes in to solve the problem for her. Every other person in the group had a considerable deal more emotional and physical fortitude than she did, which I find depressing because I actually liked her character in the first book. In the movie she's just a run of the mill incompetent female character who shoots arrows at people sometimes

Okay, I gave a real answer, now I'm going to use this thread as an excuse to vent about an absolutely incompetently written protagonist. I'm playing through Front Mission 3 right now, and oh my god is Kazuki the worst written main character I've ever seen. It seems like all he does is just randomly yell at people to take things seriously, and shut up, any time they try to make a situation lighter and, you know, add some interest to the dialogue. He's by far the worst hot headed main character I've ever seen, because the only expression of his character is anger and seriousness, his sole duty is to make the story less fun.

The writing as a whole kind of sucks though, on top of being ridiculously sexist. There's two strong and confident female characters in the game. One is a joke because she's "butch" (ie: she looks like the average female soldier would), and the other one's strength is a complete facade because despite everything she's accomplished, she just wants somebody to protect her. In fact, through some absurd logical jump, everything she does is with the hope that it will make someone protect her.

Err... rant over. Carry on

 

[Mikkaddo]

Has there ever been that one show you completely gave up, simply because you hated the character the show decided to follow? That was me, for Pokemon.

Can you think of a protagonist you just completely hated, found too annoying to deal with? One that never developed in positive ways and actually learned from their mistakes like a real character should, all for the sake of 'relating to the target audience'?

I very nearly gave up on Monster Rancher several times because of Genky. Let's do the rundown, bratty kid who's quite litterally addicted to videogames (can't even pay attention to the teacher lecturing him for not paying attention because he's too busy obsessing over videogames) who won a multiplayer game tournament by just magically being the most amazing thing ever somehow (seriously, a suezo like his vs a golem would NOT end that way without a HUGE difference in level, which a tournament would not allow) then, by way of pure fucking fate apparently, when he gets his unreleased copy of the new Monster Rancher game as a prize from the tournament and tells it to go ahead and do the monster summon thing, he gets sucked into his tv, backpack and all . . . complete with his game disc and goes on a massive adventure of bitching at everyone he meets and constantly screaming about everything. Not to MENTION how badly he actually treats his monster, the female lead (who's name i forget) has several monsters in her care at the beginning of the show, and yet doesn't see any reason to stop Genky from treating Mochi like shit . . . constantly Genky tells the poor little pink guy to stop being a baby, then complains JUST as hard himself about shit that makes even LESS sense.

Not to mention Genky himself jumping into every monster battle with his dumbass little rollerblades, as if that's going to crack the carapace of a MASSIVE ARMORED FUCKING WORM! gods that kid frustrates me . . .

The only real saving grace honestly was the subversive darkness of the show, there's an evil clown monster who weilds a massive scythe and kills you with fantasies that turn into horrifying nightmares until the fear kills you, a king midas monster that invites the party to eat at his palace then wants to bury them alive in sand or litteraly crush them to death. And let's not forget Mu, the monster so massive he shakes his flying castle when he walks, has the power to turn monsters into "Lost Discs" (permadeath) with just a slap of his hands, AND has enough magical power to dessimate entire nations. Oh and he works on sort of a Joker from Batman the Animated Series motivation, he wants to sew destruction in the world and create an army of evil minions that expand said destruction because he wants the world to feel his pain. I loved that villain . . . the best ones are the ones you can't see going to the good side, the only real solution is their death . . . that's a villain you can believe in.

 

[Tiamattt]

Naruto wasn't exactly the brightest light bulb. His age gives him some leeway but for the most part his charge-first think 2nd routine gets really old really fast. He's hardly unique here though since a LOT of heroes has this stupid habit, Naruto's just one of the more famous ones. But really he wouldn't have lasted past the first arc if it wasn't for major plot armor jutsu.

The Dragon Ball heroes had some serious cases of incompetence whenever they get too cocky, which you would think after their mistake nearly leads to the death of everyone they know and love that they would learn their lesson, but nooooooooooo lets do the same crap again when the next super threat shows up.

 

[Mikkaddo]

Square Enix seems to have quite a few that fit this bill

Edge from Star Ocean the Last Hope. Everything he did he F'ed up, at least for the first....90% of the game. He blew up Earth....well A Earth.

Why didn't I think of him. God damn I hated him. Of course that's nothing compared to the SRF guys who thought it'd be a good idea to let teenagers lead their space exploration missions. I know Square-Enix has a thing for teenage protagonists, but Christ! Can you just imagine how that meeting went down with the SRF.
SRF guy 1: Ok we're going to launch some ships to explore deep space. We'll need some highly trained men and women to command these ships.
SRF guy 2: Nah, let's just round up a bunch of teenagers. That'll do.

I say to you, Zone of the Enders, where a kid of no more than about 7 is told by a super advanced nuclear powered AI controlled Mech that he's the "ONLY HOPE" from a planet that's completely colonized by the military and completely populated by soldiers and their civilian familymembers, really? this 7 year old is the ONLY HOPE? this kid that doesn't even know how to use a computer is the ONLY ONE that can pilot this advanced military mech to victory? bullshit ladies and gentlemen, bullshit.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Walking Dead. Everyone but that redneck with the crossbow, he was pretty pragmatic.

To be fair, zombie shows kinda need the protagonists to be stupid, or else they would win, since zombies pose no real threat to someone thinking and not rotting. But geez, these guys are DUMB!

Quoting for truth. I never watched this show until very recently where I watched it straight from start to the current finish. The writing is pretty mediocre, the "drama" is horribly contrived and the characters are generally amongst the stupidest, most illogical I've ever seen, to the point where I am having real trouble believing that these are folks who would survive in the end times.

The only characters I like and think are actually consistent, enjoyable and believable are:
- Darryl: His heart is in the right place, he gets jobs done and is capable and stoic.
- Michonne: She's quite simply a badarse and frikkin' awesome. A one woman army and still sensitive to others.
- Carol: Like her or not, she has the most believable character development over the course of the show.
= Hershel: I love that he was a man of the book and a man of principle, had his worldview dramatically altered and still does the right thing by those he cares about.

The others vary between believable and ludicrous. Lori was an idiot whose constant stupidity defied comprehension. Andrea had pretty much no personality for 2.5 seasons before finally becoming interesting at the end of S3. Carl has the survival instincts of a lemming. Rick varies between an illogical fool and an interesting character depending on the writer du jours.

So many incidents defy my ability to wilfully suspend disbelief:

Spoiler

- Lowering Glenn into the well
- The prolonged search for Sophia beggared belief
- The zombies seem to lose their sense of smell for entire seasons at a time. One episode they can smell, then they can't, then they can again. They also teleport [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQP0_UqCw3A#t=238], an ability not mentioned so far.
- The survivors ignored them gathering by the prison fence (when they could have eliminated them with ZERO danger to themselves) until it collapsed and they were a massive danger.
- They are entirely incapable of securing a prison, what should be the easiest place on earth to secure.
- They can headshot moving zombies without issue, but against the living will empty dozens-hundreds of rounds at a stationary target and miss every shot.

I think the writers lack the ability to write actual drama, believable and natural stories so things are contrived without consideration for logic, what came before, established characters or common sense.

 

[Sanderpower]

Ichigo freaking Kurosaki. He's handed power. Like no joke. He learns one of the most powerful techniques, Bankai, in a couple of freaking days. He's given a freaking extremely powerful mask and hollow powers that shows up whenever somebody more competent SHOULD of kicked his ass and killed him. Sure he has a training episode or two, but that doesn't excuse the fact that he's a 15 year old kid who just single-mindlessly brute forces his way to victories against highly experienced opponents who are hundreds or thousands of years old. Also the power-ex-machinima that allows Ichigo to beat Aizen had me facepalming so hard. It came out of NOWHERE. The convenience in which he learns the technique and how powerful it makes him convinced me that the writer gave up and couldn't think of a logical way for Ichigo to beat the OP Aizen.

The only character more full of crap then Ichigo is the villain Aizen. OH my freaking god I hate Aizen. Even before he got his Mcguffin he was already insanely powerful because....NO REASON he just IS! He has had plenty of opportunities to just kill everybody and complete his plans but he keeps toying with them. He lets his subordinates, which he went through all the work to create just DIE for either no reason or extremely stupid reasons.

The first part of Bleach looked pretty good, but then it just spiraled out of control because of all the power creeps due to lazy/bad writing. Though I do have to admit that the fight scenes in Bleach are pretty awesome (most of the time).

 

[kasperbbs]

Everyone from One piece, every single one of them are morons, i lost count how many times i thought to myself "are you fucking kidding me?" while watching that show.

 

[gargantual]

In "One flew over the cuckoos nest" I spent most the time thinking "this guy is just a fuck up" and "nurse Ratchett isn't THAT bad"

In "One flew over the cuckoos nest" I spent most the time thinking "this guy is just a fuck up" and "nurse Ratchett isn't THAT bad"

WHAAAAAAT!?

*spits drink*

Okay, okay, it's been a while since I read it. A long while. But, uh... doesn't she shame a guy into suicide? A guy she knew full well was mentally and emotionally unstable? An act for which she shows zero remorse?

Oh, and doesn't she get people sent to shock therapy as punishment? (As opposed to, y'know, therapy.)

Of course, that's on top of being thoroughly unpleasant and abusing her power throughout.

I know right? She might as well've been wearing an executioner's mask. Even Shutter Island framed a lobotomy as a death of personality.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Square Enix seems to have quite a few that fit this bill

Edge from Star Ocean the Last Hope. Everything he did he F'ed up, at least for the first....90% of the game. He blew up Earth....well A Earth.

Why didn't I think of him. God damn I hated him. Of course that's nothing compared to the SRF guys who thought it'd be a good idea to let teenagers lead their space exploration missions. I know Square-Enix has a thing for teenage protagonists, but Christ! Can you just imagine how that meeting went down with the SRF.
SRF guy 1: Ok we're going to launch some ships to explore deep space. We'll need some highly trained men and women to command these ships.
SRF guy 2: Nah, let's just round up a bunch of teenagers. That'll do.

I say to you, Zone of the Enders, where a kid of no more than about 7 is told by a super advanced nuclear powered AI controlled Mech that he's the "ONLY HOPE" from a planet that's completely colonized by the military and completely populated by soldiers and their civilian familymembers, really? this 7 year old is the ONLY HOPE? this kid that doesn't even know how to use a computer is the ONLY ONE that can pilot this advanced military mech to victory? bullshit ladies and gentlemen, bullshit.

Sounds like a faulty AI as opposed to a Starfleet (Star Trek) expy staffed by morons.