Protagonists You Can't Get Behind

[Candidus]

Oh man, too many to mention individually.

1. Protagonists who draw an arbitrary line through acceptable and unacceptable violence in the pursuit of good and/or the punishment of evil-- so let's strike all superheroes off the list of protags I can get behind.

2. Spineless, incompetent brats whose discovery of great power (usually a mecha) allows them to "come of age" and save the world doing it.

3. Characters who're despicably fragile, pacifistic, sensitive, kind etc etc... In JRPG's, this is usually a woman who eventually `develops`- if you can call it that- to be a little more willful and assertive, as though that's anywhere near enough to make them appealing to me. Just give her a scene where she tortures the shit out of a villain's lieutenant or something and she'll get an instant draft even if her stats are bad.

4. Male characters in general... Sorry, this is just... Yeah, I can't get behind a male character. I don't relate to them, I don't aspire to be like them. I don't care what they're going through. I don't care how they feel or what they want. I don't want to inhabit them, assist them or watch them. Get out.

Protags I can get behind:

Metallica - The Witch and the Hundred Knight
Light Yagami - A rare exception to the fourth rule.
Female Bhaalspawn - Baldur's Gate series.
Phantom Assassin - Dota 2 (hey now! each match has its own narrative, and you're always your own protagonist!)
Lucy - Elfen Lied

 

[Ygrez]

Hypocrites:

-Light from Death Note, hates murderers enough to start murdering them. And then decides he'll just murder anyone who doesn't conform to his view of things.

-Shinn from Gundam Seed Destiny, hates war because his family died then joins the army; hates Orb because they stuck to neutrality, then proceeds to hate Orb because they decide to abandon neutrality.

 

[senordesol]

Batman.

For a guy with only 'one rule', he seems to take it awfully easy on the scum of Gotham.

I remember in the WB movie 'Under the Red Hood' (or st like that, too lazy to look it up), Robin takes off a dude's arm and Batman is all like 'Whoa, totally uncool, bro!' and all I could do was sit there scratching my head. 'Beating them into a coma=fine? Taking off a limb=over the line? Wha...?'

Arkham Origins made it even worse. The Riddler is actually a good guy in AO, taking down the corrupt with information warfare...without leaving them in the hospital. But Batman's all like 'Ugh, you're going to get a lot of people hurt, now 'scuze me; I'm off to go beat up some police officers'.

Seriously, Batman's the worst part of the Batman universe.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Max DaCosta in Elysium, as played by Matt Damon.

Seriously, I couldn't root for this guy. Matt Damon's dull surprise acting didn't help out too much, but my main reason was that the character was just a dick throughout the whole movie. Sure, at the end, he's the good guy, but when the entire movie portrays his character as a selfish jerk...

I can understand some of his actions, due to his circumstances, but even that only goes so far. I'm trying to avoid spoiling any plot points, but I find it hard to get behind a hero who, in the end, is in it totally for themselves, can't give a rat's ass about anyone else...and the writers still expect us to treat that guy as the unambiguous "good guy".

 

[Timedraven 117]

The humans in Blade Runner. I'm like, "Alright! Its a movie where we root for the AIs who are trying to gain equality." Then its just a boring crime drama, where even as the robots are killing people just for slightly inconveniencing them i still can't help but think they are still the people i want to win and who are technically the good guys. Am I missing something? How was this considered a freaking classic?!

There are innumerable more but because they are so bad i just can't remember.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Seriously, Batman's the worst part of the Batman universe.

Seconded...but I do like the rest of the Bat family. He's good when he is just there to upset them.

The humans in Blade Runner. I'm like, "Alright! Its a movie where we root for the AIs who are trying to gain equality." Then its just a boring crime drama, where even as the robots are killing people just for slightly inconveniencing them i still can't help but think they are still the people i want to win and who are technically the good guys. Am I missing something? How was this considered a freaking classic?!

Well...are the humans the ones you are supposed to win? Sure, it starts out like that, but then you see what's going on and then things get a bit blurrier.

I think it's a classic because of the movies and visuals, though. Story isn't bad, but rather rambling.

 

[Uriel_Hayabusa]

The titular character from Scott Pilgrim vs The World. The guy was nothing but a shallow, self-absorbed whiner.

 

[Benpasko]

And this last one is probably going to earn me some serious hatred considering how much what... "fanbase" is like but...

It's friendly hatred! (Not really though, Alliance scum)

I'm just sayin though, in old hillsbrad those are clearly concentration camps, the guards even make nazi references when you kill them. The Alliance carried on war after Thrall took power, and all Thrall wanted was peace. Garrosh a shit, but Thrall was clearly written to be the good guy in the conflict.

 

[Super Cyborg]

Ichigo, from Bleach. While early on he had potential, he just never became good, and actually got worse. He's either silently brooding, or yelling frantically even when situations don't call for it. He has no goals, dreams, or reason to be part of what's going on in the grand scheme of things. The problem to is that he doesn't seem grow through the situations. It doesn't have to be much, but when you have a surprised expression for the 100th time in an arc, especially for information you could've learned about a long time ago (the truth about his past and how things came to be). It also just doesn't help he's in a story where no characters seem to have personality, or at least most of the important ones. If he emoted every once in a while, and didn't changing between sad and angry every few chapters, I could at least tolerate him.

 

[David Huff]

Any vampire in any vampire movie/book/anything that has the gall to demand tolerance while murdering humans by the boat load. A la True Blood. Really, it takes a a lot to get me to root for people other than humans in most works and when a vampire's only claim to morality is that they're "hot" than I'm more than willing to whip out a few pitch forks and torches.

I mostly agree with you but I think some shows do it great. Like Being Human for example, it makes you think that there going to go that route and then they get in depth with the whole addiction thing. How blood is like a drug. The guilt the characters feel is always there.

 

[shootthebandit]

Seriously, Batman's the worst part of the Batman universe.

He's just there to gives the villains someone to antagonise. I personally think hes a bit dull but then again you look at most heroes and they are all pretty drained of charisma compared to the villains they fight.

Off the top of my head there's Tony stark, wolverine, kickass (including hit girl and big daddy), deadpool, daredevil and the watchmen who are actually pretty interesting. All the big well known ones supes, batman and spiderman etc are all pretty meh

 

[CelestDaer]

Bill Murray in any movie, really. He's a dick to be a dick in the Ghostbusters. He started a business, and Walter Peck HAD the law on his side to at least inspect what the containment system might do.
Pierce Washington from the Saints Row series (I've only played the Third so far, he might be better in others...) you just took out a Stag airship, and he just suddenly belts out, "Surely that showed them...?" cut to black, with "Twelve Hours Later" and Stag is swarming ALL of Steelport in response. I mean, I know it's not technically his fault that Stag are pissed off, but it's a well known rule you don't tempt narrative fate like that.
Agreed on Shinji, he's basically useless the entire series. Oh, he's lucky that Unit 01 worked around him, so, hey, he must be the chosen one. And yet, his reaction is more like, "Shit, now I have to meet people and learn how to be a pilot. Maybe Dad will be impressed?"
I can't really think of anyone else at the moment...

 

[RealRT]

Batman.

For a guy with only 'one rule', he seems to take it awfully easy on the scum of Gotham.

I remember in the WB movie 'Under the Red Hood' (or st like that, too lazy to look it up), Robin takes off a dude's arm and Batman is all like 'Whoa, totally uncool, bro!' and all I could do was sit there scratching my head. 'Beating them into a coma=fine? Taking off a limb=over the line? Wha...?'

Arkham Origins made it even worse. The Riddler is actually a good guy in AO, taking down the corrupt with information warfare...without leaving them in the hospital. But Batman's all like 'Ugh, you're going to get a lot of people hurt, now 'scuze me; I'm off to go beat up some police officers'.

Seriously, Batman's the worst part of the Batman universe.

Batman is not a character anymore, he's an event, a plot device. That's why I find former Robins much more interesting and satisfying - they are basically the same, but with personalities.

Also, Under the Red Hood? Gimme a high-five, that movie was awesome!

 

[Cecilo]

And this last one is probably going to earn me some serious hatred considering how much what... "fanbase" is like but...

It's friendly hatred! (Not really though, Alliance scum)

I'm just sayin though, in old hillsbrad those are clearly concentration camps, the guards even make nazi references when you kill them. The Alliance carried on war after Thrall took power, and all Thrall wanted was peace. Garrosh a shit, but Thrall was clearly written to be the good guy in the conflict.

Do keep in mind that the Horde during the first and second wars burned down most of what is now Stormwind, Westfall, Redridge and Duskwood. Further the concentration camps were not intended to kill off the Orcs, many of the human kingdoms actually demanded the orcs be killed off.

However Archmage Antonidas proposed something different, that the orcs were not in control of themselves (And they werent), the Concentration camps had two goals, 1) To keep the Orcs from rising together and resuming the Genocide of Humanity, Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes (And any troll races that the Forest Trolls didn't like), and 2) To remove the Demonic taint from the Orcs through seperating them from the Dark Portal.

Both goals suceeded for a time, the only Orcs who openly worshiped Demons were the Burning Blade Clan that lived in Northern Eastern Kingdoms (though this is in part thanks to Gul'dan who decided to go find the Eye of Sargeras, he took most of the Warlocks with him)

Now in WOTLK, Cata and Mists the Orcs were clearly the villains again, In Wrath they ambushed the Alliance who were fighting Scourge forces infront of the Wrath Gate, The Alliance soldiers give you a quest asking for Death, the Horde Soldiers give you a quest to finish off the Alliance soldiers.

In Cata Garrosh's obession with the Alliance leads him to get most of his fleet destroyed in the Twilight Highlands, and in Cata the Forsaken show their true colours, Sylvanas is nothing more than a less powerful Lich King, and the Royal Apothecaries are still up to their "Experiments" In Hillsbrad, oddly enough as you mentioned, The Horde in Hillsbrad bears a striking resemblance to how the Nazi's acted, except these references straight up preform experiments on the people and kill them en masse, as opposed to the Old Hillsbrad, where the most that happened was Manual labor, and this is the big part, slave fighting (Which is referenced by one of the COT: OH bosses).

In Mists, Garrosh goes completely overboard, destroys towns fully, and well, There is no part of what Garrosh did during Mists that could be considered okay. In any respect.

 

[game-lover]

Shiro from Fate/Stay night. That guy was so... so stupid, he single handedly made me abandon the series after episode 7. Its a shame too, because I love everything Type-moon related. Fuck, I can't stand him in the slightest.

I cant agree more with this. The amount of times he talks about how he needs to protect Saber, despite Saber absolutely being his better in every way was aggravating. "No dont fight Berserker Saber despite that literally being your sole purpose for being here and having the strength and ability to do it. I'll fight him with my complete lack of any actual combat skills or magical protection!" Screw you Shiro! At least every other person has somethin they can do to fight.

I love Fate Stay Night, but god is he obnoxious

Yes! Yes! Dear God. Shiro was the one that started up my freshly discovered pet peeve of fucking characters who gung ho risk their lives when they can't do shit.

I hate them. I hate them all. I yelled at him the whole time I watched this anime. It was all fine and dandy until he did that for reasons that are completely nonsensical. *screeches*

Nice to know I'm not alone. Truly.

 

[kommando367]

Spider Man

It would be very difficult to sneak up behind that guy.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I can't stand Peter Griffin, he's a rude, stupid jerkass who never seems to get his comeuppance. Also the protagonists of Twilight. All of them.

 

[Super Cyborg]

Protagonists in extremely long running series. Some good example are Luffy, Goku mentioned above, etc. They stop being interesting mainly because we're watching from their primary perspective so long that we know how their going to react to a particular situation. We get a feel for the characters thought process, and they suffer for it, becoming predictable.

Even if some don't find them interesting because they know how they react, doesn't mean they can't get behind them. Luffy for example, despite being straightforward, he's an honest and good person, so I can get behind him on what he's doing. I will agree there are better characters than him, but in most series I read, the main character is never the most interesting.

 

[Blow_Pop]

Wanderer from Shadow of the Colossus.

Mind, I love the shit out of the game. But like, I have stronger feelings for his damn horse than I do for him (or the girl he's trying to bring back). And I have stronger feelings for some of the Colossi that I have to kill because some of them don't even try to hurt you unless you shoot at them or try and stab them first.

I don't care that he doesn't talk but he doesn't do anything to endear himself to me.

Wolverine. Batman. Superman. All 3 are boring as shit characters. And fuck Fox for basically making almost every X-Men movie "Wolverine and (insert whatever the plot is)". There's so many more interesting characters X-Men wise that I just don't see the point other than "oh the girls like Hugh Jackman shirtless so let's capitalize on that"(and we won't even go into my thoughts on the newest one). Batman's villains are more interesting than he is....well when they're not trying to make movies with them because some of them they just can't get right (*coughcoughscarecrowandnoreasonwhybanehasamaskcoughcough*). And Superman just...bores me. Spiderman does too to a point but then again he kind of doesn't.

Protagonists that either have no backstory, an underdeveloped backstory, or barely any backstory bother me. Because I like backstories. Or instances like Battle Royale 2 where a character does a complete 180 on their personality. That bothers me too.

And characters that feel like continuously pushing their agendas on you (though I get that more through books than any other form of media because I read more).

And characters who have been abused in their past to use that as an excuse to be abusive, manipulative, stalkers, man-babies who cry when everything isn't about them, or just assholes in general because of it. Likewise characters who had something bad happen to them as a child and decide to be good just because or be a borderline villain because they can (*coughcoughbatmancoughcough*). Don't get me wrong, I don't mind characters who are good just because but when it's because some sort of catalyst happened that they draw an arbitrary line over what's good or not then it starts bothering me.

And one-dimensional characters (but that's kind of covered under the no backstory thing).

 

[maidenm]

Now in WOTLK, Cata and Mists the Orcs were clearly the villains again, In Wrath they ambushed the Alliance who were fighting Scourge forces infront of the Wrath Gate, The Alliance soldiers give you a quest asking for Death, the Horde Soldiers give you a quest to finish off the Alliance soldiers.

But the ones betraying at the wrathgate where... the forsaken. Not the orcs. And the forsaken that did so even went against their own kind, under Sylvanas nose. Then, the Alliance invaded Undercity (wich was occupied by the forsaken seperatists, who where keeping the horde out as well). Thrall tried to keep things under controll, but when the forsaken where killed (by both horde and alliance forces) Varian Wrynn was the one to attack the horde. Jania stopped him and Thrall realised that this meant the uneasy peace was over.

In Cata Garrosh's obession with the Alliance leads him to get most of his fleet destroyed in the Twilight Highlands, and in Cata the Forsaken show their true colours, Sylvanas is nothing more than a less powerful Lich King, and the Royal Apothecaries are still up to their "Experiments" In Hillsbrad, oddly enough as you mentioned, The Horde in Hillsbrad bears a striking resemblance to how the Nazi's acted, except these references straight up preform experiments on the people and kill them en masse, as opposed to the Old Hillsbrad, where the most that happened was Manual labor, and this is the big part, slave fighting (Which is referenced by one of the COT: OH bosses).

Agreed, Garrosh is terrible in Cata and so is Sylvanas. And for horde players this is seen clearly as the beginning of the storm. Garrosh and Sylvanas are butting heads because one does not trust the other (Garrosh hates the forsaken because of what some of them did at the wrathgate) and the other has no respect for the "warchief". Meanwhile the other races are just trying to hold the crumbling horde together.

In Mists, Garrosh goes completely overboard, destroys towns fully, and well, There is no part of what Garrosh did during Mists that could be considered okay. In any respect.

Indeed. That is why even the horde (including orcs) turn against him.

I realise I might come across as a bit too know-it-all but one thing I always liked in later expansions where how both horde and alliance where shown to be good and bad. Both sides are both trying to survive and destroy, but not everyone agrees within the factions. Politics, I think it's called.

OT:
I'll just say most anime protaganists. Seriously, it's like every anime deliberatly tries to make the main character less interesting/likeable than pretty much everyone else.

Also some voiced protaganists whose lines I can't control. So many are just so... poorly written.