Protagonists you just can't stand.

[Marik2]

I tired my best to let go hating Kirito, but I just have to say this in his defense. Almost EVERY shounen protagonist is like this. OP, always pulls a victory out of his ass, has multiple attractive women loving him for no real reason. He just embodies it perfectly.

Rito from the Love-Ru. He is the most pathetic excuse of a person ever. How he ever got multiple women to fall in love with him is beyond me. He is completely useless in any situation and just lets his many girlfriends take care of him.

My most hated protagonist of all time. Ichika from Infinite Stratos. He is the most dense person, no. The most dense thing that exists on earth. Seven girls have feelings for him, and at several times making it painfully obvious. Every time he just goes "huh?" and gets a dumb look on his face. This picture describes the show perfectly.

Spoiler

Edit: Picture should be fixed.

lololool saw that pic on a youtube vid

Ichika is not the densest harem protagonist out there. That would be Natsu from Kampfer, because all the girls have kissed him and some of them have tried to have sex with the guy, but he is absolutely clueless about what they want. -_-

 

[Furbyz]

Marche from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. This little genocidal son of a ***** drives me down into his level of insanity. I really liked the combat system for FFTA. Getting a perfect team together, scouting the right recruits, I loved every part of it. I had made the perfect team and then...I had to quit the game because, due to a fluke of laws and cut scenes, I managed to accidentally lose at the perfect moment to save the world from Marche's world ending rampage.

It's his certainty that the world and people around him aren't real, and he has to get back to the "real world," even if that means destroying this one and everyone in it to do it. How did he find people to go along with this anyway? Why is Monteblanc just fine with this kid he pulled off the street destroying the pillars of reality?

 

[Entourian]

There is only a single character that I can't stand on every level of his existence. Snow from from Final Fantasy XIII. That guy isn't just annoying, he's an abyss of stupidity on every level. Example, his plan to save his allies after they were captured, is to burst in guns blazing into one of the most heavily protected areas in the game world, and he not only succeeds, but he escapes with nary a scratch. Furthermore, his plan to save the world is to kill Barthandalus, which would cause Pulse to crash into Cocoon, which it does, and is only stopped by Deus Ex Machina.

*Takes deep breath*

I don't like him very much.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

I guess one can make a lot of arguments over whether or not she is a "protagonist" (though she is definitely one of the main characters), but Sarah Kerrigan from the StarCraft games.

Seriously, you went from having an unstoppable Zerg Swarm being run by a giant disembodied floating eyeball with an awesome voice, to being run by a woman in a Zerg exoskeleton bodysuit (complete with high heels) with Predator dreadlocks who seems to jump between "I'm a psychotic genocidal maniac" to "I'm going to cry" at the drop of a dime.

I get that Blizzard put her in there to have a human character running the Zerg so we could relate to them as a faction (and as characters) in the game, but the entire reason I wanted to play as the Zerg when StarCraft first came out is BECAUSE they were completely inhuman and different from the rest, and that they aren't affected by human emotion or concepts like honor, love, or revenge. That's way more interesting than "I'm perpetually angry Queen-***** bad-ass but also kind of in love".

My hope in "Legacy of the Void" is that Kerrigan gets killed and Abathur takes over the Swarm. Abathur was a Boss.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Micah from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. I cannot give any symathy for her since she acted her nation did no evil deed, sure I cna get her nation was suffering now in the aftermath of the war but it was her nation (well the king) that cause it in the first place! Not only that but she also view Ike (the hero of the previous game) to be the villain which was the final draw on why should I want her to suceed?

 

[Auron225]

I tend to be fairly forgiving of protagonist archtypes. The only one that's popping into my head at the moment isn't so much of his character but of his role;

Vaan from Final Fantasy XII

There is no good reason why he is the protagonist. In fact, there's barely a good reason why he's even there with the party at all (same for Penelo - she's only there cause Vaan is). So him apparently being the main character is just plain madness.

 

[AustinN]

Black Widow from the movies. Had to make that specification because I have no idea what she's like in the comics.
Anyway.
I know she's supposed to be professional but she seems so cocky in her abilities, I absolutely can't stand her.

Wait, you think Black Widow is too cocky but you don't mention Iron Man? The very personification of cockiness and arrogance? (I totally love him for it by the way, not trying to say Iron Man's a bad character or anything.) Huh. That's... I mean, it's your opinion and all but... *confused*

Yeah, but Tony's like, charming and Black Widow is just -_- for the whole movie.

 

[Genocidicles]

Vaan from Final Fantasy XII

There is no good reason why he is the protagonist. In fact, there's barely a good reason why he's even there with the party at all (same for Penelo - she's only there cause Vaan is). So him apparently being the main character is just plain madness.

Apparently Basche was supposed to be the main character of FF XII, but Square Enix was scared it wouldn't sell unless they had some androgynous ninny as the main character, so they just wrote Vaan in.

 

[Kristian Langager]

I really disliked a lot of what was done with Lara in the new Tomb Raider.

She didn't seem like much of a hero or lead. Just someone who continuously got very lucky and easily could've failed many times.

This is actually what made me enjoy playing the game. I did it right after playing Batman: Arkham Asylum and I couldn't stop thinking to myself: This is how Batman would play if he was a regular Joe Schmoe in a pickle. It makes her relatable, someone who doesn't have the skill or technology to kick ass against anyone, but actually gets lucky enough to live another day.

The protagonist I dislike the most is William Murderface from Metalocalypse. Loud, annoying, self-centered, greedy, lazy, stupid, spoiled and an asshole - all the stuff I hate in myself and therefore doubly so in another.

Oh, and Usopp from One Piece can go jump in the ocean - LIKE HE NEVER DOES WHEN A FRUIT USER FALLS IN BECAUSE HE'S TOO BUSY RUNNING AROUND PANICKED!

 

[Shanahanapp]

Yeah Kirito from Sword Art Online is a good choice. I mean apart from the huge OP thing he's also got the usual Harem anime thing of "I don't realise that all the girls like me even though they are blatantly obvious about it." Any character who's like that just frustrates me.

Saji and Louise from most of the first series of Gundam 00. They do become great characters and have some great development afterwards but for most of the first series everytime they're on screen you just think "I could be watching something interesting while you guys talk about NOTHING for 5 minutes." (not technically protagonists but they're in it about as much as the actual protagonists.)

Trevor (and both other player characters to a lesser degree) from GTAV. Literally a horrible scumbag. Like no redeeming value, he is literally a murdering drug-dealer but it's supposed to be charming I guess? And people LIKE him.

 

[AustinN]

I tend to be fairly forgiving of protagonist archtypes. The only one that's popping into my head at the moment isn't so much of his character but of his role;

Vaan from Final Fantasy XII

There is no good reason why he is the protagonist. In fact, there's barely a good reason why he's even there with the party at all (same for Penelo - she's only there cause Vaan is). So him apparently being the main character is just plain madness.

There's actually a reason for that. Originally the main character was going to be Basch, but the higher ups thought he was too old and macho and western, so they forced him to stick in a generic pretty boy as the protagonist. The developers weren't on board with that, hence why he's so useless to the plot. I've heard even the other characters don't like him that much.

 

[Auron225]

Apparently Basche was supposed to be the main character of FF XII, but Square Enix was scared it wouldn't sell unless they had some androgynous ninny as the main character, so they just wrote Vaan in.

There's actually a reason for that. Originally the main character was going to be Basch, but the higher ups thought he was too old and macho and western, so they forced him to stick in a generic pretty boy as the protagonist. The developers weren't on board with that, hence why he's so useless to the plot. I've heard even the other characters don't like him that much.

I knew that - but you guys gotta admit; regardless of why they had to do it, it still doesn't look right. I guess the only redeeming thing about it all is that it likely wasn't anyones idea of the end goal; to have a protagonist so useless and unrelated to the plot that you wonder why he's even there. The higher-ups wanted a traditional pretty-boy with whom the world revolved around and the devs wanted Basch (which would've made much more sense) but they tried to compromise and neither of them really got what they wanted.

 

[Genocidicles]

I knew that - but you guys gotta admit; regardless of why they had to do it, it still doesn't look right. I guess the only redeeming thing about it all is that it likely wasn't anyones idea of the end goal; to have a protagonist so useless and unrelated to the plot that you wonder why he's even there. The higher-ups wanted a traditional pretty-boy with whom the world revolved around and the devs wanted Basch (which would've made much more sense) but they tried to compromise and neither of them really got what they wanted.

Well I reckon they decided to add Vaan quite late in development, so they didn't have time to properly add him to the story in a meaningful way.

 

[Chris Moses]

The protagonist from the movie "Jumper". Self centered, narcissist, watches a news story about people dying in a flood in Africa... Jumps to London to have sex with "one of dem hawt English chicks".

 

[Spiritofpower]

Let's see, where did I leave that..?

Ah, yes:

Now, for the very first (and only, to this day) character that is so terrible I have had to physically restrain myself from punching my computer screen...

Shinn Asuka from Gundam SEED Destiny.

Oh god where do I start. Firstly? His entire character is literally:

Spoiler: Massive GSD plot spoilers

"My sister died in an attack on Orb by the Earth Alliance, along with my family, but my sister is the only one I care about. Clearly, the proper way to respond is to blame Orb for being attacked by enemies with weapons, and not having magic force-fields to stop the bullets and lasers. I will then join ZAFT for no goddamn reason whatsoever, and whenever I open my mouth to spout hateful, emo, childish tripe, everyone else will just let me waltz all over them without even trying to point out how stupid I am acting.

Then, after some time, I meet a hot chick, who, unbeknownst to me, works for my enemy, LOGOS. When she is stuffed into a gigantic, terrifyingly powerful Mobile Armor and begins going on a rampage across several cities, likely killing millions, I decide that, clearly, the proper response is to angst and do nothing. When Kira Yamato, someone who is actually willing to get shit done occasionally, comes in and takes her out, he is clearly in the wrong and I must clearly go on an obsessive revenge-quest over a girl I met ONCE and who was KILLING MILLIONS IN A CONTINENT-WIDE RAMPAGE and then, after a lot of effort, appear to kill him without actually doing so.

Then, when my superior officer, the not-an-asshole Athrun Zala, punches me in the face for my sheer stupidity, he is clearly in the wrong. Then, I will decide to join up with Durandal/whatever his name is, who obviously didn't learn anything from WWII and decides it's an excellent idea to execute someone because the poorly-explained gene computer decided he would do something bad in later life."

Now yes, that's a rather long rant, but notice how Shinn does one thing, and one thing only, throughout the entire plot: Angst, whine, and seek vengeance. That is it. Not only that, no one seems capable or willing to call him out on his BS, so he just gets away with it. I am completely honest when I say that the scene where Athrun punched Shinn is without a doubt my favorite scene in GSD.

Given that Shinn's one of the protagonists of GSD, this counts. And I'm not even kidding about having to literally keep myself from punching my computer screen, he was that bad.

 

[Schtimpy]

When I played Final Fantasy XII, I always thought of Basch as the main character, what with the story relevance and such. Whenever I went to town, I just thought the "Vaans the only controllable character" thing was just Vaan being sent to buy supplies because the others had better stuff to do.

OP: Ash from Pokémon. He is supposed to represent a main character from the first Pokemon games, who is a complete badass, catching and cataloging 150 different monsters, taking down a criminal organization, and owning the best trainers in the world in straight combat. Ash, on the other hand, never earned half of his badges and made it through viridian forest with his starter, a Pidgeotto (over-leveled), and a Caterpie. I had six unique pokemon by then and I wasn't even trying.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Does Catelyn Stark count as a protagonist? She gets enough page-time in the books, so I'm counting her. She's a stuck-up, self-centered, short-sighted hypocrite and I hate every moment the books spend in her small-minded little head. Thats one advantage the TV show has over the books, we don't get to hear her thoughts. I find goddamn Cersei more sympathetic than Catelyn because at least Cersei recognises the fact that she's an evil *****. In Catelyn's World she has no flaws and everything bad that happens is the fault of other people, which you may recognise as the logic of a sociopath. She is easily the character I hate most in the series (hey, Joffrey is like the Joker, you know he's a terrible person but by god is he entertaining to watch) and I am so glad the Red Wedding went and stopped us having to listen to her

 

[Someone Depressing]

Most Final Fantasy protagonists.

The first game had none.
The second's Firion looked like a douche and had no personality (not like anyone did in that game).
The third's was... ok.
Four's Cecil is, like, bearable. Sometimes even cool. But mostly not.
Five's whatever is blah.
Six's Terra is alright.
Seven's Cloud was a brooding asshole, whose character was an interesting premise but was simply a mess.
Eight's Leon isn't actually a brooding asshole like Cloud. But his "gunblade" is enough for me to despise him.
I refuse to even say Tidus is the protagonist. The focus of the story is Yuna. The main character is Yuna. If I could, I would set Yuna to the party avatar so I wouldn't have to look at Tidus's annoying face and idiotic shorts.
In 10-2, Yuna. Just Yuna. Arguably all three of the moe fanservice fuckers.

See? They just can't write a main character 90% of the time. It's so... annoying. Everything about it.

 

[ABLb0y]

Ok, this is coming from a bloke who liked most of the protagonists of Final Fantasy 13... Just that little disclaimer should show you just how dreadful the main character of the dreadful comic strip series Sonichu is.
The bloke has his psychic friend constantly watch everyone in his little dictatorship to make sure none of them are having gay thoughts, traps hundreds of innocent people in a building so they can't escape when he collapses it and beats a defenseless elderly prisoner to the point where she's paralyzed for life... And that's not even the most disgusting thing this douche does.
Worst of all? He's the author's idealized self. WE'RE SUPPOSED TO LIKE THIS TWAT.

 

[Kajin]

I'll start: the protagonist from Sword Art Online. A clasic case of the wish fufilment character, that particular Marty Sue is the strongest person in the game the characters are trapped in because... well to be quite honest they never even try to explain it in adiquet detail. Hell, given the logic of how an MMO runs, he would be one of the weakest players since he did all of 2 missions with other people in 2 years, and soloing in an MMO is the slow way to level up. I could go on listing things I dislike about the character, like the Deus Ex he pulls every battle, but I think you get the point.

So, what protagonist, regardless of medium, can you not stand?

Kirito's being OP is sort of justified in that he managed to get a good head start as a beta tester, being solo so he doesn't have to split any loot or gold, and the fact that he pretty much grinds the toughest monsters he can nonstop to compensate for not working with a team. There's also the fact that SAO relies more on your actual combat ability and your reflexes than a traditional MMO and Kirito is stated as having the fastest reflexes of anyone in the game. I also hear that he's a lot more tolerable in the books than the anime because the anime cuts out the entirety of the internal dialogue he has going which supposedly makes him funnier I guess?. But yeah, there are better anime heroes out there than Kirito.

My most hated protagonist of all time. Ichika from Infinite Stratos. He is the most dense person, no. The most dense thing that exists on earth. Seven girls have feelings for him, and at several times making it painfully obvious. Every time he just goes "huh?" and gets a dumb look on his face. This picture describes the show perfectly.

Spoiler

Edit: Picture should be fixed.

Ah, Infinite Stratos. Terrible harem anime with excellent CGI and fight scenes. Cut out all of the character dialogue and any scene that doesn't have fighting and you'd have a pretty watchable anime. As far as the harem itself, I'm a fan of the idea that Ichika is voluntarily dense. When the girls in your harem are all wielding weapons of mass destruction, the last thing you want to do is break any of their hearts by picking one of them over the others. But since I doubt the authors intended for that to be a possibility... Bah.