Any number of factors may influence a person’s feelings towards a character, from their actions and design to their role in the plot.
Sometimes, the audience unites behind contempt for some characters. Whether it is poor writing, a bad performance, a perceived lack of entertainment, or any number of other factors, some characters just lead everyone in the audience to despise them.
10 Vinny Had The Bad Luck Of Replacing Brian (Family Guy)
Within the cynical and exaggerated world of Family Guy, Vinny the dog is actually one of the kinder characters. Despite an overuse of Italian-American stereotypes, his personality and actions didn’t particularly serve to set fans against him.
Instead, Vinny earned the hatred of most fans of the show by being the in-universe and out-of-universe replacement for Brian Griffin, after he was hit by a car and killed. With the twist already disliked by many fans, replacing Brian within the same episode incensed many, and Vinny only lessened the anger of some by having Brian brought back.
9 The Tibble Twins Are Spiteful & One-Note (Arthur)
Despite Arthur having legions of characters over its 25 seasons, it has had very few who have struck the wrong note with fans, and even fewer of those have been recurring characters. Nonetheless, the Tibble twins, the DW-aged neighbors of Arthur and D.W., rub many fans the wrong way.
Despite ostensibly being D.W.’s friends, the twins usually spend their screentime doing terrible things to either her or Arthur, ranging from breaking her toys and snapping Arthur’s expensive glasses to putting D.W. in the hospital. Most of the time, they are never disciplined, and even when they apologize, they revert to doing the same thing by their next appearance.
8 Aquaman Is Memetically Useless (Superfriends)
For a long time, Aquaman‘s character was associated with useless, situational superpowers, and being of little value to a team of superheroes. Jokes about him abounded both in real life and on TV shows like The Big Bang Theory.
This stemmed from his appearance in Superfriends, where his appearance was bland and plain, and his only contribution in terms of abilities was talking to fish and nothing else. As a result, fish often had to be shoehorned into plots to make him at all relevant, earning him the ire of fans. It would take Jason Momoa’s portrayal of the character in Justice League to redeem him.
7 Sparky Left After A Single Season (The Fairly Oddparents)
In The Fairly Oddparents’s ninth season, Sparky was seen by many as an attempt to include another kid-popular character in a show already popular with kids, in the form of a fairy dog. Aside from issues with continuity, the character was seen as obnoxious, annoying, and selfish.
Furthermore, more damning in the eyes of many was that his character felt redundant. Cosmo already fulfilled the role of an unintelligent character who often caused trouble unintentionally and did so whilst being more benevolent and funnier. Sparky wouldn’t last more than one season.
6 Yes Guy Has A Single Joke (The Simpsons)
The Simpsons is well-known for its very large cast of side characters, many of whom are well-developed, with unique personalities, depth, and sometimes storylines of their own.
The side character known as ‘Yes Guy’ had none of this, only appearing in scenes to say the word ‘Yes’ in an elongated and exaggerated fashion. While initially, he amused some, the single joke quickly overstayed its welcome, and he became one of the most hated characters on the show.
5 Gearhead Takes Up Too Much Screentime (Rick & Morty)
Of all of Rick’s friends, who serve as drop-in characters and occasionally guest in episodes on Rick and Morty, the one known as ‘Gearhead’ has earned fan anger by appearing the most often, and through his antagonistic actions. Despite the frequently highly immortal things done by Rick, Gearhead made sure fans disliked him by selling his friend out in return for money.
Furthermore, Gearhead is seen as more generic than many of Rick’s other friends and takes up screentime that could be used by more popular side characters. As a result, his appearances are often met by fans wishing he was gone.
4 Red Claw’s Accent Was Despised (Batman: The Animated Series)
Some of the villains in Batman: The Animated Series earned enough fan adoration to break out into the mainstream DC universe. The most iconic example is, of course, Harley Quinn, who is now one of the company’s signature characters.
Many are not so lucky, being mocked or disliked by fans for their overly-gimmicky designs, even by Batman standards, and limited impact. Red Claw took all of these issues, and on top of that served as a generic femme fatale character, with a Russian accent that fans saw as truly atrocious, ruining any chance of enjoying her appearances.
3 Mako Lacks Development & Interferes In The Romance (Legend of Korra)
Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender became an iconic character, an angsty but still enjoyable antagonist-turned-protagonist, at the center of some of the show’s most memorable moments. Mako, in Legend of Korra, is an attempt to recreate the lightning in a bottle, with a lot of the same angst, but none of the likability or development that made Zuko iconic.
Furthermore, Mako interferes in the fan-preferred couple of Korra and Asami, dating both of them at different points in the show and creating a love triangle. The result is that he is one of the least popular major characters from either show and particularly disliked by some in the fandom.
2 Leo Wong Is Unpleasant & Stereotypical (Futurama)
From Futurama, Leo Wong is a deeply unpleasant character, disliked by many fans for his rudeness, arrogance, and cruel treatment of his daughter, popular character Amy Wong. He only serves as the true antagonist of a single arc of the show’s story, and remains alive and unharmed even after that.
In particular, some fans dislike the notion that Leo Wong is made from problematic stereotypes.
1 Scrappy-Doo Is The Most Hated Character In Scooby-Doo (Scooby-Doo)
Scooby-Doo remains one of the longest-running cartoon franchises of all time, and for many, the worst periods of it were when Scrappy-Doo was a character at the show’s forefront. Brought in to help the show’s declining ratings, he ended up supplanting Fred, Daphne, and Velma, and was associated with a switch to a three-shorts format, involving real monsters against the show’s initial premise.
Although Scrappy wasn’t directly responsible for all of these, fans resented him for replacing more popular characters, and for his annoying and more child-oriented personality. So legendary is the hatred for Scrappy-Doo, that he became the antagonist for the live-action films, after annoying every member of Mystery Inc.
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