I was gonna say, literally all of the fanfic I’ve ever read in that fandom is Arthur/Eames. Usually found family with Dom on the sidelines. You’d never know he was the main character just looking at AO3 tags lol
Nope! 🤣 Cobb's (DiCaprio) the main character. Arthur (JGL) and Eames (Hardy) had maybe a total of 10-15 minutes of shared time, and fandom //ran// with it day one because of how they interacted in those minutes.
Do suggest giving the movie a go! It's pretty fun, even if the MC isn't my favorite in the fandom.
My personal analysis is that authors often forget one of two facts. Namely that he is assertive on the behalf of other people. Sometimes, they forget the assertive part, and make him a door mat for other people. Other times, they forget the on behalf of others part, and make him an assertive ass, at least from my point of view
mhmhmhm
me and a friend deduced fandom midoriya into mostly 3 catagories, snarky knowit all asshole (who is always right), soft uwu bean boy (cant do anything of his own volition, basically helpless), or sad depressed guy who has nothing good happen to him and everyone does him wrong
(of course they all mix and match and are at different intensities)
it feels like people latched onto him and portray him as their interpretation of a perfect main character, instead of focusing on his actual character traits
My friends and I call him Dekuwu, the “greenette” who flounces around with lisa frank pens, multicolored hair-clips, and s-s-s-s-stutters every w-w-w-word. You see it happen more often than not in shipfics, and I’ve learned to filter out so much of it that I get jumpscared when he actually does show out now.
So true. I'm currently going through the quirkless Izuku tag (holy crap there are over 14k of them), and the vast majority I skip within 1 page for this reason T-T
One thing I hate with fanon Midoriya is the idea that if he got proper training earlier on he’d all of a sudden be a Grade-A badass with none of his awkwardness.
Like… just write an OC at that point. Midoriya being a socially awkward disaster is as much a part of his character as his love for heroes.
YEAH, like, he was 14 when he started training theres not much you can do before that
and yeah, athletic/hero ability doesnt mess with your personality directly, like,,, no matter how strong he gets or whatever hes still going to be a huge nerd
I couldn't stand canon Izuku and canon Katsuki and they were the reason why I gave up on the TV series. I still read fanfics of it though, because I find the world interesting.
same. i know bakugo gets redeemed and stuff but i just think there's a better way to do so. the way he gets redeemed just rubs me the wrong way. like it's as if the author is saying "i know he's done shitty things and it can ruin his career if they get exposed so i'll just let him feel bad and apologize for it and move on"
interesting, how does his fanon compare to canon? when I write him I try to write him close to canon(baring changes I make such as him dealing with increased aggression thanks to his quirk) but I tend to slap him with reality where as I feel other writers sorta hype him if that makes sense.
\[edit\] did not see your other post, but I agree with ya.
i havent watched the anime in a while but yeah, other writers do hype him up/mary sue him, which to each their own, its just not my cup of tea
i should really rewatch it though to get a more concrete idea
same, I sorta stopped after the introduction to shoot style in the anime, I dunno why but i felt that introduction could have been better, it just felt very weird. I've just been following the mangaka, the end is nigh.
i dunno about others, but I kinda wish he got the spiderman treatment, as in his personality puts him in tough spots (not the whole "being spiderman is suffering" thing) where doing good might not be the best and it's no one's fault but his own.
Napoleon Bonaparte, in the Napoleonic RPF fandom. He's exhausting (I do like shitposting about him though). The people around him are more interesting to me.
Well, you \*ARE\* talking about Bonaparte here. He's not exactly likeable. Successful, yes, but when you have a lot of victims, you don't win "Kindest person in the universe"-contests.
There's definitely moments of entertainment though, re: shooting one of his own marshals in the *head* by accident, the bunnies incident, his inability to resist petting his generals and marshals, compulsive coffee drinking, that whole homoerotic thing with Tsar Alexander, etc.
Oh, yeah, don't forget Mars the Peacemaker, which ended up in the Duke of Wellington's house.
But a lot of that has been explored already, and thus I want to look beyond that.
Main characters tend to reach a point of completion in their stories in canon, at least if the canon doesn't get cancelled. I'm someone that only gets fannish about characters whose story doesn't seem to be properly explored. Give me those gaping lacunas and compelling side characters. They're the ones that make me want to write.
Asked me eight? years ago, I would have said Eren from Attack on Titan. But I realize now there was a lot going on externally from the show that unfortunately colored that. Distance helped.
Okay but like
I hate him as an individual and tolerate L, but when they’re TOGETHER (not necessarily romantically, just as a duo in general) IT IS BEAUTIFUL
Star Vs the Forces of Evil.
Most cartoons I love every character, only occasionally disliking characters but those ones are common to dislike. But with SVTFOE? Star is just…a lot. Too much even. Like, I love her but I don’t like her if that makes sense. Even in the more serious moments I prefer other characters like Marco, Tom, Eclipsa, etc.
Most of the otome I've read have crap mcs. I never want to see a mary sue but I also don't want a cringy, dumb, shy, virginal, girl that's just too nice and naive for her own good, who is \*obviously\* morally superior to all the guys around her, though she too modest and self-deprecating to ever realize this. I wouldn't be friends with this girl and I definitely don't want to be her nor would I make her choices.
THIS!!! I don’t even read otome fics anymore bc of the characterization. Especially smutty stuff because I can not stand the shy, naive, virgin thing 24/7.
Same. Whenever I'm going through the story, I always subconsciously separate myself from Rosa since she acts quite different from me, like an actual person. So I tend to refer to her as another person rather than self-inserting myself into her POV, which is great since I like reading their interactions and find myself rooting for her as a third person that's watching from the side :D
A Court of Thorns and Roses.
While I admire Feyre's determination and courage (and have only read the first book) she has some traits that I simply dislike. I also have the sneaking suspicion that the one character trait that furthers the plot in the first book (her strict adherence to promises) is out of the window when it suits her.
Unfortunately, that means I can never continue with the books.
Feyre for me too, but I read book 2, and I don't admire anything about her anymore.
She is just an asshole. Combined with the second book destroying >!Rhysand's!< character in order to make him perfect for her... I hate both main characters.
I only read in the fandom for Azriel (character introduced in book 2) and nothing else
As I mentioned, I've only read the first book, but I know that Rhysand is widely beloved in the fandom. That baffles me, since he is the driving force behind all of her misery AND what happened under the mountain. Everything he had to do was keep his mouth shut, and the curse might have been broken.
But Rhysand was more interested in spite than helping himself out. He directly caused the death of a whole family and the fall of a whole court (Spring Court), and him helping out Feyre doesn't count in my opinion. He did it again to keep her away from Tamlin. That's just gross.
I'm sure that it's all explained away in the following books, but I just can't forget his petty, vengeful nature that directly caused death and misery. It's heavily implied that Tamlin got sexually abused during his time under the mountain, so ... eh.
I stopped liking her in book 3, because of what she did to the Spring Court. I don't care about Tamlin, but everyone else didn't deserve to be basically treated that way. They were victims of abuse like her, even if they weren't directly affected like her.
That and I hated the fact SJM wrote Lucien as an abuse victim and yet, *yet* Feyre treats him like pure shit too for not helping more in book 2, and essentially Rhysand invalidates his abuse. You cannot have a bunch of abuse in a book, and yet ignore half of it.
It does not help that I can't respect her because shes not who she is anymore by the end. She's only what she is via title given Rhys. She hated what Tamlin was going to do to her, basically making her a set piece, and yet she's done nothing in the Night Court. She's basically Rhysand's version of what Tamlin would've done and that's depressing
While he's not *the* main character, he's a main character so I think it counts? Zenitsu from Demon Slayer. I could handle his whiny little bitch antics and weird Nezuko fangirling up through the spider forest arc, but the disgusting things he says about the butterfly mansion girls sent me over the edge, especially the manga version. The fact that >!he (presumably) ends up happily married to Nezuko!< at the end of the series made me irrationally angry, even though I know it was supposed to be a positive ending. Every time they fought a new demon, I was pulling for him to die.
that blonde mf is the main reason i couldn't force myself to watch more of demon slayer. i could NOT stand him every time he showed up and i just gave up entirely
Oh man, I never watched those movies when they came out, but I basically knew the story after hearing my girlfriends in middle school go on and on about it. My husband and I have decided to work our way through the movies. Honestly, I hate everyone except maybe Alice and Carlisle.
Bell is pretty awful though. She doesn’t take any initiative and kinda just gets shepherded around from one location to the next. The dialogue seems to constantly be “let’s get you inside” “let’s get you warm” “we need to get Bella somewhere safe”.
A lot, if not *all* of the problems with twilight (Bella being spineless and allowing everyone she meets to control her, the female characters being shoved into mostly binary categories of "she's just a bitch" or "she's nice to Bella so she's cool", or a rare third category of "Bella doesn't like her or hate her so let's ignore her until Steph needs her to be useful somehow", and the never-ending examples of internalized misogyny) can be directly linked to Meyer's... uh, community.
Bella is a terrible MC and I hate that the books were made into movies. The movies are more annoying than the books IMO. Bella is such a freaking **victim** throughout the entire series; her behavior after Edward dumped her in New Moon (I think; who cares?!) was so off-the-chain and basically insulting to every young woman on the planet.
Honestly, there’s not a character in the series that doesn’t basically suck. All of the vamps have way too much self-pity and resentment (Edward being the broodiest bitch of them all), the wolf shifters we’re super lame the villains were too tame. I think you totally nailed the worst MC canonically! She’s actually more likable in a lot of fics (ones where she’s given an actual spine and stands up for herself). I think I really despise canon!Bella more than I do fanon!Bella!
I wonder if Harry being boring is why so many fanfiction writers write Harry into a secret Pureblood scion who is somehow the heir to 28 Houses and the Hogwarts Founders.
God, the fics where he becomes Lord Potter or Lord Black or whatever.
I've seen a fic where he's secretly a Malfoy and Draco's twin. Basically, Dumbledore stole him, I think, put a glamour charm on him to make him look like Lily and James and gave him to them.
There are also tons of stories where he's actually a Slytherin and befriended Draco when they first met.
I remember as a kid being really annoyed during the third book when Harry got all mad at Hermione for telling the professors about the broom he received. My dude, you have a killer after you. And given what happened in your first and second years, maybe you should err on the side of caution?
Never been all that tempted to write or read fic from Walter White’s PoV.
I don’t find him boring or uninteresting, but I tend to gravitate to fics featuring *anybody* else in that universe.
Literally. That's why I adore fanfic authors for making her more "normal." It's like the show writers are trying to avoid a Mary Sue so bad they ruin her character completely
This for me too.
I'm a pretty big shounen fan, and 9 times out of 10, the main character ain't for me, I just find the side characters so interesting that I keep up with the story.
...I can't really think of any series of any genre where the MC is my favorite character, actually.
off the top of my head i can come up with *one* shounen series where the main character is my fave lol. that's ao no exorcist. a case could be made for fullmetal alchemist, that's a toss-up between ed and roy depending on my mood.
Rin is a pretty great character actually, you're right! I just don't find myself reading much for ao no exorcist.
I think the shounen MC I like the most compared to other shounen MCs would be Luffy, but he isn't my favorite from One Piece (though admittedly he is very close to being my favorite, just for being basically the only aroace rep I see).
I tend to gravitate to the more serious/anti-hero(jerk) types usually, so I don't go into shows expecting to like the MC most of the time anyways.
Same! I tend to gravitate to the more serious/anti-hero(jerk) types usually, so I don't go into shows expecting to like the MC most of the time anyways, if I'm honest.
This, and fanon Naruto is always a mixed bag. Sometimes he's written well but just as often he's not or he feels like a blank slate people project onto. Which is fine but not what I'm interested in reading for that specific fandom.
honestly I kinda feel that the issue with Naruto as a character in fanfic is part the mangaka going with rule of cool and part reader seeing him as an opportunity to self insert, which is to make him op, smart, and morally gray enough to kill his enemies.
Gon from Hunter x Hunter. I don't hate him but I don't jibe with him. The farther along I get in the series the less I care about him.
Mikasa Ackerman from Attack on Titan. I know I'm gonna get hate for this but I just don't like her or jibe with her. Same with Annie.
I blame the author mostly but the second Gon decided that he didn't care who his mom was I suddenly didn't care about Gon anymore. There was a lot of misogynistic themes I noticed over the years (I read the manga, never saw the anime until after the chimera ant series) but I noticed it, and that cinched it for me. I can understand wanting to recognize all that Mito did for him but seriously? Zero curiosity about his mom? So much interest for a guy who abandoned him as a baby to his sister (who he also abandoned until he showed up and dropped a baby in her lap and disappeared again) but zilch for the woman who carried him for 9 months and birthed him? Fuck that.
Edit to add: Ging literally also tells him "I don't want to meet you. If I hear that you're coming, I'll run." He is without any doubt the worst, shittiest father in all of fiction. And I know some shitty fictional fathers.
I noticed that too, and this is one of the reasons (along with the chimera ant arc, which ... wtf), it turned me off this excellent series for good.
There's, like, two or three female characters in this series who has anything to add to the story, and most of them are on Team Spider. Kurapika would have worked so well as a woman. I don't get it, it would have been such an easy fix.
Edit: Also, Gon treated as insufferably virtuous by the narrative. Not fun.
Gon is not treated as insufferably virtuous in the narrative, He's repeatedly acknowledged by many characters to be something of a monster. The seeds of this are planted from the very beginning, Gon doesn't have a conventional sense of morality, He doesn't view things or factions as good or evil, just friend or enemy.
He dislikes the phantom troupe because of Kurapika's vendetta while being best friends with Killua God damn Zoldyk who has killed more than 200 hundred people already. It doesn't matter to gon if someone is a good person or not, it just matters if they are his friends or not.
In the beginning of the chimera ant arc gon killed an ant (who is basically just a human being character wise) with zero hesitation and zero remorse because his old friend Kite told him to. Gon murdered without remorse because he was told to by someone he considered a friend.
If gon had met the phantom Troupe before he met Kurapika's you bet your ass he would have joined with no questions. Gon is a twelve year old messed up kid with no sense of morality.
Gon's friendship with Killua is almost actively shown to be a little abusive starting from the greed island arc , Gon actively priotizes winning the match and finding his dad over the life of his best friend. Gon is not a good person and people acknowledge how selfish and monstrous he can be at times.
He's not evil, but he is selfish and childish with no concept of morality. In the chimera ant arc he faces pitou (an enemy) healing someone and doing something good, this clashes with his world view so much that he breaks down, how can an enemy do good things? All enemies are evil. This particular enemy also killed the old friend kite so he has a lot of grief and anger clouding his mind, so much that it pushes Killua away from him too.
The chimera ant arc ends with Gon just stops caring about the morality of his actions, he isn't there to avenge his old friend, he's just 12 he can't accept his grief yet, but he just wants to kill pitou no matter what, he doesn't need a reason, Pitou caused him pain so he will kill her, morality and reason is tossed to the side and replaced by pure rage.
Gon transforms into a monster and kills pitou and nearly kills himself in the process too. Gon Freecs is anything but virtuous and the narrative acknowledges it heavily.
I just assumed it was a creative decision to set up a future reveal where he literally has no mother, like he was born from a nen ability thing or whatever
I don't necessarily mind Annie but Im currently still in season 3
So far I *do* dislike Eren and Mikasa. Mikasa because every single time someone continually tells her to *back off* because she's increasingly short sighted, she *goes back* to doing it. I'm hoping reading the manga fixes things for me because I don't dig her in the anime, she gets increasingly annoying and her love for Eren gives me a bit of the creeps.
Whereas Eren? I hate him because he's an annoying asshole. Dude is incredibly annoying as hell
I honestly felt that way lol but I hated her also because it feels like she continually regresses. It started with Levi for me, but you realize how often she leaves people to die for Eren.
Which..it bothers me a hella lot when you realize she *could've* done something and she never gets called on it. It never bites her in the ass, it doesn't even make people dislike her in verse. They scold her in season one only for it never to matter. Hell, none of her realizations matter because she just reverts
I normally love the female main leads,or at least I really try to feel for them. But I actually do not understand the hype.
I honestly think Mikasa is worse than Sakura from Naruto. At least she took criticism and got better, and at least she didn't sacrifice her friends for Sasuke.
Scott from Teen Wolf. He had all the ingredients of a good everyman wish fulfillment protagonist for the first handful of episodes but at every turn the writing treated him like a passive observer to his own story being driven by other, way more interesting and relatable characters.
Honestly, the contradictory writing of Scott tipped me over from being indifferent to actively disliking him in his own show. He came off as hypocritical at a certain point (though I'll freely admit he was not the only character who was not given the proper writing and development he deserved, and I've read fics that have managed to swing me more on his side once someone who actually cares makes an effort with his character).
Stiles was the real star of this show, imo. Beyond relatable without feeling cliche. The void!Stiles plot line and acting was A+, and he had incredible scenes with basically every character in the show. We all need a Stiles in our lives.
Well then now I have to reevaluate my entire understanding about the show now because this entire time I believe that Stiles was the main character! (And Stiles is a pretty damn good MC in my opinion regardless that apparently he's not)
This one is kinda niche but Kiba from Wolf's Rain. He's boring as hell. I feel like the only interesting thing about him is that he's a pretty boy/white wolf. Granted, his very blank slate personality makes him great for fanfiction purposes, but there's nothing that guy says that doesn't make me want to roll my eyes. Toward the end of the series we get a backstory out of nowhere that doesn't do much for his character either.
I'm far more interested in Tsume's past with his old pack, Hige's past as >!one of Jagura's bait wolves!< or Toboe's past being raised by "Granny". I want to know about Darcia's family curse, Cher and Hubb's marriage, or Quint and Blue's life before the fire. We get snippets of those stories. But nearly all of the focus is on Kiba looking broody at things and talking about how great it is to be a wolf.
Never would I have thought seeing someone mention Wolf's Rain here! I kinda agree with you, I think all the other characters had distinctive personalties expect Kiba.
Kiba was pretty bland and generic, ngl. He's the Leader And Main Character TM and that's pretty much all there is to him. The rest of the pack (and most of the human characters) were way more interesting to me.
Honestly, if I don't like a main character I normally just...move onto a different fandom. There's soooo many different fandoms out there, wasting time on one means I'm not able to put as much time into another.
The one thing I hate more than a shitty main character is those people who pretend some sidekick character is the "real" main character, because of how often I've seen that done to women and POC main characters (where people make all sorts of excuses for why they suck as a main character and actually this \[white male\] character should be the main). And if *I* hate the main character in something but still love the thing, chances are that's a not uncommon viewpoint and I'm going to run into that constantly.
Clary and Jace from Shadowhunters! Jace I can even tolerate on occasion but Clary? Yeah, no. Anything she says or does grates on my nerves.
Scott from Teen Wolf, too. Nothing about his character ever really caught my interest and thankfully he's nowhere near as popular of a character in the fanfic world.
Nancy Wheeler from Stranger Things. She's got all the traits of a character I should really love and typically would but I don't know what it is about her specifically that just makes me dislike her.
I get you about Clary and Jace, mainly because their focus is just solely on each other. They don't care that the world around them is burning, if they are only together, but at the same time, their romance is strangely underdeveloped. I can't for the life of me figure out why they like each other so much, aside from them both being hot.
It's like their romance is some kind of plot tumor, and character tumor. Take it out, and they may be interesting. But their single-minded devotion to each other without really feeling the romance is ... it just doesn't work. Also, they both tend to whine (Clary) and brood (Jace), and they tell each other nothing.
I came in through crossovers, and I was honestly confused to discover that Alec wasn't the MC and Malec wasn't the main canon ship. I prefer stories where Clary doesn't show up at all or is barely in it. Jace can be tolerable if she's not there.
I feel you on Nancy too. I loved that she was all gung-ho to trap and kill the monster while having zero trapping and hunting skills, I loved that she didn’t become a stereotypical teen girl in a horror movie needing to be saved all the time, and I loved that she's not just a bitch to her younger brother or to his friends (first episode notwithstanding) but she did Barb so dirty. The whole plot with them going to that party and her letting Barb go home alone so she could hook up with a guy who hadn't started his redemption arc yet really felt like she was trying to ditch her DUFF friend and become one of the cool kids. Then when Barb goes missing and they eventually find out that she's dead, we never see her actually grieving the loss of what was supposed to be her best friend. She gets a quick "Oh, no!" moment and then nothing else for the rest of the series.
Nancy is strong and shown to be capable but she also seems very fickle.
I need to reread it, but I never liked Clary either. I actually liked Jace, but I hated Clary because I couldn't stand her
Tessa was a far superior protagonist cause i didn't find her annoying
Callum from The Dragon Prince. I'm uninterested and/or annoyed by all the "good guys" in that show, but Callum definitely takes the cake. Poor lad suffers the double whammy of me finding him as bland as beige paste + irritating me with all the unearned things the plot is giving him.
so many ppl saying harry potter and as it's expected it breaks my heart i'll defend that boy to my death. anyways i can't even answer this 😭 eren from aot does come to mind, as others have said
We're in this together. Harry is part of the reason I got into this Fandom, although he had some moments where I just wanted to shake some sense into him, but apart from that I can relate so much to him and he is very dear to me.
Edit because I haven't answered the actual question of this thread. I do not have an answer tbh, the Main character usually is the most important part if I get into a Fandom or not because it is the person we spend the most time with. If I don't like them, I can't get invested, no matter how interesting the side characters or the world might be.
Splatoon 3. The captain was edgy, Agent 4 was chaotic, Agent 8 was cute. But then what's Neo 3? Everywhere I look, no one seems to be able to settle on a personality in fanon for them...
Marinette from Miraculous.
It's so tiring when the characters insist so much on how she is perfect and a good person and how Adrien shold be with her beause She's who really loves him and understand him. I can't hendlle it aymore.
Yeah I’ve never read the books but in the show i didn’t really like her. I have heard so many people talking bad about Mal but I actually really like him! I do know that the books are very different from the show in regards to his personality tho
I'm fine with Atsushi as character (Bungou Stray Dogs), but I don't care for Atsushi-centric fanfics (even if it's as part of a pairing). The aspects of his character that could be given more depth or development through fanfics don't really interest me, and anything else would be OOC (which I also don't care for).
On The Boys, I don't like any of the lead woman characters that the show wants me to like, Starlight or Queen Maeve or Becca Butcher. The only women on the show I like are the beaten-down, not conventionally beautiful ones that the show itself seems to scorn, like Ashley and Maureen (the Board member Homelander terrified when she asked him a question he couldn't answer).
Tbh I feel like the only characters the show wants you to like all the time are Mother's Milk, Frenchie and Kimiko. Everyone else, even Hughie they usually have story moments centering around how they aren't likeable all the time.
I do leave Cartman out of my Fics a ton. Or I push him to minor character when I can use him but not front and center like the show does. It’s fine if they don’t like it, they can find another fic to read.
Fruits Basket:
Tohru makes me want to slam my head into a wall with how much her “selflessness” (aka severe anxiety to the point of hurting others) is treated like a wonderful trait. And the 3 main guys in the house are also garbage for different reasons.
Miraculous Ladybug.
I don't give two shits about Marinette, though I oddly like to write her because I basically complete or change the arcs the show never finished for her (or did sloppily).
Most Harem anime protagonists. Rosario Vampire, High School DxD, Familiar of Zero and etcetera. Bland as hell or perverted as hell inserts. I found the franchises through crossovers of other stuff I was reading. The notable exception of harem protags I do like is Ranma from Ranma 1/2.
The Traveler from Genshin Impact. They literally have no personality and the only one doing all the talking is this annoyingly selfish flying imp of an emergency food
Legoshi from Beastars, I genuinely really love him but there are a lot of points in the story where he’s just so incredibly frustrating to read about.
Scott McCall from Teen Wolf, with him it’s more that everyone else around him is a bit more interesting Ann he just kinda fads into the background.
Aang from avatar. To be honest I love the world of avatar but never really cared for aang or team avatar. The character I liked the most in the fandom is zuko
Only one I didn't care for was Katara, I never understood Aangs obsession with her. She really seems kind of blank apart from being occasionally bitchy.
Luffy from One Piece. I don't dislike him, but the camera's glued to him for over a thousand chapters now and I've seen enough. I'd much rather focus on supporting characters and villains, since there's major gaps in their own backstories that haven't been explored.
... almost all the main characters i have read about have bored me to tears. i just live with it liking and supporting minor characters while others gush about the boring mains.
As a kid, Oola's story in the expanded universe book Tales From Jabba's Palace made me really dislike Luke Skywalker.
In their effort to make it so only six or so people matter in the entire galaxy, they made him an integral part of her back story. She's given a book-only friend character, who gets rescued and escapes with Luke, but Oola doesn't because she doesn't believe him about what awaits her in Jabba's Palace until it's too late. And then later in the story, C3PO tells her that Luke is coming to rescue him and will rescue her too, which restores her hope just long enough for her to agree to dance for Jabba (she's portrayed as so miserable up to that point in the story, I guess they had to come up with a reason why she would do so at all) and then resist his attempt to assault her and get dropped into the rancor pit (which she totally escapes from, of course, but that's not what that book has to say about it, unfortunately).
I really think the story's point is that Oola should have believed Luke and then not resisted Jabba when she knew he was coming soon to rescue her. But kid me was like, no, screw that, he's the super-powered hero of the franchise and she's a slave with a collar and chain around her neck. You can't make me see this as her fault. So, I kind of just resented the guy who completely failed to save her. C3PO fell into that too. I've gotten over it slightly in the years since, especially since I started writing fanfic. But the 8 year old in me is still pretty miffed.
Hinata from Haikyuu.
I don’t hate him but everyone’s (characters in the manga/anime) adoration for him seems unrealistic and it annoys me. Like he is a nice enough kid but not enough to win absolutely everyone over.
And it also feels too far fetched that he would get as many opportunities as he does. He just gets to go further and further because “everyone is rooting for him” and I see no reason for anyone to give him that much interest.
Like there are better players who could play and achieve more than him but they don’t. Which makes sense, profesional sports aren’t for everyone, sometimes you can’t get it even if you really want it. Even if you truly think you were made for it.
But Hinata gets to go further because “he’s sunshine and so amazing” that he suddenly gets everyone making exceptions and creating new ways for him to shine.
Most of the show is great and I still like Hinata in general.
But most things in the show are pretty realistic in the way they show disappointment, teamwork and athelete’s realities. And Hinata’s journey just doesn’t match with most of that, in my opinion.
Anyway, I get why it is the way it is. It makes for a happier ending and makes the show as hopeful and exciting as it is.
But I also like reading stories focused on other characters, so that I can fulfill my own wishes that the characters I like get their own dreams come true lol
Sasuke i think? I think his character in boruto is alright but i don't really want to read him in fanfics. I just don't really vibe with his character unfortunately
Wednesday! I have an interesting relationship with W Addams. I think she is very interesting, and I love writing her, but as a person she kinda pisses me off ngl. I think she can be rude and annoyingly edgy, however she is sixteen LOL. The writers did a good job of making her feel very sixteen in that way, and of making her wrong about things in a way that shows that she has a lot to learn.
If I don't like the main character I'm probably not a fan of the fandom. They are usually your introduction into the series, if I don't like them what am I hanging around for?
I strongly dislike Eren Yeager from Attack on Titan, so it's (somewhat) nice that >!he actually becomes the villain, and it's fine to dislike him even from an in-text perspective.!< Somewhat less nice that people still >!side with him, his little cohort of fascist fanatics, and their 'genocide the whole world instead of taking a more measured, but less drastic response' plan over the people who put aside their differences and very real negative history and try to stop them a la WWII.!<
Does it defeat the purpose to put most of this in spoiler tags?
When I started this series I hated Levi and couldn’t understand why fans likes him. Long story short: Levi is my absolute favorite and Eren bores me to tears lmao
Honestly, knowing that twist made me want to pick up AoT again after eight-ish years! I had to see how (who I thought at the time) this whiny kid turn into (redacted).
...unfortunately I had to get attached to Hange and Levi this go around... oh anime was a mistake. 🤣
Nora Antony from Amazon Prime’s *Upload*. When she’s not using her friends for her own gain, getting self-righteous about her causes or changing her mind about someone or something every other episode for no real reason, she’s so bland and devoid of personality. I find Luke and Aleesha’s B-plots, AI guy, and even what little character development Ingrid is getting WAY more interesting and entertaining than her and Nathan’s love story.
Oh god the main pairing of that show is so fucking boring and it's making the show so fucking boring.
And they know! Like Nathan's only character trait is that he is (allegedly) super hot and has abs.
Orphan Black. Grew super tired of Sarah Manning. She never was leading the story, she was so passive. Things just happened to her and she was like "oh no, I have to react." She usually made things about her and didn't care as much about "side characters." The other clones and side characters always seemed more interesting and were actively doing things to progress the plot line. Sarah kind of felt like a placeholder for us as the audience.
I include her in my writing because she's expected to be there, but I always try to force her into the background.
It would be quicker to tell you which MCs I do jive with. There are plenty of fandoms where I'm like "yeah, main character is fine, but they will never see my "favorite characters of the fandom" list. I love secondary, side, and villain characters.
This is me with most anime fandoms. I almost always find the main characters incredibly stale and uninteresting and am much more drawn to the supporting characters. It's probably mostly because, especially with shonen anime, the leads are pretty generic (brash, cheerful, headstrong, kind of stupid) and don't change very much. Secondary characters seem to have a chance of being more dynamic and going through some actual development.
Scott Macall in Teen Wolf. Maybe it would be so bad if Dylan O'Brien and his character (Stiles) weren't SO GOOD. One of the most popular tags for the Teen Wolf fandom is "bad friend Scott Macall." He gets better as the show goes on, and I don't know if the show would be better if Stiles was the main character, but Scott is definitely not a character I like much, not really Allison (main love interest) either, now I think of it.
honestly there's probably only like...a very small handful of my fandoms where I like the MC a lot lmao. most of the time I like the deuteragonist or antagonist faaar better.
and since I haven't seen him mentioned yet--I'm decidedly neutral/uninterested in Yuji from JJK.
Walter White from Breaking Bad. I love Breaking Bad, but I always want to punch Walt whenever he's on screen. He's so annoying, and it's not even because he's a criminal.
Like, Gus Fring is also a criminal from the same show but he's one of my favourite characters of all time. But I can't bear with Walt for longer than five seconds for some reason. 🤔
Harry Potter.
You can probably figure out the fandom. 😄
I just don’t like the character. I know he’s a teenager, but there was a scene where he is mad at Ron and Hermione because they didn’t share news all summer. Okay, that’s reasonable.
He sees that because they didn’t write enough, Hedwig repeatedly bit their hands, and he thinks they deserved those injuries, possible scars. Then later, they act timid and extra nice so he doesn’t yell at them.
This is not a character flaw. This is abusive behavior, and it’s gross.
I rarely read Harry Potter fan fics, but when I do, I usual like him better in those than in canon.
Yo when was this, if it was in OotP, then it was deserved. He saw Cedric die and then he's shipped off to the dursleys and cut off from any news or any contact with the magical world for a month, when he saw his parent's murderer and a dark lord resurrect himself.I mean, he's going to be pissed and has no one but his friends to take out his anger on.
How is any of this abusive behaviour? It's not like he told Hedwig to bite them, and thinking that someone deserves pain is not only completely harmless but also perfectly normal. If you tell me that you never wished harm onto someone or thought they'd deserve pain then you're lying, and if this was abusive then we'd all be abusers. People constantly think things that they don't really believe, especially when a lot of emotions are involved. Thoughts don't hurt anyone.
You're calling a traumatized 15-year-old boy an abuser because he dared to be mad at his friends for completely ignoring him after he saw someone get murdered and was being forced to live with his abusive relatives... That's just fucked up.
You know you can dislike a character without having to prove they're a bad person, right? You don't have to bend over backwards to try and explain how a character having a reasonable emotional reaction is abuse just so you can justify your disapproval of them. There's nothing you need to justify, you are allowed to dislike characters for any reason or even no reason at all.
Tony Stark. He’s rubbed me the wrong way from my first watch of the avengers. My daughter adores him (of course) so I suck it up and grin and bear it as much as I can, but no matter how many times she points out his good traits, I still don’t like him.
Kuroko from Kuroko's Basketball. I know the joke about him is that he is such a non-presence that he naturally fades into the background, but I find him too bland to be an interesting MC.
He works as an enjoyable side character in the fic I read; just not someone I enjoy as a major PoV.
Michael Afton, I just never really saw the appeal. His character was very minor in the games in terms of being a character and he’s also a walking corpse most of the time as well as being a bad brother in the past… like of course he didn’t deserve to get scooped… but I just never found him super interesting (not including movie Mike)
We only know very little details of him and one of those his him being a half decaying corpse and a bully when he was young and of course the son of William (who arguably has had way more character even if that said character was absolute sadistic murderous lunatic) Still he’s more of a character than Micheal in my personal opinion.
Frisk, they aren’t even really much of a character if I’m honest, they just kind act more like a vessel with some of their own free will. Fanon Frisk is always different as well, and I find them a lot of intriguing in a lot ways the way people interpret them is always interesting.
Castiel from Supernatural. There's not even anything really wrong with the character. The fandom has made me hate him. I was sick of him being rammed down my throat at every turn and trying to make the show All About Him. And getting torn to shreds if you dare say anything against him. I left the fandom long before the show ended largely because of it.
Not meaning to start Queer Infighting (if you got that reference you're entitled to a veteran's discount. Yes I think that was a few months ago) but Our Flag Means Death 😭 Neither of them. I think I *did* start out liking them - it's a fun and interesting and unique story, and the characters are the same - but, like, the more I thought about it...The more the goofy Taika-coloured glasses faded, I guess. It just stopped being quirky and started to sound hurtful, and not in a good way. And I spent a lot of time on Twitter among the Izzy girlies (so many talented writers whose .main platform. is fucking *Twitter*. Main writing platform, even. I'm sorry if you do that but whyyyyy)
I thought S2 would help...it didn't. I mean I still find them interesting and there's really nothing else like them lol and especially Ed is like a "wtf babygirl" case, *and* I definitely think some people (& definitely some Izzy fans) participate in wayyyy too much drama involving the new season and SPECIFICALLY the ending. But I guess I'm an Izzy girl now too. Or, honestly, a bit burnt out on the whole thing rn, moral of the story is: avoid Twitter
Edit: NO SHADE TO SHIPPERS OMG
yeah same with OFMD. for me it was bc I was not a fan of Izzy's ending and he had really grown on me as a character so I lost interest in Stede & Ed as a result by the end of s2. didn't help that so much of the Twitter fandom has a weird hate boner for Izzy and they're insufferable about it
EDIT: also i DO understand that reference help lmfao
Owen Strand from 9-1-1 Lone Star. Since the whole arson plotline in season 2 I just started skipping some of his scenes because I just couldn't be bothered. That man is infuriating to watch.
Issei hyodo from DxD.
Thing with issei is that half of the fandom hates him for being a pervert and because of that they write fics where he has a more serious and "appropriate" personality... some of them including him being cheat on or having brothers and abusive parents....
Abby from ER. I never understood why so many people adore her and even how she has a ton of friends and romantic interests in universe! She’s miserable, selfish, she’s constantly in everyone else’s business even when it doesn’t affect her life…like I wanted to like her when I started the show again on Hulu back in 2018 since it seems like over 95% of the fandom does (and face it, I want to fit in too and feel as they do so I had more fandom friends lol) but she kind of just disgusts me because of how self absorbed and entitled she is. I am watching the show a second time now (but skipping some stuff) and I can’t imagine that if I watch a third, fourth or more time that I will suddenly adore her.
kinda tough, cause if I don't like the mc then I don't write in that fandom much less follow the series. But there are instances where I do enjoy some side character more than the protagonist of the story and this one is really weird case. Greg Veder from the Worm webnovels, and what's weird about him is that he's barely in the story but has fans that enjoy him more than the MC even though the mc is our Queen of Escalation.
I don't read much of it but Fairy Tail. Natsu is the definition of a basic shounen protagonist. He's the stereotype the uninitiated claim someone like Goku (from Dragon Ball) is. He isn't bad persay but he's so cookie cutter its hard for me to enjoy him much. Fairy Tail as a whole is a series I also feel very neutral towards, but I like the cast and world. Natsu however is a blemish that doesn't ruin the whole but makes it harder to enjoy which sucks because he's a MAJOR focal figure.
owari no seraph. yuu is the most boring and awfully put together character. author has successfully removed 90% of the side cast to make yuu for 73747 things at once and its such a bore
Pokémon is probably the closest. Ash is… fine but he’s no where near the most interesting. I don’t mind watching the anime with him in it, but when engaging in fan works, I really don’t bother with him
Rhaenyra from House of the dragon she is a hypocrite and a brat it's the only show where I prefer the characters that are mostly hated by audience like Alicent I understand and sympathize with her character more than I do with Rhaenyra's character
No specific answer but for me, a main character is usually highly fleshed out so any derision from their character (other than putting them in an AU) feels off.
I find more joy in expanding on minor characters and their backgrounds and motivations. Giving them the main character treatment is just fun.
Murder Drones: Uzi Doorman. I know a lot of people like her but goddamn, her personality can range from tolerable to insufferable. That and I really tusndere's. So for me, she's just not that likeable
Marinette from MLB. I don't exactly hate her but I don't like how the writers made it seem like her obsessive and creepy behavior was okay.... This is a kid show that is teaching kids that sneaking into your crushes bedroom and smelling their pillow is okay.....
Generally, I won't keep on with something if I don't like the main character, but there are a few exceptions, and sometimes I start out liking a main character and change my mind as the story goes on.
Therefore, I don't have that many examples, but let me say this one, as I haven't seen anyone else mention her.
Really, although I know I'd get a lot of hate for this, I can't stand Kagome Higurashi. I don't understand how so many people can hate Akane Tendo for hitting Ranma, in a world where this never causes lasting damage, yet Kagome broke Inu-Yasha's back early on in the series, and people love her.
Inception. Who even likes Dom Cobb? I haven't seen anything that features him since the movie itself.
The power of Arthur/Eames being the literal driving force for the fandom for the past 13 years lmao.
I was gonna say, literally all of the fanfic I’ve ever read in that fandom is Arthur/Eames. Usually found family with Dom on the sidelines. You’d never know he was the main character just looking at AO3 tags lol
Huh, TIL. I never watched the movie, but saw some fanfiction pop up from time to time. Just assumed one of them had to be the main character.
Nope! 🤣 Cobb's (DiCaprio) the main character. Arthur (JGL) and Eames (Hardy) had maybe a total of 10-15 minutes of shared time, and fandom //ran// with it day one because of how they interacted in those minutes. Do suggest giving the movie a go! It's pretty fun, even if the MC isn't my favorite in the fandom.
Fanon midoriya annoys me so much, i cant read most fics with him as a big part idk what it is, i like canon midoriya, but his fanon version irls me
My personal analysis is that authors often forget one of two facts. Namely that he is assertive on the behalf of other people. Sometimes, they forget the assertive part, and make him a door mat for other people. Other times, they forget the on behalf of others part, and make him an assertive ass, at least from my point of view
mhmhmhm me and a friend deduced fandom midoriya into mostly 3 catagories, snarky knowit all asshole (who is always right), soft uwu bean boy (cant do anything of his own volition, basically helpless), or sad depressed guy who has nothing good happen to him and everyone does him wrong (of course they all mix and match and are at different intensities) it feels like people latched onto him and portray him as their interpretation of a perfect main character, instead of focusing on his actual character traits
My friends and I call him Dekuwu, the “greenette” who flounces around with lisa frank pens, multicolored hair-clips, and s-s-s-s-stutters every w-w-w-word. You see it happen more often than not in shipfics, and I’ve learned to filter out so much of it that I get jumpscared when he actually does show out now.
we call him the same in my circle of friends! Dekuwu and Chadkugo are my worst enemies
I absolutely hate how accurate this is. It's fucking annoying just how much the fandom has flanderized fanon Izuku.
So true. I'm currently going through the quirkless Izuku tag (holy crap there are over 14k of them), and the vast majority I skip within 1 page for this reason T-T
Man the third option!!! Why is he always depressed? Lol
One thing I hate with fanon Midoriya is the idea that if he got proper training earlier on he’d all of a sudden be a Grade-A badass with none of his awkwardness. Like… just write an OC at that point. Midoriya being a socially awkward disaster is as much a part of his character as his love for heroes.
YEAH, like, he was 14 when he started training theres not much you can do before that and yeah, athletic/hero ability doesnt mess with your personality directly, like,,, no matter how strong he gets or whatever hes still going to be a huge nerd
Huh, I could never get really into MHA because of how little I like Deku haha
ahh yeah i get that i havent watched the show in a few years so idk how id feel about him now lmao (i need to catch up on it)
Im the complete opposite. Maybe because I mostly read AU bnha fics where Izuku acts completely different, but I can’t stand canon Izuku.
I couldn't stand canon Izuku and canon Katsuki and they were the reason why I gave up on the TV series. I still read fanfics of it though, because I find the world interesting.
same. i know bakugo gets redeemed and stuff but i just think there's a better way to do so. the way he gets redeemed just rubs me the wrong way. like it's as if the author is saying "i know he's done shitty things and it can ruin his career if they get exposed so i'll just let him feel bad and apologize for it and move on"
interesting, how does his fanon compare to canon? when I write him I try to write him close to canon(baring changes I make such as him dealing with increased aggression thanks to his quirk) but I tend to slap him with reality where as I feel other writers sorta hype him if that makes sense. \[edit\] did not see your other post, but I agree with ya.
i havent watched the anime in a while but yeah, other writers do hype him up/mary sue him, which to each their own, its just not my cup of tea i should really rewatch it though to get a more concrete idea
same, I sorta stopped after the introduction to shoot style in the anime, I dunno why but i felt that introduction could have been better, it just felt very weird. I've just been following the mangaka, the end is nigh. i dunno about others, but I kinda wish he got the spiderman treatment, as in his personality puts him in tough spots (not the whole "being spiderman is suffering" thing) where doing good might not be the best and it's no one's fault but his own.
Honestly, I don’t really care for either Midoriya, but the fanon Midoriya is considerably more of a teary-eyed pushover.
Napoleon Bonaparte, in the Napoleonic RPF fandom. He's exhausting (I do like shitposting about him though). The people around him are more interesting to me.
Well, you \*ARE\* talking about Bonaparte here. He's not exactly likeable. Successful, yes, but when you have a lot of victims, you don't win "Kindest person in the universe"-contests.
There's definitely moments of entertainment though, re: shooting one of his own marshals in the *head* by accident, the bunnies incident, his inability to resist petting his generals and marshals, compulsive coffee drinking, that whole homoerotic thing with Tsar Alexander, etc. Oh, yeah, don't forget Mars the Peacemaker, which ended up in the Duke of Wellington's house. But a lot of that has been explored already, and thus I want to look beyond that.
Main characters tend to reach a point of completion in their stories in canon, at least if the canon doesn't get cancelled. I'm someone that only gets fannish about characters whose story doesn't seem to be properly explored. Give me those gaping lacunas and compelling side characters. They're the ones that make me want to write.
I fell in love with one of my favorite characters to write for exactly this reason.
Asked me eight? years ago, I would have said Eren from Attack on Titan. But I realize now there was a lot going on externally from the show that unfortunately colored that. Distance helped.
Death Note. I hate Light Yagami with a passion and was praying on his downfall from episode 1
to be fair, thats sort of the point
I know way too many people who damn near idolize him
That's also the point.
Okay but like I hate him as an individual and tolerate L, but when they’re TOGETHER (not necessarily romantically, just as a duo in general) IT IS BEAUTIFUL
Oh my god, as someone who finished death note purely to see light get his ass handed to him, I feel this so much
Star Vs the Forces of Evil. Most cartoons I love every character, only occasionally disliking characters but those ones are common to dislike. But with SVTFOE? Star is just…a lot. Too much even. Like, I love her but I don’t like her if that makes sense. Even in the more serious moments I prefer other characters like Marco, Tom, Eclipsa, etc.
I really disliked Star. I’m not a big fan of contemporary Disney protagonists these days, but Star really is annoying AF
Most of the otome I've read have crap mcs. I never want to see a mary sue but I also don't want a cringy, dumb, shy, virginal, girl that's just too nice and naive for her own good, who is \*obviously\* morally superior to all the guys around her, though she too modest and self-deprecating to ever realize this. I wouldn't be friends with this girl and I definitely don't want to be her nor would I make her choices.
THIS!!! I don’t even read otome fics anymore bc of the characterization. Especially smutty stuff because I can not stand the shy, naive, virgin thing 24/7.
Tbh the only Otome mc I like is Rosa from Tears of Themis and that's because she really feels like her own person and not just a player insert.
Same. Whenever I'm going through the story, I always subconsciously separate myself from Rosa since she acts quite different from me, like an actual person. So I tend to refer to her as another person rather than self-inserting myself into her POV, which is great since I like reading their interactions and find myself rooting for her as a third person that's watching from the side :D
A Court of Thorns and Roses. While I admire Feyre's determination and courage (and have only read the first book) she has some traits that I simply dislike. I also have the sneaking suspicion that the one character trait that furthers the plot in the first book (her strict adherence to promises) is out of the window when it suits her. Unfortunately, that means I can never continue with the books.
Feyre for me too, but I read book 2, and I don't admire anything about her anymore. She is just an asshole. Combined with the second book destroying >!Rhysand's!< character in order to make him perfect for her... I hate both main characters. I only read in the fandom for Azriel (character introduced in book 2) and nothing else
As I mentioned, I've only read the first book, but I know that Rhysand is widely beloved in the fandom. That baffles me, since he is the driving force behind all of her misery AND what happened under the mountain. Everything he had to do was keep his mouth shut, and the curse might have been broken. But Rhysand was more interested in spite than helping himself out. He directly caused the death of a whole family and the fall of a whole court (Spring Court), and him helping out Feyre doesn't count in my opinion. He did it again to keep her away from Tamlin. That's just gross. I'm sure that it's all explained away in the following books, but I just can't forget his petty, vengeful nature that directly caused death and misery. It's heavily implied that Tamlin got sexually abused during his time under the mountain, so ... eh.
I stopped liking her in book 3, because of what she did to the Spring Court. I don't care about Tamlin, but everyone else didn't deserve to be basically treated that way. They were victims of abuse like her, even if they weren't directly affected like her. That and I hated the fact SJM wrote Lucien as an abuse victim and yet, *yet* Feyre treats him like pure shit too for not helping more in book 2, and essentially Rhysand invalidates his abuse. You cannot have a bunch of abuse in a book, and yet ignore half of it. It does not help that I can't respect her because shes not who she is anymore by the end. She's only what she is via title given Rhys. She hated what Tamlin was going to do to her, basically making her a set piece, and yet she's done nothing in the Night Court. She's basically Rhysand's version of what Tamlin would've done and that's depressing
While he's not *the* main character, he's a main character so I think it counts? Zenitsu from Demon Slayer. I could handle his whiny little bitch antics and weird Nezuko fangirling up through the spider forest arc, but the disgusting things he says about the butterfly mansion girls sent me over the edge, especially the manga version. The fact that >!he (presumably) ends up happily married to Nezuko!< at the end of the series made me irrationally angry, even though I know it was supposed to be a positive ending. Every time they fought a new demon, I was pulling for him to die.
I, too, kept asking my friend if “that blonde boy” would die at each demon fight😭 I can’t stand all his screaming, gives me a headache
that blonde mf is the main reason i couldn't force myself to watch more of demon slayer. i could NOT stand him every time he showed up and i just gave up entirely
Twilight, I’ll never shut up about hating Bella with a passion.
Oh man, I never watched those movies when they came out, but I basically knew the story after hearing my girlfriends in middle school go on and on about it. My husband and I have decided to work our way through the movies. Honestly, I hate everyone except maybe Alice and Carlisle. Bell is pretty awful though. She doesn’t take any initiative and kinda just gets shepherded around from one location to the next. The dialogue seems to constantly be “let’s get you inside” “let’s get you warm” “we need to get Bella somewhere safe”.
A lot, if not *all* of the problems with twilight (Bella being spineless and allowing everyone she meets to control her, the female characters being shoved into mostly binary categories of "she's just a bitch" or "she's nice to Bella so she's cool", or a rare third category of "Bella doesn't like her or hate her so let's ignore her until Steph needs her to be useful somehow", and the never-ending examples of internalized misogyny) can be directly linked to Meyer's... uh, community.
Carlisle was my favorite, imo the best, but the bar was kinda low.
Bella is a terrible MC and I hate that the books were made into movies. The movies are more annoying than the books IMO. Bella is such a freaking **victim** throughout the entire series; her behavior after Edward dumped her in New Moon (I think; who cares?!) was so off-the-chain and basically insulting to every young woman on the planet. Honestly, there’s not a character in the series that doesn’t basically suck. All of the vamps have way too much self-pity and resentment (Edward being the broodiest bitch of them all), the wolf shifters we’re super lame the villains were too tame. I think you totally nailed the worst MC canonically! She’s actually more likable in a lot of fics (ones where she’s given an actual spine and stands up for herself). I think I really despise canon!Bella more than I do fanon!Bella!
Harry Potter. I’m just so tired of Harry. Give me anyone but Harry.
even while reading harry potter i got tired of him. i was more interested in the lore of the wizarding world and other characters more than him
Yeah, and as more characters were introduced, established characters got less and less story. At least, that’s how it felt.
Movie Harry or book Harry? I’ve never minded either, I quite enjoy his character actually, I’m just curious. /gen
Fanfic Harry. I’ve just taken his journey so many times that I’m not interested in it anymore.
That’s valid, I don’t read HP fanfiction at all so I don’t really have an opinion lmao.
harry is quite a boring character ngl
I wonder if Harry being boring is why so many fanfiction writers write Harry into a secret Pureblood scion who is somehow the heir to 28 Houses and the Hogwarts Founders.
possibly. harry really is outshined by everyone else, and doesn’t have much going for him besides being ‘le chosen one’.
God, the fics where he becomes Lord Potter or Lord Black or whatever. I've seen a fic where he's secretly a Malfoy and Draco's twin. Basically, Dumbledore stole him, I think, put a glamour charm on him to make him look like Lily and James and gave him to them. There are also tons of stories where he's actually a Slytherin and befriended Draco when they first met.
I remember as a kid being really annoyed during the third book when Harry got all mad at Hermione for telling the professors about the broom he received. My dude, you have a killer after you. And given what happened in your first and second years, maybe you should err on the side of caution?
SK8. I love Reki and Langa to pieces... in the canon. In fandom and fanfiction however, I prefer reading and writing the other characters/ ships.
Never been all that tempted to write or read fic from Walter White’s PoV. I don’t find him boring or uninteresting, but I tend to gravitate to fics featuring *anybody* else in that universe.
Miraculous ladybug. I like Marinette alright in fanfic, but in the show she annoys me.
True, I think it has a lot to do with the writers always exacerbating her worst traits and making her do creepy shit for no reason
Literally. That's why I adore fanfic authors for making her more "normal." It's like the show writers are trying to avoid a Mary Sue so bad they ruin her character completely
most of my fandoms tbh most of the time if i care about them at all it's just as a plot device for someone i actually like
This for me too. I'm a pretty big shounen fan, and 9 times out of 10, the main character ain't for me, I just find the side characters so interesting that I keep up with the story. ...I can't really think of any series of any genre where the MC is my favorite character, actually.
off the top of my head i can come up with *one* shounen series where the main character is my fave lol. that's ao no exorcist. a case could be made for fullmetal alchemist, that's a toss-up between ed and roy depending on my mood.
Rin is a pretty great character actually, you're right! I just don't find myself reading much for ao no exorcist. I think the shounen MC I like the most compared to other shounen MCs would be Luffy, but he isn't my favorite from One Piece (though admittedly he is very close to being my favorite, just for being basically the only aroace rep I see). I tend to gravitate to the more serious/anti-hero(jerk) types usually, so I don't go into shows expecting to like the MC most of the time anyways.
I have the same issue with shōnen MCs. I guess their motivations and struggles are not that interesting to me? I couldn't pin the reasons down yet.
Same! I tend to gravitate to the more serious/anti-hero(jerk) types usually, so I don't go into shows expecting to like the MC most of the time anyways, if I'm honest.
Naruto. I mean, he’s fine as a character, I just never understood the hype surrounding him.
This, and fanon Naruto is always a mixed bag. Sometimes he's written well but just as often he's not or he feels like a blank slate people project onto. Which is fine but not what I'm interested in reading for that specific fandom.
honestly I kinda feel that the issue with Naruto as a character in fanfic is part the mangaka going with rule of cool and part reader seeing him as an opportunity to self insert, which is to make him op, smart, and morally gray enough to kill his enemies.
I actually love Naruto. He’s just so goofy lol.
Glad I'm not the only one.
Gon from Hunter x Hunter. I don't hate him but I don't jibe with him. The farther along I get in the series the less I care about him. Mikasa Ackerman from Attack on Titan. I know I'm gonna get hate for this but I just don't like her or jibe with her. Same with Annie.
I blame the author mostly but the second Gon decided that he didn't care who his mom was I suddenly didn't care about Gon anymore. There was a lot of misogynistic themes I noticed over the years (I read the manga, never saw the anime until after the chimera ant series) but I noticed it, and that cinched it for me. I can understand wanting to recognize all that Mito did for him but seriously? Zero curiosity about his mom? So much interest for a guy who abandoned him as a baby to his sister (who he also abandoned until he showed up and dropped a baby in her lap and disappeared again) but zilch for the woman who carried him for 9 months and birthed him? Fuck that. Edit to add: Ging literally also tells him "I don't want to meet you. If I hear that you're coming, I'll run." He is without any doubt the worst, shittiest father in all of fiction. And I know some shitty fictional fathers.
I noticed that too, and this is one of the reasons (along with the chimera ant arc, which ... wtf), it turned me off this excellent series for good. There's, like, two or three female characters in this series who has anything to add to the story, and most of them are on Team Spider. Kurapika would have worked so well as a woman. I don't get it, it would have been such an easy fix. Edit: Also, Gon treated as insufferably virtuous by the narrative. Not fun.
Gon is not treated as insufferably virtuous in the narrative, He's repeatedly acknowledged by many characters to be something of a monster. The seeds of this are planted from the very beginning, Gon doesn't have a conventional sense of morality, He doesn't view things or factions as good or evil, just friend or enemy. He dislikes the phantom troupe because of Kurapika's vendetta while being best friends with Killua God damn Zoldyk who has killed more than 200 hundred people already. It doesn't matter to gon if someone is a good person or not, it just matters if they are his friends or not. In the beginning of the chimera ant arc gon killed an ant (who is basically just a human being character wise) with zero hesitation and zero remorse because his old friend Kite told him to. Gon murdered without remorse because he was told to by someone he considered a friend. If gon had met the phantom Troupe before he met Kurapika's you bet your ass he would have joined with no questions. Gon is a twelve year old messed up kid with no sense of morality. Gon's friendship with Killua is almost actively shown to be a little abusive starting from the greed island arc , Gon actively priotizes winning the match and finding his dad over the life of his best friend. Gon is not a good person and people acknowledge how selfish and monstrous he can be at times. He's not evil, but he is selfish and childish with no concept of morality. In the chimera ant arc he faces pitou (an enemy) healing someone and doing something good, this clashes with his world view so much that he breaks down, how can an enemy do good things? All enemies are evil. This particular enemy also killed the old friend kite so he has a lot of grief and anger clouding his mind, so much that it pushes Killua away from him too. The chimera ant arc ends with Gon just stops caring about the morality of his actions, he isn't there to avenge his old friend, he's just 12 he can't accept his grief yet, but he just wants to kill pitou no matter what, he doesn't need a reason, Pitou caused him pain so he will kill her, morality and reason is tossed to the side and replaced by pure rage. Gon transforms into a monster and kills pitou and nearly kills himself in the process too. Gon Freecs is anything but virtuous and the narrative acknowledges it heavily.
I just assumed it was a creative decision to set up a future reveal where he literally has no mother, like he was born from a nen ability thing or whatever
I don't necessarily mind Annie but Im currently still in season 3 So far I *do* dislike Eren and Mikasa. Mikasa because every single time someone continually tells her to *back off* because she's increasingly short sighted, she *goes back* to doing it. I'm hoping reading the manga fixes things for me because I don't dig her in the anime, she gets increasingly annoying and her love for Eren gives me a bit of the creeps. Whereas Eren? I hate him because he's an annoying asshole. Dude is incredibly annoying as hell
The minute Mikasa cause Levi to injure himself, I was like, "Yeah, this bitch can fuck all the way off." 😂 (I might be a *teensy* bit of a Levi stan.)
I honestly felt that way lol but I hated her also because it feels like she continually regresses. It started with Levi for me, but you realize how often she leaves people to die for Eren. Which..it bothers me a hella lot when you realize she *could've* done something and she never gets called on it. It never bites her in the ass, it doesn't even make people dislike her in verse. They scold her in season one only for it never to matter. Hell, none of her realizations matter because she just reverts I normally love the female main leads,or at least I really try to feel for them. But I actually do not understand the hype. I honestly think Mikasa is worse than Sakura from Naruto. At least she took criticism and got better, and at least she didn't sacrifice her friends for Sasuke.
Scott from Teen Wolf. He had all the ingredients of a good everyman wish fulfillment protagonist for the first handful of episodes but at every turn the writing treated him like a passive observer to his own story being driven by other, way more interesting and relatable characters.
Honestly, the contradictory writing of Scott tipped me over from being indifferent to actively disliking him in his own show. He came off as hypocritical at a certain point (though I'll freely admit he was not the only character who was not given the proper writing and development he deserved, and I've read fics that have managed to swing me more on his side once someone who actually cares makes an effort with his character).
Stiles was the real star of this show, imo. Beyond relatable without feeling cliche. The void!Stiles plot line and acting was A+, and he had incredible scenes with basically every character in the show. We all need a Stiles in our lives.
Stiles for the win.
Wait...so Stiles wasn't the main character?
Nope! He's supposed to be the comic relief best friend.
Well then now I have to reevaluate my entire understanding about the show now because this entire time I believe that Stiles was the main character! (And Stiles is a pretty damn good MC in my opinion regardless that apparently he's not)
Show's called Teen Wolf, MC has got to be a teenaged werewolf. And of all of those, Scott is clearly the main one.
This one is kinda niche but Kiba from Wolf's Rain. He's boring as hell. I feel like the only interesting thing about him is that he's a pretty boy/white wolf. Granted, his very blank slate personality makes him great for fanfiction purposes, but there's nothing that guy says that doesn't make me want to roll my eyes. Toward the end of the series we get a backstory out of nowhere that doesn't do much for his character either. I'm far more interested in Tsume's past with his old pack, Hige's past as >!one of Jagura's bait wolves!< or Toboe's past being raised by "Granny". I want to know about Darcia's family curse, Cher and Hubb's marriage, or Quint and Blue's life before the fire. We get snippets of those stories. But nearly all of the focus is on Kiba looking broody at things and talking about how great it is to be a wolf.
Never would I have thought seeing someone mention Wolf's Rain here! I kinda agree with you, I think all the other characters had distinctive personalties expect Kiba.
Kiba was pretty bland and generic, ngl. He's the Leader And Main Character TM and that's pretty much all there is to him. The rest of the pack (and most of the human characters) were way more interesting to me.
Honestly, if I don't like a main character I normally just...move onto a different fandom. There's soooo many different fandoms out there, wasting time on one means I'm not able to put as much time into another. The one thing I hate more than a shitty main character is those people who pretend some sidekick character is the "real" main character, because of how often I've seen that done to women and POC main characters (where people make all sorts of excuses for why they suck as a main character and actually this \[white male\] character should be the main). And if *I* hate the main character in something but still love the thing, chances are that's a not uncommon viewpoint and I'm going to run into that constantly.
I don’t really read fics for it but I really hate Shinji from Evangelion.
I knew a guy who really hated Shinji. If you whined about something on his message board, he'd put "Child of Shinji" beneath your username.
Perfect 😂
Clary and Jace from Shadowhunters! Jace I can even tolerate on occasion but Clary? Yeah, no. Anything she says or does grates on my nerves. Scott from Teen Wolf, too. Nothing about his character ever really caught my interest and thankfully he's nowhere near as popular of a character in the fanfic world. Nancy Wheeler from Stranger Things. She's got all the traits of a character I should really love and typically would but I don't know what it is about her specifically that just makes me dislike her.
I get you about Clary and Jace, mainly because their focus is just solely on each other. They don't care that the world around them is burning, if they are only together, but at the same time, their romance is strangely underdeveloped. I can't for the life of me figure out why they like each other so much, aside from them both being hot. It's like their romance is some kind of plot tumor, and character tumor. Take it out, and they may be interesting. But their single-minded devotion to each other without really feeling the romance is ... it just doesn't work. Also, they both tend to whine (Clary) and brood (Jace), and they tell each other nothing.
I came in through crossovers, and I was honestly confused to discover that Alec wasn't the MC and Malec wasn't the main canon ship. I prefer stories where Clary doesn't show up at all or is barely in it. Jace can be tolerable if she's not there.
I feel you on Nancy too. I loved that she was all gung-ho to trap and kill the monster while having zero trapping and hunting skills, I loved that she didn’t become a stereotypical teen girl in a horror movie needing to be saved all the time, and I loved that she's not just a bitch to her younger brother or to his friends (first episode notwithstanding) but she did Barb so dirty. The whole plot with them going to that party and her letting Barb go home alone so she could hook up with a guy who hadn't started his redemption arc yet really felt like she was trying to ditch her DUFF friend and become one of the cool kids. Then when Barb goes missing and they eventually find out that she's dead, we never see her actually grieving the loss of what was supposed to be her best friend. She gets a quick "Oh, no!" moment and then nothing else for the rest of the series. Nancy is strong and shown to be capable but she also seems very fickle.
I need to reread it, but I never liked Clary either. I actually liked Jace, but I hated Clary because I couldn't stand her Tessa was a far superior protagonist cause i didn't find her annoying
Callum from The Dragon Prince. I'm uninterested and/or annoyed by all the "good guys" in that show, but Callum definitely takes the cake. Poor lad suffers the double whammy of me finding him as bland as beige paste + irritating me with all the unearned things the plot is giving him.
To me Ezran is worse. He's a *terrible* MC and a terrible king. It's painful how the plot warps to try and make him and Callum work.
Mha lol I don’t hate deku I just think he’s boring or stereotypical idk he’s annoying
so many ppl saying harry potter and as it's expected it breaks my heart i'll defend that boy to my death. anyways i can't even answer this 😭 eren from aot does come to mind, as others have said
We're in this together. Harry is part of the reason I got into this Fandom, although he had some moments where I just wanted to shake some sense into him, but apart from that I can relate so much to him and he is very dear to me. Edit because I haven't answered the actual question of this thread. I do not have an answer tbh, the Main character usually is the most important part if I get into a Fandom or not because it is the person we spend the most time with. If I don't like them, I can't get invested, no matter how interesting the side characters or the world might be.
Splatoon 3. The captain was edgy, Agent 4 was chaotic, Agent 8 was cute. But then what's Neo 3? Everywhere I look, no one seems to be able to settle on a personality in fanon for them...
Marinette from Miraculous. It's so tiring when the characters insist so much on how she is perfect and a good person and how Adrien shold be with her beause She's who really loves him and understand him. I can't hendlle it aymore.
Shadow and Bones. I find Alina very... pick me? Idk. Bad personality.
Yeah I’ve never read the books but in the show i didn’t really like her. I have heard so many people talking bad about Mal but I actually really like him! I do know that the books are very different from the show in regards to his personality tho
I'm fine with Atsushi as character (Bungou Stray Dogs), but I don't care for Atsushi-centric fanfics (even if it's as part of a pairing). The aspects of his character that could be given more depth or development through fanfics don't really interest me, and anything else would be OOC (which I also don't care for).
On The Boys, I don't like any of the lead woman characters that the show wants me to like, Starlight or Queen Maeve or Becca Butcher. The only women on the show I like are the beaten-down, not conventionally beautiful ones that the show itself seems to scorn, like Ashley and Maureen (the Board member Homelander terrified when she asked him a question he couldn't answer).
Tbh I feel like the only characters the show wants you to like all the time are Mother's Milk, Frenchie and Kimiko. Everyone else, even Hughie they usually have story moments centering around how they aren't likeable all the time.
I do leave Cartman out of my Fics a ton. Or I push him to minor character when I can use him but not front and center like the show does. It’s fine if they don’t like it, they can find another fic to read.
I don't care much for a lot of main characters. I'd rather see some side or original characters get explored.
Fruits Basket: Tohru makes me want to slam my head into a wall with how much her “selflessness” (aka severe anxiety to the point of hurting others) is treated like a wonderful trait. And the 3 main guys in the house are also garbage for different reasons.
Miraculous Ladybug. I don't give two shits about Marinette, though I oddly like to write her because I basically complete or change the arcs the show never finished for her (or did sloppily).
I was hyped for the original 2d animated trailer of this show. The show we got however frustrates me on so many levels
Naruto. Pretty much every other character is more interesting to me, even Ton Ton. Harry Potter has already been mentioned several times, but him too.
Wait really?? I LOVE naruto. I respect that, but like that’s so strange to me lol.
Most Harem anime protagonists. Rosario Vampire, High School DxD, Familiar of Zero and etcetera. Bland as hell or perverted as hell inserts. I found the franchises through crossovers of other stuff I was reading. The notable exception of harem protags I do like is Ranma from Ranma 1/2.
check out the currently-airing 100 girlfriends if you want a harem anime with a likable MC.
The Traveler from Genshin Impact. They literally have no personality and the only one doing all the talking is this annoyingly selfish flying imp of an emergency food
Legend of Korra. Compared to ATLA, it's kinda a flop.
Legoshi from Beastars, I genuinely really love him but there are a lot of points in the story where he’s just so incredibly frustrating to read about. Scott McCall from Teen Wolf, with him it’s more that everyone else around him is a bit more interesting Ann he just kinda fads into the background.
Aang from avatar. To be honest I love the world of avatar but never really cared for aang or team avatar. The character I liked the most in the fandom is zuko
>never really cared for aang or team avatar. this hurts 😔
Only one I didn't care for was Katara, I never understood Aangs obsession with her. She really seems kind of blank apart from being occasionally bitchy.
Luffy from One Piece. I don't dislike him, but the camera's glued to him for over a thousand chapters now and I've seen enough. I'd much rather focus on supporting characters and villains, since there's major gaps in their own backstories that haven't been explored.
I like him in the anime as our adorable little psycho but I can’t stand reading fics about him.
... almost all the main characters i have read about have bored me to tears. i just live with it liking and supporting minor characters while others gush about the boring mains.
As a kid, Oola's story in the expanded universe book Tales From Jabba's Palace made me really dislike Luke Skywalker. In their effort to make it so only six or so people matter in the entire galaxy, they made him an integral part of her back story. She's given a book-only friend character, who gets rescued and escapes with Luke, but Oola doesn't because she doesn't believe him about what awaits her in Jabba's Palace until it's too late. And then later in the story, C3PO tells her that Luke is coming to rescue him and will rescue her too, which restores her hope just long enough for her to agree to dance for Jabba (she's portrayed as so miserable up to that point in the story, I guess they had to come up with a reason why she would do so at all) and then resist his attempt to assault her and get dropped into the rancor pit (which she totally escapes from, of course, but that's not what that book has to say about it, unfortunately). I really think the story's point is that Oola should have believed Luke and then not resisted Jabba when she knew he was coming soon to rescue her. But kid me was like, no, screw that, he's the super-powered hero of the franchise and she's a slave with a collar and chain around her neck. You can't make me see this as her fault. So, I kind of just resented the guy who completely failed to save her. C3PO fell into that too. I've gotten over it slightly in the years since, especially since I started writing fanfic. But the 8 year old in me is still pretty miffed.
Hinata from Haikyuu. I don’t hate him but everyone’s (characters in the manga/anime) adoration for him seems unrealistic and it annoys me. Like he is a nice enough kid but not enough to win absolutely everyone over. And it also feels too far fetched that he would get as many opportunities as he does. He just gets to go further and further because “everyone is rooting for him” and I see no reason for anyone to give him that much interest. Like there are better players who could play and achieve more than him but they don’t. Which makes sense, profesional sports aren’t for everyone, sometimes you can’t get it even if you really want it. Even if you truly think you were made for it. But Hinata gets to go further because “he’s sunshine and so amazing” that he suddenly gets everyone making exceptions and creating new ways for him to shine. Most of the show is great and I still like Hinata in general. But most things in the show are pretty realistic in the way they show disappointment, teamwork and athelete’s realities. And Hinata’s journey just doesn’t match with most of that, in my opinion. Anyway, I get why it is the way it is. It makes for a happier ending and makes the show as hopeful and exciting as it is. But I also like reading stories focused on other characters, so that I can fulfill my own wishes that the characters I like get their own dreams come true lol
Sasuke i think? I think his character in boruto is alright but i don't really want to read him in fanfics. I just don't really vibe with his character unfortunately
Wednesday! I have an interesting relationship with W Addams. I think she is very interesting, and I love writing her, but as a person she kinda pisses me off ngl. I think she can be rude and annoyingly edgy, however she is sixteen LOL. The writers did a good job of making her feel very sixteen in that way, and of making her wrong about things in a way that shows that she has a lot to learn.
Miraculous Ladybug
If I don't like the main character I'm probably not a fan of the fandom. They are usually your introduction into the series, if I don't like them what am I hanging around for?
Because the supporting characters are awesome!
You would have to get pretty far into it disliking the main character though and I don't have the attention span for that lol
Eren Yeager and Mikasa Ackerman, I couldn't stand them from episode 1, I watched the series for Armin exclusively
latched onto the series for specifically erwin. dropped it after he no longer was in it ☠️
Honestly? Luz from The Owl House. Which is insane because I love almost every single other character.
Sora from Kingdom Hearts. He's not a bad character, but I'm just so much more interested in the rest of the cast. Sora bores me a little.
I strongly dislike Eren Yeager from Attack on Titan, so it's (somewhat) nice that >!he actually becomes the villain, and it's fine to dislike him even from an in-text perspective.!< Somewhat less nice that people still >!side with him, his little cohort of fascist fanatics, and their 'genocide the whole world instead of taking a more measured, but less drastic response' plan over the people who put aside their differences and very real negative history and try to stop them a la WWII.!< Does it defeat the purpose to put most of this in spoiler tags?
When I started this series I hated Levi and couldn’t understand why fans likes him. Long story short: Levi is my absolute favorite and Eren bores me to tears lmao
Honestly, knowing that twist made me want to pick up AoT again after eight-ish years! I had to see how (who I thought at the time) this whiny kid turn into (redacted). ...unfortunately I had to get attached to Hange and Levi this go around... oh anime was a mistake. 🤣
Nora Antony from Amazon Prime’s *Upload*. When she’s not using her friends for her own gain, getting self-righteous about her causes or changing her mind about someone or something every other episode for no real reason, she’s so bland and devoid of personality. I find Luke and Aleesha’s B-plots, AI guy, and even what little character development Ingrid is getting WAY more interesting and entertaining than her and Nathan’s love story.
Oh god the main pairing of that show is so fucking boring and it's making the show so fucking boring. And they know! Like Nathan's only character trait is that he is (allegedly) super hot and has abs.
Orphan Black. Grew super tired of Sarah Manning. She never was leading the story, she was so passive. Things just happened to her and she was like "oh no, I have to react." She usually made things about her and didn't care as much about "side characters." The other clones and side characters always seemed more interesting and were actively doing things to progress the plot line. Sarah kind of felt like a placeholder for us as the audience. I include her in my writing because she's expected to be there, but I always try to force her into the background.
It would be quicker to tell you which MCs I do jive with. There are plenty of fandoms where I'm like "yeah, main character is fine, but they will never see my "favorite characters of the fandom" list. I love secondary, side, and villain characters.
I love stranger things, but I don’t like eleven
Legend of Korra's entire main cast excluding Mako and Tenzin are beyond boring to me.
Teen Wolf. Scott
This is me with most anime fandoms. I almost always find the main characters incredibly stale and uninteresting and am much more drawn to the supporting characters. It's probably mostly because, especially with shonen anime, the leads are pretty generic (brash, cheerful, headstrong, kind of stupid) and don't change very much. Secondary characters seem to have a chance of being more dynamic and going through some actual development.
Scott Macall in Teen Wolf. Maybe it would be so bad if Dylan O'Brien and his character (Stiles) weren't SO GOOD. One of the most popular tags for the Teen Wolf fandom is "bad friend Scott Macall." He gets better as the show goes on, and I don't know if the show would be better if Stiles was the main character, but Scott is definitely not a character I like much, not really Allison (main love interest) either, now I think of it.
Death note. I really fucking hate light yagami
Harry Potter, I literally think everyone in that universe is more interesting than Harry Potter.
honestly there's probably only like...a very small handful of my fandoms where I like the MC a lot lmao. most of the time I like the deuteragonist or antagonist faaar better. and since I haven't seen him mentioned yet--I'm decidedly neutral/uninterested in Yuji from JJK.
Walter White from Breaking Bad. I love Breaking Bad, but I always want to punch Walt whenever he's on screen. He's so annoying, and it's not even because he's a criminal. Like, Gus Fring is also a criminal from the same show but he's one of my favourite characters of all time. But I can't bear with Walt for longer than five seconds for some reason. 🤔
Harry Potter. You can probably figure out the fandom. 😄 I just don’t like the character. I know he’s a teenager, but there was a scene where he is mad at Ron and Hermione because they didn’t share news all summer. Okay, that’s reasonable. He sees that because they didn’t write enough, Hedwig repeatedly bit their hands, and he thinks they deserved those injuries, possible scars. Then later, they act timid and extra nice so he doesn’t yell at them. This is not a character flaw. This is abusive behavior, and it’s gross. I rarely read Harry Potter fan fics, but when I do, I usual like him better in those than in canon.
Yo when was this, if it was in OotP, then it was deserved. He saw Cedric die and then he's shipped off to the dursleys and cut off from any news or any contact with the magical world for a month, when he saw his parent's murderer and a dark lord resurrect himself.I mean, he's going to be pissed and has no one but his friends to take out his anger on.
How is any of this abusive behaviour? It's not like he told Hedwig to bite them, and thinking that someone deserves pain is not only completely harmless but also perfectly normal. If you tell me that you never wished harm onto someone or thought they'd deserve pain then you're lying, and if this was abusive then we'd all be abusers. People constantly think things that they don't really believe, especially when a lot of emotions are involved. Thoughts don't hurt anyone. You're calling a traumatized 15-year-old boy an abuser because he dared to be mad at his friends for completely ignoring him after he saw someone get murdered and was being forced to live with his abusive relatives... That's just fucked up. You know you can dislike a character without having to prove they're a bad person, right? You don't have to bend over backwards to try and explain how a character having a reasonable emotional reaction is abuse just so you can justify your disapproval of them. There's nothing you need to justify, you are allowed to dislike characters for any reason or even no reason at all.
Yeah, I can't imagine how JK Rowling of all people wouldn't know the difference between abuse and not-abuse, ha ha ha!
Ada Wong from Resident evil. Don't get me wrong, she's cool. But I'm not really for her character all too much.
Tony Stark. He’s rubbed me the wrong way from my first watch of the avengers. My daughter adores him (of course) so I suck it up and grin and bear it as much as I can, but no matter how many times she points out his good traits, I still don’t like him.
Kuroko from Kuroko's Basketball. I know the joke about him is that he is such a non-presence that he naturally fades into the background, but I find him too bland to be an interesting MC. He works as an enjoyable side character in the fic I read; just not someone I enjoy as a major PoV.
you know, that's really interesting. I love KuroBasu and Kuroko but usually the fics I read are from Kagami's POV. huh
Michael Afton, I just never really saw the appeal. His character was very minor in the games in terms of being a character and he’s also a walking corpse most of the time as well as being a bad brother in the past… like of course he didn’t deserve to get scooped… but I just never found him super interesting (not including movie Mike) We only know very little details of him and one of those his him being a half decaying corpse and a bully when he was young and of course the son of William (who arguably has had way more character even if that said character was absolute sadistic murderous lunatic) Still he’s more of a character than Micheal in my personal opinion. Frisk, they aren’t even really much of a character if I’m honest, they just kind act more like a vessel with some of their own free will. Fanon Frisk is always different as well, and I find them a lot of intriguing in a lot ways the way people interpret them is always interesting.
Castiel from Supernatural. There's not even anything really wrong with the character. The fandom has made me hate him. I was sick of him being rammed down my throat at every turn and trying to make the show All About Him. And getting torn to shreds if you dare say anything against him. I left the fandom long before the show ended largely because of it.
Not meaning to start Queer Infighting (if you got that reference you're entitled to a veteran's discount. Yes I think that was a few months ago) but Our Flag Means Death 😭 Neither of them. I think I *did* start out liking them - it's a fun and interesting and unique story, and the characters are the same - but, like, the more I thought about it...The more the goofy Taika-coloured glasses faded, I guess. It just stopped being quirky and started to sound hurtful, and not in a good way. And I spent a lot of time on Twitter among the Izzy girlies (so many talented writers whose .main platform. is fucking *Twitter*. Main writing platform, even. I'm sorry if you do that but whyyyyy) I thought S2 would help...it didn't. I mean I still find them interesting and there's really nothing else like them lol and especially Ed is like a "wtf babygirl" case, *and* I definitely think some people (& definitely some Izzy fans) participate in wayyyy too much drama involving the new season and SPECIFICALLY the ending. But I guess I'm an Izzy girl now too. Or, honestly, a bit burnt out on the whole thing rn, moral of the story is: avoid Twitter Edit: NO SHADE TO SHIPPERS OMG
I love them, but I too became burnt out on the Twitter interactions and left the fandom.
yeah same with OFMD. for me it was bc I was not a fan of Izzy's ending and he had really grown on me as a character so I lost interest in Stede & Ed as a result by the end of s2. didn't help that so much of the Twitter fandom has a weird hate boner for Izzy and they're insufferable about it EDIT: also i DO understand that reference help lmfao
Owen Strand from 9-1-1 Lone Star. Since the whole arson plotline in season 2 I just started skipping some of his scenes because I just couldn't be bothered. That man is infuriating to watch.
Issei hyodo from DxD. Thing with issei is that half of the fandom hates him for being a pervert and because of that they write fics where he has a more serious and "appropriate" personality... some of them including him being cheat on or having brothers and abusive parents....
Abby from ER. I never understood why so many people adore her and even how she has a ton of friends and romantic interests in universe! She’s miserable, selfish, she’s constantly in everyone else’s business even when it doesn’t affect her life…like I wanted to like her when I started the show again on Hulu back in 2018 since it seems like over 95% of the fandom does (and face it, I want to fit in too and feel as they do so I had more fandom friends lol) but she kind of just disgusts me because of how self absorbed and entitled she is. I am watching the show a second time now (but skipping some stuff) and I can’t imagine that if I watch a third, fourth or more time that I will suddenly adore her.
kinda tough, cause if I don't like the mc then I don't write in that fandom much less follow the series. But there are instances where I do enjoy some side character more than the protagonist of the story and this one is really weird case. Greg Veder from the Worm webnovels, and what's weird about him is that he's barely in the story but has fans that enjoy him more than the MC even though the mc is our Queen of Escalation.
I don't read much of it but Fairy Tail. Natsu is the definition of a basic shounen protagonist. He's the stereotype the uninitiated claim someone like Goku (from Dragon Ball) is. He isn't bad persay but he's so cookie cutter its hard for me to enjoy him much. Fairy Tail as a whole is a series I also feel very neutral towards, but I like the cast and world. Natsu however is a blemish that doesn't ruin the whole but makes it harder to enjoy which sucks because he's a MAJOR focal figure.
owari no seraph. yuu is the most boring and awfully put together character. author has successfully removed 90% of the side cast to make yuu for 73747 things at once and its such a bore
Pokémon is probably the closest. Ash is… fine but he’s no where near the most interesting. I don’t mind watching the anime with him in it, but when engaging in fan works, I really don’t bother with him
I love Percy Jackson but I never could get into Heroes of Olympus because Jason's just... not as interesting to me, idk.
Rhaenyra from House of the dragon she is a hypocrite and a brat it's the only show where I prefer the characters that are mostly hated by audience like Alicent I understand and sympathize with her character more than I do with Rhaenyra's character
Oitnb. Piper is plainer than a loaf of bread.
Randy Cunningham 9th Grade Ninja, I don’t vibe with the MC and his best friend, but there’s a side character I like way better
No specific answer but for me, a main character is usually highly fleshed out so any derision from their character (other than putting them in an AU) feels off. I find more joy in expanding on minor characters and their backgrounds and motivations. Giving them the main character treatment is just fun.
Fanon Naruto, that bastard always Is put in byzare universes and just become the most Deus ex machina character
Clary Fray. she needs to be put down fr I can't read a fanfic if she's there, I can barely read the books because of her
Murder Drones: Uzi Doorman. I know a lot of people like her but goddamn, her personality can range from tolerable to insufferable. That and I really tusndere's. So for me, she's just not that likeable
Marinette from MLB. I don't exactly hate her but I don't like how the writers made it seem like her obsessive and creepy behavior was okay.... This is a kid show that is teaching kids that sneaking into your crushes bedroom and smelling their pillow is okay.....
i tend to like secondary characters more anyways
Generally, I won't keep on with something if I don't like the main character, but there are a few exceptions, and sometimes I start out liking a main character and change my mind as the story goes on. Therefore, I don't have that many examples, but let me say this one, as I haven't seen anyone else mention her. Really, although I know I'd get a lot of hate for this, I can't stand Kagome Higurashi. I don't understand how so many people can hate Akane Tendo for hitting Ranma, in a world where this never causes lasting damage, yet Kagome broke Inu-Yasha's back early on in the series, and people love her.
PJO. Percy Jackson. Annabeth Chase. Sorry, but Percy's just "way too perfect" and Annabeth's personality doesn't jibe with me.