Characters who just ruined otherwise great stories

[Saltyk]

So, have you ever watched a show that you couldn't stand anytime one character was on screen? Was a movie ruined by a pointless character? Did your sidekick grind your nerves every time they showed up in an otherwise great game? Did the hero's love interest derail a great book?

Sometimes, a single character shows up to just destroy the awesomeness of a great game/book/movie/show. They act as kryptonite to every others characters Superman.

Ever watch King of the Hill? I watched it a few times. Mostly on Adult Swim. Honestly, I've seen a few episodes that were great. I really enjoyed the one where Bobby is thought to be the reincarnation of a Buddhist monk. Many of the characters are genuinely funny. You all know Dale is hilarious. And it never really got absurdly impossible. Honestly, I wanted to like it.

So why didn't I?

Peggy Hill. She was annoying, thought she was smarter and better than she was, visibly annoyed other characters, and made terrible decision like she needed to do so in order to breathe. Now, she might not have been so bad if she were a really minor character that only showed up every so often. But she was the main characters wife. So, she at least appeared in every episode.

One of the worst involved her visiting a prisoner on a regular basis because she believed he was a former student of hers. She played Boggle with him and before long was bringing in hourglasses for him to play with. These had cocaine in them. Eventually he blackmails her and when she refuses to knowingly supply him with his fix, he turns her into the warden. Hell, the only reason she gets away is that the inmate had no self control and used up his evidence. She didn't even seem phased in the least on the way out. Didn't even seem to acknowledge that she had made any mistakes.

I seriously hated Peggy. Every time she was heavily featured in an episode it would turn me off the show for a while. Eventually, I just stopped watching it at all.

So, Escapists, who just bugged you?

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Yeah, Peggy boggles the mind sometimes.
OP: The character of Rachel in the Nolan Batman movies really hampered my ability to love them. She was so dull and a buzzkill.

 

[RuralGamer]

The Illusive Man in Mass Effect 2 jumps to mind; he's such a jerk and that's all there really is to him other than being a plot-giver. According to other characters and information, he's this charismatic genius, but in dialogue, he is anything but in my opinion. I skip through his dialogue bits because I dislike him so much.

 

[Thaluikhain]

The Riddler and the love interest from Batman Forever.

No, that's not fair. Jim Carey and Nicole Kidman in Batman Forever. The characters were at least tolerable, but the acting...well, Nicole Kidman sorta gives the impression she's trying, but she just really sucks. Jim Carey gives the impression he's convinced he's too awesome to need to try.

 

[0bserv3]

Ruby Rohd, the fifth element. He's just so loud and annoying and he refuses to shut up.

 

[Queen Michael]

Brian Griffin comes immediately to mind. Family Guy is funny to me even if it's probably the hippest, coolest thing to hate right now that isn't a video game or a fifteen-year-old Canadian castrato, but Seth MacFarlane's self-insert mouthpiece really annoys me. The best episodes are the ones that hardly feature Brian at all. I mean, yes, the show has its fair share of problems, such as Seth MacFarlane's intense and undying hatred of women, but if Brian were killed off or removed from the show somehow(have him move to Venice, the smug hipster jackass), that would be such an improvement.

What do you mean, hatred of women? Elaborate, friend, elaborate.

 

[TheDooD]

The Riddler and the love interest from Batman Forever.

No, that's not fair. Jim Carey and Nicole Kidman in Batman Forever. The characters were at least tolerable, but the acting...well, Nicole Kidman sorta gives the impression she's trying, but she just really sucks. Jim Carey gives the impression he's convinced he's too awesome to need to try.

I can see where you're coming from since that movie was just weird at times. Yet if I remember right in the comics early Ridder was a prick that thought he was too awesome for his own good.

To be on topic I couldn't stand Trip from Enslaved. She's basically a character that drops her burden on Monkey without even asking for help when overall they were both screwed either way without helping each other. There was no need to attach a bomb to him and her willingness to just kill him the moment you start to wonder off. She basically just uses whatever means to achieve her goal even when it means being horrible her damn self. Then she acts like she had no idea of the result of her actions. I know she was suppose to be a negative character but the game revolves around her and her problems only. Then the ending if she ever thought something through that was the time...

 

[Malidictuim]

Lorgar in the ongoing Horus Heresy novel series.
He is a wailing pussy when he should be a total badass.
The author seems to have deliberately made him out to be this total moron, even to the point where characters in the story are telling him he's a moron. The author, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, also wrote a series of Night Lords books, and judging by his cameo appearance of Night Haunter, he obviously wrote Lorgar as a tool to make Night Haunter look cooler. Put Lorgar in a sure-death situation to make him look bad, have Night Haunter save him to make Night Haunter look good. It really rubs me the wrong way. That, coupled with the ridiculous lines like "...The only one of the Emperor's Sons who never wanted to be a warrior rushes off to die in battle..." and the ground-breaking stupidity of the character in general just breaks the entire series over it's knee.

The fact that so many other Primarchs listened to this total poo-chunk is just lazy. Legion had an amazing ending that totally blew my mind (and this is the book I gave up reading and started again after a year because it was so uninteresting), because it was a really clever way to explain a major character's actions and how they fit his personality. Even Horus had a pretty inventive story behind his fall from grace. But that, and all the other deep and meaningful moral choices that characters go through in the story are tainted by the fact that ONE IDIOT is the cause. One idiot who was so lazily thrown together and so out to place with all the other characters in the series caused all this bullshit. Lorgar doesn't get an interesting story. He gets shafted and made out to be a complete wimp, all for narrative convenience.

Wow. That went on for a while.

 

[Queen Michael]

Brian Griffin comes immediately to mind. Family Guy is funny to me even if it's probably the hippest, coolest thing to hate right now that isn't a video game or a fifteen-year-old Canadian castrato, but Seth MacFarlane's self-insert mouthpiece really annoys me. The best episodes are the ones that hardly feature Brian at all. I mean, yes, the show has its fair share of problems, such as Seth MacFarlane's intense and undying hatred of women, but if Brian were killed off or removed from the show somehow(have him move to Venice, the smug hipster jackass), that would be such an improvement.

What do you mean, hatred of women? Elaborate, friend, elaborate.

Certainly.
Seth MacFarlane has never portrayed a female character in a positive light. They're all either stupid(Francine), evil(Lois), or universally despised because Seth says so(Meg). On top of that, the man heaps so many jokes about domestic violence and rape into that damn show that I have to pick and choose my episodes with care, because the rape jokes aren't there to send a message like South Park, they're there with the punchline of "ha ha ha, she's being raped!" like Duke Nukem Forever. This happens much less on American Dad!(if it even happens at all), so I naturally gravitate toward that show because it has all the things I like about Seth MacFarlane without all the obsessive misogyny.

I'd never thought about that. I was too busy hating Brian to think about the misogyny. Also, I don't like American Dad since none of the characters appeal to me. Well, I don't have anything against Hayley, but I don't like the rest.

 

[leedwashere]

I didn't notice it the first time through (and I can't believe that I didn't) but the character of Susannah in the Dark Tower series eventually ruined it for me. The first time through I guess I was more noticing the awesome setting and the awesomeness of the other characters, but then I was reading it again and my hatred of Susannah got to the point where I had to put the books down and move on to something else.

She's like the physical embodiment of how to completely ruin the lives of everyone around you for no real reason. :\

 

[Thaluikhain]

Certainly.
Seth MacFarlane has never portrayed a female character in a positive light. They're all either stupid(Francine), evil(Lois), or universally despised because Seth says so(Meg). On top of that, the man heaps so many jokes about domestic violence and rape into that damn show that I have to pick and choose my episodes with care, because the rape jokes aren't there to send a message like South Park, they're there with the punchline of "ha ha ha, she's being raped!" like Duke Nukem Forever. This happens much less on American Dad!(if it even happens at all), so I naturally gravitate toward that show because it has all the things I like about Seth MacFarlane without all the obsessive misogyny.

IIRC, they used almost identical rape jokes in both, about the victim being so old or ugly they go out of their way to get raped.

 

[Random Argument Man]

Pretty much every character who plays the serious role in a comedy will find it's way here. Like Lisa Simpson, Marge, Peggy and others, they're just here as build-up characters. They build-up the jokes and the ones perceived as funny deliver the punch-lines. When they actually try to give a punch-line, it goes off rather badly because we're not used to the idea that they can make jokes as well.

 

[The Funslinger]

Brian Griffin comes immediately to mind. Family Guy is funny to me even if it's probably the hippest, coolest thing to hate right now that isn't a video game or a fifteen-year-old Canadian castrato, but Seth MacFarlane's self-insert mouthpiece really annoys me. The best episodes are the ones that hardly feature Brian at all. I mean, yes, the show has its fair share of problems, such as Seth MacFarlane's intense and undying hatred of women, but if Brian were killed off or removed from the show somehow(have him move to Venice, the smug hipster jackass), that would be such an improvement.

I tend to agree with you, except with the Brian and Stewie adventure episodes. They work so well together. I tolerate Brian for that.

OT: I'm not really sure, I mean some characters are meant to be hated. They are given bad qualities, and so if they attract dislike, they're doing their job. That makes them good characters. That said, having a cast of full on lovable characters isn't bad either. Personally, I love all the characters in American Dad. Stan's right wing nutjobbiness is hilarious. Steve is the embodiment of stereotypical nerdism. Francine's ditziness is amusing (although you're right, it wouldn't kill Seth McFarlane to have more positive female characters, although I'd class Hayley as one, despite being somewhat whorish, I don't think it's too much of a factor to affect her character too negatively.) I love Roger's backstabbing bitchiness and Klaus for being Klaus.

I'm of the opinion that Seth McFarlane got turned down too many times in high school, and is now bitterly taking it out on the female characters of his series.

 

[Cipher1]

I would say Raiden but he wasn't really that bad his only crime was not being Solid Snake.

 

[OutcastBOS]

Yeah, Peggy boggles the mind sometimes.
OP: The character of Rachel in the Nolan Batman movies really hampered my ability to love them. She was so dull and a buzzkill.

I see what you did there...

But yeah, I agree with the OP 100% but I still love the show. There are actually shows where she gets made a fool of, but sadly most of the time she does get away with being the pompous ass she is...

 

[Henkie36]

Ruby Rohd, the fifth element. He's just so loud and annoying and he refuses to shut up.

That's not even what bothers me most about him. The movie was funny enough in and of it's own, it had no need for comedy relief, least of all this one.

I'm totally not surprised that this was the fifth entry (no pun intended) in this thread, because if it wasn't, I would have mentioned him.