Protagonists you hate

[Relish in Chaos]

Cox- Because going out of your way to destroy another human being and then self-rationalize it to yourself as some kind of "tough love" is just BS. Even in a sitcom he should of been arrested to rage at burly cops with beating sticks and no time for his crap

That's kind of the point of Dr. Cox's character. He's mentally unhinged, narcissistic, constantly belittles even his closest friends (especially JD, who looks up to him like a father), is ridiculously hypocritical, and has some strange vendetta against Dr. Kelso (who represents "the system", but was just trying to do the best for the hospital), but he is called out on it on multiple occasions.

You're not really meant to like him, despite the occasional parts which shows him in a positive light, or the life lessons that he doles out to the younger characters such as JD and Elliot. Nonetheless, he's my favourite character in Scrubs because he's the guy you love to hate and John C. McGinley portrays him so brilliantly.

But, to look it from a realistic perspective, I actually can't believe that he has so many friends and people around him to still put up with his condescending crap, let alone having a girlfriend (although Jordan seems just as much of a jerk as he is, so it kind of balances out), which kind of reinforces the idea that it's just a "tough guy" act that he mainly puts on around the hospital.

 

[SecondPrize]

Dude from Dead Rising 2. He just comes off to me as entirely unlikable, and designed by a focus group.

 

[irishmanwithagun]

Hello, Escapists!
This my first post on this website's forums so I thought I'd start with a relatively ambitious statement by saying that I don't get why Shinji Ikari gets all the hate he does and he's probably the best protagonist I've seen ever. I mean, his quest isn't to Get The MacGuffin or Save The Princess (... AGAIN!), it's to get over the, very real, personal problems that cripple him as a person and many people (myself included) suffer, or have suffered, from.
As for a protagonist that I DO hate I'd have to go with Eragon (though the cast of CSI does warrant a mention for being the worst assemble cast ever written). You see, Eragon is a character without faults, not a perfect character but one who hasn't any depth written into him. This means he can do whatever the story throws his way, not because he's a courageous Hero of the Rebellion, but because he hasn't any personal limitations or flaws that prevent him from doing so. This, along with the fact that the only characterisation he could have under his empty shell could be a manipulative, sociopathic, anarchist (which could have made a good book, think of a deconstruction on the classic Rebel Against The Empire story) is why he must be the worst protagonist I have ever seen, read or watched that stood in my sightline as more than another generic "SQUARE-JAWED AMERICAN FIGHTER FOR FREEDOM!"

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

Shinji from Eva and nearly every character ever to grace a JRPG.

 

[Alcamonic]

That 3rd priest brother in Call of Juarez: Bound in blood. Yahtzee's comments about him is all-so true.

 

[Dandark]

I also agree that I was rooting for the humans to win in avatar.

WHAT? The humans in that movie couldn't have been any more cartoonishly evil if they all had Snidley Whiplash mustaches, wore top hats, and tied all the Na'vi to railroad tracks.

I just didn't like the Na'vi, they seemed so silly and I couldn't take them seriously. Plus I alway's hate that whole theme of military equipment like gunships and mechs being beaten by animals and arrows just because JUSTICE!!!

I was rooting for the humans in that. "Show those stupid blue people how useful technology is!"

Also a human supremesist

 

[fnlrpa]

I watched Avatar recently and the Na'vi just pissed me off. They acted like they were better than the humans and didn't even listen to the humans terms. I have a few others, but that is the biggest one. What protagonists that you are supposed to side with did you hate?(and by extension prefer the antagonist)

Now, It was a while since I saw that movie. But i distinctly remember humans coming to the Na'Vi and just wrecking their shit up because humanity is greedy as fuck, because we are.

They did but that was after the humans tried to negotiate with them, but the navi acted like they were better than people. They weren't even using the resources

 

[bojackx]

Hmm... Desmond from Assassin's Creed is very boring, but I don't hate him. I actually can't think of any specific examples.

I guess there's every dependable child from any game, TV show or film ever.

 

[Eternal_Lament]

Garcia Hotspur comes to mind. Now to be fair it's not his attitude that bothers me, I can live with that, it's his stupidity that really gets to me. Besides going out of his way to kill the Lord of Demons to simply get his girlfriend back, you start to realize how crazy and dependent Paula was and realize that Flemming is actually doing him a favor. That would have been interesting, going all that way just to eventually realize how much of a burden Paula is and either just leave Flemming alone or to go kill Paula just so she'll be out of his life. But nope, Garcia still doesn't learn in the end, even when he gets back a girlfriend that looks like she'll kill him any minute while also being hunted by Flemming's army because of said crazy girlfriend.

Also, since he seems to be presenting the episodes as a series, I'll also place my vote for the Overthinker from, well, Game Overthinker. Nuff said really.

 

[Yegargeburble]

Spoiler: This little rat bastard

Oooh, a classic case of "Why the fuck did they replace my protagonist"? The protagonist to the sequel of Drakengard, this little annoying butt monkey does nothing but whine and complain to every occurrence that happens, and even does the exact opposite of what the heroes were doing in the first game. After playing a badass who did not even bat an eye at what he had to do for the sake of Good and World saving; this is a very jarring transition. It's pretty bad when even the characters in the game are poking fun at your protagonist's complaints.

I would give a few more details, but that would include plot; and I'd hate to spoil that...

I forgot all about him! I was going to go with Tidus or some such character, but Nowe...

He may very well be the dumbest protagonist I have seen. Not even getting into his annoying tendencies, he is just rock stupid.

 

[Vault101]

This man makes me want to vomit:

People can say what they want about generic unlikable characters but all of those pale in comparison to this guy.

its like they try so hard to make him nto bland and generic...but he actually IS bland and generic..only difference being how much he talks

I will admit there was one moment in the Uncharted series that made me laugh...I think it was in 3 where they are doing the usual "run away as everything collapses" and sully says "see! this is why we can't have nice things!!"

 

[bluerocker]

Spoiler: This little rat bastard

Oooh, a classic case of "Why the fuck did they replace my protagonist"? The protagonist to the sequel of Drakengard, this little annoying butt monkey does nothing but whine and complain to every occurrence that happens, and even does the exact opposite of what the heroes were doing in the first game. After playing a badass who did not even bat an eye at what he had to do for the sake of Good and World saving; this is a very jarring transition. It's pretty bad when even the characters in the game are poking fun at your protagonist's complaints.

I would give a few more details, but that would include plot; and I'd hate to spoil that...

I forgot all about him! I was going to go with Tidus or some such character, but Nowe...

He may very well be the dumbest protagonist I have seen. Not even getting into his annoying tendencies, he is just rock stupid.

And you know, he's breaking those seals that everyone knows will cause the world to end if they are broken. It's said in the introduction that the Seals are very important to the world's balance; and the Knights of the Seal (huh, wonder where they got that name from) are there to keep them safe. But what does Nowe do? "Herp derp, a pretty lady said people die to keep these world saving seals in check; I should destroy the world saving seals and save the peoples! YAY! I SAVES ALL TEH PEOPLES!" Accept, you know, ending the world won't save anyone.

I do recall saying throughout playing the game "I miss Caim, I wonder when he's going to show up?"

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

2nd this so badly. Still love the games and the books but the tabletop seems to have devolved into "let's make everyone so overly super badass and hope people think they are cool" that it's just ridiculous. Made only more stupid by the fact that authors / developers who wanted to mutilate lore like that would get told to piss off. He has alot to freakin answer for.

It's the same problem 2nd Edition had; 1000pt super commanders and a dozen or so regulars aptly named "Meat Shield Brigade." 2nd didn't have Lore Mutilation in it tho.

O.T: I would like to throw my support in for the Shinji hate. There's a difference between teen angst and whiny *****.

 

[Furioso]

Ash fucking Katchum. He is the worst pokemon trainer I have seen. In the manga he was called Red and he was a badass.

Picture is related:

As for me, I got really annoyed with Niko from GTA 4, especially towards the end, where...

Spoiler

you get a ridiculous moral choice whether or not to kill that one guy, that everyone in the game will judge you on, despite having already gunned down scores of people

Also Tidus, Yuna, Rikku, Lightning, Hope, Vanille, Snow, etc

 

[Friendly Lich]

John Snow all he does is whine about being a bastard and he had a cushy life compared to the rest of society.

I don't actually hate link but he never stands up for himself he just does what everyone tells him to, arrgh.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Nathan motherfucking Drake.

I'm sick of games that have you play as a hypocritically "righteous" violent white male in his 20's or 30's running around literally murdering more non-Americans than malaria. Why is Resident Evil 5 blasted as racist due to having African enemies when RE4 was no different but with Spanish? So is it ok to kill Europeans but not Africans?

 

[Mr.Squishy]

The topic should be the opposite since there's more protagonists I dislike than I like.
Only movies usually make better protagonists, because games and anime it's rare. Maybe because games goes to far in alpha males and anime in beta males?

Harry Potter, worst character from the entire books!
Luke
Naruto in Naruto Shippuden
Ichigo
Natsu
Sheppard
Nathan Drake
Jintan (anohana)
Menma (anohana)
Marcus
Max Payne (3rd game).
Saber
Mashiro (Bakuman)
Kratos
Batman (Not necessarly hate, but he's the least interesting character of the Nolan movies)
Wolverine
Protagonists of every Harem anime.
Aisaka Taiga
Terminator
Allen Walker
Ganta (Deadman Wonderland)
Victorique (Gosick)
Kujo (Gosick)
Kimimaro (C)
Nessa (Fractale)
Clain (Fractale)
The two protagonists of Avatar, not to say the entire Avatar cast
NCIS all of them
Hawaii five-o all of them
NCIS los Angeles all of them
Castle
The girl Castle likes
The girl from Burn Notice
Mako (ATLK)
Desmond
The girl the protagonist from Taxi Driver liked.
Stan Smith
Roger
Clevland and his son
Marge
Ash
Seinfield (least funny of the cast, and his voice is annoying)
Rick (Walking Dead)

I loved Daenarys Targaryan in the first season, but in the 2nd one she was just a *****, if she continues like that I'll stop liking her :/



And some other dozens that I can't remember.

Holy balls, someone ninja'd my entire list (well, except for leaving out the Ultrasmurfs of 40K, but that's just nitpicking).

 

[FilipJPhry]

I can't stand Ted for HIMYM. He had potential early on. When he decides to actually be friends with Robin after their dating falls through I though was a great character moment. But as it goes on I get more and more "meh" about him. Whenever he complains about anything, he's a handsome architect living in New York who dates dozens upon dozens of women, his life is so hard.

Not helped that all of the other characters are funnier and more interesting.

I know who Ted's going to marry......

OT I genuinely hate Superman in the movies. All of them. He's just so retarded, and gaining new powers with each sequel that aren't even Superman powers. He becomes this superpowered wizard through them all. The Animated series and Justice League are what made me love Superman and his comics and movies after that were pretty good, too.

EDIT: I meant animated movies after JL