Protagonists you just can't stand.

[Shinkicker444]

Pretty much any "clueless male protagonist". Especially the ones that are in anything even vaguely harem-ish. God I want them gathered together and burned at the stake, and all the women chasing said idiots locked up in asylum somewhere because they are all clearly touched in the head. That whole personality type is cancer. Also the BS that shounen leads pull at times is really really annoying and pisspoor story telling.

Specifics though, hrmm, dunno. The Richard and Whats-her-face from the sword of truth series were pretty annoying in the end with their holier than though preachiness. Perrin was annoying for quite a while in Wheel of Time I skimmed through a fair few of his chapters, but he gets a bit better, although to be fair most men are pseudo-doormats when a woman is around in that series.

I know there are others that have made me have some seriously epic eye-rolls but for the life of me I can't remember their names.

 

[Roofstone]

Kratos! He is the most evil douchebag I've ever had the unfortunate pleasure of knowing about. He straight out kills people for things they are already offering him! He kills the gods of the sea and the skies, he probably killed millions if not billions of people because of that!

 

[Scars Unseen]

Itou Makoto from the School Days visual novel. It is possible to play the VN without him being a complete indecisive prick, but only just. Most options you can pick make me want to punch the guy. For instance:

Spoiler

You see your classmate and friend raping your ex-girlfriend. Do you

a) walk away?

b) watch?

c) get off on it while fingering another classmate(while your current girlfriend is waiting for you to eat lunch with her)?

d) be a halfway decent human being and stop your ex from being raped?

Oh, I'm sorry, that last one wasn't a choice. My bad.

 

[JimB]

I hate the growling badass. Like, Riddick (he was a little forgivable in Pitch Black for the "looks clear" joke, but otherwise, piss off). The invincible murderer who doesn't have or need any friends, who has no detectable flaws and is perfect within the field of murder, whom I am expected to emulate despite him not being a person.

 

[Eamar]

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

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

OT: Cheap shot, but Sansa Stark in the ASOIAF books (haven't watched the series yet), especially the first one. My god, talk about pathetic and naive >.<

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

snip

I'm going to go one further and say pretty much the entire cast of Star Ocean: The Last Hope, never has an entire jrpg cast gotten on my nerves so badly. They're all one dimensional archetypes. Reimi and Arumat were the only ones that were tolerable and I still didn't like them.

As for Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning didn't bother me nearly as much as Snow, I couldn't stand that guy.

----
Although I can't think of any particular examples at the moment, any characters that are overly angsty, I mean it's okay to have angst if they go through something traumatic, I'm talking about the characters who start that way, make no effort to improve their situation, and never get over it, no matter how much time has passed. It's just the angst and nothing but the angst for angst sake.

See Wangst [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Wangst]

 

[the December King]

I just finished reading 'Something Red' by Douglas Nicholas, a medieval fantasy murder mystery. The writing was superb, but the protagonist's traveling companions are, to say the least, a bit unbalancing. I won't go into any great detail, as I DO recommend the book, for it's mood-setting and pacing are superb. But the presence of the Protagonist's allies left me feeling no sense of fear for any of the characters in his party, and that was a shame, because the narrative should have made me concerned for everyone. Because of this, the protagonist came off emasculated and weak for the entire story, and I don't like that in my escapism.

Kratos! He is the most evil douchebag I've ever had the unfortunate pleasure of knowing about. He straight out kills people for things they are already offering him! He kills the gods of the sea and the skies, he probably killed millions if not billions of people because of that!

Also, this. I have never liked Kratos. There is nothing to admire or like. He is the worst anti-hero I can think of. Just a celebration of violence, which is fine, but again, not necessarily my cup of tea.

 

[the December King]

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

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

OT: Cheap shot, but Sansa Stark in the ASOIAF books (haven't watched the series yet), especially the first one. My god, talk about pathetic and naive >.<

Actually, I kinda agree with Eamar on this. After all, in the context of the films, we are led to understand that she has no 'super powers', but somehow fights at the front line of an inter-dimensional magic war. So, an uber-assassin AND battle -ninja? Don't get me wrong, without her the Avengers is pretty much a sausage-fest. But I would have liked someone, you know, properly superhuman in the mix to represent womanhood. But that's Joss Whedon for you, as far as I know.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I hate the growling badass. Like, Riddick (he was a little forgivable in Pitch Black for the "looks clear" joke, but otherwise, piss off). The invincible murderer who doesn't have or need any friends, who has no detectable flaws and is perfect within the field of murder, whom I am expected to emulate despite him not being a person.

I'm not really a fan of Riddick (at least in Chronicles of Riddick, not seen the new one) because Vin Diesel curiously manages to have absolutely no screen presence at all after Pitch Black. That goes for all the Fast & Furious films too, it's pretty odd how a guy his size with a voice his deep can manage it, but I imagine it's down to the fact that he can't act.

I don't really hate Tony Stark (movies, at least), but he can be quite grating. Specifically, I wanted to punch him in the face when he was being a douche to Captain America. Thor I don't mind- yes, he's a god, but he's pretty arrogant. But the Cap'? Fuck you man. That guy's got balls the size of those Leviathans and a heart of gold and I totally don't have a man-crush.

 

[Scars Unseen]

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

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

OT: Cheap shot, but Sansa Stark in the ASOIAF books (haven't watched the series yet), especially the first one. My god, talk about pathetic and naive >.<

Actually, I kinda agree with Eamar on this. After all, in the context of the films, we are led to understand that she has no 'super powers', but somehow fights at the front line of an inter-dimensional magic war. So, an uber-assassin AND battle -ninja? Don't get me wrong, without her the Avengers is pretty much a sausage-fest. But I would have liked someone, you know, properly superhuman in the mix to represent womanhood. But that's Joss Whedon for you, as far as I know.

It would be nice if Black Widow got her own movie that introduced some of the more superhuman elements of her comic persona into the mix. Unfortunately, the best man for that sort of movie would be Whedon himself(the female bad ass kind of being his thing). I guess you could get Quentin Tarantino to do it, but boy would that be a different kind of film...

 

[Silverbeard]

Oooh, this thread! Finally!

Does anyone remember the protagonist (name is up to the player) from Front mission 3? This nutter is a thorough nat, a twit and a moron with no sense of moral fortitude, common sense or even basic arithmetic.
Case in point:

His sister is working inside an army base within Japan; the protagonist is a citizen and soldier of that country. Following a sudden fight, he starts wondering whether or not his sister is safe. How does he find out? Pick up a phone and call her? Ask at the main gate?
No, he instead hijacks a secret prototype weapon and forces his friend to do the same (thus making them both traitors to the nation), breaks into the army base while killing at least a half-dozen of his fellow soldiers, wrecks the base and proceeds to drag his sister (whom he has sworn to protect) into a war zone and then forces her to kill fellow soldiers as well- thus making her a traitor too!

I cannot call this fool a moron often enough.

 

[teh_Canape]

*Pokes head in*

Hello? Should I start going on about the main character in Persona 3 again or have we gotten really bored of that already? Fuck it.

So I really should copy paste one of my many speeches on this guy so I don't have to rewrite the same stuff over and over again. Basically he's an unlikable **** no matter how nice you try to make him be and every single aspect of the game unintentionally reinforces this negative image I have of him and I really tried to like him. The rest of SEES don't even act like he's more than an acquaintance even later on in the game, everyone else is having character development and Persona evolutions then there's just your lazy fucking arse just sitting in his room doing nothing in the meantime, you're forced to go out with half the female population of the school just to max your S Links and I could go on. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if he just quit the whole "saving the world" thing halfway through because he couldn't be bothered anymore, he doesn't seem invested in anything SEES does.

No, stop I know what you're going to say "oh he's like super apathetic because of a traumatic past and so he can't make friends your argument is invalid lol" then I have to say then why is a guy with such apathy ingrained into his character in a fucking Persona game? You know, the one centred around friendship?

Honestly after playing SMT Devil Survivor I can say I would find him infinitely more enjoyable to play if he was in SMT proper instead.

dang son, you really get your jeremies in a rustle over smurf-kun don't ya
he just needs a hug, his sister got all of them

OT: I'll chip in and say Kratos is the most unlikable **** there is
he's overly violent of the worst kind, the boring kind

in the first one he was pretty bad, but boy did the second one had him go full asshole

you want a good Kratos? look at Asura in Asura's Wrath
same guy, only much, MUCH more interesting and not even close to those levels of asswipeness

 

[Crispee]

Probably Ted Moseby from How I Met Your Mother. He's a likeable and funny enough character when the episodes aren't centred around his love life, but when they are (Which is most of the time because it's the over arcing story of the entire series) he's really insufferable and completely lacking in awareness every single time he's in a relationship that we know for a fact is destined to fail. And we have to watch what is essentially the same plot every time he gets a new girlfriend.

 

[Denamic]

Basically every Everyguy McAverage character in Japanese manga/anime. Especially if it takes place in a high-school setting. If said character actually runs away from a romantic encounter with one of the multiple romantic interests he has for no good reason, I literally just stop watching then and there. I just can't take that shit any more.

 

[OneCatch]

The player character from XCOM: The Bureau.
I know that he's meant to be a walking talking 60's stereotype, but the joke wears a little thin because he's just a complete arsehole with few-to-none redeeming qualities. And it seems to make very little difference which dialogue choices you make.
I'm only about a third of the way through though, so perhaps things improve.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

See when I was a kid I had an older sister who was nuts about:

Spoiler: Sailor Moon

And I sat through many, many episodes with her. I liked the fighting and the costumes but whenever Serena was on the screen and not the awesome Sailor Scouts I tended to wander off looking for my cat.

Now I can't believe how much of that character I remember... The nauseating voice, the vapid, ditzy nature of every decision...

I have residual nostalgia for the show due to the years of being subjected to it by my sister but I just cannot stand Serena.

 

[Parasondox]

Probably Ted Moseby from How I Met Your Mother. He's a likeable and funny enough character when the episodes aren't centred around his love life, but when they are (Which is most of the time because it's the over arcing story of the entire series) he's really insufferable and completely lacking in awareness every single time he's in a relationship that we know for a fact is destined to fail. And we have to watch what is essentially the same plot every time he gets a new girlfriend.

You mean the same plot of;

"You guys this is Hilary, I think shes the one"
"Aww that's great Ted"
BREAKS UP BECAUSE OF ONE FLAW

"Hey you guys, this is Sam. I think she's the one"
"We are happy for you Ted"
BREAKS UP AGAIN BECAUSE OF ANOTHER FLAW HE DOESN'T LIKE

"Hey you guys, this is Jessica. Jessica here are my friends."
"Hi Jessica"
Then whispers to the gang has she goes to the bathroom, "I think she's the one"
BREAKS UP AGAIN BECAUSE SHES TOO PERFECT

"Hey you guys, this is the lovely Trish, I know shes the one this time"
"Hello Trish, nice to meet you.
SHALL WE TAKE A GUESS WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? But this time add, she's not "marriage material"

He's a nice guy and I get that but don't fall so blindly in love as soon as you meet a girl and assume she's "the one". Also assuming that that she must be your wife, have a big house and two children. We all fall blindly in love, yes, but not to EVERYONE we meet.

 

[spartan231490]

Shinji. Forever shinji. He's just the weakest piece of trash I could even imagine . . . no, I can't imagine someone who sucks that hard, he completely ruined the anime.

 

[duwenbasden]

1. The protagonist from Pokemon X. If there is 1 person in dire need of a spine, that'd be him/her. If your arsehole friends decided you can't go places because of reasons, you tell them (politely) to f off. The duo route 15/16 blockers at Lumoise got the absolute worst reason if you need a laugh.

2. Lara Croft from TR2013. Why do you need me if you are going to undo everything I did just now?

 

[bojackx]

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

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

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

Spoiler

Edit: Picture should be fixed.

That picture is just so great, thank you. In fact, your entire post is pretty much what I wanted to say. I'd forgotten about Rito but I definitely came in here to talk about Infinite Stratos.