Annoying Fictional Characters

[ADirtyPerv]

Thats funny; I haven't seen Uncut Gems but of course haven't heard the praise. Its on my list.

But yeah I can basically only tolerate him in The Wedding Singer and to a lesser degree, 50 First Dates.

But me liking those films probably has more to do with Drew Barrymore than him.

50 First Dates gave me the ick. But maybe it shouldn't? I dunno. The idea of waking up to find yourself really pregnant is some horror movie stuff. And he got her to do it more than once.

 

[Bloodandglitter]

Captain Marvel
Dan in Closer

 

[Unblemished]

Also the MMC, whose way of dealing when the FMC breaks things off with him is to show up at her work spamming her with bouquets instead of respecting her decision.

Also the FMC again for rewarding that behaviour.

Reminds me of a pointed speech from a tongue in cheek paranormal romance I read once:

I have a date this evening and I am not sure what I’m supposed to do—Wikipedia is maddeningly uninformative on the subject, and other sources range from unreliable (citation needed!) to actively misleading. However I am conditionally confident of the accuracy of the advice Pete gave me, which was to treat any behavior showcased by the male lead in a Hollywood romantic comedy as dangerously abusive. (Do not: follow her home; break into her house to watch her sleep; put spyware on her computer or phone; send giant bouquets of flowers signed YOUR SECRET ADMIRER; boil her family’s pet rabbit; and so on.)

The lead in that starts off kind of annoying too, but IMO is pretty likeable by the end. I’m pretty sure it was deliberate. The author (Charles Stross) apparently complained several times about people thinking his heroes were cooler or less flawed than he meant them to be, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he made the guy start out whiny and angst-ridden to head that off at the mark.

Perrin, in the long middle part of the Wheel of Time when he's married to Faile. He was my favourite character to start with, but Gods, he becomes such a drip! I gave up a hundred pages into Book 10, so I don't know whether he stopped being a mopey whinger, but I doubt it.

You know, I actually liked Faile in the early books. That whole…kidnapping…thing, or whatever it was in the later ones, was an utter pain in the neck, but the dragging middle of Wheel of Time is nicknamed The Slog for a reason. Their whole meet-cute and defence of the Two Rivers was peak.

I also, for all the adaptions many flaws, liked her in the tv show. I’m bitter they cancelled it just as they worked out the issues and it got really good. Shame it took a while, but early TNG wasn’t great either, and if they’d cancelled that early we wouldn’t have had Jean Luc Picard…

 

[SimonDoom]

Annoying character in a movie I otherwise loved: Denethor in Return of the King. The character is played differently in the movie from the way he's portrayed in the book. His bad qualities are exaggerated, and his good qualities are completely absent. His character was a jarring note in what I otherwise thought was an excellent movie (although I have my Tolkien nerd quibbles with it, which I won't go into).

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Sheldon's problem is that he was the "breakout" character. He wasn't intended at the outset to be the main draw, but like the Fonz in Happy Days (I'm horribly dating myself) he became that anyway, so the writers had to scramble to do more with him than they originally expected to. Fortunately, the show lucked out with the perfect actor to do the character, so it worked, sort of, but he's always more caricature than character.

Chrissy Snow in Three's Company

That was supposed to be Jack Tripper's show.

But it also propelled Suzanne Somers to stardom just like Henry Winkler.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Chrissy Snow in Three's Company

That was supposed to be Jack Tripper's show.

But it also propelled Suzanne Somers to stardom just like Henry Winkler.

Urkel in Family Matters.
They actually made the daughter disappear with no explanation given to make room for a really annoying character.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Urkel in Family Matters.
They actually made the daughter disappear with no explanation given to make room for a really annoying character.

Mike Seavers in Family Matters.

Somehow, they allowed Cameron to control the direction of the show and disrupt the flow of it and the careers of some of the cast.

ANNNNNNDDDD, he turned out to be a complete asshole in real life.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Mike Seavers in Family Matters.

Somehow, they allowed Cameron to control the direction of the show and disrupt the flow of it and the careers of some of the cast.

ANNNNNNDDDD, he turned out to be a complete asshole in real life.

I think you meant Growing Pains.

 

[SimonDoom]

Most annoying character in my stories: Carl, the Dad in Late Night On The Loveseat With Mom.

He's a loutish, negligent husband, going to seed in his 40s, drinking too many beers and watching too much TV, and neglecting his still nubile wife Madeline, leaving the way open for his son Kyle.

It's full of cliche, but it was a lot of fun to write. It can be a lot of fun to write a truly annoying character because they are foils for the protagonists.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Yeah, that's what I typed. What did you read?



{Yeah, yeah, I know ....}

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

No mentions of Hyacinth Bucket?

 

[RetroFan]

No mentions of Hyacinth Bucket?

Hyacinth Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances was written to be annoying, much like Frank Spencer from Some Mothers Do Ave Em back in the 1970s and Steve Urkel from Family Matters. Of course, how much the viewers can tolerate these characters is up to the individual. I know some people who love Frank Spencer, and others who cannot stand to be in the same room when he is on TV.

However if a character wasn't written to be annoying but proves to be, that's a different matter. One example of this would be Mary Jane Watson in the 2000s Spider Man films, played by Kirsten Dunst. The character was written to have flaws, but this version of Mary Jane comes across as selfish, nagging and manipulative, her personality seeming to indicate that she has permanent PMS, plus she is a serial cheater. I wonder how the Loving Wives crew would react to a character like this in one of their stories?

Seriously, by the end of Spider Man III I would have been happy to see Peter Parker walk out the door to have a happy life with Gwen Stacy, responding to Mary Jane's pleas to stay with 'Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.'

 

[BellaBestia]

Anastasia Steele of 50 Shades of Grey, the first ( and only) book of the series I read, haven’t seen the movie. She’s one of the worst of many many many things wrong, incorrect and irritating about that book, completely unlikeable and unrealistic (aged 22 a college graduate but she had never even masturbated before hooking up with the psychotic Grey? Oh c’mon!). Considering she’s the MC and narrator I expected more but EL James is a talentless hack riding the coattails of Twilight fan fiction to the bank, and unfortunately inspiring a legion of other talentless fan fiction hacks to flood the e-book market with similar or worse. One of the few books I literally threw across the room in sheer frustration and disgust.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Anastasia Steele of 50 Shades of Grey, the first ( and only) book of the series I read, haven’t seen the movie. She’s one of the worst of many many many things wrong, incorrect and irritating about that book, completely unlikeable and unrealistic (aged 22 a college graduate but she had never even masturbated before hooking up with the psychotic Grey? Oh c’mon!). Considering she’s the MC and narrator I expected more but EL James is a talentless hack riding the coattails of Twilight fan fiction to the bank, and unfortunately inspiring a legion of other talentless fan fiction hacks to flood the e-book market with similar or worse. One of the few books I literally threw across the room in sheer frustration and disgust.

I was at a bookstore when it came out, and was so curious why anyone would like something like that, so I read one page of that book randomly with a friend of mine who was super BDSM (had a slave, pegged him, that sort of thing). She was PISSED about the portrayal of BDSM relationships. She ranted about all the millenial women who went to the movie with silk ties around their wrists. BDSM is about trust, understanding, not forcing yourself on someone because you can. It's sickening how normalized that became and how few of the people who watched that movie saw anything wrong with Grey's portrayal.

Also, the writing was objectively garbage. I literally used hand santizier after putting it back.

If I'm Stephanie Meyers, I'm still blushing about how bad this Twilight rip-off was.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Annoying character in a movie I otherwise loved: Denethor in Return of the King. The character is played differently in the movie from the way he's portrayed in the book. His bad qualities are exaggerated, and his good qualities are completely absent. His character was a jarring note in what I otherwise thought was an excellent movie (although I have my Tolkien nerd quibbles with it, which I won't go into).

I've been enjoying this series of posts by a military historian, analysing the siege of Gondor in book and film. From part II onwards he has a lot to say about the differences between book!Denethor and film!Denethor as revealed by their decision-making.

His general take is that Tolkien's descriptions of warfare are well informed by his knowledge of RL history, and generally they're plausible with allowances for intentional fantastical elements. Jackson doesn't have that same level of understanding, and is also working under the constraints of film-making, which means that often the context of key scenes is changed in a way that changes one's assessment of the leadership.

For instance, in the film Gondor's forces lose Osgiliath, and Denethor then sends Faramir back on an utterly hopeless charge - cavalry against infantry protected by stone ruins, a completely futile waste of soldiers. But in the book, Denethor sends Faramir back to reinforce forces who have not yet fallen; it's a dangerous mission but much more rational.

Jackson is a big WWI buff; I wonder how strongly his take on Denethor is influenced by the more bloody-minded episodes of WWI, with soldiers sent to charge barbed wire and machineguns, or by things like the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting read; he also has analyses of Helm's Deep and battles from various other stuff like Game of Thrones.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The most intentionally annoying character from one of my own stories here would have to be Alistair, the boss from The Floggings Will Continue. He's a former Olympic rowing coach who "fervently believed that managing a software development project was fundamentally no different to managing a rowing team" and whose idea of motivation is "When our competitors are giving a hundred and ten per cent, we have to give a hundred and twenty!"

When I was writing Red Scarf, I was worried about making Anjali annoyingly saccharine. She's nerdy, honest, kind-hearted, lots of good things and it's easy for that to end up in "too good to be true" territory, so I ended up giving her a penchant for atrocious puns to temper that at least a little. IDK how well I succeeded.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

His general take is that Tolkien's descriptions of warfare are well informed by his knowledge of RL history, and generally they're plausible with allowances for intentional fantastical elements. Jackson doesn't have that same level of understanding, and is also working under the constraints of film-making, which means that often the context of key scenes is changed in a way that changes one's assessment of the leadership.

...

Jackson is a big WWI buff; I wonder how strongly his take on Denethor is influenced by the more bloody-minded episodes of WWI, with soldiers sent to charge barbed wire and machineguns, or by things like the Charge of the Light Brigade.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was a veteran of the First World War. He fought in the Battle of the Somme. I wonder what he'd think of the military nonsense in the movies.

--Annie

 

[CyranoJ]

For instance, in the film Gondor's forces lose Osgiliath, and Denethor then sends Faramir back on an utterly hopeless charge - cavalry against infantry protected by stone ruins, a completely futile waste of soldiers. But in the book, Denethor sends Faramir back to reinforce forces who have not yet fallen; it's a dangerous mission but much more rational.

The military stuff is just symptomatic of a much bigger problem with Movie Denethor: he's irrational and stupid, whereas Book Denethor is canny but misguided. In the books, there's generally an inner logic to Denethor's actions which Jackson either didn't understand or wasn't able to bring across. (He definitely qualifies as an annoying figure for me for that reason.)

 

[Bramblethorn]

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was a veteran of the First World War. He fought in the Battle of the Somme. I wonder what he'd think of the military nonsense in the movies.

--Annie

He was, but the military action in LotR is much more informed by medieval warfare, of which Tolkien's knowledge was excellent but not first-hand.

 

[TheLobster]

She's nerdy, honest, kind-hearted, lots of good things and it's easy for that to end up in "too good to be true" territory, so I ended up giving her a penchant for atrocious puns to temper that at least a little.

Oh, come on! You gotta be kidding. You had a nice, nerdy, presumably cute FMC, and to "balance this out" you decided to make her even more adorkable?

 

[SimonDoom]

I've been enjoying this series of posts by a military historian, analysing the siege of Gondor in book and film. From part II onwards he has a lot to say about the differences between book!Denethor and film!Denethor as revealed by their decision-making.

His general take is that Tolkien's descriptions of warfare are well informed by his knowledge of RL history, and generally they're plausible with allowances for intentional fantastical elements. Jackson doesn't have that same level of understanding, and is also working under the constraints of film-making, which means that often the context of key scenes is changed in a way that changes one's assessment of the leadership.

For instance, in the film Gondor's forces lose Osgiliath, and Denethor then sends Faramir back on an utterly hopeless charge - cavalry against infantry protected by stone ruins, a completely futile waste of soldiers. But in the book, Denethor sends Faramir back to reinforce forces who have not yet fallen; it's a dangerous mission but much more rational.

Jackson is a big WWI buff; I wonder how strongly his take on Denethor is influenced by the more bloody-minded episodes of WWI, with soldiers sent to charge barbed wire and machineguns, or by things like the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting read; he also has analyses of Helm's Deep and battles from various other stuff like Game of Thrones.

Very interesting! I'll check that out.

Jackson certainly altered things for the sake of spectacle.


For instance, in the Helm's Deep battle, at the end, when Gandalf leads a charge of the Rohirrim, the slope they ride down looks impossibly steep. I don't think the horses would be able to stay up. They'd all go rolling into the orcs below.

The most disappointing choice to me was the decision to have the Dead win the battle of Minas Tirith. They had a more limited role in the book. In the movie they're a deus ex machina, and it lessens the value of what the living do in the battle.

 

[SimonDoom]

Anastasia Steele of 50 Shades of Grey, the first ( and only) book of the series I read, haven’t seen the movie. She’s one of the worst of many many many things wrong, incorrect and irritating about that book, completely unlikeable and unrealistic (aged 22 a college graduate but she had never even masturbated before hooking up with the psychotic Grey? Oh c’mon!). Considering she’s the MC and narrator I expected more but EL James is a talentless hack riding the coattails of Twilight fan fiction to the bank, and unfortunately inspiring a legion of other talentless fan fiction hacks to flood the e-book market with similar or worse. One of the few books I literally threw across the room in sheer frustration and disgust.

I agree. It's an interesting choice to make the main, point of view character boring, without any particular noteworthy, interesting qualities. I felt the same way about Bella in Twilight. Anastasia in a sense is a projection of Bella so I suppose it makes sense.

I wonder if the reason behind it is that if she's boring she's more relatable. It's easier for millions of women to imagine it's THEM being seduced by a billionaire if she's not especially distinctive.

 

[StillStunned]

The most disappointing choice to me was the decision to have the Dead win the battle of Minas Tirith. They had a more limited role in the book. In the movie they're a deus ex machina, and it lessens the value of what the living do in the battle.

To be fair, they actually do the same in the book. It's just that it happens off-screen, and Legolas and Gimli tell the story after the fact.

The really weird bit in the movie is all the ships: in the books, they're manned by the soldiers from Lebanon Lebennin that join Aragorn after the Dead chase away the Corsairs. But who's manning the ships in the movie?

 

[TheLobster]

The really weird bit in the movie is all the ships: in the books, they're manned by the soldiers from Lebanon that join Aragorn after the Dead chase away the Corsairs.

Huh. I knew that Tolkien modeled Umbar and the whole area south of Gondor after Middle East, but I had no idea he also lifted some of the names!

 

[StillStunned]

Huh. I knew that Tolkien modeled Umbar and the whole area south of Gondor after Middle East, but I had no idea he also lifted some of the names!

Uhm... can I blame autocorrect?