Close your eyes and think about some of your favorite book and film characters, Pandas. What are they? Heroes, villains, antiheroes… or something else entirely? The beauty of enjoying entertainment through reading, art, and visual media is that you delight in the story from your own unique perspective. No one else sees and feels the story and characters quite like you do. The words and visuals resonate with you in a distinctive way.
However, some people firmly believe that there is an overwhelmingly ‘right way’ to interpret popular stories and characters. The crowd over on r/AskReddit feels that people generally tend to idolize way too many fictional characters without ‘getting’ the entire ‘point’ of their stories. From The Joker to Light Yagami and beyond, these redditors think that these characters deserve no sympathy at all.
Scroll down to see which fictional characters they singled out and why they believe nobody should idolize them. Do you agree or disagree with their opinions, Pandas? Let us know in the comments! And if you feel like opening up to all the other readers, why not tell us who you look up to for inspiration in media and why?
#1
Romeo and Juliet
Image credits: Why_So_Slow
#2
Peter Pan, he flies into kids windows and kidnaps them.
Image credits: B00dle
#3
Walter White. You’re not supposed to root for the murderous, ruthless, self-centred, ego maniac drug lord by the end of the series. People do.
Image credits: NDStars
#4
Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye. He wasn’t being refreshingly rebellious, he was crying out for help. He was probably mentally ill, and definitely emotionally scarred by his brother’s death and the unhealthy way his parents handled that tragedy.
Image credits: GoingOn2Perfection
#5
Scarface. So many wannabe gangstas and rappers with Scarface shirts and posters.
Image credits: Leeser
#6
Homelander from The Boys comes to mind
What I am referring to is that there was an article that was published about some fans who genuinely thought Homelander, who is supposed to represent white supremacy ideology and toxic masculinity ideals, was actually a good guy in the show. It took them until the third season to find out that he was actually the bad guy and people were big mad about it. It blew my mind that they went through two seasons and thought Homelander was a good guy……
So that was who came to mind first with this prompt.
Image credits: biochemnerd12
#7
Vito Corleone, and by extension, Michael.
Vito had to flee his home as a little boy to escape a mafia boss who wanted him dead. He gets to the US, but because of discrimination against Italians and another mafia boss stealing his job for his nephew, he’s forced into crime so he can take care of his family. He joins The Life, and he’s good at it.
But because of that life:
– Sonny is murdered
– Michael goes into exile
– Michael’s first wife is murdered
– Fredo has a breakdown
– Connie goes off the rails after her abusive husband is killed
– Michael’s second wife leaves him
– Fredo betrays Michael
– Michael has him killed
– Michael’s daughter is killed
– Michael’s son hates him
Even more tragic? MICHAEL ALMOST ESCAPED THAT LIFE.
EDIT: 90% of y’all are agreeing with me and the other 10% are proving my point.
Image credits: fangirlandproudofit
#8
Patrick Bateman.
The memes today are undermining how brutally narcissistic, inhuman and soulless he really is. The novel made me puke every few pages.
He himself admitted the only emotions he was left with was greed and disgust.
He is among the peak consumerist in a consumerism driven society.
Image credits: rukthor
#9
Not actually fictional but- The Wolf of Wall Street
Image credits: Infinite_Occasion
#10
Light Yagami.
So many people forget that Death Note basically shredded whatever redeeming qualities he had for the sole purpose of spreading the message that power corrupts/absolute power corrupts absolutely. The only thing that anyone really seems to talk about regarding his character is that he’s awesome, handsome, and polite, and even the former was a facade.
Image credits: More___Yogurt
#11
Alex from A Clockwork Orange.
The point of the book (to my reading) was that you can’t force natures hand. All the rehabilitation in the world couldn’t make Alex grow up, only Alex could. And he did. In the end, it was not a glorification of violence.
Image credits: zCYNICALifornia
#12
The Punisher
Image credits: Nonsenseinabag
#13
Woody from toy story. Guy’s ego is larger than the moon
Image credits: Torqyboi
#14
Tyler Durden, hands down.
Image credits: sazerrrac
#15
Love Quinn from You.
I can’t believe how many people worship her character. I have to tell myself that the people praising her actually KNOW she’s an insane, psychopathic, manipulative murderer, and their admiration of her is actually rooted in how well developed her character is and how refreshing it is to see a female villain instead of just another innocent victim. I have to tell myself that to sleep at night. Because there’s no way people actually admire HER, as in who her character was. There’s no way they can justify her actions or want to be anything like her. Right? Lol.
Image credits: DirtStreet3135
#16
Thomas Shelby Peaky Blinders.
Image credits: Phillyfrom312
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