Most Unlikable Protagonists

[Dominicboo1]

Sometimes the hero isn't nice. Sometimes they commit crimes, and do horrible things, but we're still supposed to sympathize with them. Who are your protaganists you can't like?
Billy Bigelow (Carousel): This movie is not nearly as sweet as the other Rogers and Hammersteins musicals Sound of Music or Oklahoma or even have the likable characters of The King and I. This hero is a good example. He REPEATEDLY is actually accused of acting horribly, and still tries to defend himself...he beats his wife, but says it's ok to hit just not beat.....and later hits his daughter coming back from heaven(He died running from the robbery he almost commited, beat his wife, and went to heaven...ha suddenly sin doesn't sound so bad!) and she says it was like he kissed her hand....that's horrible, and I HATE this character. He's supposed to show how she doesn't have to follow his path (I should hope so...the girl did nothing wrong), and still defends himself against all that was said about him and straight up lies to his daughter that nothing that said about him was true. Billy's not a likeable person in my opinon...and they could have made him complex and likable like the King from King and I who was a good person, but had a different lifestyle where things like beating women were accepteable which was his problem with Anna. So what about you? What "hero" do you think acts criminal, selfish, horrible, and down right nasty without learning his or her lesson. (Please note that I'm not counting characters that are being taught to redeem themselves as that is they are meant to be that way)

 

[beatnikchick300]

Well...

• Peter and Lois Griffin (Family Guy) -Because they're horrible parents, not really all that great to each other either, and constantly do stupid, childish, selfish things. At least with the Simpsons and the Smiths from American Dad, even for all the stupid, self-serving, borderline sociopath-level things they do, at least you can buy that they really do care about each other. Speaking of American Dad...
• Roger (American Dad) -He has the exact same problems Lois and Peter have, and nearly always gets off scot-free (and any time anyone, usually Stan, DOES call him on it or try to punish him, that person is either made out to be the bad guy, or foiled in some way), but I feel like the show would be better if either he weren't in it, or stayed a side character, like in the earlier seasons. Now they might as well say "this show is about an effeminate alien who acts like a sociopath and has collections of wigs and disguises he uses to get into all sorts of shenanigans... oh, yeah, and there's a CIA agent, his wife, and their two kids in there somewhere, but that's not important."
• Zack Morris (Saved by the Bell) -yeah, might as well mention a pre-2000s unlikable protagonist. Yeah, he was supposedly the coolest guy in school, who everyone wanted to be friends with, and every girl wanted to date, but why? He frequently uses his supposed friends for his own selfish needs, and treats his on-off girlfriend with a major "Entitled to Have You" mentality (that's not a healthy thing in any relationship). Come to think of it, none of the main cast was really all that likable. They were often just as bad as the supposed "bullies" who would appear on the show from time to time. Thank God in the late '90s and 2000s they finally started making teen shows from the nerds'/unpopular kids' point of view.

The thing about unlikable protagonists that in general I'm not very fond of is that the only reason you're meant to cheer for them is because they're the main character(s). Not that every main character should be a Mary Sue, but what's so bad about main characters who are flawed, but still likable? You know, so that you would WANT them to come out okay in the end? These characters are enough to make me want to root for any "bad guys" they come across (at least most narratives don't try to make villains out to be anything else).

 

[FunnyBear]

Peter and Lois Griffin

I'd also add later seasons Quagmire and Brian.

 

[Drtooth]

Well...

• Peter and Lois Griffin (Family Guy) -Because they're horrible parents, not really all that great to each other either, and constantly do stupid, childish, selfish things. At least with the Simpsons and the Smiths from American Dad, even for all the stupid, self-serving, borderline sociopath-level things they do, at least you can buy that they really do care about each other. Speaking of American Dad...

The X-Box crowd ruined that show. In the earlier episodes, Peter and Lois generally cared about their kids. I'll never forget that episode where Meg was being bullied by the popular kids and Lois has been implied to hire Quagmire to perform statutory rape on the cheerleader. Those mama Bear tendencies were lost when the writers came up with the reasoning "the fanbase doesn't like Meg, who Fox pretty much forced us to put in anyway so let's just make a bunch of growingly unfunny, repetitive jokes about how we hate her." Now, Peter... fine. They flanderized him into a moronic manchild since Petarded. But Lois!?! "She just gave me a picture of her eating a turkey leg." Hilarious . And you're right. When Peter lost all personality triats, they actually managed to make Stan Smith downright sympathetic. Heck, he actually deeply cares about Hayley more than Steve, despite the fact Hayley hates his political views and Steve is eager to absorb them.

But to add to the list....

• Daniel Witwicky in Transformers Headmasters. Sure, movie, cartoon, and otherwise Transformers humans have been mostly meh to useless depending on the project. But Headmasters (among other oddities of having a Japanese studio try their hands at a western cartoon fior Japanese audiences and failing) manages to take a 10-12 year old boy, make him an emotionally unstable 5 year old audience surrogate who has a crybaby temper tantrum in half the episodes... and guess what his focus is on the show? Add to that, they partnered him with Wheelie, but he sucked anyway. They actually improved him by taking away his rhyming dialogue.
• Yankee Doodle Pigeon. Whatever your views on Road Runner, Tom and Jerry, or any zip chase cartoon is, Yankee Doodle Pigeon is a personality devoid, annoying nuisance that you just want Dick Dastardly to capture and torture. Speaking of Dastardly...
• EVERY racer in Wacky Races that isn't Dastardly and Muttley. Dastardly stops to cheat? He's a horrible character that even the narrator berates. But here's the thing. Watch an episode. EVERY one of the racers cheats, and they constantly have it out for each other. Not a word is spoken about it, and no comeuppance is given. Then again...heh hee... I have a Dastardly and Muttley biased.
• Lola Bunny before The Looney Tunes Show. In a cheap attempt to bring GRRRL POWER to an old cartoon series that was made in the 40's, we got for the Mary Sue type that's both Bugs's equal and superior, trading Strong Female Character with Comes on too strong female merchandising gimmick. I'll admit, they did have a solid try to intergrate her into other projects... she comes off as a self interested jerk character as a reporter in Tweety's High Flying Adventure ("Just Business" as Tweety's in jeopardy), and to be fair she was added into the 2 worst LT projects ever, Looney Tunes Babies and Loonatics, where she was just there for merchandising purposes again. I've had arguments about this, but TLTS actually made her a Looney Tunes-esque character.
• Ren Hoek in Adult Cartoon Party. Ren was genuinely funny and a Jerk Woobie in the original show, his abuse of Stimpy was funny because Stimpy enjoyed it. But then Adult Party made Ren dark, violent in a creepy way, abusive to a more feminine Stimpy who doesn't like it, and just a horrifying character on every level. They have an entire unproduced episode where Ren essentially says God has got it out for us, he's right, and it's played for laughs! I'm a very cynical depressed guy, and I found it over the top.

 

[Slackbot]

Light Yagami in Death Note. I haven't quite finished the manga yet (no spoilers please) but the father I get on the chillier, more manipulative, and more ruthless he gets. Power corrupts.

 

[Drtooth]

Well...uh... essentially the point. Which is why these notes aren't supposed to be in the hands of mortals...unless the shinigamis want to have some fun.

 

[mr3urious]

When Peter lost all personality triats, they actually managed to make Stan Smith downright sympathetic. Heck, he actually deeply cares about Hayley more than Steve, despite the fact Hayley hates his political views and Steve is eager to absorb them.

Even the more stereotypical teenage brat Roberta on The Cleveland Show is equally loved by both her parents. Well, maybe not so much Cleveland.

 

[KremlingWhatnot]

Mordecai in the recent episodes of Regular Show, okay, I know I'm going to have people crowding me with mob letters over this one, so let's just say, I just thought he has been unlikeable in some episodes, like Expert or Liar (even though it was only in one scene) and the most recent episode Paint Job (to me he should've been the one learning the lesson, not Rigby ), in Wall Buddy it was understandable because Mordecai was also needing to learn a lesson too.

Post-Movie Mr. Krabs, another example I can think of when it comes to most unlikeable protagonists, okay, Mr. Krabs used to care for his workers and his daughter, but then after the movie, Mr. Krabs became extremely unlikeable, One Course Meal is one major example of that, seriously, poor Plankton, while I'm bringing up Pearl, I might as well bring up, the one where she hits puberty, and Mr. Krabs really doesn't give a frog about it, seriously, you make soap out of Krabby Pattys cause you couldn't buy soap from the store when you're perfectly fine buying crackers that one time in the sleepover episode, seriously you're that cheap, wow, yeah, this is why I've hated Mr. Krabs in the post-movie era, he's super cheap, doesn't care for anything but his money and nothing else.

 

[jvcarroll]

Invader Zim and Gir. They want to enslave all of humankind, but they're both just so darn cute about it. Squeeeee!

 

[Drtooth]

Even the more stereotypical teenage brat Roberta on The Cleveland Show is equally loved by both her parents. Well, maybe not so much Cleveland.

Hence why I'm one of the blasphemous few that actually preferred The Cleveland Show to Family Guy when it was on. It's just hilarious that both Cleveland and Stan grew as characters when Peter shrunk to 2 jokes (being mean and acting like a child... both got old fast). But when they turned Lois into a spiteful, nasty, bad parent, it completely ruined the show.