History YMMV / GLEE

** On a related note, many of Puck's plots became harsher after Salling's actions -- coercing Quinn into sex by getting her drunk and lying about wearing a condom in season 1, his "relationship" with (AKA being groomed by) his teacher Shelby in Season 3, and his brief relationship with Kitty (who is a sophomore while he's six months post-graduation) in season 4 are the highlights; however, the character's generally sex-focused characterization has made it difficult not to think of the actor's charges when watching any of his scenes.

** On a related note, many of Puck's plots became harsher after Salling's actions -- pressuring Quinn into having six in season 1, his relationship with Shelby (as his teacher) in Season 3, and his brief relationship with Kitty (who is a sophomore while he's six months post-graduation) in season 4 are the highlights; however the character's generally sex-focused characterization has made it difficult not to think of the actor's charges when watching any of his scenes.

** There's a contingent of LGBT fans that ''despise'' Kurt, seeing him as a reductive stereotype of gay people and their actual real-life struggles in a high school environment, on top of being selfish, petty, and a genuinely unlikable a lot of the time. Not helping matters is the fact that he spent an entire episode in Season 2 mad at Blaine for briefly experimenting with his sexuality, going so far as to declare that [[NoBisexuals bisexual people didn't exist]]... which he was vindicated for at the end of the episode.

* KarmicOverkill: In "Theatricality", Finn refers to Kurt's decor as "faggy", and gets thrown out of his home by Kurt's father Burt. Viewers generally agreed that Finn's use of the word was out of line, but many nevertheless believed that what Burt did in response went too far, especially as it happened after Kurt engaged in some ''very'' creepy behavior towards Finn (namely, attempting to hit on Finn even after Finn made it clear he wasn't interested and trying to set their respective parents up [[ShipperWithAnAgenda because he believed it would give him more opportunity to seduce Finn). While it certainly didn't justify his use of a homophobic slur, it did make his outburst more understandable overall, and getting kicked out for it definitely seemed overly harsh. Tellingly, later episodes have Burt admit he overreacted and Kurt realize that what he did was seriously inappropriate.

** For that matter, he new Glee Club members in season six. They may not be breathtaking characters, but they are the first set for a very, ''very'' long time that doesn't consist of archetypes already recycled several times in the show. Yet they are here for only one and shortened season and aren't even really the main characters.

** Even before it aired, Santana vs. Rachel in [[Recap/GleeS5E9Frenemies "Frenemies"]] was ugly either way. There were fans agreeing with Rachel who says that Santana auditioning for understudy is ridiculous considering she has never shown an interest in Broadway, and that she's just trying to steal Rachel's limelight, and then there are those on Santana's side, saying that Rachel blew a majority of the situation out of proportion, taking the simple idea of Santana auditioning to be her understudy and making it a huge deal which she shouldn't have. And some are just Kurt (and Elliot, as of [[Recap/GleeS5Trio "Trio"]], siding with neither.

** Even before it aired, Santana vs. Rachel in [[Recap/GleeS5E9Frenemies "Frenemies"]] was ugly either way. There were fans agreeing with Rachel who says that Santana auditioning for understudy is ridiculous considering she has never shown an interest in Broadway, and that she's just trying to steal Rachel's limelight, and then there are those on Santana's side, saying that Rachel blew a majority of the situation out of proportion, taking the simple idea of Santana auditioning to be her understudy and making it a huge deal which she shouldn't have. And some are just Kurt (and Elliot, as of [[Recap/GleeS%Trio "Trio"]], siding with neither.

** Episode 1.14, "Hell-O" is the first time we see Santana and Brittany make any mention of making out with each other.

** Rachel: She's either sympathetic and sinspiring for her big-city dreams and trying to break out of her small town, or a spotlight-hogging nag who belittles people who consider her a friend and often refuses to acknowledge anyone else's talents. She did get some character development in this area later on...which only broke the base further, with many debating whether she'd truly redeemed herself for her past actions (or if they needed redeeming to begin with).

** Brittany, who wasn't in the pilot, didn't speak until [[Recap/GleeS1E4Preggers episode 4]], gets a handful of lines in every episode, and still manages to be one of the most popular characters on the show with her charming minimalistic humor. She's one of the two best dancers, in the second season turned out to be a pretty good singer too. Creator/HeatherMorris was only hired to choreograph the [[Music/{{Beyoncé}} "Single Ladies"]] dance from the episode "Preggers". When Murphy needed a third actor to play the third member of the "Unholy Trinity" alongside Creator/NayaRivera and Creator/DiannaAgron, she was hired. The last ingredient needed to bump her into a main character was the innocuous line in [[Recap/GleeS1E13Sectionals "Sectionals"]] about her and Santa sleeping together, and once that landed the Brittana fandom exploded.

** Rachel: She's either inspiring and sympathetic, or a spotlight-hogging bitch and that's without any of the real-life backlash to Lea Michele.

** Rachel: She's either inspiring and sympathetic, or a spotlight-hogging bitch.

* WTHCastingAgency: Kevin [=McHale=] is one of the best dancers on the cast (having formerly been a member of a BoyBand), but it's ''his'' character who's in a wheelchair. It made for pretty interesting storylines/musical numbers in which he daydreams about being able to get up and dance, such as in "Dream On" and "Michael"; this, however, has been met with criticism from disabled viewers, since portraying a wheelchair user as constantly wishing to leave their wheelchair is stereotypical and doesn't represent the real life experience of wheelchair users, with an issue that has only been become more visibilized in recent years being that of disabled people rarely being cast for roles, even disabled characters.

* RonTheDeathEater: To put it as delicately as possible, some sections of fandom seem to be under the impression that certain characters are nothing '''but''' vices. The worst would have to be Adam, Kurt's boyfriend from season 4 who despite being shown as rather sweet and caring, some Klainers seem to twist him at times into being a huge jerk. The same goes from Anti-Klainers in regards to Blaine as well who although he has made some mistakes, you would think he murdered everyone in Kurt's life from the way they talk about him.

** Finn. In "Theatricality", he essentially [[DisproportionateRetribution gets thrown out of his own home]] for using a slur to refer to Kurt's interior design choices. We're supposed to hate him because of it, but Kurt had been trying to seduce him even when Finn started to become annoyed with Kurt's unwelcome touching and left their conversations when things got uncomfortable. It reached a point where Kurt encouraged their parents to get together ''because'' he would have more opportunity to seduce Finn if they were stepbrothers. It doesn't help that using offensive words when he's frustrated (i.e., calling [[CloudCuckooLander Brittany]] [[BerserkButton stupid]], using a slur to describe Sue's baby who has Down Syndrome, etc.) is later established to be a bad habit of Finn's. [[AuthorsSavingThrow Fortunately]], this is addressed early in the second season when Burt tells Kurt that he found out about his son's less-than-savory reasons for getting him and Carol together.

** Santana. In "Mash Off", we're meant to cheer for her when she slaps Finn in the face after finding out that Reggie Salazar released an attack ad criticizing Sue for choosing a lesbian as head cheerleader, as his niece overheard Finn [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calling Santana a coward for constantly tearing others down while not accepting herself and her relationship with Brittany]]. However, Santana was ''already'' ForcedOutOfTheCloset in "Rumors", when the school paper talked about a prom queen candidate "spending a lot of time in the closet" after [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality Brittany casually confirmed a rumor about Santana "playing for the other team"]][[note]]While [[TheDitz Brittany]] claimed [[BaitAndSwitch she was referring to the fact that Santana used to be on the Cheerios and now is in New Directions]], the fact that her guests, fellow New Directions members Mercedes and Tina, already ''knew'' this and had nothing to gain from spreading that gossip around the school makes this BlatantLies[[/note]], so it just makes Santana blaming ''Finn'' for outing her to the world even more of a {{Jerkass}} move. Additionally, Santana and the rest of her dodgeball team pummeled Rory and laughed as he bled on the floor, she remained unfazed even when Kurt called her out on using the sport to bully and telling her [[NotSoDifferentRemark she is no different than the people who make fun of and harass their glee clubs]], and she ultimately turned out to be placating the Troubletones when she agreed to stop flinging horrible insults at Finn since her so-called apology consisted of a series of even ''more'' insults. Yet we are supposed to feel bad for ''her'' when Finn, after having to endure her stalking him through the halls of the school and all her bullying, humiliation and psychological warfare, gives her a taste of her own medicine, especially considering that [[StrawmanHasAPoint his claim about the whole school already knowing she's gay is true to a certain degree?]][[note]]While some douchey sophomore does try to seduce Santana to "make her normal" after seeing the ad, he is clearly the kind of man who'd just dismiss simple gossip (i.e. blind items in a school newspaper) that seriously acknowledges a same-sex relationship because [[CureYourGays being gay is a silly fantasy to be corrected and doesn't actually exist in his mind]]. Aside from him, students already treated Santana differently enough for her to be "asked to join the golf team" when Brittany outed her on her internet talk show; thus, Finn still has a valid argument.[[/note]]

* KarmaHoudini: Lauren in "Born This Way" receives no real punishment for bullying Quinn, despite the anti-bullying theme of the episode. Made worse is the fact that she shouldn't have even been able to run for prom queen in the first place since she was retconned into a sophomore.

%%* UnpopularPopularCharacter: Rachel.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: In [[Recap/GleeS2E4Duets "Duets"]], Burt brings up [[Recap/GleeS1E20Theatricality his controversial rant to Finn about his use of a homophobic slur]], echoing fan sentiments that, while Finn was in the wrong for saying it, he ''was'' under a degree of stress at the time. Burt also admits that he may have overreacted ''just'' a little bit. Hearing from his dad that he may be pressuring Sam, just as he had while crushing on Finn the year before, finally makes Kurt realize that his behavior during that episode wasn't acceptable either; he at least gives enough consideration to Burt's words that he tells Sam he can duet with someone else and that [[ItsNotYouItsMe his reasons for releasing Sam from their partnership lie with himself rather than with Sam]].

* SalvagedStory: In [[Recap/GleeS2E4Duets "Duets"]] and [[Recap/GleeS5E3TheQuarterback "The Quarterback"]], Burt brings up [[Recap/GleeS1E20Theatricality his controversial rant to Finn about his use of a homophobic slur]], echoing fan sentiments that, while Finn was in the wrong for saying it, he ''was'' under a degree of stress at the time. Burt also admits that he may have overreacted ''just'' a little bit. Hearing from his dad that he may be pressuring Sam, just as he had while crushing on Finn the year before, finally makes Kurt realize that his behavior during that episode wasn't acceptable either; he at least gives enough consideration to Burt's words that he tells Sam he can duet with someone else and that [[ItsNotYouItsMe his reasons for releasing Sam from their partnership lie with himself rather than with Sam]].

* SalvagedStory: In [[Recap/GleeS2E4Duets "Duets"]] and [[Recap/GleeS5E3TheQuarterback "The Quarterback"]], Burt brings up [[Recap/GleeS1E20Theatricality his controversial rant to Finn about his use of a homophobic slur]], echoing fan sentiments that, while Finn was in the wrong for saying it, he ''was'' under a degree of stress at the time. Burt also admits that he may have overreacted ''just'' a little bit. Hearing it from Burt from Finn might have a point and that he may be taking advantage of Sam just as he had a crush on Finn the year before, finally makes Kurt realize that his behavior during that episode wasn't acceptable either; he at least gives enough consideration to Burt's words that he tells Sam he can duet with someone else and that [[ItsNotYouItsMe his reasons for releasing Sam from their partnership lie with himself rather than with Sam]].

* AudienceAlienatingEra: Season 5. From the start, it was overshadowed by the death of Cory Monteith, featured performances of songs that had not been released yet in the timeline of the show (like Music/KatyPerry's "Roar" and Music/MileyCyrus' "Wrecking Ball" both released Fall 2013 even though it was set in Spring 2013), asinine storylines (like [[Recap/GleeS5E4AKatyOrAGaga an entire episode based around twerking and a scene where Will punishes Marley for not wearing a skimpy outfit]] and [[Recap/GleeS5E7PuppetMaster the infamous "Puppet Master" episode]]) and Joe and Sugar just disappeared entirely. To top it off, they decided to ditch the Glee club entirely for the second half of the season, essentially firing five regulars in the process. Had the show not been renewed for Season 6 before the season started, it likely would have been cancelled as viewership tanked during the season. Season 6 tried to rectify it by going back to the Glee Club but Fox had already made the decision to cancel the show by then.