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  • Most of the fantastic denizens of Alice in Wonderland are unusually obnoxious creatures that threaten to harm or kill Alice with little to no reason. Even Alice can be an asshole sometimes. There is a part where she steals a slate pencil from somebody because she didn't like the squeaking sound it was making. In court. And he was a member of the jury, taking notes on the case.
  • Moral philosopher Aaron James devotes an entire book to this character type called Assholes: A Theory. He defines the term as "A person, who is almost Always Male, who considers himself of much greater moral or social importance than everyone else; who allows himself to enjoy special advantages and does so systematically; who does this out of an entrenched sense of entitlement; and who is immunized by his sense of entitlement against the complaints of other people. He feels he is not to be questioned, and he is the one who is chiefly wronged."
  • Bazil Broketail:
    • Porteous Glaves is a rich, pompous asshole whom everyone hates.
    • After joining the 109th Dragon Squadron, Gryff is initially a bully who picks on others for little to no reason. He grows out of it, though.
    • Turrent is a tyrannical officer who seems to take pleasure in punishing his subordinates for trivial reasons and exert the power he has over them.
    • Apart from working for the bad guys, Thrembode is also a downright nasty person, always treating others with disdain.
    • Smilgax is the only bad guy among dragons, so — unsurprisingly — he is also a complete asshole to boot.
  • Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, the father of The Brothers Karamazov, is a Jerkass through and through. He even tells his youngest son that he knows he is wicked and is openly wicked, but goes on to say that everyone is wicked, only he tells the truth about his nefariousness. He managed to drive two wives to premature deaths through sheer force of personality, almost completely abandoned his children shortly thereafter, indulged in prostitution in front of one wife and continued to after her death, and would borrow money from people all over and dine at others' expense, among other things. Before he is murdered, he planned to continue living this way for another twenty years or so. The judgmental reader couldn't really be sad to see him go, but the old bastard was rather hilarious. He somewhat resembled Peter Griffin of Family Guy fame for how outlandish and blunt he could be. The lawyer in the book uses as his legal defense that murdering him cannot be treated as murdering someone's father, because he is not a father to his children.
  • Captain Underpants is rife with them.
    • Mr. Krupp is ill-tempered, hates children, and especially loves to pick on George and Harold.
    • Most of the teachers at Jerome Horwitz Elementary (with the exceptions of Mr. Fyde and, for a while, Ms. Ribble) and this to some degree. They torment their students, steal their lunches, make them write lines like "I'm so ugly, when I was born, the doctor slapped my mom", and so forth. Special mention to Mr. Meaner, the Jerk Jock gym teacher. He's so unpleasant that in George and Harold's comics, he always plays Asshole Victim.
    • Melvin Sneedly is an Insufferable tattletale who takes great pleasure in getting George and Harold in trouble. At one point, he gets Captain Underpants' superpowers and does good deeds not out of benevolence, but simply to make himself look good.
  • The Catcher in the Rye: Holden Caulfield is a lazy prick, who never blames himself for anything, never gives any consideration to anyone but Phoebe (which could put him on Jerk with a Heart of Gold territory), acts like every adult but him is an asshole, goes to movies just to call them bad, the list goes on.
  • Although the Chalet School is one of the more pleasant fictional schools, it still has its fair share of bullies, usually girls who are jealous of whoever the titular new girl is (such as Mary Woodley and Barbara Chester), but special mention goes to Thekla von Stift for her extreme snobbery and habit of alienating the other girls, and trying to get Joyce Linton expelled; Betty Wynne-Davies, for being willing to give away a chart containing military secrets to a Nazi spy, just because the owner of said chart trapped her fingers and answered her back; and Jack Lambert, for bullying Jane Carew for the simple crime of replacing her in Len's dormitory, although she at least gets better. To a lesser extent, there's Grizel Cochrane - although she is more of a Jerkass Woobie due to her uncaring parents - and Margot Maynard, though Margot at least recognises how screwed up she is and tries to change.
  • The Chronicles of Dorsa: Mylla is a racist asshole to Joslyn, who's from the Terintan desert nomads, whom she deems barbarians and primitives, insulting her repeatedly. Tasia, who initially resents Joslyn and is all right with a certain amount of ribbing, is increasingly appalled by how far her insults go, commanding Mylla to stop it.
  • Dark Shores: High Lord Hacken Calorian. Very handsome, rich and powerful, he is also greedy, full of contempt, does not care a whit about common people and often makes life miserable for his youngest brother Killian. Also, at one point he simply steps on the body of a girl who has just died while protecting his life because he cannot be bothered to go around (or maybe he just does not care).
  • Everybody in Diary of a Wimpy Kid has their moments, but here are some characters that stand out:
  • Digitesque: Ada is curt and haughty, always looking down on everyone else. And that's how she is with her friends. She's even worse with people she actually considers beneath her, such as the "peasants" she is now forced to live among.
  • Discworld: The city guard of Ankh-Morpork tend to be this for reasons of intimidation and respect. Most of the Watch use psychologically brutal interrogation methods and tend to have a hit-or-miss approach to the whole "catching the right guy" thing, which is ironic since their commander, Sam Vimes, is known for being a strong proponent of judicial ideals, even if he is cynical as sin. They are justified in their methods, given how outnumbered they are by the criminal element, and how entrenched into the city structure the said criminals are. However, the officers' sense of responsibility and respect for Vimes, coupled with their propensity for frightening retribution against those who have harmed their own, or committed high crimes, tend to manage crime with some measure of efficiency.
  • Divergent:
    • Peter. He goes out of his way to make Tris's life miserable, from throwing petty insults to outright sexually assaulting her and trying to kill her.
    • Molly. To get back at Tris for wounding her pride, she feeds lies to the Erudite about Tris's father and Abnegation.
  • Nowakowski from Dora Wilk Series. He's sexist cop who ass-grabs any woman in vicinity, drinks when on service - from victims' own bottles, no less - and prefers to follow his own lead even if all the evidence points to the contrary, just because it's more interesting. And on top of that, he's just plain mediocre at his job.
  • If it's written by Jack Vance, regardless of if it's Fantasy or Science Fiction, there's a high probability that there will be at least one amoral narcissistic callous Jerkass. Or several. In some of his stories (Dying Earth for example), it's hard to find a character who isn't.
    • The first Dying Earth novel had a few people, largely protagonists, who were halfway decent human beings. The second through third don't have any, and the fourth has Rhialto the Marvellous, who occasionally shifts over to Magnificent Bastard or Jerk with a Heart of Gold territory. Occasionally.
  • Earth's Children:
    • Broud is a sadistic, arrogant, out-of-control, all around unbearable character. He doesn't like Ayla from the beginning for being different, and being adopted into his family. After she was permitted to hunt, something women are not ordinarily allowed, he comes to hate her. Upon growing up, he begins raping her, with Ayla forced to submit as a result of their Clan's custom. By the end of the first book, even his father almost disowns him. He doesn't though-as a result, he's made the leader by inheritance, and promptly has Ayla banished.
    • Frebec of the Mamutoi Lion Camp is not a nice person — he's neglectful to his mate, bickers constantly with his mother-in-law, riles up everyone else and is very judgmental of Ayla and Rydag, but it's implied that a lot of this stems from feelings of inferiority, he genuinely loves Fralie and he turns into a Nice Guy by the end of the book.
    • Laramar, a loutish Zelandonii man who does nothing but drink the alcohol he brews, neglects his kids and eventually disowns them.
    • Brukeval, a short-fused Boomerang Bigot with a rather creepy love-hate obsession with Ayla, though he's almost certainly in Jerkass Woobie territory due his Freudian Excuse.
    • Even Jondalar can be a bit of a Jerkass at times, especially in the third book. However, it's usually only when he's under a great deal of stress and he's mostly a decent guy. He also regrets and tries to amends for his Jerkass behavior.
  • Ellen and Otis: Otis Spofford, the class troublemaker who's always looking for ways to tease and make mischief for people. Played straight in Ellen Tebbits and deconstructed in his own book.
  • In Shanna Swendson's Enchanted, Inc., on a girls' night out, they go to kiss frogs. Katie is warned this is not the way to catch Prince Charming, because they were "frogged" for a reason.
  • Erian from The Fallen Moon series certainly counts. He's a racist bastard (quite literally) who threatens enslave the main character Arenadd's parents, does it anyway once he finally gives in, calls Arenadd evil for being a northerner, acts like an ass to his sister, and, even when he dies, insults his niece in front of the ghost of her mother, and tells said niece to kill Arenadd, who she doesn't know is her father. To make things even worse, he knows that Arenadd is her father.
  • In Firebird, everyone in Ilya's family, with the exception of Ilya himself.
  • Flipped:
    • Bryce, his father, and his friend Garret. Bryce for self-assertion, Garret and Mr. Loski just for the sake of being it. Naturally, the former grows out of it by the end while the latter two don't (Mrs. Loski is on the verge of getting a divorce by the end of the novel).
    • The Loskis' daughter seems to be this too. Really tells you how great of a parent the father is.
  • A minor character in Galaxy of Fear: The Doomsday Ship. In line for an Escape Pod he saw two children trying to get ahead of him, so he grabbed them, left the line with them, and locked them in a closet with the full knowledge that when the ship was destroyed, they'd go with it. It wasn't destroyed, but he couldn't have known that.
  • Girls Don't Hit: Joss is a huge jerk toward most people when she's allowed to get away with this (aside from a very few). She even drives to other towns just for venting her repressed anger after maintaining a nice mom and wife image most of the time.
  • Goosebumps has a proliferation of these characters in pretty much every book, which should be expected given what the series is known for. However, the character who takes this up to eleven is undoubtedly Michael Webster's bratty little sister Tara from The Cuckoo Clock of Doom, who does a list of horrible things to Michael to make him as miserable as possible, like making him step on a huge wad of gum, deliberately ruining his bike, wrecking his birthday party, exposing him in his underwear to his crush, and framing him for theft so he could get beaten up by a bigger kid. The worst part? His parents actually condone it all and even rebukes him for lying.
  • The Hannibal Lecter series has a few outside of the Serial Killers:
    • Freddy Lounds, who took pictures of Graham in the hospital after getting stabbed by Lecter for his paper, and had no qualms about writing pure lies just to sell copies.
    • Paul Krendler. He not only makes Starling's life a living hell for grandslamming the Buffalo Bill case, but also makes a pass at Clarice which she rejected. Twice. He's also a Corrupt Cop, working for Verger Mason and framing Starling.
    • Frederick Chilton. There's his making a sleazy pass at Clarice, frequent taunting of Lecter, illicitly recording Clarice's conversations with Lecter, leaking the FBI's deal with Lecter, hogging the spotlight as the plan's brainchild, putting both Clarice and Catherine Martin at the mercy of Buffalo Bill in the process.
  • Harry Potter
    • Severus Snape. On the general scope, he gives obscenely unfair advantage to his own student house (Slytherin) at every single opportunity while ignoring their transgressions while simultaneously jumping at any chance to punish students of other houses. More particularly, he makes it his business to hound Harry at every point due to leftover scorn for his father and bullies the clumsy and timid Neville so badly that Snape becomes Neville’s worst fear.
    • James Potter and Sirius Black in their boyhood, mainly toward his mutual hatred toward Snape. This peaked into Dude, Not Funny! territory when Sirius discovered Snape had been spying on them in attempts to learn what they've been doing during certain nights (accompanying their werewolf friend, Remus Lupin during his transformations). Sirius let slip how to get past the Whomping Willow so Snape could sneak in and he ends up running into a werewolf Lupin, James was very horrified by this before saving Snape. We're told James outgrew this with James becoming Head Boy in his final year.
    • Rita Skeeter is one of the most detestable characters in the franchise. She's a "journalist" who picks on kids, makes stuff up, steals from an old lady, and doesn't respect others' boundaries and privacy. She's also homophobic, going so far to insinuate All Gays Are Pedophiles about Dumbledore after his death. Even Mrs. Weasley's great aunt Muriel only goes so far as saying there were "strange rumours" about him.
    • Draco Malfoy is the poster-child of Jerkassery in the series. A spoiled, rich brat who picks on anyone who he considers a "mudblood", even to the point of wishing them dead in Chamber of Secrets, and more often than not escaping repercussions due to his father's influence, Snape's favouritism, or simply not getting caught. At least until the start of Half Blood Prince when he turns into a Jerkass Woobie almost overnight.
    • Stereotypical Jerk Jock Cormac McLaggan, the substitute Keeper from the Sixth book. How bad is he? In the only match he played in, his team lost 320-60, mostly thanks to believing himself to be the captain and, while showing one of the team's beaters how to hit a Bludger, in the middle of a game, he mishits the Bludger and gives Harry a skull fracture, knocking him out. Sadly, he never gets any onscreen retribution.
    • Hufflepuff Quidditch player Zacharias Smith. In his first appearance in book 5, while interested in Dumbledore's Army, is shown almost immediately to be an ass to Harry and his friends for no justified reason. In Book 6, he takes over commentary for the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin match, where he proceeds to insult Harry's team at every given opportunity. Naturally, nobody feels sorry for him when he gets attacked by members of the Weasley family in these two books. Oh, and in the final book, he flees Hogwarts before the final battle.
    • While generally depicted as Plucky Comic Relief, the twins Fred and George can play some pretty sadistic pranks, including force-feeding a lizard firecrackers and shoving someone into a toilet for weeks on end. It's even revealed in the Defictionalized book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them that they once beat an old pet Ron had to death for fun. To be fair, they were most likely kids at the time of that last one. Kids are pretty messed up. They probably fit much closer to the category of Jerk with a Heart of Gold - at least as they get into their teens. A lot of their more jerk-ish behavior seems to have happened pre-Book 1.

      They deliberately dropped a magical candy in front of Dudley Dursley, knowing the muggle has problems with over-eating and was on a forced diet just to see what would happen. It was Two-Ton Tongue Taffy; Mr. Weasley had to fix it. Wizarding law is supposed to protect muggles from that kind of magical prank. In fact, it's a direct violation of the very department their father belongs to, and it's one of the few moments where Arthur scolds the twins, while their offered defense is they only chose him as the victim "because he's a great bullying git". They also test their joke products on first years, who are eleven year-old kids and, in some cases, muggle-borns with little experience with magic beforehand. By this time they've at least matured enough to both warn and pay those who act as test subjects. They regularly sneak into the Hogwarts kitchen to get snacks, then lie about how hard it was to steal the treats even though the House elves willingly give away food if someone asks. They center most of their other 'pranks' on Percy Weasley. Said pranks include stealing and enchanting Percy's Head Boy badge to say "Big Head Boy", bewitching snowballs to attack him, trying to lock Percy into a pyramid in Egypt, which was only stopped because their mother caught them in time, and sending dung to Percy's office after he gets a job in the Ministry. All of this happens before Percy decides he would rather stick with the Ministry than believe in Dumbledore like the rest of his family. Once Percy severs ties, they continue to insult him and throw mashed parsnips at him during the one family dinner Percy attends in a two and a half year period. Yet Percy is the only one who apologizes for being a prat.
    • Dudley Dursley starts out as a mean bully and spoiled brat. One of the first times Harry used magic unconsciously was due to Dudley and his gang chasing Harry with intent to hurt him, prompting Harry to fly onto the roof. When Harry saved him from Dementors in Book 5, Word of God says that when he was having his soul sucked out, he saw every memory of himself objectively, causing a massive My God, What Have I Done? moment for him. From then, he starts becoming better with Harry and in the last book, the two finally patch up. Word of God says they're on Christmas card relations.
    • Dudley's parents, especially his father Vernon. Vernon is fond of making racist or bigoted remarks, like saying he doesn't want a "Nancy" for a son. He regularly mistreats Harry, hoping to stomp the magic out of him, by forcing him to live in a cupboard under the stairs and punishing him for any perceived transgression. Vernon's wife, Harry's Aunt Petunia, blatantly favors Dudley over Harry, treats Harry much the same as Vernon, and is generally presented as the neighborhood busybody. She proves sympathetic when it's revealed she forced Vernon to take Harry in because it was the only way to protect his life and a lot of her animosity stemmed from bitter jealousy that Lily had magic and she did not.
    • Cornelius Fudge is first presented as something of a Reasonable Authority Figure, but by Book 5, he's in full-blown jerkass mode as he steadfastly ignores any evidence that Voldemort has returned, going so far as to run a smear campaign against Dumbledore.
    • Conversely, Dolores Umbridge probably wouldn't make this list because calling her a Jerkass would be like calling the sun lukewarm. Her time at Hogwarts consists of going from Sadist Teacher to Tyrant Takes the Helm, and implementing punishments like writing lines with a quill that uses the writer's own blood as ink.
    • Pansy Parkinson. Outside of typical Alpha Bitch behavior, she is the one to suggest handing Harry over to Voldemort when he attacks Hogwarts.
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy:
    • The Vogons make up a collective example of this. The entire race seems to consist soley of jerkasses.
    • Ford Prefect doesn't show any sympathy towards his best mate Arthur Dent about the Earth getting blown up and all he really cares about is getting drunk and dancing with girls. But you have to remember that Ford was the one who saved Arthur from Earth's demolition in the first place, and deep down Ford really cares about him.
  • The unnamed Seeker, main antagonist of Stephenie Meyer's The Host (2008), is like this. Especially notable in that, in a species that is biologically predisposed to being Messiah, she still manages an attitude that would make House cringe. Her freed host turns out to be even worse.
  • In Death series: Some of the murderers behave as this. Some of the people Eve Dallas meets from the FBI and other police divisions will make you want to punch them in the face. Eve Dallas herself acts like this a lot, but then again, she is Surrounded by Idiots at times.
  • The Infernal Devices: Will. He very occasionally strays into Jerk with a Heart of Gold territory and sometimes it looks it might be just an act, but shows his jerkass and obnoxious side more often. He's distant, though, but that's just his personality.
  • Nick from The Leonard Regime is regularly shouting at his own friends and arguing about everything. The warden from the Los Angeles DERSO Correctional Facility also possesses a jerkass personality.
  • High King Kallor from the Malazan Book of the Fallen is not a friendly fellow by any stretch of the word and of the opinion that bastardry is inherent in human nature, and as such every nasty thing he does and says is justified.
  • Max and Moritz in Wilhelm Busch's Max and Moritz. Two unruly malicious boys who arrange pranks and practical jokes, and finally push their jerkassery too far.
  • Fang was veering dangerously close to this territory earlier on in the Maximum Ride series. He flirted blatantly with several girls other than Max over the course of the series, but when she dated someone else, of course he became jealous. Not to mention the fact that when she finally complained to him about it for real, he acted as though nothing had happened and basically disregarded what she said.
  • Medallion : When she see's one of her own servants dying on the floor, evil queen Kespa deliberately steps on the girl's head with the heel of her boot, crushing her skull in the process.
  • Han Solo's cousin Thrackan Sal-Solo in New Jedi Order and Legacy of the Force. He beat up Han when they were kids and generally made things hard for him. As an adult, he declared himself ruler of Corellia, started an anti-alien group,captured the Solo kids,later put out a bounty on his own family and sold out Boba Fett's daughter. That last one led to Boba going Papa Wolf and aiding in his death (although Jacen actually killed him)
  • No Beast So Fierce:
    • Max Dembo. He's short-tempered, racist, sexist, homophobic, amoral, bitter, arrogant, and something of a hypocrite. He isn't entirely without compassion, but he's still by no means a nice guy.
    • Max's parole officer Joseph Rosenthal. He's a self-righteous jerk who is condescending and rude towards Max, and at some points actively sabotages his efforts to find a job due to his obsession with sticking by the book. It all culminates in him leaving Max in a county jail for three weeks after taking him there for a drug test even after the test results proved him innocent so he could go on vacation, which is enough to Max to his Rage Breaking Point and leads to him subjecting Rosenthal to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
  • Sachar, who badmouthes his master Oblomov and steals from him, if only small amounts. Even worse is Tarantyev, who essentially blackmails Oblomov. After Oblomov dies, Sachar is heartbroken and shows that he was a Jerk with a Heart of Gold all along.
  • Doc Noble in Other People's Heroes is incredibly powerful and also very much an ass to everyone, including his girlfriend, Miss Sinistah. He's also killed several superpowered people who caught on to the sinister underpinnings of the organization.
  • Armageddon: The Salvation War:
    • God. First off, even though he closed the gates of Heaven 1000 years ago, the reason that He threw ALL of humanity on Earth to Satan NOW is He's pissed that humans have started questioning His teachings and that they're not all constantly singing his praises. He even has a Chorus in Heaven which is forced to constantly sing his praises. He actually gets pissed when, after throwing them ALL to Satan, the Catholic Church excommunicates him and denounces him as an usurper of a one true God. When the reason that he flipped off humanity was that they were questioning his teachings in the first place, you'd think he would see that one coming.
    • Karl Rove is also depicted as being quite a jerkass, commenting after the destruction of Detroit that Detroit was a Democratic stronghold in the state and maybe the Republicans would win the state easily in the next election.
  • Matthew Luzon in the second Petaybee book is extraordinarily intelligent, though the main characters wouldn't like to admit it, and manipulates the Petaybeans with such skill that one can't understand why he doesn't end up winning.
  • Harry Arno from Pronto and Riding The Rap isn't exactly evil, but he's still a massive jerk. He's racist, selfish, whiny, and ungrateful to anyone who helps him. Raylan only keeps helping Harry out because Joyce cares about him, and admits he couldn't care less about him otherwise.
  • In The Silmarillion:
    • Thingol sends Beren, his daughter's fiancé, to a fate he considers certain death.
    • Fëanor and his seven sons. Fëanor attacks the Teleri, steals their ships, then burns them, abandoning his half-brother to cross the Helcaraxë. His sons commit two more Kinslayings, and Celegorm and Curufin get their cousin Finrod killed and abduct Lúthien.
    • Eöl and his son Maeglin. Eöl abducts Aredhel and marries her, keeps her prisoner in his forest and murders her when she escapes. Maeglin lusts after his cousin Idril, betrays Gondolin to Morgoth, and tries to murder Idril's son Eärendil.
    • The Vala Morgoth. He's responsible for all the misery the characters suffer.
    • Ar-Pharazôn The Golden of Númenor, who is jerkass enough to establish a Religion of Evil and to strive nothing less than overlordship of the whole world.
  • Sisterhood Series by Fern Michaels: A number of the villains are certainly this. Mitch Riley in the book Hide And Seek stands out as a particular example, due to him being racist, sexist, likely misogynistic, and it is stated quite clearly that nobody likes this guy. Even the good guys have gone into Jerkass behaviour a time or two.
  • Kite in Skate the Thief is an aggressive, violent, cowardly teenage bully who only ever torments people weaker and smaller than him, which mostly consists of children.
  • Sorry, Bro: Nareh's colleague Mark is an ass-kissing weasel who's constantly undermining her to further his career. Her boss Richard also never lets her do anything except fluff pieces, and eventually fires Nareh for her understandably defying this. She retaliates by writing an article on how she'd been treated by him, with it clearly having a sexist motive.
  • Mitch, Glenn, and Terry of Spells, Swords, & Stealth. The trio are tabletop gamers more concerned with killing and looting instead of "dumb shit like role-playing." When their first party dies at the beginning of the series, they force Token Good Teammate Tim to make a knight instead of the paladin he'd prefer because a paladin would be obliged to stop their antics. By the time of the third book, Going Rogue, they have to make an hour commute to meet a potential GM because nobody else will tolerate them.
  • In later volumes of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, after he became a rabid Objectivist, he had a tendency to write his views into his books in the most blatant way possible; by having his "good" characters stop the story for pages and pages at a time, so that they can speechify to those around them (and thus, the reader), expounding upon Goodkind's views in a ham-fisted fashion that left no doubt in anyone's minds that this was just Goodkind preaching at us. Anyone who was shown disagreeing with this was portrayed not only as wrong, but irredeemably evil, and those nay-sayers who were important to the plot would ultimately prove themselves to be rapists and child molesters. This had the undesired but very present effect of making it seem like all of Goodkind's "heroes" were total jerkasses, unable to accept any viewpoint but their own. After all, this is the series that had its hero kick a little girl in the face with such force that she went into a coma and her healers weren't sure if she would ever wake up! In fairness, she turns out to be an Asshole Victim and an Enfant Terrible.
  • Smokey in The Talisman is an all too realistic incredible asshole. He and the town of Oatley are just inherently wrong somehow.
  • The gamebook Time Machine Series' Sail with Pirates: Jim Teal, an obnoxious teenage seaman, who bullies the protagonist who has the misfortune to be his crewmate. Later on, it's revealed that the time travelling protagonist earned his emnity in the past—through either refusing to fall for Teal's swindle, or calling Teal out after falling for his fraud.
  • Kalak from Trapped on Draconica is rude, insenstive, and downright mean. He just pretends to be like that to compensate for inner toughness. He's actually an adorable, dorky, self-depricating Momma's Boy.
  • The Wheel of Time:
    • Nynaeve al'Meara and especially Elayne Trakand. They have all the negatives of Aes Sedai, (aloof, egotistical, and rude), and none of the positives (wisdom). They frequently get captured due to not having backup, and when they are saved they never thank anyone. The ultimate example is when they are captured by members of the Black Ajah, and are taken to the Stone of Tear, a fortress that has never been captured, and is only fated to be captured when the Dragon is reborn. Mat Cauthon learns this; he and Juilin Sandar go into the Stone of Tear, defeat several highly trained guards, duel a High Lord of Tear, and rescue them, and they respond by storming off. It's not until they are told to apologize by Elayne's best friend, Aviendha, and her Warder Birgitte that they do apologize. Then Elayne mocks Mat for being raped multiple times by a woman, after having first annulled her promise to treat him with respect when she thought that he was the criminal and not the victim.
    • Elaida comes off as borderline insane, and by the Knife Of Dreams the Tower Aes Sedai have turned the White Tower into a war zone beause they are so egotistical.
    • Cadsuane Melaidhrin actually uses being a Jerkass as a strategy by just being a complete jerk to everyone. She is such a jackass that everyone just does as she says so she will leave them alone.
  • Jimmy in When You Reach Me makes fun of Chinese people and kicks Julia out of his store because he believes she will steal (based on the fact that she's black) despite the fact she's rich.
  • The Witch of Knightcharm: After Emily flees Knightcharm and winds up in an evil Wizarding School, she has to deal with a lot of jerks. Perhaps the worst among the older witches there is Ceranna Babineaux, the second-ranked student who is openly contemptuous of those around her and treats them like complete idiots. As for members of Emily's class, there's Lily and her clique, all of whom practice Fantastic Racism and think themselves entitled to rule over 'inferior non-magical people, and all of whom also bully weaker students in their class too.
  • Corlant of The Witchlands seems to have a goal of antagonizing everyone he meets. He deliberately makes Iseult uncomfortable when she comes back home to show her who's the boss, threatens to take away Gretchya's powers if she doesn't sleep with him and acts with smug superiority towards Aeduen just because he knows the latter must obey him.
  • Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights, a tyrannical, joyless creep who systematically sets out to destroy the lives of practically every single person he knows in the aid of some nebulous plan of vengeance for having been separated from his soul-mate, Catherine Earnshaw - whom he never really seemed to get along with, either, come to think of it. Amazingly, despite this, only one person in the entire novel seems to consider just moving away from the miserable bastard's Yorkshire stomping grounds to be a valid option - and that one person dies a short while later. Oh, and if he can't actually torment his enemies (because they're, you know, dead), he's quite happy to visit his wrath on their undeserving children instead. The main reason that no one moves is because that's actually their turf; Heathcliff is technically the interloper, and most of the novel is Heathcliff conniving to swindle his enemies' homes and possessions away from them.

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