Jerks Are Worse Than Villains in Live-Action TV series.
Works with their own pages:
- Angels in America: Roy is an Amoral Attorney who's casually racist and homophobic, generally unpleasant to most people, technically murdered two people (Julius and Ethel), and uses his vast political connections to get away with his actions, but Al Pacino's Large Ham performance makes him very fun to watch and the fact that he's on his deathbed means that he'll eventually get what's coming to him. Louis, on the other hand, abandoned his boyfriend in the time that he needed him the most, very quickly started a relationship with another man afterwards, has the tendency for self-righteous liberal philosophizing that even the other characters are incredibly annoyed by, and therefore attracts much more ire from fans. It also helps that while many people have probably never met someone as overtly awful as Roy (though the real-life Roy Cohn really was that bad), they most certainly do know someone like Louis.
- Arrow: Laurel Lance has been a divisive character for audiences ever since the pilot, where she told Oliver that it was difficult for her to deal with the fact that he was alive while her sister, with whom Oliver was cheating on Laurel with, died. Her standing with the fandom only got worse when Laurel's sister Sara was revealed to be alive in season 2 and Laurel had fallen into alcoholism because of recent tragedies (such as the death of her friend Tommy Merlyn) which caused Laurel to lash out at her sister and Oliver. Laurel got far more hate than Malcolm Merlyn, the Big Bad of the first season, to the point that some fans held her responsible for Tommy's death since he died trying to save her even though Tommy and Laurel were only in danger in the first place because of Malcolm's Evil Plan to destroy the Glades. The hate for Laurel died down somewhat after she was killed off.
- Band of Brothers: In a show set during WWII where the villains by definition are the literal Nazis, the most hated character is the American company commander Captain Sobel. The Germans/Nazis aren't given any individual characterization; they're just the opposing force in the war. Captain Sobel, on the other hand, is a grade-A Hate Sink due to his incompetence, cruelty and pettiness.
- Better Call Saul:
- Chuck is easily the most hated character in the show for constantly holding Jimmy's past as a con man against him, preaching about the sanctity of the law only to then go out and employ his own con games by using people's positive qualities against them in service to his vendetta against Jimmy, and so on. He's in the same show as the Salamanca crew and Gus Fring, who themselves do things much more reprehensible than anything Chuck does but are generally more pragmatic and do not have a tendency to be petty when they don't get their way. Also the villains of this series, just like Breaking Bad, will do anything for those they care for, while Chuck tries to take down his own brother.
- This also extends to Kim and Jimmy, as of the Season 6 mid-finale. Viewers are a lot angrier at them for their role in Howard's death, despite Lalo being the one who shot him. Though it doesn't help that half the season was about their protracted revenge plot to ruin Howard's reputation for petty reasons, leading him to visit Jimmy and Kim to tell them off, and that Lalo visited Jimmy and Kim because they worked with him before and Howard was unfortunately in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- The Boys (2019) is full of abominable superpowered beings, yet it features two very hated characters who were ordinary people.
- The Deep's wife Cassandra is a manipulative sadistic gold digger, who mistreats her husband. She pushed Deep to eat his octopus and later fed him racist lines just so he could be on Homelander's good side.
- Todd is the new husband of Mother's Milk's ex-wife, who is pushing his reactionary beliefs onto his stepdaughter. He is a representation of people who got sucked into supporting Trump, Qanon, and other reactionary nonsense, and many fans despise him since he reminds them of people they actually know.
- Breaking Bad:
- In a show featuring characters like Walter White, Gustavo Fring, and Jack Welker, who are all to various degrees involved in drug production and distribution, murder, torture, kidnapping, and theft, the most hated character in the show by far is Walt's wife Skyler, whom the fandom hates for things like "being annoying", criticizing her husband for being a drug kingpin, smoking while pregnant, and sleeping with another man before her divorce is finalized.
- Since Skyler went through Character Perception Evolution over time, the character Hank is now the "jerk" who tends to get this treatment from fans. He gets a lot of hate for making some racist remarks (which are mostly casual teasing of his Hispanic friend Gomez), having No Sympathy towards drug users and criminals, and being rude to his wife. While the character is supposed to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, many fans see him as proof that "cops can be worse than criminals" - in a show where criminals, as mentioned above, are guilty of multiple homicides, assault, torture, meth production and distribution, and so on.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Xander Harris was a popular and beloved character during the show's original run thanks to a combination of his humor, vulnerabilities, and role as The Team Normal in a group where almost everyone either had expert knowledge of the supernatural or was a supernatural creature themselves. However, Values Dissonance has resulted in Xander's character being viewed in a much more negative light over the years. Xander has drawn criticism for his casually sexist comments which are often lobbed at Cordelia (whom he later cheats on), his jealousy of Angel's relationship with Buffy coming across as entitlement, his often judgmental and hypocritical attitude towards his friends, and his ditching Anya at the altar. It doesn't help that Joss Whedon — who admitted to basing Xander on himself — had lost a great deal of public favor due to revelations about his personal life and his behavior towards certain actors on the sets of Buffy, Angel and Justice League (2017). Some fans have even gone as far as saying Xander is more evil than the villains of the show whose crimes have included murder, rape, torture, and attempted genocide.
- Fans have little love for the Watcher's Council due to them being Armchair Military Obstructive Bureaucrats whose treatment of Slayers ranges from apathetic to irresponsible and abusive. One of their traditions is the Tento di Cruciamentum, a Rite of Passage which involves drugging the Slayer to weaken her powers and turning a vampire loose on her. This is done to any Slayer who lives past the age of 18 and their Watchers are instructed not to tell them about the test, likely because they would object to it. The Watcher's Council are also disliked for the role they played in Faith's Face–Heel Turn by trying to arrest her for the accidental death of Mayor Wilkins's assistant, which broke her trust in Buffy and her friends because she thought they were in on it. Some fans have also pointed out that the Watchers drafting young girls into a war against evil that will likely kill them at a young age without even financially compensating them is pretty messed up, especially when a Slayer's Watcher is given a salary. The only Watchers who aren't hated worse than most of the villains by fans are Giles and Wesley, the latter initially being hated for being just as stuffy and insufferable as most other Watchers before being Rescued from the Scrappy Heap on Angel.
- Season seven introduced Caleb, a smug, hateful, misogynistic serial killer, who was one of the most evil and depraved characters on the show, yet was entertaining to watch thanks to Nathan Fillion's natural charisma. The same can't be said for Kennedy and Rhona, who stand among the most hated characters in the series, being seen as whiny, petulant, selfish, ungrateful, and entitled towards Buffy despite the number of times she's saved them. The former was a particular sore point as she replaced Tara as Willow's girlfriend, despite the short amount of time since Tara's death and the fact that the two had no chemistry with each other.
- Camelot has a pretty extreme case; Arthur - the main protagonist - is hated by a large chunk of the fandom due to being perceived as a hedonistic spoiled manchild who does little to earn the throne and sleeps with women who he knows are already in committed relationships (including his brother's girlfriend and the bride-to-be of one of his knights). That being said, his actions pale in comparison to Morgan's, who is willing to commit multiple murders and rapes (including raping her own brother) to gain the throne, yet she's easily one of the show's most popular characters. To make matters worse, the Jerk (Arthur) is the rape victim of the Villain (Morgan), but most viewers tend to brush that aside. This is likely due to Eva Green's charismatic and nuanced portrayal of Morgan, while Jamie Campbell Bower is widely seen as miscast as Arthur and makes him a very difficult protagonist to root for, but the dissonant fan reception can still seem a tad extreme.
- Charmed (1998):
- Cole Turner tried to kill the sisters multiple times in between having a Heel–Face Turn in Season 4. He's driven to villainy in Season 5 when Phoebe continues to reject him, and this results in him doing several things to wreck the Charmed Ones. But because Phoebe Took a Level in Jerkass that season, she tends to get more hate; since she refuses to help him at first and doesn't accept any responsibility for her own actions in the previous season, fans tend to sympathise with the evil acts Cole commits. Phoebe was never more than a little self-centered, got frequently called on her actions, and was actually punished for a while by being de-powered - but she was one of the most despised things about Season 5.
- Season 7 features Zankou, a powerful and evil demon who sacrifices his allies to get ahead. He was beloved by fans for his badassery, charisma, and intelligence. In contrast, fans hated Inspector Sheridan from the same season, an Inspector Javert trying to expose the sisters' magical abilities, for being annoying and jerkish.
- In contrast between the Jenkins sisters, Christy was the irredeemable Blood Knight who Would Hurt a Child. Billie was the Anti-Villain who was misled and pulled a Heel–Face Turn at the last minute. Billie is hated more for being considered annoying, selfish, and occasionally obnoxious. In this case, Billie was around for more episodes.
- Cobra Kai:
- While villains like Kreese, Silver, Hawk, and Tory are seen as entertaining in spite of their violent actions due to their badass fight scenes and great performances from their actors, the most hated characters on the show by far are Anthony LaRusso and Counselor Blatt, whose only crimes are being a lazy Spoiled Brat and an incompetent school administrator who is too obsessed with political correctness respectively. Unlike the villains, these two characters lack the traits that make the villains fun to watch.
- Sam and Tory. While Tory's crimes include starting the school brawl that resulted in Miguel breaking his spine, attempting to slice Sam's face open with a spiked bracelet, goading Hawk into breaking Demetri's arm and breaking into the LaRussos' home to lead a violent gang assault against all of the Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs, she still has many fans who attempt to justify these actions. Meanwhile, Sam is more hated by fans for things like mistakenly accusing Tory of stealing her mom's wallet, kissing Tory's boyfriend while drunk, making fun of Tory's embarrassing job as a children's entertainer, and constantly painting herself as some paragon of morality.
- In the final three episodes of Denji Sentai Megaranger, the team are now regarded as pariahs of the entire town and they were even expelled from school after Nezirejia exposes their secret identities. At one point, a mother had the gall to cry for them to save her and her son during an attack, only to berate them afterwards. In the end, though, the Megarangers defeated Neirejia once and for all, had their reputations restored, and were even able to graduate. However, because of how everyone was so quick to turn on the heroes, disregarding all the times the megarangers had saved them and were dumb enough to blame them for the actions of Nezirejia, they all come off just as unlikable as the villains.
- Doctor Who: The Daleks are deeply racist and genocidal, and their ultimate goal is to purge the entire universe of non-Dalek life. However, in some episodes, a human or two proves to be so scummy that they make the sci-fi equivalent of the Nazis look more sympathetic by comparison.
- "Dalek" involves a lone Dalek that eventually goes on a rampage, kills over two hundred people, and makes it clear that, despite being alone, it resolves to exterminate all non-Dalek life out there. The episode also involves Henry van Statten, a narcissistic businessman who views his men as expendable, and captured and tortured the lone Dalek for years because it refused to talk. His one redeeming quality is expressing his condolences when the Doctor believes the Dalek has killed Rose, which isn't saying much because his desire to add the Dalek to his collection is what enabled it to be let loose in the first place. The Doctor promptly chews him out for this.
- "Revolution of the Daleks" involves two versions of the fascist, genocidal Daleks, one of which kills multiple people onscreen, including the Prime Minister. Yet the characters who come off looking the worst are Jack Robertson, a greedy businessman who rebuilt the Dalek shells, not knowing their origin, and proved willing to sell out the Doctor and the human race only to get away scot-free, and the Prime Minister herself, who enabled Robertson in order to boost her election chances.
- Game of Thrones: Catelyn Stark is often hated by fans for being mean to Jon, her husband's (supposed) bastard son. While she doesn't treat him like a son and is quite cold to him, she does feel very bad about it, most of her children grow up with a close relationship with Jon, and Catelyn is also a loving mother to all her other children. Compare her to Tywin, a much more antagonistic Archnemesis Dad who also hates his son Tyrion for an unfair reason (being a dwarf and Maternal Death? Blame the Child!), treats Tyrion much worse than Catelyn treats Jon, feels no remorse over it at all, and is a terrible father to the children he likes better than Tyrion as well. Unlike Catelyn, Tywin is a fan favorite.
- Glee: Fans often dislike Designated Heroes Finn, Will and Rachel for their more jerkish moments, and universally despise creepy, slimy Jacob Ben Israel, while actual villain, Sue Sylvester (who is physically and verbally abusive to her students) is a fan favourite for her insane one-liners. A similar principle applies to Santana, who, while she turns out to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, is easily the most unkind member of the Glee club and deliberately starts drama, is among the most popular characters amongst fans.
- The Good Place:
- In Season 4, Brent is easily the most hated character, because he's rude, narcissistic, sexist, racist, unapologetic, and completely unaware that he has all these negative qualities. The main cast are also very limited in what they can do about him, as their goal for that season is to prove that even someone terrible like Brent can become a better person, so they can't just get rid of him. However, Brent is The Millstone for that Arc, not the villain. The villain for that Arc is Shawn, who's a rather funny Card-Carrying Villain that's trying to ensure that everyone who ever dies will go to The Bad Place and be tortured for eternity.
- Nevertheless, the hate that Brent receives is tame compared to Tahani's parents, at the point that a local joke in the fandom is that they're worse than the demons, who torture people for eternity. If you don't believe this, Brent at least has some fans, but nobody in the fandom finds Tahani's parents likeable, and all unanimously hate them for being abusive parents to Tahani and Kamila who left both women with plenty of psychological scars, pitted them against each other, left them craving attention and validation, and never cared about their well being.
- Lampshaded by the points system. It's a recurring joke that crimes don't lose you as many points as being unlikable.
- The Good Wife: Colin Sweeney may be a creepy wife-killer, but he provides plenty of Black Comedy. Lemond Bishop is a murderous drug kingpin, but he's also effortlessly suave and charming and a good father. Amoral Attorneys like Louis Canning and Patti Nyholm use dirty tactics and represent very shady clients, but they're ultimately shown to be Affably Evil Punch-Clock Villains. Peter Florrick, on the other hand, is far more hated than any of these characters for being a lying, hypocritical serial cheater who always tries to manipulate Alicia into forgiving him.
- In Guest from the Future, there are two Space Pirates who kill at least one person on-screen (a Ridiculously Human Robot; there are also two victims whose fate is left ambiguous) and are willing to torture children. Are they the most universally despised ones among the fans? No, that title goes to Dirty Coward Ishutin who sees the pirates carrying an unconscious child, gets frightened into silence, and insists, even when asked directly, that he saw nothing. Many have given the pirates Evil Is Cool and/or Draco in Leather Pants treatment, but never has anyone been detected doing the same about Ishutin.
- House of Anubis:
- Vera, Denby, and Sophia are by far the most hated villains in the show. However, fans don't hate them for their evil acts; instead, they're despised for being Jerkasses to the heroes, such as by manipulating their insecurities or getting them expelled. Indeed, they're even hated worse than the other villains, as characters like Rufus, Senkhara and the Sinners are beloved for being competent and entertaining. The other three simply don't have the same charisma and are instead just generally unpleasant.
- Joy, Mara, and Nina all got fan backlash for being rude to other characters, without enough likable or interesting qualities to make up for it. Joy and Mara are both often considered the worst characters in Season 2 or 3 respectively, stemming simply from being jealous bullies who take things too far. Nina, meanwhile, wound up with a temper that fans considered borderline abusive, despite being the series protagonist. By contrast, characters like Patricia and Jerome made up for their jerkass traits with enough depth and comedy to make them popular.
- House of the Dragon: Of the many characters in the show, who are all over the morality spectrum, the most hated character is Criston Cole. He hasn't done anything especially villainous (contrast his rival Daemon, who murdered his own wife Rhea Royce so he could wed Rhaenyra), and has legitimate gripes against Rhaenyra, but his bullying of her children just for existing has eroded much of fans' support for him.
- Jessica Jones (2015): Kilgrave is a sadist and a rapist. Yet he's not as disliked as Robyn, a shrill, rude, selfish, and stupid character, whose hatred of Jessica eventually leads Robyn to save Kilgrave from Jessica's captivity without realizing who he is, causing much pain and suffering.
- Kamen Rider
- Kamen Rider Ryuki: Jun Shibaura/Kamen Rider Gai is a Spoiled Brat who enjoys to humiliate other people For the Evulz and has zero redeeming qualities. He spends most of his screentime being a jerk to the heroes. However, in terms of evilness, he is completely overshadowed by Takeshi Asakura/Kamen Rider Ouja, who is an escaped murderer. Asakura is responsible for four Rider deaths and actively revels in killing his prey. Yet, Asakura is popular enough to appear in multiple crossovers after Ryuki was finished, while Shibaura Jun is generally seen as an annoying character.
- Kamen Rider 555: Technically Masato Kusaka is a villain, but because he's a much more realistic villain compared to Smart Brain (an evil MegaCorp run by mutants), you'll find substantially more people who either hate him or Love to Hate him than you will for Smart Brain.
- The second half of Kamen Rider Hibiki introduced us to Kyousuke Kiriya, a high school prodigy who is meant to serve as The Rival to Asumu Adachi, the main character. The actual villains are Yōkai who frequently prey on humans. Despite the villains actually killing innocent people, western fans generally hold Kiriya in contempt, due to being a Spoiled Brat.
- Money Heist: The hostage Arturo is easily the most hated character on the show for being a selfish, slimy, perverted jerk, and eventually raping Amanda (one of the most innocent hostages) in Season 4. He gets much more hate than Gandía, the Big Bad of the same season who, on top of being a bigot, is willing to torture and kill the Villain Protagonist robbers. Some fans give Gandía the Draco in Leather Pants treatment and claim he's just doing his job to stop the heist team, even if Gandía is clearly sadistic and kills Nairobi for his own amusement. There's also the fact that Gandía is a pretty badass One-Man Army, while Arturo is a pathetic Dirty Coward who manipulates the other hostages into doing things for him.
- Moon Knight (2022): Arthur Harrow is an enigmatic cult leader who seeks to unleash Ammit and purge the world of sinners, but fans had latched onto him for being a cunning and effective bad guy whose creepy factor makes him all the more interesting of a character. The same cannot be said for Wendy Spector, Mark's mother, who spent much of his childhood getting drunk and beating him when his brother drowned and she blamed him for it for all these years, leading Mark to create Steven to help him cope with his trauma. As such, Wendy is hated far more than a man who's trying to commit a worldwide massacre.
- Oz:
- Kenny Wangler is certainly a vile character, but his crimes are generally nowhere near as bad or as excessive as the legion of murderers, rapists, and murdering rapists that inhabit the prison. However, most of these characters are nuanced characters with a variety of sympathetic moments or entertaining personalities. While Wangler may lack malicious deeds, he's a Jerkass and a Smug Snake who spends his time bullying other prisoners for no reason, making him come across as more unlikeable. The fact that his few really heinous crimes tend to be massive Kick the Dog moments helps.
- Clayton Hughes does commit murder later in the show's run, but he became The Scrappy long before then simply because he was a whiny, incompetent Jerkass who blamed other people for his mistakes.
- In the crime drama Power, you have James "Ghost" Saint-Patrick, the Villain Protagonist. Tommy his wild Hair-Trigger Temper best friend. And Kanan, a coldblooded Sociopath among other villains whom murdered his own son after he sided with his rival Ghost. They are all well-liked by fans for different reasons. However, the most hated character during the show was Ghost's son Tariq who acts like a spoiled Jerkass during the whole show. Purposely sided with his Father's enemies as a form of rebellion which resulted in his twin sister getting murdered. And he kills his Father at the end of the series.
- The Punisher: The main villains of the first season are members of the Government Conspiracy that killed Frank's family, but none of them are as hated as O'Connor, the Angry White Man who never killed or even physically harmed anyone, and who is largely responsible for driving Lewis Wilson to go on a murder spree, starting with O'Connor himself.
- Robin Hood:
- The Sheriff of Nottingham, Prince John, and Guy and Isabella of Gisborne each have a pretty extensive body count, and during their lifetimes uphold a tyrannical and unjust social regime that raises taxes, outlaws poaching, and leaves the poor to starve. At least one of them left a baby in the forest to die of exposure and lied to the mother about its whereabouts. Yet they were all popular characters due to their complexity, entertainment value, tragic backstories and/or obvious attractiveness.
- Kate, on the other hand, despite not murdering anyone and technically being one of the show's heroes, was universally despised by audiences on account of having a snide and obnoxious personality, being unnecessarily rude and hostile to everyone that came into her orbit, and nursing an It's All About Me attitude in her relentless pursuit of Robin that ran slipshod over the feelings of several other characters. It's something of an accidental example, since the writers were clearly under the impression that they'd written Kate as the embodiment of womanly perfection, but this led to excessive Character Shilling that naturally only made her even more unpopular with viewers.
- Regarding Guy of Gisborne, Kate actually had a completely justified In-Universe reason to hate him given that he stabbed her brother to death right in front of her, but pitting a whiny Jerkass against the Ensemble Dark Horse Byronic Anti-Hero at the tail-end of his Redemption Quest predictably did not pan out for her in the eyes of the fanbase.
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch:
- Libby the ultimate Alpha Bitch and main antagonist is quite beloved by the fan base since she's so comically mean and gets no end of slapsticky comeuppance. Ditto for the Sadist Teacher Mr Kraft. Libby's replacement Brad is much more hated, despite being less of a bully than she was; he's Harvey's old friend from nowhere who's mistrustful of Sabrina because he was born with a witch hunter gene he doesn't know about - and he's never more than just casually rude to her. It doesn't help that he keeps being a jerk even after the gene's removed.
- There's also Sabrina's next boyfriend Josh - one of the most despised characters in the show. Some of this is admittedly due to him not aging well (particularly the fact that he's a college student pursuing a high schooler) but he's rather unpleasant in a lot of situations; sending Sabrina secret admirer cards when he knows she has a boyfriend, intending to move to Prague without considering her feelings, often assuming she's cheating on him over misunderstandings (which is hypocritical of him considering how easily Sabrina's Evil Twin Katrina got him to cheat on his girlfriend Morgan, and how he tried to get Sabrina to cheat on Harvey). This puts him in contrast to the aforementioned evil twin and other antagonists like Sabrina's Bratty Half-Pint of a cousin Amanda (who does at least mellow out as she gets older) - who caused far more intentional trouble for the characters.
- Stargirl (2020): It's understandable for Yolanda's parents to be angry and disappointed in her for that "nude selfie" incident (although it was supposed to be private), but to continue to be ashamed of her for months and tell her outright that she's Defiled Forever makes them more detestable than the Injustice Society of America, especially since the latter's master plan was to brainwash a third of the country for the greater good. They may be supervillains willing to murder people, but they're much more caring and supportive parents to their own children than Yolanda's parents, who refuse to even try to forgive Yolanda despite her heartfelt apology.
- Stranger Things: In a show about paranormal monsters attempting to take over Earth from another dimension, these few sometimes prove that Humans Are the Real Monsters. There's even a specific one from each season.
- From Season 1, the Demogorgon is merely a predator looking to survive, and only a pawn of the Mind Flayer and Vecna. Troy Walsh, on the other hand, is a racist, homophobic bully who tries to make Mike commit suicide out of a petty desire for revenge after being humiliated.
- From Season 2, the Mind Flayer is a giant Eldritch Abomination, so there's a chance it may not be able to be judged by human standards. On the other hand, Neil Hargrove is nothing more than an abusive, homophobic, misogynistic father to Billy and the cause of his actions.
- From Season 3, there's the corrupt Mayor Kline, as well as the stereotypically evil Soviets, compared to the aforementioned alien Mind Flayer.
- From Season 4, there's Alpha Bitch Angela, who's cruel even by school bully standards and is quite possibly the most hated character in the entire series. She's definitely more hated than Vecna, the Big Bad (of the entire show, in fact, since he's the one behind the aforementioned Demogorgon and Mind Flayer), who is a prime example of Evil Is Cool, as well as the Anti-Villain Jason and Sullivan (who is at the very least a Well-Intentioned Extremist).
- Compare only the school bullies Troy, Billy, and Angela. Troy (a racist homicidal bully who Would Hurt a Child) and Billy (a violent racist abuser) are certainly more villainous than Angela, since they are outright criminals. Angela is very cruel, but her worst bullying actions are making fun of Eleven's dead father and publicly humiliating her. As mentioned above, Angela is the most hated of the three, since people in real life are more likely to meet a bully like Angela rather than an Ax-Crazy one like Troy or Billy. And Billy also has his fans who defend him because of his Freudian Excuse.
- As bad as the aliens are; they are not as hateable as Joe from the TV miniseries The Tommyknockers, who not only cheats on his wife Becka and belittles her daily, but he throws away her lunch that she made for him, laughs evilly after making her feel bad for herself and abandons a search for a lost kid to have an affair with Nancy.
- The Vampire Diaries:
- Bonnie Bennett was arguably the biggest victim of this for the show. In season 2, Bonnie became distant, cynical, and withdrawn after her grandmother's death. She also was initially uncomfortable with Caroline being a vampire even though that was partly her fault. Despite coming around rather quickly, fans still considered Bonnie more despicable than Damon who is a Sociopathic Hero on his best days and was a villain for a sizable amount of time, and the very charismatic Katherine, Elena's Evil Doppelgänger. Even towards the end of the show, some fans still treated Bonnie with more hate than the villains.
- Elena was a contentious character among the fandom for a long time, as many felt she was far less interesting than the aforementioned Katherine. Hatred for Elena skyrocketed when she chose to be with Damon over Stefan, leaving the latter heartbroken, even though Elena was sired to Damon. By contrast, the villainous Katherine and semi-villainous Rebekah have received far less vitriol from fans despite doing far worse things to other people, including fan favorites like Stefan and Caroline. Fans unironically agreed with Rebekah when she called Elena "a child who only cares about herself", ignoring that Rebekah is incredibly immature for her age, and far more childish and selfish than Elena.
- Some Bonnie fans who like to pair her off with Kol, Klaus, Kai, or Damon view them as better matches for her than Jeremy who once cheated on Bonnie with the ghost of his dead ex-girlfriend. Damon flip-flops between being a hero and a villain, Klaus was the Big Bad for much of season 3 and had tried to kill Bonnie and her friends several times, Kol is notable for being even more Ax-Crazy and untrustworthy than Klaus and Kai is a sociopath who, among other things, tried to kill Bonnie and left her in a prison dimension. None of these things have stopped fans from pairing Bonnie with any of these characters while bashing Jeremy for a brief moment of infidelity that he apologized for.
- Wednesday: While Marilyn Thornhill aka Laura Gates, Joseph Crackstone, and Tyler Galpin are the main villains and have an intense hatred of outcasts, they are not the most hated due to the Evil Is Cool and Creepy Cute aspect of their characters. Enid's mother, however, is hated for being an abusive parent to Enid and planning to send her to conversion therapy.
- The Walking Dead (2010):
- Rick's wife Lori is by far the most hated character by fans in early seasons, because she makes bad decisions, is considered a negligent mother to Carl, sometimes argues with her husband Rick, and is the reason for the fights between Rick and his best friend Shane. Shane himself is the actual villain who is obsessed with Lori to the point of trying to rape her, has killed one of his allies, has a Lack of Empathy towards everyone, and eventually has also tried to kill Rick, his best friend. Fans go out of their way to justify all of Shane's actions and blame everything on Lori, including Shane's Sanity Slippage. It helps that Shane is the first character who Took a Level in Badass, while Lori is a Neutral Female, so it's much easier for most fans to hate on her.
- There exists a sizable number of fans who have forgiven Negan for sadistically murdering Abraham and Glenn, attempting to kill Carl, coercing women into marrying him, and near-outright genocide of the Coalition but still detest Father Gabriel for his Dirty Coward actions before his Heel–Face Turn — leaving his congregation to die, betraying Rick's group to Deanna, and neglecting to lock a gate — all of which, while detestable, are relatively minor compared to the atrocities Negan committed during his stint as Big Bad.
- Walker, Texas Ranger: This show would feature a villain or a gang of the week, who are just here to be irremediably hateable, so that when they get beat up by Walker and/or Trivette, the audience would enjoy their comeuppance. However, there are some characters that aren't the main focus of an episode and yet they can be just as unpleasant as the antagonists. For example, we have a young boxer's father, who was responsible for killing himself and his caring wife in a drunk driving car accident and yet he is more unlikable for being an abusive douchebag, than the drug dealers of the episode who are selling counterfeit ecstasy. There was another episode where a mob tried to lynch a mentally disabled man because he was accused of murdering an elderly woman. Walker was able to bring the real killer to justice, but that didn't absolve how callous everyone else was. Even Walker was disgusted with how they were all so quick to murder a man without due process, that he called them out on this.
- The Wire: Scott Templeton from season 5 is an intentional Hate Sink, but he is nonetheless absolutely despised for being nothing more than a slimy Immoral Journalist, far more so than the legions of murdering drug dealers and human traffickers the show is filled with. Partly this is because a lying, manipulative, and self-righteous jerkass is something far more viewers have to deal with than the aforementioned hardened criminals, partly because he is a Karma Houdini who gets rewarded with a Pullitzer for shamelessly printing fake news. Scott's lies also end up torpedoing the only realistic chance to reform the Baltimore Police Department from within.
