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Jerks Are Worse Than Villains / Western Animation

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Jerks Are Worse Than Villains in Western Animation.

Examples:

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    A-J 
  • Atomic Betty: Penelope Lang is an irredeemable Alpha Bitch who was more hated than the main villains.
  • Batman: The Animated Series:
    • "Heart of Ice": Ferris Boyle, Victor Fries' jerk of a boss who interrupted his attempt at saving his wife because he was using company equipment without permission, turning him into Mr. Freeze. Although given that said interruption escalated into Boyle attempting to kill Fries (in a very underhanded way, no less), it's very possible he could also qualify as a villain, albeit one with good publicity. By the end of the episode, a disgusted Batman gives reporter Summer Gleason a recording of what Ferris did to Victor and Nora Fries, presumably destroying his reputation and then leaves without even trying to unfreeze a half-frozen Boyle despite having unfrozen the legs of an unfortunate henchman of Mr. Freeze earlier! This is contrasted by the utterly sincere sympathy that he shows for Freeze throughout the entire latter half of the episode after learning his backstory. Even with all the monstrous, mass-murdering figures throughout the DC Animated Universe, Ferris Boyle, a corrupt businessman with only one-appearance, is almost universally seen as one of its most vile and despicable characters.
    • In-Universe. The Terrible Trio are technically villains, but very low-level ones who are never heard from again after their one appearance. Batman considers them worse than the Joker because "at least he has madness as an excuse", in contrast to the trio, whose only motivation for committing crimes was boredom.
  • The Batman:
  • Beavis and Butt-Head: Due to his unchecked bullying and manipulation of Beavis and Butt-Head, Todd stands out as the most dislikable character in the series. Coach Buzzcut is equally brutal, but he is also thought to be highly entertaining to watch owing to his overdramatic tendencies, in contrast to Todd, who comes off as mean-spirited in a realistic fashion.
  • Big Hero 6: The Series:
  • Bob's Burgers:
    • Due to the light-hearted and generally realistic nature, there are not much many villains, but there are a few. Calvin Fischoeder runs several shady if not downright illegal business ventures, violates several labor laws (down to using child labor in a coal mine), and is an outright sociopath to boot; his brother Felix Fischoeder spent the Season 4 finale trying to murder both Calvin and Bob, and is complicit in his brother's illicit dealings. Both of them are well-liked by the fanbase, with Felix being a textbook Jerkass Woobie and Calvin being completely hilarious. Compare this to the show's many jerkasses — while Jimmy Pesto and Hugo Habercore have fans who Love to Hate them, for the most part, they're meant to be disliked (and are), with perhaps the most glaring examples being Chuck Charles (to the point that he's not even in Hate Sink territory — he's straight-up The Scrappy) and Gloria (who's a disturbingly realistic depiction of an Abusive Parent).
    • Discussed in universe in "The Frond Files" where Mr Frond removes the Belcher kid's creative writing assignments. He's hurt that Louise has him as a time travelling killer cyborg and Gene's has him as a fun hating Dean Bitterman but it's Tina's zombie story, where he's not the main threat but selfishly locks surivors out of potential shelter, that sends him into hysterical sobbing.
  • Central Park: While Bitsy Brandenham is the central antagonist of the show, she's generally well-liked by fans and is entertaining to watch. On the other hand, the racist lady whom Cole encounters at the park in "Lunar Palaver" is considered far more unlikeable and repugnant due to her actions ringing too close to home for some viewers.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door has several villains, from Father, to Cree Lincoln, all of which fans agree are too over the top to truly hate. Numbuh 1's girlfriend Lizzie Devine on the other hand, is widely disliked by fans for being rude not only to him, but to almost every other character on the show. Not to mention she is shown to be rather abusive to Nigel as well. To the point of even brainwashing him in a very painful process because he tried to save face when his friends started making fun of him. Lizzie has on more than one occasion outright sabotaged the team because she wanted to put her own needs over all the other kids. Yet only once did she ever have to face consequences for what she did. Every other time she was Easily Forgiven.
  • Courage the Cowardly Dog: Eustace is the biggest Base-Breaking Character of the show since he always mistreats and abuses Courage, despite being one of his owners alongside Muriel. Compare Katz, an evil Serial Killer who is very popular with fans and is universally considered a Worthy Opponent to Courage. The same applies to other villains, though not all of them (it's pretty hard to find anyone who likes the evil veterinarian or Mad Dog), since they are often supernatural beings, while Eustace comes off as a terrible person in a realistic way.
  • Clone High: Abe Lincoln ignores Joan of Arc's feelings for him until she chose JFK as her date during the prom and ends up sleeping with JFK just as Abe has a Love Epiphany about Joan and chose not to stand up to Gandhi just to please Cleo, thus making him the most hated character in the show by many. Meanwhile, JFK, Cleopatra, and Principal Scudsworth who are depicted as antagonists are loved by fans, with fans feeling sympathetic to JFK and Cleo.
  • Danny Phantom: While the ghost villains are no doubt evil, they're so entertaining to watch and often have such sympathetic backstories that it's hard to truly hate them. The majority of evil or Jerkass human characters (such as The Guys In White), on the other hand, are controversial for having little to no such entertaining traits, and only existing to be one-note antagonists.
  • In first season of DOTA: Dragon's Blood, Terrorblade is a demon so vile and cruel even other demons were disgusted by him and imprisoned him in worst place they could find, and his goals are to remake all of reality into never-ending nightmare where he gets to torture all living things for all eternity. Moon Goddess Selemene in contrast is just self-absorbed and only becomes a threat once her position is threatened. However, Terrorblade is calculating, controlled and methodical and has enough charisma to tempt people into becoming his pawns. Meanwhile Selemene is egoistical, cruel, short-tempered, abusive and so incredibly petty that she left her own daughter die for refusing to worship her. When the two finally clashed, fans cheered for Terrorblade and many consider No-Holds-Barred Beatdown he delivered to her a highlight of first season or even the series as a whole. It does help the whole thing was orchestrated by Selemene's ex-husband, a much more sympathetic villain, to make her pay for abbandonning her own child. Additionally, Terrorblade has been a long-standing playable hero in the original game so he still has his fans, whereas Selemene is just a background character, thus easier to hate.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy: This is the usual sentiment towards Kevin sometimes but especially Sarah due to their mean-spiritedness towards the title characters, and both are the most vocal haters of the Eds and their antics. Meanwhile, the Kanker Sisters are the closest thing to the recurring villains (until the movie), as they stalk, bully, and physically harass the Eds and everyone else For the Evulz, but they get much less hate than Kevin and Sarah; in fact, out of the Kankers, Marie and May are particularly popular, and fans are generally more forgiving of the Kankers because they actually like the Eds and torment them in a Loving Bully way (instead of just hating them like Kevin and Sarah do).
  • The Fairly OddParents!: Most of the show's villains are very over-the-top in their portrayals and too hilarious to hate. Thus, the most hated characters on the show by far are Timmy's extremely negligent and borderline abusive parents, who constantly leave him home alone with Vicky and are oblivious to her cruelty. They also frequently give away Timmy's things and spend his college savings without his permission. Few children have to deal with murderous babysitters or delusional schoolteachers in life, but parents who abuse and/or neglect their children are very common.
  • Family Guy:
  • The Ghost and Molly McGee: For the most part, the villains and anti-villains in the show have their fans either due to sympathy (Andrea being neglected by her parents, and her later Character Development and the Chens being simply Obliviously Evil) or simply being fun to watch and hate (The Ghost Council before their redemption, The Chairman, Jinx and rogue ghosts). However, Libby's deadbeat father in "Like Father Like Libby" is a universally hated man. He didn't visit Libby for six years, only marginally contacting her without bothering to even know anything about her and when he finally meets up with her again when she seeks him out, not only does he act rather dismissively to her wanting to reconnect with flimsy excuses, but also his “gift” to her is a book he wrote while only addressing her as though she’s just another fan. All with a lame smile in an attempt to save face. Overall, he’s a pretty pathetic excuse for a father whose neglect of his daughter, a rather beloved character in the series, made him the most loathed character in the show in a single episode.
  • G.I. Joe Extreme: The two executives in "Now, Hear This". They bullied Inferno as a child for being poor and years later they are still the same smug jerks who knowingly made shoddy products and turn to subliminal messaging to sell them to consumers.
  • Gravity Falls:
    • Big Bad Bill Cipher is universally loved by the fandom, with many calling him one of the best characters on the show, despite his end goal being bringing about the apocalypse. By contrast, Preston and Priscilla Northwest are merely Upper-Class Twits and Abusive Parents to their daughter, Pacifica, and are utterly loathed by the fanbase because of it, with Preston in particular often taking many fans' "worst/least favorite character on the show" spot. And as utterly horrific as it was, not many fans felt bad when Bill Cipher shuffled the functions of every hole in his face.
    • Nevertheless, the hate that Priscilla and Preston receive is tame compared to Filbrick Pines, to the point that a local joke in the fandom is that he's worse than Bill, who is supposed to be the main villain. If you don't believe this, Preston and Priscilla at least have some fans who Love to Hate them, but nobody in the fandom finds Filbrick likeable, and all unanimously hate him for being an abusive father to Stan and Ford who left both of them with plenty of psychological scars, above never caring about them.
    • To a lesser degree than the other examples here, but all the same, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who likes Robbie Valentino, despite being nothing more insidious than a angsty teenage bully, albeit one who would be willing to use mind-control on his girlfriend.
  • High Guardian Spice: Sage gets more flak for her behavior than anyone else. Characters like Aster, Cal, and Mandrake were always meant to be jerkasses or a villain in the latter's case, and even Redbud's sadistic traits are too exaggerated to be taken seriously. But Sage's worst moments are focused at length, such as her jealousy over Rosemary's crush, how she dismisses Snapdragon's say on the matter because they're a "guy", and her argument with Rosemary at the festival which she holds a grudge on for a week before deciding to make up with her best friend. As a result, viewers have noted how eerily her behavior mirrors that of real-life friends with similar issues.
  • Infinity Train:
    • The Conductor is really a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, the Mirror Cops are Creepy Awesome and Simon was a Tragic Villain with a powerful Freudian Excuse and a number of sympathetic moments. The same can't be said for Grace's Abusive Parents, who never showed kindness or sympathy to their daughter, and it was their neglectfulness that caused Grace to be sucked up by the Infinity Train and create the denizen-slaying cult for kicks and affection.
    • Speaking of the Mirror Cops, while fans see them in a Love to Hate fashion even though they are racist towards MT and want to grind her down, they're much more likable than Jesse's "friends" who didn't care that they caused Jesse's little brother, Nate, to break an arm. Worse is that they are essentially a quartet of Karma Houdinis who get away with their nastiness.
  • Invincible (2021): Omni-Man is from a race of powerful aliens who seek to conquer various planets across the galaxy. He shows his true colors by killing the original Guardians Of The Globe and attempts to hide any evidence that would point fingers at him. And when he's finally exposed, he brutally beats up his son and kills several civilians to convince him how expendable humans are. He's also conflicted about his feelings for his family and mission. Despite that, he's widely loved by the fanbase either sympathizing with him or finding him brutally awesome. On the other hand, Amber, a regular teenager who does a lot of altruistic community volunteering, receives a much harder time from the fandom. This is for her being very angry instead of supportive of Mark, after finally figuring out before the sixth episode that the truth behind him lying and flaking for months was his being a bona fide Superhero. That makes her viewed as a hypocritical Secret Secret-Keeper, for not then confessing her realization herself and the teen's anger being very controversial within the fandom.

    K-Z 
  • The Legend of Vox Machina: Most of the major arc villains that Vox Machina has to deal with have a good chunk of fans who love or respect them for being charismatic (the Briarwoods), being ungodly tough (Kevdak), or just being cool despite razing Emon to the ground (The Chroma Conclave). The same cannot be said for Syldor Vessar, Vex and Vax's abusive father who's a sneering racist towards his half-elf children in addition to being a haughty Blue Blood noble, all of which makes him a Hate Sink for most fans.
  • Lilo & Stitch: Mertle Edmonds was made to be a Hate Sink, being a bullying rival to Lilo, but she's ultimately inconsequential to the main plots of the original film and by extension Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch. She has a somewhat more prominent role in Lilo & Stitch: The Series as a source of conflict for the title characters in some episodes, but they're not enough to call her an outright villain. By comparison, Gantu, the most recurring villain of the franchise, hates both title characters because they—especially Stitch—cost him his job in the first film, and he's gotten into fights with both of them in The Series while they went after the experiments. However, The Series also expanded his personality and gave him some sympathetic traits that made him a somewhat likable character, whereas Mertle was more established to be a Jerkass and wasn't given as much sympathetic traits as the giant militaristic alien, which also made fans question why would Lilo want to be her friend. In fact, some fans wished that Mertle was actually destroyed by Hämsterviel and his Leroy army because of how much they despise her.
  • Miraculous Ladybug:
    • Hawk Moth/Shadow Moth/Monarch is the subject of an odd variant of this with himself — in large parts of the fandom, his actions as Gabriel Agreste are seen as more detestable than those he takes as Hawk Moth. While Hawk Moth may akumatize civilians into fighting the heroes, he's spared due to a measure of Evil Is Cool and the impersonal scale of his supervillainy. Gabriel, on the other hand, is a chillingly accurate abusive parent to his son Adrien, micromanaging and isolating him since before the show began — and it doesn't help that he's willing to enable Lila in tormenting Adrien's friends (especially Marinette) for his own gain. It's telling that "Cat Blanc" is widely regarded as Gabriel's Moral Event Horizon crossing based on his treatment of Adrien and Marinette, and not for any of his usual supervillainy.
    • Chloé Bourgeois is a highly divisive character in the fandom, but she at least has a subset of fans who either Love to Hate or just straight-up love her. On the other hand, her parents André and Audrey are widely hated — the former for his constant abuse of his mayoral status, the latter for being an abusive parent and adult version of Chloé without any of her redeeming qualities, and both for pretty much enabling all of Chloé's worst behavior yet never getting called out or punished for it (by contrast, their daughter not only at least gets called out on her behavior, but is usually portrayed as being the sole one at fault for how nasty she's become). This applies more to Audrey, as André does show some sympathetic qualities in later seasons, and eventually faces Laser-Guided Karma after he's forced to resign due to the stress of his corruption and his "friend" Gabriel double-crossing him.
  • My Life as a Teenage Robot: Vexus is very well-liked by fans of the show, for many reasons. Instead, most of the fans' ire is saved for most of the people Jenny has to deal with at High School, such as Vice Principal Razinski, Mr. Mezmer, Don Prima and Pteresa. The only bullies whom the fanbase doesn’t have a bone to pick with (even then, they have their haters) are the Crust Cousins.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Major villains who are serious threats to Equestria, such as Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, and Lord Tirek, are extremely popular among the fanbase, both in their role as villains and as potential subjects for a Heel–Face Turn. Meanwhile, much more minor bullies, jerks, and annoyances are consistently the targets of much more emphatic hatred.
    • Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara are school bullies who pick on the Cutie Mark Crusaders for not having cutie marks yet. At one point, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara mock Scootaloo for the fact that she's a pegasus that can't fly, which is the in-universe equivalent of mocking a disabled person for their disability. As a result, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara became two of the most hated antagonists in the series. Though they do have a Heel–Face Turn in season 5, this does not change the minds of some fans, believing it's too little too late.
    • Prince Blueblood is a shallow, conceited noble who serves as a narrative obstacle in one of several concurrent threads in the Season 1 finale. He is not portrayed as actually villainous so much as he is selfish, snobbish, and rude, and his role in the episode is primarily to be a Prince Charmless and spoil another character's evening, but his abrasive personality, lack of likable qualities, and poor treatment of a main character led to the fandom deeply and emphatically detesting him. Fan works afterwards tended to drastically emphasize his pejorative qualities, portraying him as anything from a depraved narcissist to a genuinely evil manipulator, although the fact that he makes no appearance after his debut and is consequently a non-entity for the majority of the show's run means that he eventually largely faded from the fandom's attention as well.
    • Compared to the likes of irredeemable villains (Lord Tirek, Cozy Glow, Queen Chrysalis), villains that either didn't get redeemed or got redeemed too late (Svengallop, Zesty Gourmand, Lightning Dust, Wind Rider), the most utterly unambiguously reviled character in the show... is Fluttershy's pet rabbit, Angel Bunny. His worst crime is simply being bratty and mean to his owner. While many characters who hurt Fluttershy in some way get some form of hate from her rabid fans, Angel Bunny takes the cake, as he is the closest thing Fluttershy has to family in Ponyville. What makes this worse is that even after Angel's hatred somewhat died down after some episodes that showed he truly cared, even his offscreen death of old age didn't stop the hate.
  • Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: Skeebo tends to be viewed in this regard. Sure, Betrayus is the evil ruler of the Netherworld who in life plunged Pac-World into global war, Dr. Buttocks is an Evil Genius who isn't even above working behind Betrayus' back to further his own goals, and Apex is an alien who nearly won in a few attempts to invade Pac-World. Skeebo, however, constantly bullies Pac, is an Ungrateful Bastard whenever Pac saves his butt, and is prone to talking big only to embarrass himself immediately afterward. While the villains tended to have some charm and humor to balance out their nefariousness, Skeebo is just a two-dimensional bully with no charm or depth to him whatsoever.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998): The villains such as Mojo Jojo, HIM, Fuzzy Lumpkins, Gangreen Gang, and even Princess Morbucks have their fans due to their quirks that makes them Love to Hate for all their villainy while the Amoeba Boys are ineffectual but also liked as well. However, the title goes to the citizens of Citysville in the infamous episode "Town and Out" for being the opposite of Townsville citizens in regards to being cruel, apathetic jerks towards the main heroines.
  • The Proud Family: As far as antagonists go, the Gross sisters, a Terrible Trio of bullies, are known for jacking Penny and her friends, but they have so much sass through Nubia, the only one of the sisters who does speak, that you can’t possibly hate them. Compare that to Dijonay Jones, who comes across as a False Friend for Penny due to her Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
  • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964): Bumbles the Abominable Snow Monster is quite memorable among viewers, even putting aside his Heel–Face Turn. Even the Jerkass Head Elf is entertaining for his Large Ham tendencies. By contrast, most of the North Pole citizens (Comet and Fireball in particular) are deeply unlikable for their realistically mean-spirited abuse of Rudolph.
  • Scooby-Doo: The villains have ranged from petty thieves to outright attempted murderers, but the fans are fine with them since their costumed foolery is fun to watch and they'll be gone by the next episode. The worst Scrappy Doo has done, meanwhile, is make bullheaded decisions and attempt to fight people ten times his size while acting somewhat bratty, and yet he's the one that got a trope named after the collective fandom ire he was saddled with, and at least two continuities went ahead and made him an actual villain to retroactively justify it.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
    • While Catra's support of the Horde and willingness to help them take over Etheria was fine with much of the fanbase, Catra became divisive not because she's evil, but because her treatment of her friends and Adora grew to be too much for them and too akin to outright abuse.
    • For a subset of fans, particularly dedicated Entrapdak fans, the Princesses' rather begrudging attitude toward working with Entrapta is a much worse crime than Hordak and Entrapta's attempts to conquer Etheria, with many even praising the two for giving each other unconditional love and support. This is mostly owed to the fact that much of the Horde's deeds are fantastical supervillainy, while neurodivergent people being mistreated is a common thing in the real world.
  • The Simpsons: Mr. Burns and Sideshow Bob, the two central antagonists, are considered to be very entertaining to watch — the former for being Laughably Evil and the latter for being Evil Is Cool. Ms. Hoover, Helen Lovejoy, and Agnes Skinner, on the other hand, are considered to be the most dislikable characters in the series for having no such stand-out qualities.
  • South Park: Eric Cartman is a sociopathic Villain Protagonist with vile sins like abuse of women and mass murder who is also enjoyable due to being Laughably Evil and his moments of humiliating Laser-Guided Karma. However, the same cannot be said for other characters.
  • Spider-Man: The Animated Series: One would be hard-pressed to find any villain in the seriesnote  who is hated more than Mary-Jane's Aunt Anna. While the comic version of Anna was a friendly older woman and a Shipper on Deck for Peter and MJ, the show's version is a cantankerous woman who never seems to have a kind word to say about Peter and even went as far as blaming him both times Mary-Jane went missing. That the second time unintentionally resulted in the Punisher going after Peter didn't help either. This is due in part to Fourth Wall Myopia — the audience knows that Peter is a good and honest man but from Anna's perspective, Peter is an irresponsible guy with a weird habit of running off or showing up late and seems to have a dark secret he isn't letting anyone in on. Another factor is that the writers didn't put as much effort into making Anna seem sympathetic or even entertaining like they did for J. Jonah Jameson, who is also a jerkass and is even responsible for creating the Scorpion.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • Mr. Krabs, the show's resident greedy jerkass, is much more hated than Plankton, the main villain and Mr. Krabs's rival. The truth is that both of them have done many nasty things, but Plankton gets the sympathetic Not Evil, Just Misunderstood treatment from fans because he's usually a Harmless Villain (although his competence usually depends on the writer), while Mr. Krabs is considered a Designated Hero. And compared to Plankton's cartoonish behavior, Krabs' actions are often emblematic of realistic societal problems, such as abusing his workforce in various ways and getting away with it because his only employees have long since stopped caring or love the job so much that they'd work for free. Most infamously, Krabs once tormented Plankton to the point where he attempted suicide.
    • In the infamous episode "A Pal for Gary", while the Monster of the Week Puffy Fluffy tried to eat Gary and SpongeBob himself at least once, he's only acting on his natural instincts. On the other hand, SpongeBob ignores Gary's complaints about Fluffy, blames him for Fluffy's actions, orders him to "put Fluffy down" when the latter is clearly about to eat him, and scolds him for driving Fluffy away even though he saved his life. As a result, fans hated SpongeBob's behavior in the episode far more than Fluffy.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
    • In a franchise where planet-destroying super weapons and the people who command them are common, there is no more (intentionally) hated character than Pong Krell. Krell is famous for his brutally efficient tactics and it's clear shortly after he is introduced that he is that way because he utterly hates the clones the series is named for. When Krell isn't ordering suicide missions, he is belittling his troops because they were grown in a lab and no other reason. Though it turns out Krell is in fact a dark sider and a traitor to the Republic; he is motivated to fall largely because he thinks clones are inferior and it's his bigotry that has earned him a spot of ire among a franchise that has produced characters nearly synonymous with the concept of evil.
    • Commander Fox is also far more hated than most of the villains, due to being incompetent and overly aggressive, which causes a series of disasters. In Season 3, he allows a group of Separatist droids to get past him and blow up Coruscant's power generators, torpedoing the peace talks. In Season 5, he locks up Ahsoka and refuses to let Anakin see her, and tells his men to shoot to kill when she escapes. However, the moment that truly earned him the ire of the fanbase was in the Order 66 arc: him shooting and killing Fives while attempting to arrest him. Even though Palpatine and Nala Se are more to blame for what happened, Fox gets far more hate for it than either of them.
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Petty bullies and rivals Brittney Wong and Jeremy Birmbaum tend to get more hate than the actual villains, with Ludo being too bumbling and Toffee being too suave to be loathed, despite the latter's much more catastrophic plans.
  • Steven Universe: Despite the major draw of the show being the remains of a resistance fighting against Scary Dogmatic Aliens that have no care for organic life, nearly all the characters that draw the most ire are completely human and have done comparatively mundane things:
    • During the first four seasons, Lars was one of the least-liked characters in the show, simply because he was a jerkass many people saw their own bullies in. It took him dying and coming back to life for people to start liking him, and to this day fans refer to his Character Development as a redemption arc despite his worst "crime" being a big jerk to those around him. Compare the actual antagonists of the show, whose goals ranged from "murder Steven" to "murder the entire planet".
    • Ronaldo is the most hated character in the series, as a Know-Nothing Know-It-All Attention Whore that is an annoyance to both Steven and the audience. Many find "Rocknaldo" to be the worst episode in the series, where Ronaldo is at his lowest and, due to a botched moral about bullying, find it an insult since he's used as an Audience Surrogate in his other appearances. Unlike other humans, he has intentionally endangered others on a few occasions, though he's nowhere near as bad as, say, Jasper.
    • Kevin was intentionally made as a Hate Sink; however, unlike the Diamonds, who have many loving followers, Kevin gets no sympathy from fans, as his self-centered attitude and harassment of Stevonnie struck a chord. The best he gets is Love to Hate due to his love of getting a rise out of others making him fun to watch. However, Character Perception Evolution of him over time has shown why it's a risky idea to use this trope as an Intended Audience Reaction. As obnoxious as he is, fans have since shown more ire towards his portrayal as the narrative of the show was more sympathetic to the Diamonds, who are genocidal warlords, to the point that it seemed to treat his attitude as worse than what they did.
    • WickedBinge lists Marty as the most evil character in their "Good to Evil" ranking of the franchise's cast for being a greedy, deadbeat douchenozzle who only uses others to get himself ahead, including his own son. The second most evil character is Bluebird Azurite, who ends the series still wanting to murder Steven, held Greg hostage in order to hurt Steven, and has no remorse over the past actions of herself or her components.
  • In Teen Titans, villains like Slade, Madame Rouge, Blackfire, and Jinx are extremely popular. A non-villain that is disliked, however, is Val-Yor. This is due to his blatant Fantastic Racism towards Starfire despite the latter saving his life. There's even a popular fan theory that Val-yor isn't a hero at all. It just goes to show that just because someone is a hero, it won't guarantee that they will all be nice people.
  • Thomas & Friends:
  • Total Drama: The third generation cast brings Scarlett, who at first appears to be a shy, polite, and soft-spoken young woman. It slowly revealed that her polite personality is merely a façade, and she is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing hiding her sinister and psychotic nature to fool her teammates. Eventually, she tried to blow up the island and kill everybody on it in exchange for the prize money, yet still manages to have a decently sized fanbase because of her skills as a villain. In comparison, Amy is just a generic Alpha Bitch who makes the life of her sister Samey a constant hell, making her one of the most hated characters in the cast. She mainly did nothing but abuse her sister in the season, kicking her sister away as they were freefalling and being annoyed that she had a parachute, taking credit for all her sister's accomplishments, and finally turning her team aside Jasmine against Samey.
  • Totally Spies!: While the girls have many supervillain opponents, the most hated character (by the girls and viewers) is Mandy, their Sitcom Arch-Nemesis. Mostly it's because the villains are a bunch of exaggerated parodies of Bond villains too over the top and entertaining to seriously hate while Mandy is a massive Jerkass who loves to ruin other girls' lives, appears practically in every episode, and the girls just cannot get rid of her.
  • Velma: Many consider Velma Dinkley to be the worst character in the show, even compared to the serial killer that is targeting teenage girls and removing their brains, because Velma comes off as an unlikable main protagonist who constantly insults everyone around her. It all culminates in the Season 1 finale, when Velma twerks over the corpse of Fred's mother (the said serial killer) right in front of him and locks her father, his girlfriend, and her half-sister (who is only a baby) out of the house.
  • Wander over Yonder: The actual bad guys, despite virtually all being villains of the card carrying variety, can’t help but be loved by the fans, especially arguable Villain Protagonist Lord Hater and the much more evil but charming Lord Dominator. But the same can’t be said of the ironically self-proclaimed “hero” Sir Brad Starlight. He claims to be a great hero, but is horrendously inept at it, and is really only in it for the personal glory that comes with being seen as one. In fact, by his final appearance he’s resorted to using Engineered Heroics to look good, and even proves to be a Dirty Coward and Ungrateful Bastard to boot.

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