A Hate Sink is a character who is intentionally made (by the work's creator) to be vile and unsympathetic to the audience. While your average Jerkass or Complete Monster can fill the bill, an ordinary scumbag works just fine, especially in stories where the main antagonist has no 'face'—such as a film about a natural disaster or killer animal(s) acting out of instinct rather than malice—or the Big Bad's motives remain sympathetic even when their deeds are evil. This character is written to draw fire, and to provide appropriate catharsis for the audience when karma finally catches up to them.
The Hate Sink is not The Scrappy: the writers wrote the Hate Sink to be hated, while the Scrappy garnered a Hatedom on his own. But it is possible for a Hate Sink to become a Scrappy if the audience hates him for reasons other than what the creators intended. Example
So to summarize:
- The Hate Sink is a character created by the author with the express intention of being loathed by the audience.
- The Scrappy is a character which was not created to be loathed, but still is.Examples
Often overlaps with Complete Monster, which is a character whose vile deeds have cost them the audience's sympathy, though even a Complete Monster can be charismatic, while a Hate Sink never can. Also compare Anti-Role Model, where the character is designed to be a bad example to the audience; Love to Hate, when the viewers actually enjoy this character because of how effective they are at being hatable; The Heavy, which is about the impact for the story; Jerkass, who may be unlikable but not loathsome; and Jerks Are Worse Than Villains, which is when fans hate the jerkass character more than the actual villain.note Contrast with Anti-Villain, when a villain has sympathetic traits; and Laughably Evil, when a villain is funny and thus entertaining (though in some cases a villain can be both sympathetic and funny).
If all of the work's other characters hate this individual, they are Hated by All and not necessarily a Hate Sink, though the two tropes can and frequently do overlap — a character being Hated By All is often a good indication that the audience is supposed to hate them as well.
Notes: Just because a villain goes out of their way to be cruel doesn't necessarily mean they are a Hate Sink. A Hate Sink is a very specific type of character who is written to provoke the audience's disgust and loathing. You will never sympathize with their motives or acknowledge their Evil Virtues, only feel revulsion and want to see them get their comeuppance as quickly as possible (preferably in a cathartic, horrifying, and/or undignified manner). Villains like Emperor Palpatine and Voldemort lack sympathetic qualities and can be incredibly vile in their worst moments, but the audience is merely meant to root for the heroes to succeed against them, whereas Dolores Umbridge, Shou Tucker or the MCU iteration of the High Evolutionary embody a spiteful, petty, and 'ordinary' evil. Not only can you hate them, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you should. Of course, absent a Word of God confirmation, it can be hard to determine if a character is meant to be hated, or at least hated to the extent that a Hate Sink is.
- 0% Approval Rating: A person in charge that none of his underlings like, usually because he's such a Bad Boss.
- Absolute Xenophobe: Aliens who kill anything that isn't their own species.
- Abusive Parents: Parents who harm their own children, which is likely to start the child's own Start of Darkness.
- Alpha Bitch: The popular girl of the school also happens to be a Jerkass and a bully.
- Asshole Victim: A victim of murder or some other violent crime remains unsympathetic if they were a Jerkass beforehand.
- Bad Boss: A person in charge who treats their employees like garbage.
- Barbaric Bully: An Obviously Evil bully.
- Big Brother Bully: An older sibling who treats their younger sibling horribly.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Someone who puts on a façade of kindness to hide away their true vile nature is usually not sympathetic or entertaining.
- The Bully: Someone that loves to pick on those weaker than him.
- The Corrupter: An individual intentioned to make the others just as terrible as them.
- Dirty Cop: Someone with the duty to protect the others uses their position for selfish goals.
- Dirty Coward: These villains will try to save their hide instead of coming up with a plan or Last Stand.
- Embodiment of Vice: A character who exists to represent a negative trait.
- Entitled Bastard: A narcissistic character who sincerely believes they deserve respect from the very people they disrespect, and/or believes they have the right to do whatever they want and nobody has any right to object.
- Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: If even he hates you, it's likely that the audience should.
- Evil Colonialist: Cruel exploiters who enslave, sell and/or outright brutalize the local people.
- Evil Is Petty: Besides being a villain, the character is also a nasty individual on smaller scale.
- False Friend: Forming a "friendship" with another solely to take advantage of their trust.
- The Fundamentalist: A person who openly mocks (or is hostile towards) those whose beliefs don't align with theirs.
- Hated by All: A villain so despicable that nobody likes them.
- Heel: The professional wrestling version: bad guy personas who exist to anger the crowd and antagonize the Faces.
- Hope Crusher: Villains who are out to drive people to despair are almost never sympathetic, especially if they enjoy it.
- Human Traffickers: People who enslave and sell other people.
- Hypocrite: Someone doesn't follow what they claim to preach and lecture about.
- Insufferable Genius: A smart character that is full of hubris. Very likely to boast about their intelligence at the expense of everyone else.
- Insufferable Imbecile: Not only are they jerks, they are also absolute morons.
- Jerkass: An unpleasant, nasty and overall unsympathetic person.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: A nasty character seems to have sympathetic qualities, but they are actually just as nasty as they seem.
- Karma Houdini: That character who doesn't get his comeuppance, though this quality may also interlap with The Scrappy.
- Killer Cop: Someone who's supposed to protect others uses their position to kill them.
- The Klan: The Ku Klux Klan and substitutes.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: An arrogant and insufferable person that always claims to be right despite being obviously wrong.
- Lecherous Stepparent: A stepparent who makes advances on their stepchildren.
- Manipulative Bastard: An individual that plays around with the others, usually for their own gain.
- More Despicable Minion: A minion written to be worse and more detestable than their (often sympathetic) boss.
- More Hateable Minor Villain: A minor villain written to be loathsome when the Big Bad cannot fill that role.
- Narcissist: A very arrogant and self-centered individual that always demands love and attention from everyone else.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: Fantasy-counterpart Nazis.
- Never My Fault: A character that never takes any responsability for their actions, possibly shifting the blame to someone else.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Someone who claims to be a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but whose motivations turn out to be selfish.
- Opportunistic Bastard: Someone that takes advantage from any situation for petty self gain.
- Pedophile Priest: A priest who sexually abuses children.
- Pervert Dad: A father who makes sexual advances on his biological children.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: A bigoted villain.
- The Prima Donna: An overbearing, egocentric, and unlikable counterpart to The Diva.
- Psychopathic Manchild: An adult villain with immature aspects such as never taking any responsability, pettiness, self-centeredness and entitlement.
- Rabid Cop: A cop who regularly commits Police Brutality.
- Sadist: Someone that enjoys inflicting pain and suffering on others.
- Serial Rapist: A rapist with multiple victims.
- Slimeball: A sleazy, morally repugnant slob who does terrible things for petty self-gain.
- Smug Snake: An overconfident villain with delusions of grandeur.
- The Sociopath: A ruthless, self-centered and manipulative social predator that doesn't care about anyone else.
- Spoiled Brat: An unsufferable, immature and arrogant brat that always demands to be given everything at everytime.
- Spree Killer: A murderer who attacks multiple locations without a break.
- Straw Character: A character intended to (mis)represent views the creator disagrees with.
- Straw Hypocrite: A character whose "ideals" are nothing but a front for selfish goals.
- Temporary Scrappy: A temporary addition to the main cast who is intentionally written to be unlikeable so the audience will want them gone.
- Terrorists Without a Cause: Terrorists who don't have any mission or intentions behind causing terror.
- The Unapologetic: A horrible jerk who is never sorry for their acts of cruelty.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Someone who doesn't properly thank people when they do good things for them, or even repays them with The Farmer and the Viper treatment.
- Very Punchable Man: A minor character, usually a petty criminal or some other variety of Jerkass, who only exists for the heroes to beat up.
- Villains Want Mercy: If the villain is particularly nasty, and has the nerve to beg for mercy after all his atrocities, this is an easy way at getting the audience's loathing.
- Viler New Villain: A new villain is introduced who is comparatively less likable than the previous one.
- Villainy-Free Villain: An antagonist who doesn't do anything truly villainous, but has an unpleasant personality so the audience will root against them.
- Wicked Stepmother: A stepparent who is mean and cruel to their children.
Example subpages:
- Anime & Manga
- Comic Books
- Fan Works
- Films — Animated
- Films — Live-Action
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Video Games
- Visual Novels
- Web Original
- Western Animation
- Other Media
