History YMMV / FearTheWalkingDead

* NeverLiveItDown: Charlie is not hated, but some viewers are still understandably not fully over her [[spoiler: murdering Nick in Season 4]], even if the characters have decided to forgive her for it. This is actually invoked InUniverse in Season 8 when [[spoiler:Madison reunites with her and learns what she did.]]

* AssPull: The show's tendency to tell and not show, particularly in latter seasons, often results in major plot developments or conflicts being resolved offscreen. Several characters randomly escape from dangerous situations with no fanfare, often using hallucinations (a tried and true Scott Gimple trope) to excuse why a character didn't see what happened.

** Another founding cast member, Alicia, is kept out of most of their final season and when she does return, it's with an arc most people found to be idiotic and also a retread of tropes the showrunners have been overindulging in such as hallucinations. Then Alicia gets PutOnABus until she comes back in the final episode, and while she does get a happy ending by reuniting with her mother, many consider it to be not enough to fully salvage her character arc,

** Season 4 has been criticized for being essentially taking every development and dumping it in the trash for the sake of introducing Morgan, [[ReplacementScrappy new characters]], and taking on [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks an identical tone to the main series]]. It starts with a two year TimeSkip with no explanation as to how the original cast got to where they were, before [[spoiler:Nick and Madison are killed later]].

** Ironically Season 5 goes into the complete opposite direction, with some fans decrying the cheesy optimistic tone, as opposed to the bleakly dark first three seasons.

** The entire group, especially Daniel, when his reaction to the corrupt army taking away his wife and some other people from the area for shady reasons is to [[spoiler: brutally torture his daughter's new boyfriend, the only soldier to show them any sort of actual kindness, for information, then unleash a huge horde of zombies to devastate a military installation with plenty of civilians inside, including the people they were there to save. It's a little hard to take Adams as the bad guy when he comes back for revenge on Daniel when he was perfectly friendly toward the group before Daniel tortured him.]] This is only justifiable retroactively, as [[spoiler: Adams knew about the military's plan to massacre the civilians and didn't warn them, but this is something the characters and audience don't know about until this information is tortured out of him]].
** Daniel also used to do this before he came to America, with his own wife admitting how villainous he was, and what he used to do. It seems the only reason he became a barber in America was that he had steady hands for shaving.

** In the fourth season finale, Al has a shotgun with two shots and is face to face with Martha and a walker she has on a restraint. Due to being stung over Martha having stole her van and tapes earlier in the season, Al foolishly decides to entertain Martha’s rambling long enough for another walker to close in, forcing Al to use her two shots on the dead and leaving her apparently defenseless against a critically wounded woman.

** [[spoiler:Madison's unceremonious death]] is by far the most controversial moment of the series as the fandom considered it a waste of the show's lead character, and unquestionably led to Morgan being regarded as a ReplacementScrappy once he took over the show. She was later brought back specifically because of the criticism of the decision to kill her off.
** [[spoiler:Another founding cast member, Alicia]], is kept out of most of their final season and when they do return, it's with an arc most people found to be idiotic and also a retread of tropes the showrunners have been overindulging in such as hallucinations. Most fans agree the character's final episode [[spoiler:in which Alicia is PutOnABus]] was a terrible send-off for a popular lead character.
** [[spoiler:Wes]] did not get much development as a character, so [[spoiler:his FaceHeelTurn]] seemed shallow and random to viewers, while the supposed reasons for it seemed hypocritical, as [[spoiler:Strand was also deceitful with his group's members, and with less good reason for it than Lucia's reason for deceiving Daniel.]]

* NeverLiveItDown: Charlie is not hated, but viewers are still understandably not fully over her [[spoiler: murdering Nick in Season 4]], even if the characters have decided to forgive her for it.

** Tom from the fifth season quickly became this despite his short time, mainly due to him being too interested in the very base-breaking camera subplot with Althea, and [[spoiler:[[TooDumbToLive his death scene]], where instead of deciding to cross a clearly collapsing bridge, [[SkewedPriorities decides to stay and record the event]]]].

* [[EnsembleDarkhorse/TheWalkingDeadTelevisionUniverse Ensemble Darkhorse]]

* CompleteMonster: "[[Recap/FearTheWalkingDeadS02E14Wrath Wrath]]" through "[[Recap/FearTheWalkingDeadS03E08ChildrenOfWrath Children of Wrath]]": [[AngryWhiteMan Jeremiah Otto Sr.]] is the [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain racist]] and [[AbusiveParents abusive]] patriarch of the Otto family, and created the Broke Jaw Ridge on the land of the stolen Natives. Jeremiah [[VigilanteExecution lynched several Natives]], including Qaletaqa Walker's father and uncle, before the outbreak, and after the apocalypse, allows a bloody war between his Broke Jaw Ridge and the Hopi Tribe. [[FauxAffablyEvil A seemingly reasonable family man]], it's revealed that Jeremiah is an prideful and stubborn man who is willing to let all his friends and family die just to prevent himself from apologizing to Walker and surrendering, and refuses to atone for his actions, caring more for himself than the safety of anyone else.

* FandomRivalry: Fans of ''Series/{{The 100}}'' didn't take kindly to Creator/AlyciaDebnamCarey's role on this show forcing it to kill off her character there, but only due to being oblivious that Creator/AlyciaDebnamCarey had signed a contract with ''Fear the Walking Dead'' first. Especially since her role as Lexa is more popular than her role as Alicia and the death being controversial because of the character [[BuryYourGays being a lesbian]] and her death scene having {{unfortunate implications}}. Though this ended up turning into FriendlyFandoms of sorts.

** Seasons 5, 6, and 7 also all end with Morgan separated from most of the main cast and them having to find each other again after a loss. It remains to be seen if Season 8 will once again use the anthology format after Seasons 6 and 7 already did it.

* CompleteMonster: "[[Recap/FearTheWalkingDeadS02E14Wrath Wrath]]" through "[[Recap/FearTheWalkingDeadS03E08ChildrenOfWrath Children of Wrath]]": [[AngryWhiteMan Jeremiah Otto Sr.]] is the [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain racist]] and [[AbusiveParents abusive]] patriarch of the Otto family, and created the Broke Jaw Ridge on the land of the stolen Natives. Jeremiah [[VigilanteExecution lynched several Natives, including Qaletaqa Walker's father and uncle before the outbreak]], and after the apocalypse, allows a bloody war between his Broke Jaw Ridge and the Hopi Tribe. [[FauxAffablyEvil A seemingly reasonable family man]], it's revealed that Jeremiah is an prideful and stubborn man who is willing to let all his friends and family die just to prevent himself from apologizing to Walker and surrendering, and refuses to atone for his actions, caring more for himself than the safety of anyone else.

* CompleteMonster: [[AngryWhiteMan Jeremiah Otto Sr.]] is the racist and [[AbusiveParents abusive patriarch of the Otto family]], and created the Broke Jaw Ridge on the land of the stolen natives. [[VigilanteExecution He lynched several natives, including Qaletaqa Walker’s father and uncle before the outbreak]], and after the apocalypse, allows a bloody war between his Broke Jaw Ridge and The Hopi Tribe. [[FauxAffablyEvil A seemingly reasonable family man]], it’s revealed that Jeremiah is an prideful and stubborn man who is willing to let all his friends and family die just to prevent himself from apologizing to Walker and surrendering, and [[DirtyCoward refuses to atone for his actions, showing to cared more for himself than the safety of everyone.]]

** [[spoiler:Wes]] did not get much development as a character, so [[spoiler:FaceHeelTurn]] seemed shallow and random to viewers, while the supposed reasons for it seemed hypocritical, as [[spoiler:Strand was also deceitful with his group's members, and with less good reason for it than Lucia's reason for deceiving Daniel.]]

** [[spoiler:Wes]] did not get much development as a character, so [[spoiler:his switchover to the villainy]] seemed shallow and random to viewers, while the supposed reasons for it seemed hypocritical, as [[spoiler:Strand was also deceitful with his group's members, and with less good reason for it than Lucia's reason for deceiving Daniel.]]

** [[spoiler:Wes]] did not get much development as a character, so [[spoiler:his switchover to the villainy]] seemed shallow and random to viewers, while the supposed reasons for it seemed hypocritical, as [[spoiler:Strand was also deceitful with his group's members, and with less good reason for it than Lucia.]]

* AudienceAlienatingEra:
** In Season 4, the {{ReTool}} and change in showrunners brought about a number of poorly received changes to the show:
*** The original cast is sidelined, with [[spoiler: Nick]] being killed off and [[spoiler:Madison]] being PutOnABus, and the rest being reduced to supporting characters or spending long stretches OutOfFocus, with the worst offender being Alicia.
*** A new cast is introduced, all of whom except John Dorie and Grace Mukherjee are [[BaseBreakingCharacter Base Breakers]] ''at best'', and a few of whom are outright [[TheScrappy Scrappies]]. Morgan, a {{Transplant}} from the parent series, becomes the new lead and ends up being even ''more'' divisive than he was on that show (see below). The cast continues to grow to an almost unmanageable size by the next season.
*** The entire tone of the show becomes LighterAndSofter. Morally complex antiheroes like Strand, Daniel, Madison, and to a lesser extent Morgan become unambiguously good people trying to do their best and make the world a better place. This contrasts heavily with the first few seasons and the original vision for the series, in which the "heroes" would get darker and darker over time and become [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonists]].
*** Characters are heavily rewritten to accommodate this change in tone, with some, like Daniel Salazar, feeling like completely different people from one season to the next.
*** A number of uninteresting villains are introduced and quickly disposed of, with the worst, Season 4's BigBad Martha, being widely considered to be the weakest villain in the entire franchise.
*** The plotting and dialogue become much more cliched and amateur, with the previously complex storytelling being replaced by characters making endless stupid decisions, monologuing about morality and how to be a good person, and just generally serving an often directionless plot.
** Season 7 has been regarded as the worst season of the show since the retool, due to the show picking and choosing when to apply logic (some characters magically avoid radiation poisoning while others get burned), a heavy reliance on monologues once again, a season-long build up to a war that never happens, and a failure to manage every character in the cast adequately with many dying unceremonious deaths or outright vanishing with no explanation.

* SeasonalRot Season 4 was where fan reception turned mostly negative as it pretty much revamped ''Fear'''s original premise, to the point where many refuse to even acknowledge its existence, while Season 9 of the original show [[GrowingTheBeard grew the beard]]. Most fans hated the introduction of Morgan who took over the show, and Season 5 sunk even lower with a cheesy humanitarian story, progressively dumber characters and stories, and a DownerEnding that made the last two seasons AllForNothing

* FanonDiscontinuity:
** It's not exactly uncommon to find people who refuse to acknowledge anything after Season 3 as canon; strong points of contention include its poor writing and cyclical storylines, drastic tone shift, killing of [[spoiler:Madison and Nick]], and turning Morgan into the main protagonist of the series.
** To a lesser extent, Season 6. While the show is still not without its haters, there are now fans willing to accept the previous two seasons as canon while also acknowledging them as having been the show's AudienceAlienatingEra and advising new viewers to simply skip over most of the episodes to get to the current season.

* FanonDiscontinuity: It's not exactly uncommon to find people who refuse to acknowledge anything after Season 3 as canon; strong points of contention include its poor writing and cyclical storylines, drastic tone shift, killing of [[spoiler:Madison and Nick]], and turning Morgan into the main protagonist of the series.

* HesJustHiding: WordOfGod reminds us that whoever hasn't explicitly died onscreen should be assumed to be alive. [[spoiler:Madison]] has become this ever since her somewhat ambiguous death in Season 4, not helped by the vague responses from the showrunners and even [[spoiler:Kim Dickens]] herself as to whether or not a return is in the cards. [[spoiler:''Talking Dead'' at the end of 2021 finally confirmed that Madison is indeed alive and is returning in Seasons 7 and 8.]]

*** The original cast is sidelined, with [[spoiler: Nick and (apparently) Madison]] being killed off, and the rest being reduced to supporting characters or spending long stretches OutOfFocus, with the worst offender being Alicia.

* AudienceAlienatingEra: In Season 4, the {{ReTool}} and change in showrunners brought about a number of poorly received changes to the show:
** The original cast is sidelined, with [[spoiler: Nick and (apparently) Madison]] being killed off, and the rest being reduced to supporting characters or spending long stretches OutOfFocus, with the worst offender being Alicia.
** A new cast is introduced, all of whom except John Dorie and Grace Mukherjee are [[BaseBreakingCharacter Base Breakers]] ''at best'', and a few of whom are outright [[TheScrappy Scrappies]]. Morgan, a {{Transplant}} from the parent series, becomes the new lead and ends up being even ''more'' divisive than he was on that show (see below). The cast continues to grow to an almost unmanageable size by the next season.
** The entire tone of the show becomes LighterAndSofter. Morally complex antiheroes like Strand, Daniel, Madison, and to a lesser extent Morgan become unambiguously good people trying to do their best and make the world a better place. This contrasts heavily with the first few seasons and the original vision for the series, in which the "heroes" would get darker and darker over time and become [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonists]].
** Characters are heavily rewritten to accommodate this change in tone, with some, like Daniel Salazar, feeling like completely different people from one season to the next.
** A number of uninteresting villains are introduced and quickly disposed of, with the worst, Season 4's BigBad Martha, being widely considered to be the weakest villain in the entire franchise.
** The plotting and dialogue become much more cliched and amateur, with the previously complex storytelling being replaced by characters making endless stupid decisions, monologuing about morality and how to be a good person, and just generally serving an often directionless plot.

** A new cast is introduced, all of whom except John Dorie and Grace Mukherjee are [[BaseBreakingCharacter Base Breakers]] ''at best'', and a few of whom are outright [[TheScrappy Scrappies]]. Morgan, a {{Transplant}} from the parent series, becomes the new lead and ends up being even ''more'' divisive than he was on that show (see above). The cast continues to grow to an almost unmanageable size by the next season.

** The original cast is sidelined, with [[spoiler: Nick and Madison]] being killed off, and the rest being reduced to supporting characters or spending long stretches OutOfFocus, with the worst offender being Alicia.