Markup View

Author: gravityhomer

May 14th 2010 at 9:26:25 PM

Thanks for the comments. I read the JerkAss very thoroughly because I was trying to see if it described the trope I was thinking of, but I think it does not. When I read the JerkAss, it made me think of Charles Winchester from MASH, later replaced by Burns. Or Fraiser when he first appeared on Cheers, he was later a much better character and his wife Lilith became the incredibly annoying character.

The key to this trope is that the person is not really a villain, there just isn't another villain in the movie for people to hate. So it's as if, the writer created this character in order for the audience to direct that hate and then get some relief by having this character get screwed over later. The other thing, is that the character needs to be pretty 1 dimensional. Any movie that has good character development, will not have this trope.

I like 'Lightning Rod of Hate', that's pretty cool.  I could not really think of a good title.  Another one I was considering was 'The Audience Rage Target', eh.

In 2012, I would say that the main character to fit this role is Oliver Platt. He becomes the ranking person for the US and he becomes the character to hate at the end of the movie, but even he is less 1 dimensional than the characters I listed above.

Another trope that I was thinking could be close is the DesignatedVillain. But that does not work for the reporter in Diehard or the pencil pusher in Ghostbusters or the Secretary of Defense in Independence Day.