"I hate them with a perfect hatred; I count them as mine enemies."
Here's a list of tropes involving characters who are hated, shunned, mistreated, and despised by others.
For audience reactions, see Scrappy Index. For tropes about characters hating someone, see Hatred Tropes. Contrast Admiration Tropes.
Tropes:
Categories:
- 0% Approval Rating: Nobody wants to be led by them.
- Abomination Accusation Attack: A person who hates the character accuses them of doing or intending to do something horrible.
- Albinos Are Freaks: Characters with albinism are considered bad and are hated/shunned/what-have-you solely because of their appearance.
- All of the Other Reindeer: A character is hated by a larger community for whatever reason, usually because they're different.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: The hated character dies, but everyone is pleased.
- Animals Hate Him: Animals are hostile towards a character.
- Asshole Victim: Something terrible happened to this character, but nobody cares since they were a bad person, even though their badness may not have had anything to do with what happened to them.
- Boomerang Bigot: A person who hates a group they actually belong to.
- Boss's Unfavorite Employee: The boss hates this employee.
- Broken Pedestal: A character ends up hating a person they used to idolize after learning that their hero isn't nearly as good and noble as they thought they were.
- Bully Magnet: A character is an easy target for bullying and harassment.
- Butt-Monkey: A character not only has bad things happen to them all the time, but they are also endlessly mistreated by other characters.
- Card-Carrying Villain: A character who acknowledges they are evil, takes pride in it, and doesn't have any excuses for it, nor believes their actions as a villain are just, is much easier to hate than a delusional villain who thinks they are in the right.
- Chilly Reception: When characters mistreat a newcomer.
- Contempt Crossfire: When a character is hated by his own group and the opposing group for their respective reasons.
- Creepy Loner Girl: A gloomy, disheveled, and socially-awkward girl is viewed as a freak.
- Dehumanization: Hatred towards someone is expressed by regarding them as if they were not human.
- Demonization: Attempting to ruin the reputation of someone you hate using unflattering and slanderous portrayals of them.
- Dreaded Kids' Party Entertainer Job: Clowns and other performers at kids' parties are frequently abused by the kids, the parents, or both.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: When a character feels underappreciated by others.
- Enemies Equals Greatness: When being hated means you are better than them.
- Enemy to All Living Things: All animals hate this person.
- Everyone Hates Mimes: Mimes are hated in fiction.
- Fantastic Ableism: Someone is hated for not having an ability common in the setting (i.e., Muggle Born of Mages).
- Fantastic Racism: Hatred of non-humans by humans, hatred of humans by non-humans, or hatred of one kind of non-human by another kind of non-human.
- Fantastic Underclass: The lowest and most hated level of society.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: One character is hated by a group of friends.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: A character is hated for being mixed race.
- Hated by All: A character who is hated by everyone In-Universe.
- Hate Sink: A character whose intended role is to be despised.
- The Heretic: Someone who dissents from a religion is seen as an enemy to the religious followers.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: A hero is despised by the citizens.
- Infamous, but in Charge: A leader that is evil and hated by their subjects, but is still kept in charge of them anyway.
- Jerkass: A character is so contemptible and unpleasant that this will garner him a lot of hatred from other characters.
- Karmic Butt-Monkey: A Butt-Monkey who is a bad person and therefore deserves every misfortune, injury, and act of scorn they're subjected to.
- Karmic Shunning: A character is cut off by their loved ones because of their horrible actions.
- Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Someone who doesn't follow the quirk of their people is looked down upon, despite their job being essential to society.
- Loners Are Freaks: A character is treated with disdain because he spends his time alone.
- Loser Friend Puzzles Outsiders: A character is despised, and others wonder why their cooler/higher-class/more powerful friends hang out with them.
- Loser Son of Loser Dad: A character is hated for the crimes their parents did.
- Made Out to Be a Jerkass: A character is treated like a jerk for standing up to an actual jerk.
- Major Coward: A cowardly member of the armed forces (who does not need to have held the rank of "Major" to count for the trope).
- Malicious Slander: Sometimes a character is hated for something that they didn't do through others smearing their name with lies.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: When a solitary character who is seen as a freak turns out to be anything but.
- More Despicable Minion: The Dragon for the Big Bad is much more unsympathetic than the Big Bad themselves.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Being excluded via mention can imply that a character isn't well-liked.
- The Neidermeyer: A Jerkass military leader who is hated by his own men.
- Never Accepted in His Hometown: A character is hated by his hometown.
- New Kid Stigma: The new kid in school isn't liked by anyone.
- No-Respect Guy: When the Only Sane Man is mistreated and disrespected by others.
- Not Helping Your Case: Hated for a response to accusations against them that just make them look more guilty.
- Oppressed Minority Veteran: Minority veterans face oppression in civilian life by the government of the country they fought for.
- Pariah Prisoner: A character who is hated by other inmates.
- Pulling Your Child Away: Someone is marked as an outcast when a parent pulls their child away from them.
- Punished for Sympathy: A character is disliked by those for showing pity to someone who is less deserving of it.
- Redheaded Stepchild: A redheaded character who is bullied and harassed for having red hair.
- Redheads Are Uncool: Social outcasts tend to have red hair.
- Reformed, but Rejected: Despite making a Heel–Face Turn, the former villain is distrusted and rejected by everyone.
- Removing the Crucial Teammate: A character is kicked out of The Team for being "useless", only for The Team to suddenly discover they can no longer accomplish their goals.
- Robosexuals Are Creeps: A character who's attracted to robots is seen as a freak.
- The Scapegoat: Someone who is blamed for something they didn't do.
- Shamed by a Mob: When a group reviles a character for doing something bad.
- Slut-Shaming: A female character is hated for being sexually promiscuous.
- Speak Ill of the Dead: A person hates someone who has died and refuses to let the stigma that it is disrespectful to insult the deceased keep them from tearing into the dead person for the shit they put them through.
- Teacher's Unfavorite Student: A teacher really hates one particular student.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: They treat the character like he's evil, so now he becomes evil.
- The Un Favourite: When one sibling isn't treated well by his parents who prefer the other sibling.
- Untrusting Community: A hero is disliked by the community until he does something heroic.
- Virgin-Shaming: A male character is hated for being a virgin.
- Widow Mistreatment: Someone is hated because of the death of their spouse.
- Who Murdered the Asshole: It's difficult to determine who killed this person because they were an unpleasant jerk despised by everyone.
- You Should Have Died Instead: Someone wishes the person they hate had died instead of a lost loved one.
- Zero-Approval Gambit: When a character does something to cause others to hate him in order to accomplish a good.
