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Star Wars[]

Original Trilogy[]

  • Following the release of The Empire Strikes Back, C-3PO was considered by some to be "the worst character ever" according to George Lucas. Easy to see why considering most of his screentime in the OT era is being a worrywart who gets everyone into trouble and being The Load that R2 constantly has to bail out of trouble.
  • Joh Yowza, the added singer to the Max Rebo Band in the Special Edition of Return of the Jedi, for his obnoxious, cartoony singing and dancing, especially when he shoves his uvula into the camera while holding a note. The whole "Jedi Rocks" number was disliked, but he was considered the worst part.
  • The Ewoks. They were intended as Kid Appeal Characters but their role in completing the Stormtroopers' Flanderization into Butt Monkeys and the Narmy scenes of galaxy conquering warriors, who have put down Wookies, being defeated by sticks and stones, made the Ewoks rather unpopular. It also didn't help that they were viewed as a factor in ROTJ's much Lighter and Softer tone compared to its two predecessors. In some circles, their status as this is further compounded by their being based off the Viet Cong, in the Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters sense of managing to defeat a technologically superior foe. Their scrappy status proved so extreme that they've been largely ignored by the EU, something that has, ironically, lessened their status as this to some fans.

Prequel Trilogy[]

  • Jar-Jar Binks is no doubt the most infamous example in Star Wars, so much so that the German version of TV Tropes named this trope "Der Jar Jar". This one is so (in)famous that people who have never seen any of the Star Wars films hate him anyway. He was designed as Plucky Comic Relief but his scenes in The Phantom Menace were seen as neither plucky or comical - and frankly somebody they needed relief from! It seems George Lucas got the message, giving Jar Jar Binks a smaller role in Attack of the Clones and removing him almost entirely from Revenge of the Sith, and that's not even getting to the Expanded Universe - one reviewer in particular noted that seeing Jar Jar suspended in carbonite was the highlight of The Force Unleashed. There was also the matter that was the guy who allowed Darth Sidious to take over the galaxy by totally missing the point of Padmé's instructions not to vote for the Grand Army, thereby dragging it into the Clone Wars. Hence the "Darth Jar Jar" meme. Hatred for him was so strong among some circles that his skeletal remains almost appeared in The Force Awakens. His portrayal in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Tear Jerker of a fate in the Aftermath trilogy however are considered to have gone a way, though by no means completely, in rescuing him.
  • Padmé Amidala is not very well-liked, largely due to the Romantic Plot Tumor she formed one half of. Unlike many other Prequel Era characters, she still finds herself stuck here due to The Clone Wars never quite managing to rescue her from the heap. Fourth Wall Myopia is partly responsible as the audience knows that the people Padmé is extending an olive branch to are Card-Carrying Villains but she herself has no way to know this. She does have her supporters though, with their being a "Defenders of the A/P Love Story" thread on theforce.net.
  • The midi-chlorians, the sentient microbes that allow beings to channel The Force. This Sufficiently Analyzed Magic treatment of the Force proved rather unpopular.

Sequel Trilogy[]

Star Wars Legends[]

Other examples[]

  • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has two of them: Ethnic Scrappy Tagalong Kid Short Round and largely useless Damsel Scrappy Willie Scott. Of course, there are also plenty of fans who actually love Shorty, especially for his funny interactions with Indy, not to mention being a brave young warrior with foul mouth but a kind heart.
  • Heathcliff, the dismally unfunny comic relief in The Wild World of Batwoman. He's a major reason why the movie is painful to watch, even with Mike, Tom and Crow.
  • Minilla, AKA the "Son Of Godzilla" is often panned by Godzilla fans of all ages due to his goofy nature, odd resemblance to a young Gary Coleman, and the fact that he starred in All Monsters Attack, which is considered the absolute worst of all the Japanese Godzilla films.
    • There's also the American Godzilla (now simply called "Zilla"), but more on her in Replacement Scrappy.
      • Note that this only really qualifies for the film version. The animated TV show's version of the character[1] was much more well-received.
    • And then there's Gabara, mainly due to the fact that he's the main villain of the aforementioned All Monsters Attack. Not to mention his awful chortle.
  • Abigail Whistler from Blade Trinity, even if she's easy on the eyes.
  • Many fans of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire strongly dislike Harriet Hoctor in Shall We Dance?.
  • Zeppo Marx quickly became audiences' least favorite member of The Marx Brothers, due to his failure to adopt a strongly identifiable screen personality like Groucho, Harpo and Chico. This eventually caused him to go behind the scenes and manage the other three, though they continued having straight romantic hero parts in their films that Zeppo clearly would have played if they'd still been together. Ironically, several of their contemporaries stated that, in real-life, Zeppo was the funniest of the brothers.
    • This includes the Marx Brothers themselves, as not only was he a capable straight man, he could subtly suggest further improvisations without breaking character or drawing undue attention. In contrast, most of the non-sibling cast had difficulty dealing with the brothers without laughing or storming off angrily.
    • Played with by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when they named Xander "The Zeppo".
  • Ripcord from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is generally hated because of his Gary Stu tendencies, coupled with the fact that he seems to have a completely inappropriate relationship with Scarlett, an established character who already has a relationship with fan-favorite Snake-Eyes in canon.
    • Or Duke, depending on which canon you subscribe to.
  • Attack of the The Eye Creatures: Culver, the the Covert Pervert, was labeled by Tom Servo as one of the the most instantly unlikeable characters in film history.
  • Anna Valerious of Van Helsing. She even has a fanlisting for people that hate her character.
  • Snails, the thief from the first Dungeons and Dragons movie was hated for being an incredibly aggravating Ethnic Scrappy, so much so that Ridley's Big No following his death at the hands of Damodar was considered the height of Narm.
  • Rachel from the 2005 The War of the Worlds movie is hated for being The Load who does absolutely nothing but scream and, even though she's 10, get carried around for the entire movie.
    • It might have something to do with her being played by Dakota Fanning, who is known for being (and playing characters who are) Wise Beyond Their Years. And then they cast her in a generic "helpless child" role which could have been played by any child actress. Arguably, it was a monumental waste of her talent.
    • Her brother Robbie gets a bit of it too for his Hair-Trigger Temper and his surviving a gigantic explosion with no explanation.
  • The kids from Jurassic Park, specifically Lex.
  • An adaptation of The Dunwich Horror from The Seventies gives Wilbur Whateley a love interest. Most Lovecraft fans consider her everything wrong with Hollywood.
  • The World Is Not Enough somehow managed to create both the least popular Bond woman and least popular Bond henchman! The former, Dr. Christmas Jones, is hated for being a terrible actress (Denise Richards), having an improbable job (nuclear physicist), an incredibly disgusting pun made when she and Bond consummate their relationship, and generally existing only so that Bond has a backup girl when the infinitely-more-interesting primary love interest, Elektra King, turns out to be one half of the Big Bad Duumvirate. The latter, Mr. Bullion, is hated for being an obnoxious "gangsta" stereotype and a Dirty Coward; thankfully, he gets gunned down by Valentin Zukovsky.
    • Another, older Bond example: Sheriff J.W. Culpepper, the obnoxious redneck sheriff comic relief from Live and Let Die. They also managed to shoehorn him in to The Man with the Golden Gun by having him touring Bangkok AND he's around for the infamous scene where the awesome car jump is ruined by a slide-whistle sound effect and him rolling around in the back of the car yelling. How irritating is Sheriff Culpepper? On Topless Robot's countdown of obnoxious comedic sidekicks, he beat out Jar-Jar.
    • Roger Moore's Bond is hated by a good portion of the fans for being the Bond that saw the series get campier and more comedic, as well as starring in some of the worst Bond films of the series (e.g. The Man with the Golden Gun, Moonraker and A View to a Kill).
  • The Legend of Zorro dumped the young Joaquin into the mix, adding a needless (and quite annoying) child element when all people were wanting was to see Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones kick any asses they might have missed from the first movie.
  • Ruby Rhod from The Fifth Element. He's supposed to be the comic relief, but the only thing he does is dress like Lady Gaga's aerobics instructor, scream like a little girl and complain about everything in a grating, high-pitched voice. Not only that, he is completely useless and does nothing to help the plot or the other characters.
  • The Transformers films directed by Michael Bay:
    • The human race. While humanity is the franchise's go-to scrappy, the Bayverse's human race being a Spotlight-Stealing Squad that headed four out of the five Bay films has proven overall quite unpopular with several characters proving rather unlikable among the fanbase; such as Leo and Sam's parents being more annoying than funny, Carly being more Ms. Fanservice and a Replacement Flat Character than anything else. It didn't help that humanity at large was an Ungrateful Bastard who continued to distrust the Autobots even after they kept saving Earth. Though some humans, like Agents Simmons, were rescued thanks to sheer Crazy Awesome.
      • The standout of human scrappies is without a doubt Sam Witwicky. Partly because he's portrayed by Shia LaBeouf, but mostly because he's largely viewed as a Genre Refugee who belongs in a stoner comedy instead of running from Decepticons, he has a lot of Designated Hero moments (his main reason for helping the Autobots seems to be to get them to leave him alone), his treating Bumblebee like a pet and him spending most of screentime being The Load, screaming for Optimus or Bumblebee to save him.
      • Tessa and Shane from Transformers: Age of Extinction are in close second. Adding some needless human drama into a Surprisingly Improved Sequel was never going to make them popular, but the fact that their scenes are entirely focused on their dubiously legal relationship (she's a minor) and Tessa whining about the Autobots doesn't endear them to anyone. To add insult to injury, their relationship wasn't even illegal. By Texas law, Tessa was a consenting adult.
    • The Cybertronians themselves have some shades of this in the fandom, though it often blurs the line with Memetic Loser, for a number of reasons. Being Demoted to Extra in their own films, their designs not being hugely recognizable and the Decepticons being very easily brought down by Puny Earthlings. As a result, don't expect to see a Bayverse design in a Crisis or Intercontinuity Crossover.
  • Malak from Conan the Destroyer. Whiny, cowardly and, except for one scene, The Load.
  • From Night of the Hunter, we have Icey Spoon, an old woman who is, without a doubt, the personification of The Nag. She's constantly belittling her husband to the point that he's completely ineffectual in helping anyone (she even admits to a crowd that she thinks about canning when she's having sex), she pushes Willa Harper into getting remarried to Harry Powell, and is utterly won over by his charms. Half the problems in the movie John and Pearl have to deal with are because of Icey's "helping hand". When Powell is finally arrested, Icey appears at his trial, drunk out of her mind and leading a lynch mob to hang Powell.
  • Johnny Depp's version of Willy Wonka from Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is this to most of the fans of the original '70s movie, mainly due to his lack of charm and wittiness, acting really nervous and bizarre and not allowing Charlie's parents to move into his factory.
  • Bad Boys for Life: The Wedding MC is this, mostly due to him being portrayed by Michael Bay.
  • The Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Malekith the Accursed from Thor: The Dark World is generally considered to be the most boring villain in the Infinity Saga due to his Generic Doomsday Villain nature and lack of charisma. The human supporting cast in the Thor films are also disliked for being a rather annoying Spotlight-Stealing Squad, especially Darcy.
    • Taskmaster from Black Widow. Despite bordering on Invincible Villain, she's generally viewed as a cheap composite of the MCU's versions of the Ghost (the Gender Flip and the Adaptational Heroism) and the Winter Soldier (whom she's largely a Distaff Counterpart of). Like Malekith, she was found to be lacking in charisma or originality compared to preceding and succeeding MCU baddies with her more rapid introduction and resolution compared to Ghost and the Soldier not winning her many points. Compounding it all, most fans are of the opinion that, while other characters had reasons, be it due to the plot or the Setting Update, to be radically altered, Taskmaster did not, with it not helping that the comic version of Ghost was relatively obscure whereas Taskmaster is one of the more popular Marvel villains in his original form.

References[]

  1. Who is technically the film version's offspring
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