50 Main Characters We’re Supposed To Sympathize With But Some People Just Can’t

throwaway-_-friend said:
"Carrie Bradshaw."

lunalives replied:
"In the reboot, Miranda steals the obnoxious crown right off her head though."

castortusk replied:
"In addition to being a horrible person she was also a terrible writer. Her “couldn’t help but wonders” are the cringiest writing ever."

JACKVK07 said: "That chick from Twilight."

 

CitizenCobalt replied: "I just don't get why they were in high school. Why would you do that to yourself? Just go to college! No one is going to notice an immortal at a university! Take night classes! Hell, just go during the day. I've walked by a pack of people pretending to be zombies, no one is going to look twice at a sparkly guy. I mean, sure he might have some people asking where he bought his body glitter, but no one is going to see someone sparkling and go 'oh yeah, vampire!'"

 

Jirik333 replied: "Robert Pattinson, who played Edward Cullen, is known for hating Twilight. He said his character would be an axe murderer in real life, that Edward is a creep, and that the fans are crazy and the story is a nightmare."

"Emily from Emily in Paris she f*cks up and barely suffers the consequences. Sleeping with a friend's partners and still remains friends with both of them openly. Screws up business opportunities, nothing besides a slap on the wrists, and somehow, it's magically resolved. And her whole 'I am a dumb American, bon apple tea!!' And she dresses like if Harry Styles was colour blind."

DMMEPANCAKES said:
"Hannah Baker from 13 reasons why.

Commits suicide and becomes romanticized by the school and everyone around her, gets a cute boy to become obsessed with her and view her as 'the one who got away', and gets revenge on all her bullies. It's everything you *don't* want to tell or show a person struggling with suicidal thoughts."

kgxv replied:
"They also specifically asked suicide awareness and prevention organizations what to do and not do when depicting suicide and promptly ignored every single thing they were told. This show is disgusting and pathetic and the creators should be ashamed."

The_Presitator said:
"The most recent Velma. Narcissistic, mean, and stuck up with no intention of growing as a person."

Youre_late_for_tea replied:
"I loved Velma from the live action movies. Why do they need to change a winning formula to this?"

aintshockedbyyou replied:
"I feel like modern movies and shows don't know how to create an strong badass female character without making her arrogant and narcissistic."

NoBS1757 said:
"Abuela from Encanto. She blamed everything that went wrong on her children and grandchildren.

Edit: I realize she isn't THE main character (my bad), but she's A main character and gets totally undeserved redemption at the end of the film."

patton66 replied:
"What's the biggest reason the movie was a magical fantasy and completely unrealistic?

At the end, the grandma admits she was wrong about something."

SmokierTrout replied:
"Encanto is an example of transgenerational trauma. Abuela saw her husband and father of her children murdered in front of her and has never felt safe ever since. She clings to the safety that Casita provides, even to the detriment that of her family who she was ultimately trying to protect."

slinger301 said:
"That dude from 'The Notebook.'
'If you don't go on a date with me, I'll kill myself!'"

Impossible-Junket-52 replied:
"'Aww, so romantic!'

Lady, he’s actually insane."

Shigidy replied:
"And you're supposed to watch it and be like 'yeah, Ryan Gosling is the better man, and Rachel McAdams needs to leave that swine James Marsden for him!' when in reality Ryan Gosling's character is a total f*cking weirdo, and James Marsden's character is just like a regular dude who treats her well and isn't evil or anything."

Plenty_Past2333 said:
"Meredith Grey."

Needydadthrowaway replied:
"How many unknown sisters can one b*tch have?!?"

Scapular_Fin replied:
"YES.

**A baby dies.

Meredith Grey: OMG this is about ME! Somebody turn on Snow Patrol!"

goblinmarketeer replied: "When I actually recently watched the series I was shocked how much of a bully he was, in any other show he would be the villain."

 

CitizenCobalt replied: "I enjoyed when his mother showed up and was all "remember all those a**-kickings you got when you were little?" Just outright stating 'you brought those on yourself.'"

 

UghAnotherMillennial replied: "I think the audience are supposed to sympathise with his friends more. But a lot of them in real world context act in deliberately antagonizing ways to someone that they at least suspect is neurodivergent. I think that Leonard is the one we are supposed to sympathize with the most in the show. And just going off how he behaves towards Sheldon and Penny, he’s an absolute d*ck."

throwExpression8602 said:
"Ted and the gang in How I Met Your Mother. They're terrible to a lot of people.

EDIT: Barney literally admits to human trafficking a woman in the Brecket episode and they say he's a good guy 20 seconds later cos he apologized for forgetting a girls name he slept with. And don't get me started on Ted."

black_eyed_optimist replied:
"Marshall is a saint! The rest can burn in hell though."

Far-Juggernaut8880 said:
"Rory Gilmore- whiny, narcissistic, cheated on multiple boyfriends…"

Shirogayne-at-WF replied:
"In hindsight, it's not a surprise she turned out how she did with everyone powdering her a** from day one of the show.

The way she collapsed because one whole person told her she wasn't cut out for the career she wanted was proof of that. In any other show, that would be the point where the protagonist digs deeps to remember why they wanted that dream or realize their talents were better suited for something else.

Instead, Rory trashes a boat, quits Yale for half the year, moves in with her grandparents because Lorelei put a foit up her ass for once, and then spun her wheels for the next decade after graduation, doing nothing of note while thinking her farts smelled of roses."

Illustrious_Tie_4091 replied:
"I’ll never forget her telling Lorelei, “He’s my Dean!” Trying to explain away screwing a married man."

"Rose, from Titanic. Rose is the worst.

We meet her and she's marrying some toolbag for money, and apparently we're supposed to feel sorry for her? Frances Fisher and her poor little rich girl daughter (granddaughter? I dunno...) might have to work at a job? That doesn't make her a heroine, that makes her Anna Nicole Smith with a nicer hat. She can walk away, even in 1912.

Unsurprisingly the guy she's marrying for money is an a**hole so she tries to kill herself. She can't even do that right, and nearly drags some random kid from third class down under the ship with her who's only trying to help. Then after there's a misunderstanding about the kid's intentions, she spend 90 seconds letting them arrest him and rough him up before pointing out the obvious.

Now she carries on an affair with this kid, which I don't feel that bad about because she's just marrying the guy for money and he's a douche, but she doesn't get credit for it either. Boat sinks, she's stupid enough to get off the lifeboat. At that point I'm rooting for her to drown. But no no, the random kid she had awkward backseat-of-a-car intercourse with and she's known for a day-and-a-half is worth committing suicide. PLUS, after the boat sinks, there was room on the f*cking flotsam, she just needed to balance! Or, hear me out on this one: There'd have been LOTS OF ROOM if she hadn't jumped out of the lifeboat in the first place.

Fast-forward 70 years, because we're not done. Bill Paxton spends his whole life looking for a 500-million dollar diamond that she's got hidden away somewhere. Does she tell him this? NOPE. Does she even lie about it, telling him they didn't bring the diamond onto the boat so he doesn't waste his whole life? NOPE. Instead she sits there and tells a story while everybody stares at her, the center of attention. And at the end of the movie she throws the diamond overboard.

Do you know what would be a better use of a 500-million-dollar diamond? Literally anything else.

How about you provide for all your kids' and grandkids' and great-great-great grandkids' futures forever? How about you donate it to charity? How about you build 20 of the greatest public schools this country has ever seen? Nope. Toss it overboard.

Then the absolute worst moment comes after that. She dies, in a stateroom she's filled with pictures of herself, by the way, not any pictures of her loved ones. What kind of a psychopath only has pictures of themselves? And who does she meet in the afterlife? Is it her parents, who loved her and cared for her? (Well at least her father, he didn't sell her to some rich dude.) Is it her husband, with whom she spent half a century with, and raised a half-dozen kids with and travelled the world? Nope.

It's the homeless kid she f*cked and knew for 36 hours.

Rose is THE WORST."

hoaxymore said:
"Chris Pratt in the movie Passengers.

Out of pure selfishness, the dude decides to ruin the bright future of a girl so that she has no other option than to live with him. She'll never accomplish the great projects she had, she'll never see any of her loved ones, she'll never be able to even talk to another human being, she will live in prison for the rest of her days.

While the movie hints at the fact that he's a selfish a**hole. It's largely overbalanced by the idea that a man's gotta do what he's gotta do to pursue [his own] happiness. In the end, her Stockholm syndrome is presented as a happily ever after ending."

commenter replied:
"Been a while since I’ve seen it but didn’t she have the option to go back to sleep?

Regardless, Pratt should have died leaving her the dilemma of whether to wake someone else up."

FireflyRave replied:
"Chris Pratt's character coming back from the dead puts this movie in at least my top 5 of movies that didn't have the balls to tell the more interesting story. Instead they force the "happily ever after" ending."

LuinAelin replied:
"The movie should have been a horror movie."

disillusionedXennial said:
"Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Listen to your dad you obstinate little twerp."

philphan89 replied:
"Or learn how to write before you lose your voice."

I’m 16 years old! I’m not a child anymore!!!

UDontKnowMe__206 replied:
Holy f*ck did I feel old watching this with my kids. When it came out, I was like 'you tell him Ariel!' And now I’m like 'OH THE F*CK YOU ARE SIS! Sit down!'"

fv7061 said:
"Dawson Leery from Dawson’s Creek."

OutWithTheNew replied:
"The real villain was whomever was cutting Jen's hair."

imrik_of_caledor replied:
"I was always Team Pacey tbh."

imrik_of_caledor replied:
"Yeah when I watched it as a teenager I didn't click how pathetic and whiny and needy he really was but I watched it again in my mid 20s and f*cking hell, I could barely stand him.

Pacey all the way!"

CilanEAmber replied: "Peppa pig: Daddys fat. George: Fat fat. Mummy Pig: Daddy is fat. All 3: Laugh. Daddy pig: :( What a horrible family."

 

Robcobes replied: "Such an accurate portrayal of my kid's classmates though."

 

Cuppa_Miki replied: "Peppa is the absolute epitome of middle class, spoilt child. Mummy and Daddy Pig need to take a good long hard look at their parenting and why everyone seems to already be at the park/museum/cinema etc. together, without them whenever they go."

"Tom Cruise in Risky Business.

There's a setup in the beginning he's in some business class where they're supposed to come up with some business idea. Then his parents go away for the weekend. Cue that famous scene. Tom Cruise, the protagonist and high school student, orders a prostitute. The prostitute turns out to be a man. But that prostitute gives him another number to call and he finally gets a girl, and they bang.

Something happens where Cruise now needs money. He and the prostitute he's "befriended" decide to start a brothel in his parents' house. A brothel that caters exclusively to Cruise's high school friends. They make the money they need and then some. Parents come home none the wiser.

We end with Tom Cruise back in the business class failing the assignment because he was busy doing the whole child brothel thing, but ends with a voice-over where he's proudly saying how much money he actually made. Turns out he actually was a businessman!"

ThickWeatherBee said:

"Ross and Rachel... They really do deserve each other..."

FailedTheSave replied:

"While I do agree with this, I think it's partly a symptom of how US network TV works/worked.

You can't be confident you will have x number of series, or in the early days if you'll even get to the end of the current one, so you can't write long term plot lines. Ross and Rachel were the classic 'will they won't they' until they did. But then there was another series, and another, and another. Each time the writers had to do something with the relationship to keep it interesting."

commenter said:
"Jerry from Tom and Jerry.

Now, nothing in the Tom&Jerry verse is really consistent and a lot of their dynamic depends on whichever studio did the episode.

But I remember a LOT of times when Tom wasn't really trying to seriously hunt/hurt Jerry, he was usually toying with him like cats do or if he'd cross the line, he would immediately feel bad about it and then save Jerry himself.

Meanwhile Jerry, the little f*ck we're supposed to root for, uses that to his advantage to lure Tom into situations that genuinely would've killed him if not for cartoon immortality."

Zandromex527 replied:
"I always rooted for Tom."

Nidrew replied:
"In the newest movie Jerry is a super prick. Everything that goes wrong is because he's being a jerk."

NotTheBeesAHHHH said:
"Scarlet O’Hara."

green49285 replied:
"That’s why “frankly” is such a dope line. Dude has had enough of her sh*t & hits her with the “grow up, woman” mic drop."

FormerlyDuck replied:
"Yeah she really ruined her own life by using everyone around her. That's intentional, though."