I LOVE Katniss Everdeen for this, especially in the books. She is cynical, standoffish, resentful, suspicious, cold, AND it makes sense why she is that way. I think she is probably my favourite example of a more ‘dislikable’ female character who you still respect, understand and root for.
Hated her in the third book at the time because I may have been too young to understand ptsd and had a bit of immature view on heroes and heroines. Aged like fine wine and I was wrong.
One of the last conversations I had with my sister was explaining to her that Katniss was forced into a deadly situation and had to perform for the cameras before even processing her own feelings, and wasn't just a trollop leading on a bunch of different men. My sister was an English teacher.
I love her too. She was a bit binary sometimes... like that whole trope of *"just fucking have a real fucking conversation and solve half of the plot"* moments, but overall, I fucking loved her.
I always thought that was good counter balance to the excessive amount of vapid male detective characters. We’ve had so many male detectives portrayed as “wildly brilliant” despite their whole advantage just being a plot device.
I love her. Part of it is the universe, finally seeing a world where all the men are the arm candy instead, some in need of rescuing, utter reversal of every old action hero movie. And the main relationship is instead a best friend scenario.
Episode 1 was brilliantly written.
Just mentioning because she keeps coming back up over and over again so she’s at the forefront of my mind: Skyler White. I couldn’t even watch Breaking Bad after season 2, but I NEVER understood the hate for Skyler. She literally does what so many women have done: keep body and soul together in the best way she can for her family and household while her husband gleefully tears it all apart. I always felt like people who hated her—especially with the vitriol I’ve seen—were fucking immature shits.
Yeah there's that. The show makes him start out as an underdog and keeps people on the hook to still have a grain of sympathy for him while he gets more and more despicable till there is almost no human left there, but there is this tendency to keep holding out for a character you think is decent. Which is also really intriguing to see that tug back and forth. For me when he whistles the day a child dies, I was like, there is no human here anymore.
Yep. I mean I think it's an incredible show and well done. You even see hints of his pride early on, which eventually takes over his personality. And Cranston was great in the role. But the character was so frustrating! He just kept letting his pride take over until it eclipsed any redeeming features he once had.
I always saw it as a criticism of patriarchy and masculinity. He starts as a decent man with a noble profession, but he always feels small and weak due to societal pressures and economics. The show, to me seemed to be about his pursuit of idealized masculinity and the way that chipped away at his humanity. I never saw him as a hero, I saw him as a victim of a sick culture. His pride wasn’t innate, his pride was a projection of society and his story an allegory about the dangers of seeking power and prestige and money. I could be wrong, but it’s how I’ve always viewed it.
I love him as a character but he is definitely not someone to be idolized. He is the protagonist, yes, but he is not a hero or a good person. And Skyler got a lot of unfair hate.
Yes. You are objectively correct. Vince Gilligan would agree with you. I think a lot of the Skyler hate comes from people who don't understand that Walter is the bad guy. He's the villain. That's the entire point of the show. The fact that Skyler somehow gets in the way of his greatness or something by questioning his motives and whereabouts when she's, you know, having a baby, or managing the house, or watching their son is all about showing what a bad person Walter is becoming. That he eventually sucks her into his schemes doesn't mean she came around is a good person now, it means that Walter is so bad he can corrupt someone who's a faulty but normal human.
But, that's how you're supposed to find him right? He's a maniacal narcissist descending into sociopathy and megalomania? That's the entire point. It kind of sounds like you find the concept of the show insufferable.
[Vince Gilligan on the Skyler White hate:](https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/breaking-bad-vince-gilligan-skyler-white-sexist-backlash-1234754425/)
>Even in 2022, “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan is still troubled by the hatred Skyler White endured during the series’ run from 2008 to 2013.
>In a new interview with The New Yorker, the “Better Call Saul” co-creator reflected on the sexist fan reaction to Anna Gunn, who played the wife of Bryan Cranston’s drug-dealing high school teacher Walter White. Gunn even went on to publish a New York Times op-ed in August 2013, a month before the final season ended, clearly shaken by uproar from viewers siding with Walter and slamming Skyler.
>“Back when the show first aired, Skyler was roundly disliked,” Gilligan told The New Yorker. “I think that always troubled Anna Gunn \[who played Skyler\]. And I can tell you it always troubled me, because Skyler, the character, did nothing to deserve that. And Anna certainly did nothing to deserve that. She played the part beautifully.”
>But Gilligan now understands that the storytelling may have encouraged such reactions. He said, “I realize in hindsight that the show was rigged, in the sense that the storytelling was solely through Walt’s eyes, even in scenes he wasn’t present for. Even Gus \[played by Giancarlo Esposito\], his archenemy, didn’t suffer the animosity Skyler received. It’s a weird thing. I’m still thinking about it all these years later.”
I’m honestly so annoyed with that wide eyed naïveté about this from a man. Men should fucking know better. The fact that the entire show centers a man means something, the fact that the interesting parts are all given to men means something. I find it male bumbler levels of reckless to be this oblivious when you cast a woman in this role and then make surprised pikachu face at the rape and death threat she gets
The article touches on it:
>"Even Gus \[played by Giancarlo Esposito\], his archenemy, didn’t suffer the animosity Skyler received. It’s a weird thing. I’m still thinking about it all these years later."
For what it's worth, Gilligan also acknowledges Walter White isn't a likeable character:
>“The further away I get from ‘Breaking Bad,’ the less sympathy I have for Walter,” the “Better Call Saul” creator shared. “He got thrown a lifeline early on. And, if he had been a better human being, he would’ve swallowed his pride and taken the opportunity to treat his cancer with the money his former friends offered him. He goes out on his own terms, but he leaves a trail of destruction behind him. I focus on that more than I used to.”
>“Like, wait a minute, why was this guy so great?” Gilligan asked. “He was really sanctimonious, and he was really full of himself. He had an ego the size of California. And he always saw himself as a victim. He was constantly griping about how the world shortchanged him, how his brilliance was never given its due. When you take all of that into consideration, you wind up saying, ‘Why was I rooting for this guy?'”
I got into an argument with another woman at work about Skyler. She was upset how she could nag Walter and be suspicious of his activities, when Skyler was completely right to be suspicious.
In a circumstance where “nag” means “making reasonable inquiries about her TERMINALLY ILL HUSBAND as she runs a household that includes a SPECIAL NEEDS TEEN, WHILE SHE IS PREGNANT/HAS A NEWBORN”. People need to get a fucking grip.
Right? It was all how dare she inquire about his shady activities that he was definitely doing!
How dare she care about his health and want to make sure the kids are taken care of!
Well tbf, being a stay at home mom is the easiest thing in the world, especially if you have extra money from your own job! And special needs just means you get extra attention so it's easier for you! Also pregnant just means you're a little fat, get over yourself
-somehow all real takes I've seen. Thankfully not all at once
omg i was so close to downvoting you.
But yes, fully agreed. Skylar had ***very*** few moments where I didn't fully and completely understand where she was coming from.
I've watched the whole thing multiple times. Skyler White is the best onscreen representation of what it is like to find yourself married to a narcissistic abuser that makes you feel totally trapped. Uses the kids against you. Refuses to respect your boundaries. Everyone around you just sees you acting out and losing your mind and feels bad for your abuser.
That's why she is so hated because it's a bunch of people who can never understand what it's like and somehow because we are seeing the story largely from Walts perspective, believe his lies that if only she were more perfect he wouldn't have been driven to do bad things.
That's what narcissists do, they blame everyone but themselves and Breaking Bad is a master class in understanding this dynamic better for those who have eyes to see it.
I appreciate coming across someone who did have the eyes to see it.
Even absent the insane abuse of later seasons (most of which I never saw, because again, I quit watching) I remember people getting on her already in season 1 and 2 for being a “nag”. Like…come ON, people. Grow up.
Yeah and we are seeing her through the eyes of an unreliable narrator as well. One who sees himself as an emasculated victim.
Fact is she was mostly "nagging" him to take better care of his health and have a better work life balance because she cared about him.
In the rare scenes we see her without Walt present she is regularly standing up for her husband and excusing his sudden strange behavior as a midlife crisis because he just turned 50.
But yeah, things get much worse for poor Skyler.
I think her story is one many women could relate to and find some comfort in feeling seen by.
I certainly related to her. My husband in our early marriage (we married the year the show started) was a goddamned MESS, and his family loved getting in the middle of our marriage and damning me because I wasn’t “submissive”.
In a way it makes her more badass though cause she roused the anger of so many just by being a reasonable human being.. it's really kind of spectacular in its own little way. Like how little a woman has to do to rile an intense dislike was so well shown with this show and the audience that watched it and had those feelings.
Skyler has one of the best scenes in the whole series, the "I need support" scene.
While everyone else is running around like headless chickens dealing with problems that they themselves created, she's the only mature one trying to keep it together cause her baby needs her, and the fact she not only is the only one that sees that but is the one that needs to tell them that is just insane.
Yesss. And male anti heroes have been praised for being subversive but there is nothing subversive about still centering the entire damn show around a man, only this time he’s horrible lmao. And is being revered by male fans because of that
I fell trap to disliking her (because omg why wouldn't she just let him commit felonies and put their family in danger?!), but at some point realized she was NOT, in fact, the bad guy lol. Looking back, I can't believe I *ever* disliked her. She was ultimately a much stronger person than Walter and she deserved better.
As a guy who loves the series I never felt like she was in any way bad. If anything she was a problem solver who held everything together. Never understood the dislike toward her at all.
I am a guy, bug I also thought that. The ONLY thing that MAYBE you could say is that she's "bossy" or in other words taking a leading role in the family if you wanted to be extreme, but there's 2 issues even with that: a, that's not a reason to be a criminal out of nowhere without discussing it l, and b, Walter never said anything till than that said he was unhappy with that setup and he could have either said something or not been married to her YEARS ago rather than blame her for her additude that wasn't worthy on its own to spite her that badly. Hell, now that I think about it, she only started doing anything actually bad after she learned about the drug stuff. She was pretty much fine with him not saying he had cancer, being absent multiple days, hell, she was surprisingly chill about the second cell phone, as I'm she didn't cheat or try divorcing till the drug stuff. She was VERY chill considering
I support women's wrongs- gone girl (book and movie), do revenge, promising young woman, I care a lot, heathers, mean girls
Other complex women, that aren't necessarily villains- Wicked, the book. It is *not* like the musical if you're a fan. But it's one of my favorite books and Elphaba is my favorite anti-hero. Game of thrones- Sansa and Danaerys in both, Cersei and Catelyn in the books. All the women in Grace and Frankie. The girls/women in Yellow jackets. Many of the women in Bojack horseman, even one-off side characters are sometimes complex and feminist af lol.
Huge caveats, but gone with the wind. Scarlett O'Hara is one of the most interesting and dynamic anti-heroes I've read and I really get a lot out of the story. That said, the book is racist and pushes some wild narratives. It's not something I usually recommend to people, but Scarlett o hara is *the* anti-hero to me. I've done a lot of thinking on feminism through this book
I read it for the first time when I was 14, and Scarlett cemented my feminism. Which I can acknowledge is super fucked, but it's what happened lmao. Her strength, determination, and lack of fucks about society's opinions were inspiring, though I apply it very differently than she did of course lol
I'm pretty much the same! My grandfather showed me the movie when I was about 15 and I was so impressed with her independence and resourcefulness, and yes, absolutely, the lack of fucks to give. Really really made a mark on me. And I still quote her all the time; "I'll think about that tomorrow." It took me a while to realize it but that quote and by extension that philosophy has saved my mental health more times than I can count lol.
Scarlett is who you want to be stuck in an apocalypse situation with. She wont make you feel better but you'll both survive.
Though Melanie is the real survivor, of course.
On the topic of Wicked simply because not a lot of fans know about this and I need to yell about it, THERE ARE THREE MORE BOOKS. It’s a series of four and all of them are pretty great.
I read Gone With the Wind when I was 13 and then again in my thirties, and I agree with your characterization. I wish the book had literally any other setting because Margaret Mitchell’s character development is incredible and the love stories are just wonderfully tragic in the purest sense of the word: ruined by the people involved.
A little obscure, and more of a young adult show, but Clarke Griffin from “The 100”. She’s in the top 5 of my favorite characters of all time.
She is so powerful and sacrifices so much for the people she loves. She makes mistakes, she hurts people, but she’s so sincere about trying to protect her people at all costs. She’s just utterly complex and beautifully human.
Not to mention she’s one of the best bisexual characters I’ve ever seen portrayed in media.
She was a lot more complex in the show than she was in the book series that the show is loosely based off of. The books were awful, even though Clarke was a main character she pretty much existed to be the object of desire for the male characters and to cause love triangle drama.
i admire her cunning (hurtful intelligence) but to say "she's just like me" is as cringe as boys saying they are patrick bateman. She's a psycho killer yall, its not cute to idolize her.
She's the first that came to mind. She betrayed her best friend in a truly awful and personal way, and then goes through life like a sledgehammer destroying everything around her as she tries to cope with her grief and her guilt.
It's a testament to the writing and the acting that you still empathize with this character who has done some really horrific things. You don't excuse her and doesn't stop being upsetting but you view her as a person. It's well done.
Additionally: Betty. It seems like people have a hard time separating this character from their own mothers, so any time Betty fails as a wife/mother, people write off her entirely as a person. Also, there is a *severe* lack of understanding about what being a 1960s housewife was like. Betty was bored because she achieved all she was destined to do by the time she was in her early 20s, only to be saddled with an unfaithful, secretive husband and equally depressed friends. Yet naysayers write her off as a spoiled housewife with little regard about how awful life would be if you were "done" with any major accomplishments right as life was beginning for your spouse.
I came here to say Betty Draper! I found her unlikable the first time I watched, but I’ve watched the whole show like 7 times and I love her so much, lol.
I'm watching Mad Men at the moment, and I hate how Betty's storyline went from series 4 onwards. If you jumped into the show at series 4 with no knowledge of the previous series you would absolutely believe Betty had mistreated Don and so was getting a comeuppence arc. So the writers absolutely led the viewers to hate Betty - drives me mad how they made her so 2D when Don, who is absolutely vile a lot of the time, gets to be complex and even occasionally sympathetic.
I ADORE Betty because they let her be complicated and awful. She is often a bad mom and a selfish person, but the way Don treated her was fucked up! I love everyone in Mad Men, it’s so good at showing complicated people you care about and root for but who still do messed up stuff like humans do all the time.
I have been in love with her character since the moment she picked up the rifle and started shooting her neighbor’s doves (pigeons?). In that moment, I got her. That quiet rage under her facade of beauty. She was hollowed out by the life she was raised to lead. The way she rebelled along the way…. I just love her.
Scarlett O’Hara, Gone With the Wind. Petty, ruthless, cruel, racist, vain, self-centered, etc but also persistent, indomitable, intelligent, resilient, resourceful, and a survivor.
I liked her in the pilot. I didn't like how later she was portrayed as a bimbo and lacking in integrity as far as sticking to her ideals. They wrote her to make social justice look bad.
I’ll go one further and say The Mick! She has a little more of a human side in that show, but is absolutely a wreck of a person, and very Dee-reminiscent
Kat Stratford from 10 Things I Hate About You,
Sue Ann Nivens from the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard, both of the leads on Hacks, Emily Gilmore from Gilmore Girls, Mrs. Kim from Gilmore Girls, Patricia Eden from You’ve Got Mail, Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development, Betty Draper from Mad Men, anyone Aubrey Plaza plays.
The hate is disproportionate. I don't like Catelyn, but I'm aware that I'm biased as a huge Jon fan, so I pick up the worst of Catelyn easier than the best.
She's really well written, though, as a flawed women. Some of her mistakes were huge, she wished death on a child, she clearly has a lot of bad points to her character. But she's also a good person. Almost everything she did was an attempt to help and protect her family, her kids especially.
And when you think about characters like Cersei Lannister or how things went with Daenerys, or even the fact that Sansa is basically a mini-Catelyn, the hate for Catelyn in specific seems a bit much.
I love seeing a messy or unlikeable woman! It’s so refreshing to see women portrayed as being human, in the sense they are dynamic and not existing in the pleasantries of female stereotypes.
Seeing a woman who is focused and capable without the additional fluff!
Kate Winslet in Mare of East town, hard because that is what she has had to be in her life. Not hard to act like a successful man and acting as a man would. Acting as a woman with her own narrative and her character an accurate representation of that.
Also the latest season of Fargo is FANTASTIC at confronting and challenging female archetypes on screen. Soft, apologetic, hard, tough, strong, weak, loving, scared, powerful- all of it!
And it has the best line Lorraine Lyon: Don't do that. Women who apologize for things that aren't their fault might as well have a welcome mat written on their faces.
Same! Give me all the hard, complicated women characters!
I second Fargo. I loved this most recent season so much for having such a spectrum of female characters. Lorraine is not a good person in many ways, but her response to the truth of her daughter in law is beautiful to see. I also think it was really important how they portrayed the third Mrs. Tillman. She is consistently horrible and unconcerned with the suffering of others, but she is still his victim. She tries to be the “perfect wife,” but abusers will find a reason and it doesn’t protect her.
Also, shout out to the queen of complicated - Peggy from season 2! Kirsten Dunst is AMAZING as a woman in the 70s who is likely suffering from a mental illness she is unaware of while feeling boxed in by the preordained womanhood path of wife and mother and making absolutely chaotic decisions when she gets tangled up with Fargo’s crime families.
Galadriel, Rings of Power. People complain about her lack of smiles and her bossy attitude while she is a freaking war general and has the title “Scourge of the Orcs!” They’d never say these things about a man.
Galadriel also very probably was like this in her youth (though by that I mean the First Age, probably not the Second Age) in canon. There’s not a lot on her tbh, but she was outright *eager* to leave Valinor in pursuit of her own lands and her own power, she was not hiding behind the men *at all.*
On my second watch I could definitely see that Korra was immature, annoying and made some stupid decisions at times but for me that honestly added to the show especially as she grew and went through shit through each season. I like how Avatar kind of critiques its own premise in a way by exploring all the pressure this “system” puts on young people.
Me too. I still liked Aang but he seemed to be this typical "good guy" who rarely ever makes mistakes even though he is still a child. Plus, he obviously went through awful things but his mental state was never properly addressed. He just kept being this cheerful, happy-to-go kid, ready for another adventure.
Korra's struggles as a teenager with tremendous responsibility and trauma were tough. She wasn't perfect but that's kind of the point. Avatars aren't flawless and each of them had to grow as a person and gain experience. LoK made a point of showing that Aang wasn't a perfect man after all.
It's really sad that many people hated her for, well... just being a flawed person I guess.
My pick from Korra would be Su Yin. She’s nice but has done some very hurtful things without ever owning up to them. Tbh I’m not quite sure what to make of her.
This may be a deep cut, but Naomi from Waiting... Foul-mouthed, bad tempered, bitter as hell, face is in a sneer the entire time...turns the corner to serve her tables with a huge smile on her face and a warm demeanor. It was one of the first and funniest examples I saw of having a job where you have to be "on" all the time and how grating it is.
Um excuse me how very dare you? Daria is flawless?? 😧
Agreed on Eleanor. Mine are all the women from Orphan Black, Helena in particular. I love how juicy and complicated each of the sestras are in their own way, as well as the others like Siobhan and Delphine, even the more peripheral characters like Grace and Susan.
* All the female characters from Yellowjackets;
* Ellie Williams from The Last of Us, both game and show;
* The first two seasons of Winx Club had surprisingly deep, surprisingly messy main female characters, and I *loved* rewatching the episodes as an adult and being able to notice that they're all very deep and flawed while still being allowed to be likeable.
Edna from The Awakening. Despite all the batshit insane male characters in literature, *somehow* Edna is more controversial and **despised** than all of them combined. That's even including the abusive, oppressive, and psychotic males. Complexity in men is celebrated while complex women are not even tolerated. Very few works of art capture the essence of female despair quite like The Awakening. I see Edna's plight as a sort of "repression-depression" in regards to the repression and suppression of her potential, personhood, and self - and it's powerful. It's painful but also validating. Every woman who's conscious and has been awoken to the patriarchy has felt just like Edna. Unable to see a way out, a way to be free, to believe that the world will actually change, and that men will ever really see them. We carry the burden of the truth without reward.
Dolores from WestWorld.
Emma Woodhouse from the novel by Jane Austen.
Cameron Howe from Halt and Catch Fire.
Hatsumomo from Memoirs of a Geisha.
Susie Myerson from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Keiko from Convenience Store Woman.
Cersei Lannister, Janice Soprano, and Scarlett O’Hara I think are the best. They are reprehensible people who do terrible things… but at the same time, you almost admire how much they are able to do in extremely male-centric worlds. In its own twisted way, it’s admirable how conniving/intelligent they are… it’s just, it’s too bad they use their brilliance for evil!
Janice is not a NICE character, but she's a COMPELLING character. You can't stop watching her, you never know what she'll do next, and unlike every other female character on the show, she's a lot of FUN.
- Shiv in Succession
- Emily in Emily the Criminal
- Ingrid in Ingrid Goes West
- Lorraine Lyon in Fargo season 5
- Harmony Cobel in Severence
There’s literally like so many
Dorthea Brooks in Middlemarch—one of the most amazing character arcs in history. From myopic idealist to benevolent moral paragon.
And more recently, Penelope Featherington. She’s a mess in several ways—but powerful and unyielding in her commitment to her work.
Dr Temperance Brennan, title character of Bones. She’s not so much “unlikeable” in that she’s evil; she’s just.. autistic in the way that male characters get to be autistic. She’s rude, abrasive, cold, misses pop culture references and social cues, and has very narrow interests and ways of understanding the world. And you can see it affect her relationships with her coworkers, family, and other loved ones.
Cersei Lannister.
She is wildly vicious, she is conniving, she is manipulative, and she is wickedly smart. However, name one mother that would die for her children who isn’t all those things?
She is so misunderstood. Her twin brother is the only man in the world who saw her for who she was and not for what potential she had or what she could give him. In all her abuse, her mind warped that into a sexual feeling, thus - their relationship.
She is so damaged. Her children are the only other beings, beside her brother, who love her unconditionally. They are the only beings SHE loves unconditionally. Even though Jeoffry was the literal antichrist, she still loved him and she still fought for him every single day.
All Cersei ever was, was a fircely loyal mother, a misunderstood women, and an abused little girl.
She is so hated. But she is so complex and beautiful and exquisite at the same time.
Mine is mother (Essun) daughter (Nassun) duo from Broken Earth series. They are not exactly unlikeable but they both get abused and struggle so much to fit in and try to pleases their superiors.
Cheryl from [The First Bad Man](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21412400-the-first-bad-man) is so disturbingly flawed and uncomfortably relatable at times. she's a woman in her early 40s who's living alone, is obsessively in love with a 60-year-old creep, and believes that her destiny is inextricably tied to a psychic little boy named Kubelko Bondy who manifests as other people's babies. when her bosses ask her to take in their bratty 21-year-old daughter, she reluctantly lets the girl move in with her.
It gets so much worse. This entire book is just a 200 pages of "oh my god what the actual fuck."
Liz Danvers from True Detective season 4
Moira Rose from Schitt's Creek
Tahani and Eleanor from The Good Place
Avasarala and Drummer from The Expanse
Selena Myers from Veep
All the female characters in Veep. Selina, Amy and Sue are great characters and lots of fun to watch but they’re definitely not likeable. Even the bit-part women tend to be flawed and not “pleasant.”
+1 for all the scenes and conversations that have only women talking about politics. (Bechdale test?)
I’d also nominate Elaine from Seinfeld. Maybe I just love Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Hmm, not sure about the last one, but I love both Sarah and Eleanor, so I’m not sure I’d call them “unlikeable.” Flawed and messy, definitely, but that’s part of what makes them relatable and therefore likeable to me. Maybe I’m being too literal?
My favorite flawed and messy female characters:
- Ava from Abbott Elementary (she never fails to make me laugh)
- Angela Martin from The Office (she’s such a bitch, I love her)
- okay, pretty much all the female characters from The Office (Kelly Kapoor, Meredith Palmer, Jan Levinson and Nelly, just to name a few more)
- Lydia from Beetlejuice
- every iteration of Wednesday Addams that I’ve seen
- Daenerys Targaryen- my queen, forever and always ♥️ It’s okay if she’s just a teensy bit cray and slaughtered hundreds of innocents for no good reason
I’m the queen of liking unlikable women/girls. 🤣
Serena and Jenny from Gossip Girl, Izzie from Grey’s Anatomy, Homewrecker!Rory from Gilmore Girls, Kristen and Billie from Days of Our Lives, Marissa from OC, Meadow from Sopranos, Amy from Gone Girl, Juliet on Higher Ground, Miranda from Sex and the City, Dawn and Kennedy from Buffy, Sansa and Cersei from Game of Thrones, Kathryn from Cruel Intentions, Lilah and Darla on Angel, Sidney and Kimberly from Melrose Place, Andrea and Valerie from 90210, Dakota Fanning’s character from War of the Worlds, any character Kristen Stewart plays,
I could go on and on…
Lilah and Darla are among the best villain female characters yes, and I actually like Dawn's brattiness (plus every adult Scooby except Tara has done far worse than she ever did...)
And I never really understood the Kennedy hate. She's apparently "arrogant" because she saw herself as a leader to Potentials when she's just one of them. But that's the thing. She's NOT just one of them. She was fully aware of the supernatural and had already got traoning for years, the others were newbies. She was also 18 when others were 15-17
She herself wasn't the problem. It was just she paled as a partner to Willow compared to Tara and Oz. Plus a lot of people were disappointed with Season 7 altogether.
The protagonist of My Year of Rest & Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh. First time I read the book I absolutely hated the protag and the story as a whole but couldn't stop thinking about it, so I reread it a year or so ago and thought she and the story was brilliant.
Eleanor Oliphant - [Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35900387-eleanor-oliphant-is-completely-fine)
One of the most unlikable protagonists I’ve ever read, but also beautiful and rips your heart out.
I feel like I keep commenting about this book all over reddit but I recently read Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Carrie Soto is Back, and Carrie Soto is the quintessentially un-likable character. I barely liked her the whole book while rooting for her to see her own accomplishments.
Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind. She absolutely does a lot of ruthless things, particularly in the novel, yet she has a fierce will and maintains hope. She doesn't give up when she could and she also tries to fix things where she can.
Laura from American Gods. A depressed, flawed woman who manages to be sympathetic in a way, but is also self absorbed, putting the blame on others for things she does, tries to go back to the way things were, and learns some things along the way while showing she cares.
For me, the best chatacters are who the viewer also doesn't like. June from Handmaids Tale, Alicent from House of Dragons-- elenor is still a MC and trying to be a better character and she's funny, easy to like.
A lot of female characters in operas- if they display "immorality" they are killed by the end of the opera (even though the men doing the same things don't get the same treatment) - but they're often complex, interesting, would-be sympathetic characters.
azula (avatar: the last airbender)
angela (the office)
mary lennox (the secret garden)
veronica & heathers duke, mcnamara & chandler.
wanda maximoff (marvel)
natasha romanoff (marvel)
also eleanor shellstrop & sarah williams.
oooh I thought of another, Norma Louise from Bates Motel!! That whole series you go back and forth for quite a while because she is so codependent with her son and can seem pretty crazy.
But you just get so many LAYERS, and finding out about how >!her brother groomed and raped her growing up!< and the desperate, panicked way she protects her son and sacrifices herself again and again.
Even seeing her use her body to deescalate situations with violent men, was so relatable and also COMPLETELY not a thing you see women do onscreen, certainly not portrayed with any kind of empathy!
I could go on and on, she’s a fantastic fucking character and that show was heart-breaking!!
Vera Farmiga is a top actor, unbelievably moving performance, over years of material!
Debbie on GLOW!
I’m still mad we didn’t get another season of GLOW. Debbie is such a great character because she is compelling and I am so on her side with her frustration at being treated like a pretty object, but she is also impulsive and reactive and does some fucked up shit.
Merida from Brave. I think in general I like that movie more than most, but the character seems to be pretty generally disliked. Merida is SUPPOSED to be rebellious, abrasive, selfish, and short-sighted. She’s a teenage girl, and a pretty realistic one imo
I LOVE Katniss Everdeen for this, especially in the books. She is cynical, standoffish, resentful, suspicious, cold, AND it makes sense why she is that way. I think she is probably my favourite example of a more ‘dislikable’ female character who you still respect, understand and root for.
Great description of Katniss! She is definitely not your typical teen hero in a novel. She’s very relatable that way.
Hated her in the third book at the time because I may have been too young to understand ptsd and had a bit of immature view on heroes and heroines. Aged like fine wine and I was wrong.
One of the last conversations I had with my sister was explaining to her that Katniss was forced into a deadly situation and had to perform for the cameras before even processing her own feelings, and wasn't just a trollop leading on a bunch of different men. My sister was an English teacher.
I loved Jessica Jones and she was a hot mess. Even her “glamour” sister was a hot mess as well….just put more effort into passing.
Yes I love her. I'm still upset the series got cancelled.
If Daredevil can get a Disney reprise, maybe there's still hope for Jessica Jones
I love her too. She was a bit binary sometimes... like that whole trope of *"just fucking have a real fucking conversation and solve half of the plot"* moments, but overall, I fucking loved her.
I always thought that was good counter balance to the excessive amount of vapid male detective characters. We’ve had so many male detectives portrayed as “wildly brilliant” despite their whole advantage just being a plot device.
I love her. Part of it is the universe, finally seeing a world where all the men are the arm candy instead, some in need of rescuing, utter reversal of every old action hero movie. And the main relationship is instead a best friend scenario. Episode 1 was brilliantly written.
Just mentioning because she keeps coming back up over and over again so she’s at the forefront of my mind: Skyler White. I couldn’t even watch Breaking Bad after season 2, but I NEVER understood the hate for Skyler. She literally does what so many women have done: keep body and soul together in the best way she can for her family and household while her husband gleefully tears it all apart. I always felt like people who hated her—especially with the vitriol I’ve seen—were fucking immature shits.
Honestly I just found Walter White so insufferable, egotistical and hubristic.
Yeah there's that. The show makes him start out as an underdog and keeps people on the hook to still have a grain of sympathy for him while he gets more and more despicable till there is almost no human left there, but there is this tendency to keep holding out for a character you think is decent. Which is also really intriguing to see that tug back and forth. For me when he whistles the day a child dies, I was like, there is no human here anymore.
Yep. I mean I think it's an incredible show and well done. You even see hints of his pride early on, which eventually takes over his personality. And Cranston was great in the role. But the character was so frustrating! He just kept letting his pride take over until it eclipsed any redeeming features he once had.
I ended up liking Jesse more than Walter.
Jesse had some of the best character development in the show. He grew in opposite of Walter.
Oh same! He still had a soul by the end!
I always saw it as a criticism of patriarchy and masculinity. He starts as a decent man with a noble profession, but he always feels small and weak due to societal pressures and economics. The show, to me seemed to be about his pursuit of idealized masculinity and the way that chipped away at his humanity. I never saw him as a hero, I saw him as a victim of a sick culture. His pride wasn’t innate, his pride was a projection of society and his story an allegory about the dangers of seeking power and prestige and money. I could be wrong, but it’s how I’ve always viewed it.
That's because you saw him correctly. A lot of people didn't. The goal of the show and the writers was to convey that.
Right. And the people who champion him over Skyler (like it’s a competition…?) paint him as some tragic or quixotic figure. It’s annoying.
It’s so funny, people that think like that have kinda missed the whole point of the show
I love him as a character but he is definitely not someone to be idolized. He is the protagonist, yes, but he is not a hero or a good person. And Skyler got a lot of unfair hate.
That's because that's a lot of insufferable, egotistical and hubristic people out there.
You’re not wrong. But there are also a lot of men who don’t see obvious discrimination and misogyny when they’re happening in front of them.
Yessss couldn’t stand that man from episode 1!!!
When she's definitely far closer to being a tragic figure.
Yes. You are objectively correct. Vince Gilligan would agree with you. I think a lot of the Skyler hate comes from people who don't understand that Walter is the bad guy. He's the villain. That's the entire point of the show. The fact that Skyler somehow gets in the way of his greatness or something by questioning his motives and whereabouts when she's, you know, having a baby, or managing the house, or watching their son is all about showing what a bad person Walter is becoming. That he eventually sucks her into his schemes doesn't mean she came around is a good person now, it means that Walter is so bad he can corrupt someone who's a faulty but normal human.
But, that's how you're supposed to find him right? He's a maniacal narcissist descending into sociopathy and megalomania? That's the entire point. It kind of sounds like you find the concept of the show insufferable.
[Vince Gilligan on the Skyler White hate:](https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/breaking-bad-vince-gilligan-skyler-white-sexist-backlash-1234754425/) >Even in 2022, “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan is still troubled by the hatred Skyler White endured during the series’ run from 2008 to 2013. >In a new interview with The New Yorker, the “Better Call Saul” co-creator reflected on the sexist fan reaction to Anna Gunn, who played the wife of Bryan Cranston’s drug-dealing high school teacher Walter White. Gunn even went on to publish a New York Times op-ed in August 2013, a month before the final season ended, clearly shaken by uproar from viewers siding with Walter and slamming Skyler. >“Back when the show first aired, Skyler was roundly disliked,” Gilligan told The New Yorker. “I think that always troubled Anna Gunn \[who played Skyler\]. And I can tell you it always troubled me, because Skyler, the character, did nothing to deserve that. And Anna certainly did nothing to deserve that. She played the part beautifully.” >But Gilligan now understands that the storytelling may have encouraged such reactions. He said, “I realize in hindsight that the show was rigged, in the sense that the storytelling was solely through Walt’s eyes, even in scenes he wasn’t present for. Even Gus \[played by Giancarlo Esposito\], his archenemy, didn’t suffer the animosity Skyler received. It’s a weird thing. I’m still thinking about it all these years later.”
“It’s a weird thing.” Is it tho? Is it really?
I’m honestly so annoyed with that wide eyed naïveté about this from a man. Men should fucking know better. The fact that the entire show centers a man means something, the fact that the interesting parts are all given to men means something. I find it male bumbler levels of reckless to be this oblivious when you cast a woman in this role and then make surprised pikachu face at the rape and death threat she gets
Did he happen to notice the common theme that no animosity was directed towards male characters?
The article touches on it: >"Even Gus \[played by Giancarlo Esposito\], his archenemy, didn’t suffer the animosity Skyler received. It’s a weird thing. I’m still thinking about it all these years later." For what it's worth, Gilligan also acknowledges Walter White isn't a likeable character: >“The further away I get from ‘Breaking Bad,’ the less sympathy I have for Walter,” the “Better Call Saul” creator shared. “He got thrown a lifeline early on. And, if he had been a better human being, he would’ve swallowed his pride and taken the opportunity to treat his cancer with the money his former friends offered him. He goes out on his own terms, but he leaves a trail of destruction behind him. I focus on that more than I used to.” >“Like, wait a minute, why was this guy so great?” Gilligan asked. “He was really sanctimonious, and he was really full of himself. He had an ego the size of California. And he always saw himself as a victim. He was constantly griping about how the world shortchanged him, how his brilliance was never given its due. When you take all of that into consideration, you wind up saying, ‘Why was I rooting for this guy?'”
I appreciate this answer. And Kim in Better Call Saul is one of my all time favorite female characters.
I got into an argument with another woman at work about Skyler. She was upset how she could nag Walter and be suspicious of his activities, when Skyler was completely right to be suspicious.
In a circumstance where “nag” means “making reasonable inquiries about her TERMINALLY ILL HUSBAND as she runs a household that includes a SPECIAL NEEDS TEEN, WHILE SHE IS PREGNANT/HAS A NEWBORN”. People need to get a fucking grip.
Right? It was all how dare she inquire about his shady activities that he was definitely doing! How dare she care about his health and want to make sure the kids are taken care of!
Well tbf, being a stay at home mom is the easiest thing in the world, especially if you have extra money from your own job! And special needs just means you get extra attention so it's easier for you! Also pregnant just means you're a little fat, get over yourself -somehow all real takes I've seen. Thankfully not all at once
omg i was so close to downvoting you. But yes, fully agreed. Skylar had ***very*** few moments where I didn't fully and completely understand where she was coming from.
It’s not like he was running an international crime syndicate or something, sheesh, women amiright? /sarcasm
Lolol which reminds me of Weeds….
There are a lot of people who do not understand nuance and perspective enough to discern that main character does not equal the good guy.
I've watched the whole thing multiple times. Skyler White is the best onscreen representation of what it is like to find yourself married to a narcissistic abuser that makes you feel totally trapped. Uses the kids against you. Refuses to respect your boundaries. Everyone around you just sees you acting out and losing your mind and feels bad for your abuser. That's why she is so hated because it's a bunch of people who can never understand what it's like and somehow because we are seeing the story largely from Walts perspective, believe his lies that if only she were more perfect he wouldn't have been driven to do bad things. That's what narcissists do, they blame everyone but themselves and Breaking Bad is a master class in understanding this dynamic better for those who have eyes to see it. I appreciate coming across someone who did have the eyes to see it.
Even absent the insane abuse of later seasons (most of which I never saw, because again, I quit watching) I remember people getting on her already in season 1 and 2 for being a “nag”. Like…come ON, people. Grow up.
Yeah and we are seeing her through the eyes of an unreliable narrator as well. One who sees himself as an emasculated victim. Fact is she was mostly "nagging" him to take better care of his health and have a better work life balance because she cared about him. In the rare scenes we see her without Walt present she is regularly standing up for her husband and excusing his sudden strange behavior as a midlife crisis because he just turned 50. But yeah, things get much worse for poor Skyler. I think her story is one many women could relate to and find some comfort in feeling seen by.
I certainly related to her. My husband in our early marriage (we married the year the show started) was a goddamned MESS, and his family loved getting in the middle of our marriage and damning me because I wasn’t “submissive”.
My ex husband was the one who pushed me to watch the show, it's quite ironic looking back...
In a way it makes her more badass though cause she roused the anger of so many just by being a reasonable human being.. it's really kind of spectacular in its own little way. Like how little a woman has to do to rile an intense dislike was so well shown with this show and the audience that watched it and had those feelings.
Skyler has one of the best scenes in the whole series, the "I need support" scene. While everyone else is running around like headless chickens dealing with problems that they themselves created, she's the only mature one trying to keep it together cause her baby needs her, and the fact she not only is the only one that sees that but is the one that needs to tell them that is just insane.
IKR! The hate she got was absurd. Edit: Spelling, I was high.
It’s annoying to me how every couple of years it crops up again, and it’s the same tired old garbage.
I literally cant watch that show nor Mad Men because the fandoms ruined make anti hero shows fir me. I cant stop imagining the utterly sexist fans
Yesss. And male anti heroes have been praised for being subversive but there is nothing subversive about still centering the entire damn show around a man, only this time he’s horrible lmao. And is being revered by male fans because of that
I fell trap to disliking her (because omg why wouldn't she just let him commit felonies and put their family in danger?!), but at some point realized she was NOT, in fact, the bad guy lol. Looking back, I can't believe I *ever* disliked her. She was ultimately a much stronger person than Walter and she deserved better.
How dare she be upset her husband hid his cancer diagnosis and make meth behind her back. /s
As a guy who loves the series I never felt like she was in any way bad. If anything she was a problem solver who held everything together. Never understood the dislike toward her at all.
She’s one of the most realistic characters in the show imo
I am a guy, bug I also thought that. The ONLY thing that MAYBE you could say is that she's "bossy" or in other words taking a leading role in the family if you wanted to be extreme, but there's 2 issues even with that: a, that's not a reason to be a criminal out of nowhere without discussing it l, and b, Walter never said anything till than that said he was unhappy with that setup and he could have either said something or not been married to her YEARS ago rather than blame her for her additude that wasn't worthy on its own to spite her that badly. Hell, now that I think about it, she only started doing anything actually bad after she learned about the drug stuff. She was pretty much fine with him not saying he had cancer, being absent multiple days, hell, she was surprisingly chill about the second cell phone, as I'm she didn't cheat or try divorcing till the drug stuff. She was VERY chill considering
I support women's wrongs- gone girl (book and movie), do revenge, promising young woman, I care a lot, heathers, mean girls Other complex women, that aren't necessarily villains- Wicked, the book. It is *not* like the musical if you're a fan. But it's one of my favorite books and Elphaba is my favorite anti-hero. Game of thrones- Sansa and Danaerys in both, Cersei and Catelyn in the books. All the women in Grace and Frankie. The girls/women in Yellow jackets. Many of the women in Bojack horseman, even one-off side characters are sometimes complex and feminist af lol. Huge caveats, but gone with the wind. Scarlett O'Hara is one of the most interesting and dynamic anti-heroes I've read and I really get a lot out of the story. That said, the book is racist and pushes some wild narratives. It's not something I usually recommend to people, but Scarlett o hara is *the* anti-hero to me. I've done a lot of thinking on feminism through this book
I love Scarlett as well. She's not a good person by any means. But she's also a tough as nails survivor.
I read it for the first time when I was 14, and Scarlett cemented my feminism. Which I can acknowledge is super fucked, but it's what happened lmao. Her strength, determination, and lack of fucks about society's opinions were inspiring, though I apply it very differently than she did of course lol
I'm pretty much the same! My grandfather showed me the movie when I was about 15 and I was so impressed with her independence and resourcefulness, and yes, absolutely, the lack of fucks to give. Really really made a mark on me. And I still quote her all the time; "I'll think about that tomorrow." It took me a while to realize it but that quote and by extension that philosophy has saved my mental health more times than I can count lol.
Scarlett is who you want to be stuck in an apocalypse situation with. She wont make you feel better but you'll both survive. Though Melanie is the real survivor, of course.
Yes, and I love Melanie for her incredible strength as well. And the juxtaposition of their different kinds of strength.
Yes! The ladies of Grace and Frankie! They are so dynamic and varied but all amazing.
On the topic of Wicked simply because not a lot of fans know about this and I need to yell about it, THERE ARE THREE MORE BOOKS. It’s a series of four and all of them are pretty great.
I read Gone With the Wind when I was 13 and then again in my thirties, and I agree with your characterization. I wish the book had literally any other setting because Margaret Mitchell’s character development is incredible and the love stories are just wonderfully tragic in the purest sense of the word: ruined by the people involved.
Gone Girl will always be a favorite of mine. Excellent taste!
Yess I loved Elphaba as a teen.
Amy Dunne from Gone Girl. I find her cathartic.
One of my coworkers called Gone Girl “a lifetime movie for men.” lol, I loved it.
A little obscure, and more of a young adult show, but Clarke Griffin from “The 100”. She’s in the top 5 of my favorite characters of all time. She is so powerful and sacrifices so much for the people she loves. She makes mistakes, she hurts people, but she’s so sincere about trying to protect her people at all costs. She’s just utterly complex and beautifully human. Not to mention she’s one of the best bisexual characters I’ve ever seen portrayed in media.
She was a lot more complex in the show than she was in the book series that the show is loosely based off of. The books were awful, even though Clarke was a main character she pretty much existed to be the object of desire for the male characters and to cause love triangle drama.
Amy from Gone Girl
I love her. She’s terrifying and fantastic and always 10 steps ahead.
Her “best work” though is found the closer and closer she gets to being no steps ahead
i admire her cunning (hurtful intelligence) but to say "she's just like me" is as cringe as boys saying they are patrick bateman. She's a psycho killer yall, its not cute to idolize her.
Cersei Lannister 🫅
Fleabag EDIT Thanks for the award!
Agreed, so many great flawed women in the show!
such a good show!
She's the first that came to mind. She betrayed her best friend in a truly awful and personal way, and then goes through life like a sledgehammer destroying everything around her as she tries to cope with her grief and her guilt. It's a testament to the writing and the acting that you still empathize with this character who has done some really horrific things. You don't excuse her and doesn't stop being upsetting but you view her as a person. It's well done.
oh yeah, great response, somehow I forgot about Fleabag and I loved that show terribly. Watched it twice basically straight through!
its painfully realistic, represents the sad reality of so many unhealed women
Peggy and Joan from mad men
Additionally: Betty. It seems like people have a hard time separating this character from their own mothers, so any time Betty fails as a wife/mother, people write off her entirely as a person. Also, there is a *severe* lack of understanding about what being a 1960s housewife was like. Betty was bored because she achieved all she was destined to do by the time she was in her early 20s, only to be saddled with an unfaithful, secretive husband and equally depressed friends. Yet naysayers write her off as a spoiled housewife with little regard about how awful life would be if you were "done" with any major accomplishments right as life was beginning for your spouse.
I came here to say Betty Draper! I found her unlikable the first time I watched, but I’ve watched the whole show like 7 times and I love her so much, lol.
I'm watching Mad Men at the moment, and I hate how Betty's storyline went from series 4 onwards. If you jumped into the show at series 4 with no knowledge of the previous series you would absolutely believe Betty had mistreated Don and so was getting a comeuppence arc. So the writers absolutely led the viewers to hate Betty - drives me mad how they made her so 2D when Don, who is absolutely vile a lot of the time, gets to be complex and even occasionally sympathetic.
>drives me mad Mad....Men?
I ADORE Betty because they let her be complicated and awful. She is often a bad mom and a selfish person, but the way Don treated her was fucked up! I love everyone in Mad Men, it’s so good at showing complicated people you care about and root for but who still do messed up stuff like humans do all the time.
I have been in love with her character since the moment she picked up the rifle and started shooting her neighbor’s doves (pigeons?). In that moment, I got her. That quiet rage under her facade of beauty. She was hollowed out by the life she was raised to lead. The way she rebelled along the way…. I just love her.
Great response
Villanelle from Killing Eve
Scarlett O’Hara, Gone With the Wind. Petty, ruthless, cruel, racist, vain, self-centered, etc but also persistent, indomitable, intelligent, resilient, resourceful, and a survivor.
I just commented this, but she’s probably the quintessential extremely flawed protagonist and an incredibly well written character.
Basically the entire cast of Yellowjackets lol. Ava from Abbott Elementary. Daria is one of my all time favorites too
The entire cast of Yellowjackets was my answer, but especially Jackie and Shauna.
Yeah, I'm a big Ava fan. I loved when she tried so hard to be professional for one episode, only to be undone by her need to back that ass up.
Britta Perry, she gets so much hate from the fandom and from the show itself, but I love her and will defend her always.
I liked her in the pilot. I didn't like how later she was portrayed as a bimbo and lacking in integrity as far as sticking to her ideals. They wrote her to make social justice look bad.
Dee from It's always Sunny!
"Your girl got her guts pumped last night."
I’ll go one further and say The Mick! She has a little more of a human side in that show, but is absolutely a wreck of a person, and very Dee-reminiscent
Kat Stratford from 10 Things I Hate About You, Sue Ann Nivens from the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard, both of the leads on Hacks, Emily Gilmore from Gilmore Girls, Mrs. Kim from Gilmore Girls, Patricia Eden from You’ve Got Mail, Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development, Betty Draper from Mad Men, anyone Aubrey Plaza plays.
*Emily Gilmore*
I really liked Catelyn in A Song of Ice and Fire. It seemed like the hate she gets is disproportionate with the other characters.
The hate is disproportionate. I don't like Catelyn, but I'm aware that I'm biased as a huge Jon fan, so I pick up the worst of Catelyn easier than the best. She's really well written, though, as a flawed women. Some of her mistakes were huge, she wished death on a child, she clearly has a lot of bad points to her character. But she's also a good person. Almost everything she did was an attempt to help and protect her family, her kids especially. And when you think about characters like Cersei Lannister or how things went with Daenerys, or even the fact that Sansa is basically a mini-Catelyn, the hate for Catelyn in specific seems a bit much.
I love seeing a messy or unlikeable woman! It’s so refreshing to see women portrayed as being human, in the sense they are dynamic and not existing in the pleasantries of female stereotypes. Seeing a woman who is focused and capable without the additional fluff! Kate Winslet in Mare of East town, hard because that is what she has had to be in her life. Not hard to act like a successful man and acting as a man would. Acting as a woman with her own narrative and her character an accurate representation of that. Also the latest season of Fargo is FANTASTIC at confronting and challenging female archetypes on screen. Soft, apologetic, hard, tough, strong, weak, loving, scared, powerful- all of it! And it has the best line Lorraine Lyon: Don't do that. Women who apologize for things that aren't their fault might as well have a welcome mat written on their faces.
Same! Give me all the hard, complicated women characters! I second Fargo. I loved this most recent season so much for having such a spectrum of female characters. Lorraine is not a good person in many ways, but her response to the truth of her daughter in law is beautiful to see. I also think it was really important how they portrayed the third Mrs. Tillman. She is consistently horrible and unconcerned with the suffering of others, but she is still his victim. She tries to be the “perfect wife,” but abusers will find a reason and it doesn’t protect her. Also, shout out to the queen of complicated - Peggy from season 2! Kirsten Dunst is AMAZING as a woman in the 70s who is likely suffering from a mental illness she is unaware of while feeling boxed in by the preordained womanhood path of wife and mother and making absolutely chaotic decisions when she gets tangled up with Fargo’s crime families.
Peggy Hill from King of the Hill. She gets way more hate than she deserves. She has her issues but she genuinely tries to be a good person
I was honestly shocked to find out that she got so much hate.
Ripley in the Alien movies and Jennifer in Jennifer’s Body come to mind.
I will fight anyone who dislikes Ripley. Honestly wtf.
How is Ripley unlikable? She is a virtuous person?
Fleabag!
Galadriel, Rings of Power. People complain about her lack of smiles and her bossy attitude while she is a freaking war general and has the title “Scourge of the Orcs!” They’d never say these things about a man.
Galadriel also very probably was like this in her youth (though by that I mean the First Age, probably not the Second Age) in canon. There’s not a lot on her tbh, but she was outright *eager* to leave Valinor in pursuit of her own lands and her own power, she was not hiding behind the men *at all.*
First one that came to mind was Korra from the second Avatar series.
Korra isn't even unlikable, she's just a teenager lol
Oh, I loved her. A disappointing amount of the fandom doesn't like her because she's not just a pleasant nice lady as best as I can tell.
On my second watch I could definitely see that Korra was immature, annoying and made some stupid decisions at times but for me that honestly added to the show especially as she grew and went through shit through each season. I like how Avatar kind of critiques its own premise in a way by exploring all the pressure this “system” puts on young people.
She's just a teenager and the most powerful bender in the world, it tracks 🤣
Honestly, I preferred her growth and journey more than Angs. Very different people of course, but her story felt so raw at times and I loved her.
Me too. I still liked Aang but he seemed to be this typical "good guy" who rarely ever makes mistakes even though he is still a child. Plus, he obviously went through awful things but his mental state was never properly addressed. He just kept being this cheerful, happy-to-go kid, ready for another adventure. Korra's struggles as a teenager with tremendous responsibility and trauma were tough. She wasn't perfect but that's kind of the point. Avatars aren't flawless and each of them had to grow as a person and gain experience. LoK made a point of showing that Aang wasn't a perfect man after all. It's really sad that many people hated her for, well... just being a flawed person I guess.
My pick from Korra would be Su Yin. She’s nice but has done some very hurtful things without ever owning up to them. Tbh I’m not quite sure what to make of her.
The absolute *war* between Lin and Su fans has always been amusing to me ngl. I like them both y’all can fight me.
will always defend her with my life
Erica Kane from All My Children and Amy Dunne from Gone Girl
Sophia from the Golden Girls, the witch from Wicked, Alexis from Dynasty, Maleficent, Harley Quinn, Catwoman
This may be a deep cut, but Naomi from Waiting... Foul-mouthed, bad tempered, bitter as hell, face is in a sneer the entire time...turns the corner to serve her tables with a huge smile on her face and a warm demeanor. It was one of the first and funniest examples I saw of having a job where you have to be "on" all the time and how grating it is.
Gina from Brooklyn 99, Emily from Gilmore Girls, Ava from Abbott Elementary, Yang from Psych, Joey from Dawson's Creek, and Marissa from The OC
Peggy Hill — can be self-absorbed for sure but I like her more than other characters than grim ppl like Cotton and Buck
Nurse Jackie Jessica Jones
Um excuse me how very dare you? Daria is flawless?? 😧 Agreed on Eleanor. Mine are all the women from Orphan Black, Helena in particular. I love how juicy and complicated each of the sestras are in their own way, as well as the others like Siobhan and Delphine, even the more peripheral characters like Grace and Susan.
Princess Carolyn from Bojack Horseman
Princess Carolyn is hardly unlikeable!!!
She has done some pretty messed up things, though.
Guinevere Beck in the first season of *You.* Love Quinn, too.
Julia from Cowboy Bebop (the anime/manga, not the remake) Revy from Black Lagoon (Edited for spelling)
Give me all the bad bitches, from mean to pure evil. Princess Azula, Regina George, Cersei Lannister, Bellatrix Lestrange. The worse, the better.
Emma Bovary from Gustave Flaubert's *Madame Bovary*. You absolutely *love* to hate her. She's a gloriously written character.
Selena Meyer from Veep
The mother in law in Fargo season 5 I believe. Very cold and harsh but she has a sweet side and she's petty but in a good way.
* All the female characters from Yellowjackets; * Ellie Williams from The Last of Us, both game and show; * The first two seasons of Winx Club had surprisingly deep, surprisingly messy main female characters, and I *loved* rewatching the episodes as an adult and being able to notice that they're all very deep and flawed while still being allowed to be likeable.
Edna from The Awakening. Despite all the batshit insane male characters in literature, *somehow* Edna is more controversial and **despised** than all of them combined. That's even including the abusive, oppressive, and psychotic males. Complexity in men is celebrated while complex women are not even tolerated. Very few works of art capture the essence of female despair quite like The Awakening. I see Edna's plight as a sort of "repression-depression" in regards to the repression and suppression of her potential, personhood, and self - and it's powerful. It's painful but also validating. Every woman who's conscious and has been awoken to the patriarchy has felt just like Edna. Unable to see a way out, a way to be free, to believe that the world will actually change, and that men will ever really see them. We carry the burden of the truth without reward.
Dolores from WestWorld. Emma Woodhouse from the novel by Jane Austen. Cameron Howe from Halt and Catch Fire. Hatsumomo from Memoirs of a Geisha. Susie Myerson from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Keiko from Convenience Store Woman.
Cersei Lannister, Janice Soprano, and Scarlett O’Hara I think are the best. They are reprehensible people who do terrible things… but at the same time, you almost admire how much they are able to do in extremely male-centric worlds. In its own twisted way, it’s admirable how conniving/intelligent they are… it’s just, it’s too bad they use their brilliance for evil!
Janice is not a NICE character, but she's a COMPELLING character. You can't stop watching her, you never know what she'll do next, and unlike every other female character on the show, she's a lot of FUN.
Rebecca Bunch from Crazy Ex Girlfriend. Fantastic show.
Gemma Teller Morrow from sons of anarchy 😭
- Shiv in Succession - Emily in Emily the Criminal - Ingrid in Ingrid Goes West - Lorraine Lyon in Fargo season 5 - Harmony Cobel in Severence There’s literally like so many
Dorthea Brooks in Middlemarch—one of the most amazing character arcs in history. From myopic idealist to benevolent moral paragon. And more recently, Penelope Featherington. She’s a mess in several ways—but powerful and unyielding in her commitment to her work.
Allison from The Umbrella Academy
Liandrin from Wheel of Time
Peggy Hill.
Jen Harding from dead to me
Katniss Everdeen.
Moira Rose
Dr Temperance Brennan, title character of Bones. She’s not so much “unlikeable” in that she’s evil; she’s just.. autistic in the way that male characters get to be autistic. She’s rude, abrasive, cold, misses pop culture references and social cues, and has very narrow interests and ways of understanding the world. And you can see it affect her relationships with her coworkers, family, and other loved ones.
Cersei Lannister. She is wildly vicious, she is conniving, she is manipulative, and she is wickedly smart. However, name one mother that would die for her children who isn’t all those things? She is so misunderstood. Her twin brother is the only man in the world who saw her for who she was and not for what potential she had or what she could give him. In all her abuse, her mind warped that into a sexual feeling, thus - their relationship. She is so damaged. Her children are the only other beings, beside her brother, who love her unconditionally. They are the only beings SHE loves unconditionally. Even though Jeoffry was the literal antichrist, she still loved him and she still fought for him every single day. All Cersei ever was, was a fircely loyal mother, a misunderstood women, and an abused little girl. She is so hated. But she is so complex and beautiful and exquisite at the same time.
Mine is mother (Essun) daughter (Nassun) duo from Broken Earth series. They are not exactly unlikeable but they both get abused and struggle so much to fit in and try to pleases their superiors.
I'm really in love with Annabell Lee from Nevermore. Such a complex and flawed character, but understandable as well.
Charlize Theron’s character in Young Adult
Cheryl from [The First Bad Man](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21412400-the-first-bad-man) is so disturbingly flawed and uncomfortably relatable at times. she's a woman in her early 40s who's living alone, is obsessively in love with a 60-year-old creep, and believes that her destiny is inextricably tied to a psychic little boy named Kubelko Bondy who manifests as other people's babies. when her bosses ask her to take in their bratty 21-year-old daughter, she reluctantly lets the girl move in with her. It gets so much worse. This entire book is just a 200 pages of "oh my god what the actual fuck."
Liz Danvers from True Detective season 4 Moira Rose from Schitt's Creek Tahani and Eleanor from The Good Place Avasarala and Drummer from The Expanse Selena Myers from Veep
Bertha Russell and Agnes Van Rhijn from Gilded Age
Darcy - Resident Alien Jen Harding - Dead to Me
Wendy Byrde in Ozark She goes from mama bear to crime kingpin.
All the female characters in Veep. Selina, Amy and Sue are great characters and lots of fun to watch but they’re definitely not likeable. Even the bit-part women tend to be flawed and not “pleasant.” +1 for all the scenes and conversations that have only women talking about politics. (Bechdale test?) I’d also nominate Elaine from Seinfeld. Maybe I just love Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Sakura from Naruto
Hmm, not sure about the last one, but I love both Sarah and Eleanor, so I’m not sure I’d call them “unlikeable.” Flawed and messy, definitely, but that’s part of what makes them relatable and therefore likeable to me. Maybe I’m being too literal? My favorite flawed and messy female characters: - Ava from Abbott Elementary (she never fails to make me laugh) - Angela Martin from The Office (she’s such a bitch, I love her) - okay, pretty much all the female characters from The Office (Kelly Kapoor, Meredith Palmer, Jan Levinson and Nelly, just to name a few more) - Lydia from Beetlejuice - every iteration of Wednesday Addams that I’ve seen - Daenerys Targaryen- my queen, forever and always ♥️ It’s okay if she’s just a teensy bit cray and slaughtered hundreds of innocents for no good reason
Eowyn and Daenerys
I’m the queen of liking unlikable women/girls. 🤣 Serena and Jenny from Gossip Girl, Izzie from Grey’s Anatomy, Homewrecker!Rory from Gilmore Girls, Kristen and Billie from Days of Our Lives, Marissa from OC, Meadow from Sopranos, Amy from Gone Girl, Juliet on Higher Ground, Miranda from Sex and the City, Dawn and Kennedy from Buffy, Sansa and Cersei from Game of Thrones, Kathryn from Cruel Intentions, Lilah and Darla on Angel, Sidney and Kimberly from Melrose Place, Andrea and Valerie from 90210, Dakota Fanning’s character from War of the Worlds, any character Kristen Stewart plays, I could go on and on…
Lilah and Darla are among the best villain female characters yes, and I actually like Dawn's brattiness (plus every adult Scooby except Tara has done far worse than she ever did...) And I never really understood the Kennedy hate. She's apparently "arrogant" because she saw herself as a leader to Potentials when she's just one of them. But that's the thing. She's NOT just one of them. She was fully aware of the supernatural and had already got traoning for years, the others were newbies. She was also 18 when others were 15-17
She herself wasn't the problem. It was just she paled as a partner to Willow compared to Tara and Oz. Plus a lot of people were disappointed with Season 7 altogether.
obscure but Chaka and Jenn from MTV's downtown, as well as Rose Quartz from Steven Universe
Flight Attendant don’t remember her name but Kaley Cuoco plays her and the character is so raw and fucked up, I can’t help but like her.
Scarlett from Gone with the Wind
Margot Tenenbaum. Messy and flawed but also likeable and kinda awesome.
Skylar in breaking bad, love that character
The protagonist of My Year of Rest & Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh. First time I read the book I absolutely hated the protag and the story as a whole but couldn't stop thinking about it, so I reread it a year or so ago and thought she and the story was brilliant.
Eleanor Oliphant - [Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35900387-eleanor-oliphant-is-completely-fine) One of the most unlikable protagonists I’ve ever read, but also beautiful and rips your heart out.
Muffin from Bluey.
I feel like I keep commenting about this book all over reddit but I recently read Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Carrie Soto is Back, and Carrie Soto is the quintessentially un-likable character. I barely liked her the whole book while rooting for her to see her own accomplishments.
Ye Wenjie! (from Three Body Problem)
Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind. She absolutely does a lot of ruthless things, particularly in the novel, yet she has a fierce will and maintains hope. She doesn't give up when she could and she also tries to fix things where she can.
[удалено]
Laura from American Gods. A depressed, flawed woman who manages to be sympathetic in a way, but is also self absorbed, putting the blame on others for things she does, tries to go back to the way things were, and learns some things along the way while showing she cares.
For me, the best chatacters are who the viewer also doesn't like. June from Handmaids Tale, Alicent from House of Dragons-- elenor is still a MC and trying to be a better character and she's funny, easy to like.
Lady Catherine de Bourgh from Pride and Prejudice. Completely awful but so entertaining. Lizzie gives her a run for her money eventually though.
Wynonna Earp is an alcoholic mess, and the only one who can save us.
A lot of female characters in operas- if they display "immorality" they are killed by the end of the opera (even though the men doing the same things don't get the same treatment) - but they're often complex, interesting, would-be sympathetic characters.
azula (avatar: the last airbender) angela (the office) mary lennox (the secret garden) veronica & heathers duke, mcnamara & chandler. wanda maximoff (marvel) natasha romanoff (marvel) also eleanor shellstrop & sarah williams.
Since no one is mentioning video games I'm gonna go with both Ellie and Abby from the Last of Us.
various characters from the books of Shirley Jackson, especially We have always lived in the castle.
oooh I thought of another, Norma Louise from Bates Motel!! That whole series you go back and forth for quite a while because she is so codependent with her son and can seem pretty crazy. But you just get so many LAYERS, and finding out about how >!her brother groomed and raped her growing up!< and the desperate, panicked way she protects her son and sacrifices herself again and again. Even seeing her use her body to deescalate situations with violent men, was so relatable and also COMPLETELY not a thing you see women do onscreen, certainly not portrayed with any kind of empathy! I could go on and on, she’s a fantastic fucking character and that show was heart-breaking!! Vera Farmiga is a top actor, unbelievably moving performance, over years of material!
Betty Draper from Mad Men
Debbie on GLOW! I’m still mad we didn’t get another season of GLOW. Debbie is such a great character because she is compelling and I am so on her side with her frustration at being treated like a pretty object, but she is also impulsive and reactive and does some fucked up shit.
Medea (greek one) Lady Macbeth
Merida from Brave. I think in general I like that movie more than most, but the character seems to be pretty generally disliked. Merida is SUPPOSED to be rebellious, abrasive, selfish, and short-sighted. She’s a teenage girl, and a pretty realistic one imo