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Nooooooo! Ben Edlund (and Robbie Thompson) is my favourite SPN writer, why couldn't it have been Adam Glass instead :/ The writers of Mannequin 3: The Reckoning is NOT a fair trade
And The 8 Worst Characters On Television
What makes a character the “worst” isn’t necessarily their amoral actions or behavior (some of our favorite characters walk a very thin line between good and evil). They could be the most self-righteous and moral character ever, but still annoy the ever-living shit out of us. Worst characters are those whose screentime we want depleted immediately because they’re just so unlikable, despite the writers best attempts at getting us to root for them.
The only character I'm familiar with from that list is Chuck Bass, and he should be #1 in my eyes. Who else would you nominate for your worst character? At the ONTD discussion post Xander Harris got quite a few nominations lol
ETA Gah has anyone got a recommendation for a good spyware removal program? My comp suddenly seems to be riddled with pop-ups and weird links,and everything is running so slowly
And The 8 Worst Characters On Television
What makes a character the “worst” isn’t necessarily their amoral actions or behavior (some of our favorite characters walk a very thin line between good and evil). They could be the most self-righteous and moral character ever, but still annoy the ever-living shit out of us. Worst characters are those whose screentime we want depleted immediately because they’re just so unlikable, despite the writers best attempts at getting us to root for them.
The only character I'm familiar with from that list is Chuck Bass, and he should be #1 in my eyes. Who else would you nominate for your worst character? At the ONTD discussion post Xander Harris got quite a few nominations lol
ETA Gah has anyone got a recommendation for a good spyware removal program? My comp suddenly seems to be riddled with pop-ups and weird links,and everything is running so slowly
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(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 02:00 pm (UTC)My nomination would be Byron from the last season of Babylon 5. He was the main reason why I hated that season. Annoying, pointless, took up way too much screentime, was actually supposed to be a sympathetic revolutionary Christlike figure. Instead, he was self-righteous, cheesy, sang way too much, was responsible for the worst sex scene I've ever seen on TV, and derailed another character that I was just beginning to like. Oh, and he had Fabio hair.
Spoilers for a show that's been off the air for a very long time: I don't think I've ever cheered so hard for a character to die as I did when he finally blew up.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 02:31 pm (UTC)Yeah it's generally characters that are presented as sympathetic or rootable who annoy me more, rather than someone where the writers clearly understand that he or she is being presented in villain mode. I used to really like Chuck's character even because I found him entertaining in the first season especially, but then the writers started piling on his manpain and encouraging us to see Chuck and Blair as some epic romantic endgame, at the same time as Chuck was physically lashing out around her and saying that "you're mine"
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 02:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 02:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 02:56 pm (UTC)Xander's a pretty good suggestion. Upon rewatching (finished S3 yesterday), I can't stand the dude.
As far as lead characters go, I'd say Dawson takes the cake. Never was there a more condescending shithead in the title role.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 03:53 pm (UTC)Maybe Dawson is more debatable heh as technically the show was named after him, but it was such a cop-out that they couldn't bring themselves to go ahead with the original plan for Xander to be killed and the First Evil to take his form, and Matt should have killed off about two seasons ago. The audience never seem to love those characters as much as the writers *think* that they should, what with all of the writer statements about Matt represting the good humanity has to offer or whatever, and Joss talking about Xander being a role model for the males in the audience. 8 out of ten fans I speak too can't stand either character and don't get that from them at all
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 04:04 pm (UTC)That would have been interesting. At least if I'd given a shit about the First Evil.
I don't think Xander was a badly written character, though. He seemed pretty flawed and realistic—not so much a role model but a template for self-insertion the way Willow was for women in the audience before she took a level in badass. And I liked having someone with zero powers to ground the show when everyone else had some sort of supernatural knowledge or ability.
I'm between Riley or Kennedy for worst characters on Buffy. Kennedy was more objectively a terrible and pointless character, but Riley annoyed me more on a personal level.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 04:10 pm (UTC)Riley to me was worse though because so much of the emotional focus went to him in season 4 with the Initiative arc and I just did not care. It felt like him and his issues took over that season at the expense of Buffy
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 04:14 pm (UTC)And Xander wasn't badly-written exactly, he just felt more and more pointless to me as the seasons went on, but the writers could never bring themselves to get rid of him. Instead they tried to force his role as the heart of the group and the one who sees. Neither of which made much sense to me, and felt more like the writers wanting to give him some kind of obvious role alongside Buffy, Giles, and Willow. But the heart of the group he was not IMO, just because he made the occasional speech once every 20 episodes or something. Most of the time he was the one in the group who was lashing out at Buffy if anything, and he never struck me as being particularly insightful either. Giles was the one in episodes like Faith, Hope, and Trick who quietly got to the bottom of Buffy's real issues, Xander was just the guy to pop up and lecture her on what a terrible friend or girlfriend she was in Dead Man's Party, Revelations, Into The Woods etc
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 05:00 pm (UTC)I don't think Xander was badly written; he was just a plain old asshole. I think you summed him up nicely. He was never a particularly loyal friend or a listener or insightful. He gave an inspirational speech here and there, but most of the time it didn't work. How can he be the one who sees when S1-S6 they made it a recurring joke as to obtuse he was? Unless he was faking it, in which case he was an even bigger asshole.
I think the First Evil worked very well in concept but no one tapped anyone on the shoulder and said they didn't have the money to clone SMG to play the First and Buffy.
Xander was just the guy to pop up and lecture her on what a terrible friend or girlfriend she was in Dead Man's Party, Revelations, Into The Woods etc
Kicker of it all is, it's gotten increasingly harder to believe we weren't supposed to believe he was right about all it.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 06:08 pm (UTC)I think the only character he had purely good friendship scenes with IMO was Willow, because he had no ax to grind when he would give her advise about Oz in WAH or when he comforted her over losing Tara and trying to destory the world. But most of his big moments with Buffy generally seemed to consist more of lecturing her for not living up to the pedestal that he had her on. And anyway Buffy and Willow seemed to be closer friends in the end and would generally turn to one another for support, so again I can't really think of all that many scenes of Xander being the heart of the group and the one that everyone would supposedly turn too
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 06:37 pm (UTC)First!Xander could have been awesome. *sigh*
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 07:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 06:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 06:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 04:25 pm (UTC)Spybot Search and Destroy is a great anti spyware tool and free!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 04:33 pm (UTC)And heh yes, that was...unpleasant
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 05:39 pm (UTC)I would like to second the nomination of Kennedy and Riley, and add on Lana and Tess from Smallville, and the second Ruby from Supernatural.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 06:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 06:06 pm (UTC)If they really wanna talk about bad characters, they should mention Cordelia Chase season 4 of Angel. The only episode of that season I love her is the memory loss one because she's back Sunnydale!Cordy.
Kennedy in BtVS, she was a bad character. Annoying and badly written I'd say.
Really thinking about it, there are two ways, at least, to describe bad characters... the badly written, interpreted ones and the annoying/bad/mean ones written that way...
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 06:26 pm (UTC)And badly written ones are worse I'd say! I can enjoy a villain most of the time, it gets annoying usually only when the writing attempts to whitewash them and refuses to recognise that they are an actualfax terrible person
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 06:52 pm (UTC)I'm okay with Cordy falling for Angel... she kinda had her eye on him in Sunnydale until she realized he was all about Buffy (even though she tried a few passes). I'm kinda unsure about Angel falling for her however. I mean, Buffy was supposed to be his ONE and he left to keep her safe, from him in a way.
Anyway...
I've seen plenty of badly written characters that were played pretty good considering. I've seen a lot of badly written AND acted characters, too and that's BAD. I'm thinking of the movie Mannequin 2 or even Cruel Intentions 2...
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 07:20 pm (UTC)And LOL I can't believe I actually sat through Cruel Intentions 2, what a disappointment that was!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 10:21 pm (UTC)For CI2, I heard that was destined to be a TV show and then the show got canned during shooting or something and they said, well, we have all this footage so let's not waste it and make a movie out of it. I guess this explains well why it seems so very similar with Sebastian at the beginning and all. Too similar in fact to be something Sebastian would do. In my opinion, anyway. And he's way too different, personality wise, in that one and it's supposed to be a prequel or whatever...
I prefer Cruel Intentions 3 to that one but nothing will ever beat the original. CI2 had good actors though, like Amy Adams to name only her.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 10:25 pm (UTC)And I didn't even realise that there had been a third version...
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 11:00 pm (UTC)Oh yeah, I wanted to see CI3 because of one or 2 actors (okay Kerr Smith, really) and I liked it but it's not one I will see again. Nothing to do with Kathryn or Sebastian... more obvious for Sebastian since he died but Kathryn is mentioned like once as being in rehab or something and the movie is centered on a cousin.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 11:44 pm (UTC)You're making me want to rewatch the original movie now! :D
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-03 12:12 am (UTC)What a let down.
I seriously need to watch it again and then make icons. My very first icons of that movie are pretty darn old and when I made then, I loved them but now I'm looking at them and they are interesting but eek! I could do better.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-03 12:22 am (UTC)And yeah, they could have done something interesting with following up on the original characters, instead it felt more like a remake of the first movie, just from a slightly distorted mirror maybe! But many of the lines and scenes were direct lifts from CI, so that you couldn't help but compare the less than memorable actors to the original movie actors
And I'm been feeling inspired to watch a lot of my favourite 90's teen movies lately, I might make a night of it and rewatch The Craft as well *g*
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-03 12:25 am (UTC)If ever you'd like to see the CI icons, see here: http://quitealittle.livejournal.com/1946.html
I don't even know how I ever achieved this type of coloring. And I thought I was cool with the different fonts for those that have text. Choice of color is really... erm... lol
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-03 12:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-03 12:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 06:35 pm (UTC)As for other Worst Character suggestions...I don't know. Often characters I dislike are really popular with other fans - like Sawyer from Lost and Blaine from Glee would be on my own personal Worst Character list even though those characters are loved by other fans. It can be frustrating when I'll find a character to be really badly written and then find the character is popular with the rest of fandom. Like recently, I've been hating the character of Hannah in Dexter, because her storyline is so painfully implausible, yet to my annoyance many other fans (any critics!) think Hannah is a great addition to the show.
I guess this happens to me because I don't tend to like or dislike characters based on morality or even how annoying they are. A character can be nasty and irritating but if I feel like they are very well-written, I will love them. If I feel like a character is written in a contrived way or a dull way or in a Mary/Gary Sue-ish way that's when I'll hate them.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 07:25 pm (UTC)And I know what you mean, there are plenty of bad characters I like, Walter White for one or Spike from Buffy, but other fans often seem to assume that means that you're an apologist who excuses everything that the character has done. But it usually just means I find the character interesting and well-written :shrugs:
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 10:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 10:31 pm (UTC)At least it felt like he had a purpose in seasons 1-3 though, he was such an afterthought most of the time after that and you could tell the writers were really struggling to integrate him into the story a lot of the time.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 10:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 11:54 pm (UTC)Worst character - for me, Charlie on "Lost", Eve on "Angel" and everyone on Glee but especially Will.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-03 12:03 am (UTC)And I hated Eve, what a pitiful replacement for Lilah! They never really explained why Lilah couldn't come back either as, from what I remember, the actress seemed open to it? They just said something about how hard it would be for her to escape hell, and then brought in Eve instead :/
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-02 11:55 pm (UTC)As for spyware I really like Spybot S&D.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-03 12:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-03 12:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-03 12:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-03 12:49 am (UTC)