Least favorite character

[Delightful]

Elantris: Sarene. She was a fine character, it was just that in the chapter triad system, more often than not I would skim through her chapter to get to Raoden and Hathren, who are AWESOME. As a supporting character instead of a main, I would've been okay with her.

I had exactly the same problem, except I couldn't stand Hrathen and just wanted to read about Sarene and Raoden.

 

Eragon: Everyone who wasn't Roran. Especially Eragon. After the end of Eldest, I wanted to shoot him, because he was being such a brat about his true parentage. I get it, you're basically the son of the baddest baddie in existence besides the main villain. That's upsetting. Now stop whining about it at every freaking opportunity. Also, special mention goes to Arya, who somehow manages to be both childish and condescending at the same time. Really, I just don't like the characters in that series except for Roran. Roran was awesome.

So much this. Eragon was a terrible character. I remember vaguely like Murtaugh, but I really didn't like anyone in that series.

 

Other characters I dislike:

Partials - Marcus. He was such a pushover the entire book, doing whatever Kira wanted and going along with every single decision she made. I just wished he'd grow a spine.

 

SA: Sadeas irritates me. I also didn't realise that I liked Shallan or Jasnah till WoR, though I didn't *dislike* them in WoK.

 

Marvel: Jane Foster. She has little personality and mopes around for two years because she hasn't seen the god she knew for a whole 3 days and has nothing in common with. That romance has got to be among the least convincing I have ever seen.

 

characters i (love to) hate include Snape*, Umbridge (!), all of Ender's BattleSchool enemies, Peter Van Houten, The mist spirit, if that counts. Also George Wickham of LBD in particular. Also Tvlakv and Roshone. Lin Davar can join Umbridge on the list of creepy child-abusers. I'd add Mraize but I'm not quite sure if I hate him yet.

 

*Actually Snape and Loki I think go together in the "I feel like I should hate you but I also feel really bad for you" category.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Delightful

[Quiver he/him]

Oh geeez.

Delightful, next to disses Renarin, saying you want to hate Loki is maybe the surest way to earn Feathers ire.

Agree with you on Jane Foster, though. The way the film opened, I was hoping she'd be the main character, meaning the whole narrative she (and the audience) would be wondering whether Thor was a god, crazy, or just something else.

Cap and Peggy, on the other hand, broke my heart.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Argh, I felt the same way about Jane and Thor! It's like making her a scientist was a halfhearted attempt at making her smart and strong, not an integral part of her character. So much wasted potential.

Especially next to Cap and Peggy.

And Tony and Pepper, for that matter.

[Delightful]

Oh geeez.

Delightful, next to disses Renarin, saying you want to hate Loki is maybe the surest way to earn Feathers ire.

Agree with you on Jane Foster, though. The way the film opened, I was hoping she'd be the main character, meaning the whole narrative she (and the audience) would be wondering whether Thor was a god, crazy, or just something else.

^that would have been so much cooler than Thor.

I would actually prefer Darcy as the female lead (if Jane Foster can even count as that), she's way cooler. Just not with Thor, she's too young for him I think.

Agreed on Cap and Peggy too.

(And hey, I was joking about Renarin! And I actually really like Loki, I just feel like I *should* hate him cause he's the 'bad guy'. Poor Loki :'( )

Edited July 4, 2014 by Delightful

[Chrono she/her]

 

Marvel: Jane Foster. She has little personality and mopes around for two years because she hasn't seen the god she knew for a whole 3 days and has nothing in common with. That romance has got to be among the least convincing I have ever seen.

 

 

This. I wanted her to die in The Dark World, mainly because I was so sick and tired of her being a brat and whining about stuff and generally not doing anything besides holding the Aether and being a plot device. Holy crap, Thor, you could have done so much better. 

 

The scene that especially made me mad was when

Thor's mom died and she basically just stood there. Come on, there's about fifty million blades in the room! Pick one up and start swinging! Heck, basically the entire movie she just stood there. Except for the end, but really I just didn't care at that point.

[Delightful]

This. I wanted her to die in The Dark World, mainly because I was so sick and tired of her being a brat and whining about stuff and generally not doing anything besides holding the Aether and being a plot device. Holy crap, Thor, you could have done so much better.

The scene that especially made me mad was when

Thor's mom died and she basically just stood there. Come on, there's about fifty million blades in the room! Pick one up and start swinging! Heck, basically the entire movie she just stood there. Except for the end, but really I just didn't care at that point.

Re being a plot device, particularly when

she's unconscious and Thor and Loki are fighting after escaping Asgard

she could literally have been replaced with Generic Magic Object, tweak a couple plot details and done. Actually at that point i started thinking that despite Foster and Thor being the romantic couple, she was third-wheeling on Thor and Loki's love/hate relationship. Her character neither adds not changes anything at all, and by the end a) it didn't make sense (tripods! Science!) and b ) the professor OR Darcy OR Darcy's assistant dude could have done whatever it was that needed doing.

(Also, im glad I'm not alone on this )

Edited July 5, 2014 by Delightful

[Mailliw73 he/him]

It got too personal for me when I saw how he treated his younger son.  If I didn't love Faramir so much, I probably could look at this a bit more objectively. 

Well. The movie Denethor I hate all the time and cannot stand. The book Denethor is not nearly so bad in my mind. He was very hurtful and rude to Faramir, who I love, but he wasn't all that bad of a Steward or man. He wasn't as good of a man as Faramir, but he wasn't awful. Until he looked in the Palantir and went crazy.

[Left he/him]

This one is easy for me. Cadsuane sedai. She's just such a storming rust bucket.

[Delightful]

In light of J.K.Rowling's new story, I really have to add: Rita Skeeter.

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

Katniss in the Hunger Games, because she is boring, but she is praised by everyone anyways.

Belgarion. He is too much of a generic good guy.

And Gregor Clegane and Vargo Hoat from ASoIaF. 

Luke and Leia can get honorable mentions. Oh, and Ezra too!

[Quiver he/him]

I guess there's a distinction to be made here: do you hate a character because they are a poorly written character, or do you hate a character because they are a terrible person?

Personally, I find the former much more egregious. A bad character, I want to see get comeuppance; a Bad Character I just want to go away.

[thegatorgirl00 she/her]

I couldn't stand Dumbledore. I hate characters who are supposed to be mentoring the hero and decide not to tell them vital intormation "for their own good". I understood not wanting to tell an eleven year old they were going to die, but the Horcruxes definitely should have been mentioned at least in Chamber of Secrets after Harry fought and killed one. 

I disliked Gandalf and Morraine for pretty much the same reason. 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

11 minutes ago, thegatorgirl00 said:

I couldn't stand Dumbledore. I hate characters who are supposed to be mentoring the hero and decide not to tell them vital intormation "for their own good". I understood not wanting to tell an eleven year old they were going to die, but the Horcruxes definitely should have been mentioned at least in Chamber of Secrets after Harry fought and killed one. 

I disliked Gandalf and Morraine for pretty much the same reason. 

I didn't mind Dumbledore when I first read the series, but the more I've thought about him since, the less I like him. I could write essays about why he's a terrible person and an even worse mentor, but I'll just say that when you read some of Floccinaucinihilipilification's Dumbledore comics and think "Wow, this could be canon," you know there's something wrong with his methods. 

[ScarletSabre he/him]

10 hours ago, TwiLyghtSansSparkles said:

I didn't mind Dumbledore when I first read the series, but the more I've thought about him since, the less I like him. I could write essays about why he's a terrible person and an even worse mentor, but I'll just say that when you read some of Floccinaucinihilipilification's Dumbledore comics and think "Wow, this could be canon," you know there's something wrong with his methods. 

Yeah, when you really step back and think about it, Dumbledore can really be.... kind of awful. But so can a lot of plot points in Harry Potter, to be fair. It's just that big D could pretty much have remedied all of them with a bit of foresight and thought. My favourite summary of the HP series is;

Everyone: HARRY NO
Harry: HARRY YES

Anyhoo, my least favourite characters to read.....

Across the Cosmere;
Elantris - Sarene was just a bit boring to me because what she was doing was nowhere near as interesting as the other main characters, but she wasn't a pain or chore to read, she just happened to be my least favourite.
Mistborn - The first couple of times I read Mistborn, I found Sazed's struggles in the later books annoying to read, but just a couple of years later I empathise with them a lot more and appreciate his struggles. I don't really have a least favourite in the original trilogy, but in Era 2 it would definitely have to be Marasi. In AoL, I found her role to just be tedious to get through and her character annoyed me, though much less in SoS and BoM after she had some growth, though once again, she's my least favourite to read in those, simply because Wayne is much more fun (with a few exceptions), and Wax does what needs to be done, which is always great to see.She's an interesting character and I enjoy reading her and her viewpoints, but ultimately, the others just grab me more and I look forwards to reading them more than her.
Stormlight - I'm starting ot think that I don't like indecisive characters, since Adolin's constant worries/chafing over doing something and not wanting to confront Dalinar are just tedious after a while. When he's actually duelling or being active, like protesting when locking himself up with Kaladin, I enjoy reading him a lot more. Shallan annoyed the crem out of me during her time in Karbranth, and even on the ship heading to the warcamps, her attitude and mannerisms just irked me. She got a lot better once she GOT to the warcamps, and actually started playing a role in things, but even then some of the times I find her tedious. Nowhere near the levels of WoK though, where slogging through her chapters was a chore to get back to Kaladin and Dalinar's awesomeness.

Wheel of Time
Egwayne. Nothing more needs to be said.
Nyneave was annoying as hell for a long time, but actually improved when she stopped being so sanctimonious and hypocritical, and was actually called out on something.
Elaidah I didn't mind reading, since I knew she'd eventually get some kind of comeuppance, and the thought of her being chained by the Seanchan was soooo satisfying.
Cadsuane. Uuuuuuuugh, Cadsuane. I know she was designed as the character who was "the aunt who said what you needed to hear, but might not like what was said", but she could be downright INSUFFERABLE. It doesn't make her character any less annoying when she's never given any real moments of comeuppance or actually being wrong. She was interesting at the start as a character who took none of Dark Rand's posturing and threats, but as the books progressed, aside from some awesome moments, I just wanted someone to smack her and take her down a peg. The most satisfying moments of the final books was Tam being awesome and actually taking no Aes Sedai rhetoric and condescension when he confronted her, and when Rand banished her at the start of Crossroads of Twilight. Seeing her actually panic and on the losing and of something with him, and actually scared was a VERY nice moment that brought some variance to her character.
Perrin and Dark Rand could drag on quite a bit with their mantras of "I must be hard" and "Faiel" respectively, but in all honesty I never minded them anywhere near as much as most did. 

GRRM and the tunes of frost and flame (Been a while since I've read the series so there won't be much fresh in my head)
For a loooooooong time Sansa was my least favourite character to read, and just got on my nerves since she's quite literally the reason Ned died. >__> Cersei is one of the characters I love to hate, while her satanic offspring was teetering on the edge of that and just outright being horrible to read.

That's all that come to mind at the moment...

[Zathoth]

Spandam, One Piece fans will understand.

I usually dont dislike Brandons characters, Sarene is a bit dull compared to Hrathen... everyone in Elantris is a bit dull compared to Hrathen, but I enjoy reading them in general.

Of course then there is Vivenna in the first half of Warbreaker, I like her after the character development, but before she is insufferable.

I also have some problems with Kaladin, not because he is a bad character, but because he reminds me of myself when I was depressed and I have to face how storming annoying I was.

[Magestar he/him]

53 minutes ago, Zathoth said:

I usually dont dislike Brandons characters, Sarene is a bit dull compared to Hrathen... everyone in Elantris is a bit dull compared to Hrathen, but I enjoy reading them in general.

Agreed.  Hrathen is the best character in Elantris, IMO.

In WoT...  I really didn't like Dark!Rand, and just found him hard to read.  Oddly, I found Pattern-Balancing!Rand almost as annoying, but he got better over the course of the books.  I found all of the girls annoying at some point or another, but at the same time I felt like that was intentional?  Egwene was usually the most annoying, but she had some redeeming qualities.  Nynaeve realy really annoyed me.  

Mat was the best part of those books, especially towards the end.  

Across Brandon's books, I think I found Jasnah, Vivenna, a lot of the priests/gods in warbreaker, and that lighteyes that Kaladin liked the most annoying overall.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

5 minutes ago, Magestar said:

Across Brandon's books, I think I found Jasnah, Vivenna, a lot of the priests/gods in warbreaker, and that lighteyes that Kaladin liked the most annoying overall.

Jasnah was actually one of my favorite characters. Yes, she's cold and demeaning toward religion, but she's also scary-smart, treats everyone fairly, and doesn't care what her ward believes so long as she can back it up sufficiently. She's a fantastic teacher, and reminds me of some of the scary-but-awesome teachers I've had before. 

I didn't like Vivenna pre-character development, though. 

[Briar King]

The Mhybe in Malazan main bk 3. That had been a struggle to get through no matter how many times I read the bk & you can't skim/skip anything in these bks or your likely to miss out on some important "ah ha" moment.

the Mhybe sucks.

[Ammanas]

1 hour ago, Briar King said:

The Mhybe in Malazan main bk 3. That had been a struggle to get through no matter how many times I read the bk & you can't skim/skip anything in these bks or your likely to miss out on some important "ah ha" moment.

the Mhybe sucks.

I would read any Mhybe chapter over Fall of Light from the Kharkanus trilogy. That whole book is painfully dull.

[Briar King]

13 minutes ago, Ammanas said:

I would read any Mhybe chapter over Fall of Light from the Kharkanus trilogy. That whole book is painfully dull.

I've not read it yet but even on Malazan boards it's considered to be his denses/heaviest bk that takes quite a bit of time to get through. I ll read it one day but I was so unhappy(I kinda even hated it) with bk 1 that it's not even close to a must read compared to main bks. 

[Ammanas]

2 minutes ago, Briar King said:

I've not read it yet but even on Malazan boards it's considered to be his denses/heaviest bk that takes quite a bit of time to get through. I ll read it one day but I was so unhappy(I kinda even hated it) with bk 1 that it's not even close to a must read compared to main bks. 

Apologies for the thread hijack, but yes. I believe the main 10 book series to be easily top 5 possibly even the greatest fantasy series ever. The Kharkanus trilogy has been a massive disappointment. Forge of Darkness had at least some echoes of Eriksons brilliance, but the same cannot be said for fall of light. I have never liked the Esslemont books, but I really enjoyed his most recent one called Dancers Lament; its a start to his own prequel series. Its almost like Young Adult malazan. A lot of fun and moves quickly. Nice to see another malazan fan

[Kaymyth she/her]

On 11/16/2016 at 9:09 AM, Magestar said:

Agreed.  Hrathen is the best character in Elantris, IMO.

See, now Hrathen actually kind of grated on me.  I think that's because of his super-religiosity; it's a trait that I generally find disturbing, probably because I'm a member of a religious minority that tends to get harsh treatment from such people.

 

Every character in Interview With the Vampire.  (Well, probably every character that Anne Rice has ever written, but I never made it past that first book.)  Everyone's either whiny and tortured or just plain sociopathic.  Zero redeeming qualities in anyone.

[ScarletSabre he/him]

On 16/11/2016 at 3:16 PM, TwiLyghtSansSparkles said:

Jasnah was actually one of my favorite characters. Yes, she's cold and demeaning toward religion, but she's also scary-smart, treats everyone fairly, and doesn't care what her ward believes so long as she can back it up sufficiently. She's a fantastic teacher, and reminds me of some of the scary-but-awesome teachers I've had before. 

I didn't like Vivenna pre-character development, though. 

Jasnah at the start grated on me a little bit, simply because she came across so callous with regards to belief and logic. As an agnostic/athiest myself I do absolutely ADORE her completely true attitude of "Dude, believe what you want, I need evidence, and I don't care what you believe as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, or gets shoved down my throat.", but at the start Jasnah did appear to be almost a logic-bot with her beliefs, that she needed hard logic and thought behind morality, at least with regards to Shallan and her development. I do realise that that was a tool to make her consider her beliefs and put her in a more scholarly mindset, but at the same time I did kinda want to say to her "You already explained you believe morality isn't defined by a higher power and is intrinsic to one's self... if it's that internalised and understood does it NEED a logic behind it?" ^^;

And Vivenna, I actually don't remember how I reacted to her when I first read Warbreaker, because it was that long ago.... but I think she annoyed me at first too. That being said, on subsequent rereads, I've actually enjoyed her sections quite a lot, mainly because I've found her oblivious condescension absolutely hilarious and adorable. I just imagine her giving her rhetoric and sanctimonious looks of disdain to people, and snide remarks, and them just looking at each other with mild amusement and befuddlement as she turns away, self-satisfied. In fact, now that I think about it, it's kind of the opposite of what happens with the Wheel of Time women for the most part, where everyone aside from a few who take no talking down and arrogance, bow and scrape and apologise and accept their beratement and judgement. In Warbreaker, nobody really cares what Vivenna thinks, and even say to her face they don't care for her judgements on what they've had to do to survive.

[Hood he/him]

In MBoTF - Errant. Mallick Rel. and Pormqual. Especially Mallick Rel.

In Kingkiller Chronicles - I would say Ambrose Jackis, and Master Hemme, but I think it was Kvothe's fault too. He needs to control his behaviour. I won't say Denna. Seeing things from her perspective gives some reason as to why she behaves as such. BUT, the one whom I hate the most is Maer Alveron. And his wife too.

In the Stormlight Archive - Sadeas. 'Nuff said.   

[Fallen_Ash]

On 12/5/2016 at 2:58 PM, Ernei said:

If he was so sorrowful and depressed because he was killing, then he should have just stop doing it.

I said the same thing to my husband, and he brought up a different perspective. He said that when I'm feeling really depressed or anxious, I can't *stop* myself from feeling that way. I can't just *stop* being said. It's not a perfect metaphor, because being depressed doesn't make me forsake all of my beliefs and murder people, but he can't stop from feeling that obeying orders to kill is the only thing he can do. He 100%, wholeheartedly believes that he is damned, he is beyond saving, and the only way to get a measure of peace after he dies is to keep following orders. So, to just stop would mean forsaking the only thing actually holding him together, and would mean that he is giving up his belief that everything he's done has been in service to his punishment and eventual peace. Like he said, if accepts that he has no real reason to kill, that would mean that everything he's done is his fault. The only thing that keeps him going (pre-end of WoR, of course) is the idea that something or someone else is responsible for his actions. He's already broken and pretty insane, so accepting the truth would not be healthy. 

To answer the original question, my least favorite Sanderson character is Tyn, from WoR, because she's the kind of obnoxious, condescending, superior person you meet in real life. The way she talks down to Shallan drives me crazy, especially because Shallan isn't some innocent, weak little nobody. She's going to freaking save the world. So yeah, Tyn and her "I know everything and I'm so experienced and you're so stupid" attitude drives me crazy. 

I hate Umbridge in Harry Potter, for kind of the same reason. She's not the "big bad," but she's the kind of bad you meet in real life. Just cruel, nasty people who enjoy belittling others and flaunting power. She makes me sick. 

Also, I'm trying to read Wheel of Time and I'm on book four and Egwene and Nynaeve and Morraine and Rand and Mat are all driving me crazy and it's hard to force myself to keep reading.