AHC: Prevent a hated fictional character from becoming hated
- Thread starter Night Gaul
- Start date
Indeed, they made sure to make him look as ridiculous as possible, as well as to have him finally break down and ship another person before dieting, rather than dieting with his dignity. With a person coming to buy his freedom. Frankly, that last part was wishful thinking. I remember the beginning of my copy (well, my sister’s) where it mentions an example of someone helping out a bankrupt owner by steering a ship with his slaves from Virginia to Kentucky or someplace similar. They were near the shore and people on the shores were calling out, telling him everyone would be free if he landed. He turned away and took them down south, then got sold by his master despite being told he would be freed. Uncle Tom’s Cabin doesn’t read as well today due to how, yes, he was a bit subservient, even if he was strong and kept his pride. This comes down to tropes of the time with having a black servant and an angelic white young girl who- Ahhhh, right. They had that young black girl as well. I rememeber old cartoons with him and the two girls and I am wondering if people just made the white girl the main character in popular culture for a while, with the two slaves as the comedy relief. And I am not sure if it is fair to say Black radicals bought into it, Uncle Tom would have been used as an insulting name and trope for generations by the time we reach the Civil Rights movement. Still, it goes to show how people can change the narrative, like how African-Americans with watermelons or fried chicken was also used in a racist manner, when apparently the those were early ways Freedmen managed to make profits for themselves.
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So here’s another one. Homer Simpson, or at least the Jerkass Homer we got after about season nine. Personally I think part of the problem is that in some ways Homer was always kind of a jerkass, but many times he still showed he cared, especially about his family. Later on he went from being childish to downright awful. I think maybe if Mike Scully weren’t a writer this wouldn’t happen though I don’t hate Scully for it. Sometimes people have different visions, and imho at least the seasons i watched from Ten to 18 are better than most today.
Also, another character, or series of them in a movie is all the characters from Song of the South. Basically I’d argue that Disney should have let it be. I’m honestly surprised he didn’t try to do Huck Finn even if it’s language is too rough. Plus Walt is from Missouri and it’s make sense to do this. Granted Disney might not get the point of such a story. The only other option is to get rid of the subplot with the kid and just have Remus tell the story. Maybe even just have him tell it to the audience while he’s at his house. No mention of slavery or sharecropping. Maybe even have Disney somehow convince Paul Robeson to be in it, as Disney more or less hired a communist sympathizer to write the script. Maybe instead he lets Robeson write it in exchange for a kind of safety for Robeson if he wants it but I doubt Robeson would.
So I guess maybe the best option is just not to make it at all.
Also, another character, or series of them in a movie is all the characters from Song of the South. Basically I’d argue that Disney should have let it be. I’m honestly surprised he didn’t try to do Huck Finn even if it’s language is too rough. Plus Walt is from Missouri and it’s make sense to do this. Granted Disney might not get the point of such a story. The only other option is to get rid of the subplot with the kid and just have Remus tell the story. Maybe even just have him tell it to the audience while he’s at his house. No mention of slavery or sharecropping. Maybe even have Disney somehow convince Paul Robeson to be in it, as Disney more or less hired a communist sympathizer to write the script. Maybe instead he lets Robeson write it in exchange for a kind of safety for Robeson if he wants it but I doubt Robeson would.
So I guess maybe the best option is just not to make it at all.
I think what might help Flanders os keeping him a yuppie, who while Christian, isn’t just a way to make fun of fundamentalist Christian’s, especially since in the golden years he was okay with alcohol and such and more or less a nerdy mainline Christian so maybe that helps.
Also, jerkass Homer after season 9 was not liked.
I don’t know as I haven’t watched it in years. Basically he’s just McFarlane’s avatar but worse so I don’t know.
Well, I'll give this a go with easily my favorite hated character:
For those who are not familiar with the Gundam alternate universes, this is Flay Allster from the 2002 Gundam series, Seed. Her arc in the show was being the crush to series protagonist Kira and a shining example of how much you can lose to this war. Flay lost her father during the first few episodes of the series and her response to losing him is manipulating Kira to be more aggressive when he pilots via sex/relationship. This all comes to head when Kira breaks up with her due to his own stress dealing with fighting. After his "death", Flay tries to rebound with her fiancé Sai (she broke things off with him to facilitate this plan), but he rebuffs her. The final part of Flay's arc comes when she is captured by this series's Char Clone: Rau Le Crueset as part of his own plans to make the war go into genocide phase. In the end, Flay is killed in the last episode in which she uses her dying message to apologize to Kira for all that she did.
So you might be wondering: what can be done to fix this character? If I was in charge of writing her arc, here's what I would do: (1) Show parts of her backstory that involves her upbringing. Flay was raised by her father George Allster and a handful of servants around their manor in the Atlantic Federation. These scenes would take place not in Orb but in an area within the deep south of the United States, where ethnic racism has been a practically a cultural wart in the area. (2) Have her learn to pilot so that Kira goes even harder to keep her safe. Kira's main motivation for staying within the war was to keep his friends safe. A group of friends who do not hate him for being a coordinator, but also do not have the means to pilot any mobile suit due to the complex operating system being coordinator only. Flay would end up piloting one of the skygrasper flight jets (in my head they would have spare parts to create and resupply up to four of these units) alongside Sai, Cagalli, and Commander Mu La Flaga. It is here that Flay learns the same lesson every pilot does after their first sortie: YOU ARE NOT INVINCIBLE! (3) As her relationship with Kira deteriorates, she then tries to jump back to Sai only to be rebuffed and thus she finds herself alone. This leads her to Nicol, who gets captured instead of killed; where she tries to learn just what happening on the other side and finds that he just wanted to protect his people from the alliance. When her transfer off the Archangel happens, Flay is not captured by Crueset but is instead taken back to the Atlantic Federation where she is groomed by Blue Cosmos leader (and anime Joffrey impersonator) Muruta Azarel to be the pilot of the Perfect Strike Rouge Gundam. When the invasion of Orb takes place, Flay is assigned to the Victoria base and she sees the wholesale slaughter of all personnel on ZAFT's side. Finally, Flay defects back to the Archangel only to find that Azarel has the self destruct switch for the Strike Rouge at all times. Flay chooses to attack Azarel's flagship, the Seraphim and ultimately deactivate the switch, capturing the man and sending him off to a military tribunal. Throughout the next two series, Destiny and Eternity; Flay slowly but surely builds a powerbase within the Alliance that wishes to reconcile with ORB and The PLANTS and thus purges Blue Cosmos from the Alliance as a whole. By the final movie, Cosmic; Flay has reconciled with her friends in the Archangel along with joining the Terminal in their mission of keeping the peace within the Earth Sphere (think of them as IBO's Gallajhorn but with their morals uncorrupted).
For those who are not familiar with the Gundam alternate universes, this is Flay Allster from the 2002 Gundam series, Seed. Her arc in the show was being the crush to series protagonist Kira and a shining example of how much you can lose to this war. Flay lost her father during the first few episodes of the series and her response to losing him is manipulating Kira to be more aggressive when he pilots via sex/relationship. This all comes to head when Kira breaks up with her due to his own stress dealing with fighting. After his "death", Flay tries to rebound with her fiancé Sai (she broke things off with him to facilitate this plan), but he rebuffs her. The final part of Flay's arc comes when she is captured by this series's Char Clone: Rau Le Crueset as part of his own plans to make the war go into genocide phase. In the end, Flay is killed in the last episode in which she uses her dying message to apologize to Kira for all that she did.
So you might be wondering: what can be done to fix this character? If I was in charge of writing her arc, here's what I would do: (1) Show parts of her backstory that involves her upbringing. Flay was raised by her father George Allster and a handful of servants around their manor in the Atlantic Federation. These scenes would take place not in Orb but in an area within the deep south of the United States, where ethnic racism has been a practically a cultural wart in the area. (2) Have her learn to pilot so that Kira goes even harder to keep her safe. Kira's main motivation for staying within the war was to keep his friends safe. A group of friends who do not hate him for being a coordinator, but also do not have the means to pilot any mobile suit due to the complex operating system being coordinator only. Flay would end up piloting one of the skygrasper flight jets (in my head they would have spare parts to create and resupply up to four of these units) alongside Sai, Cagalli, and Commander Mu La Flaga. It is here that Flay learns the same lesson every pilot does after their first sortie: YOU ARE NOT INVINCIBLE! (3) As her relationship with Kira deteriorates, she then tries to jump back to Sai only to be rebuffed and thus she finds herself alone. This leads her to Nicol, who gets captured instead of killed; where she tries to learn just what happening on the other side and finds that he just wanted to protect his people from the alliance. When her transfer off the Archangel happens, Flay is not captured by Crueset but is instead taken back to the Atlantic Federation where she is groomed by Blue Cosmos leader (and anime Joffrey impersonator) Muruta Azarel to be the pilot of the Perfect Strike Rouge Gundam. When the invasion of Orb takes place, Flay is assigned to the Victoria base and she sees the wholesale slaughter of all personnel on ZAFT's side. Finally, Flay defects back to the Archangel only to find that Azarel has the self destruct switch for the Strike Rouge at all times. Flay chooses to attack Azarel's flagship, the Seraphim and ultimately deactivate the switch, capturing the man and sending him off to a military tribunal. Throughout the next two series, Destiny and Eternity; Flay slowly but surely builds a powerbase within the Alliance that wishes to reconcile with ORB and The PLANTS and thus purges Blue Cosmos from the Alliance as a whole. By the final movie, Cosmic; Flay has reconciled with her friends in the Archangel along with joining the Terminal in their mission of keeping the peace within the Earth Sphere (think of them as IBO's Gallajhorn but with their morals uncorrupted).
I was gonna suggest something similar for salvaging Cool Cat. Make him a more laid-back "big brother mentor" type of character and try harder to make him not look like a pedophile. Then I remembered a big part of why people hated him was Derek Savage being a sleazy asshole.
I'd roll with Homer's being a horrible person more, go the Peter Griffin route of not hiding being a bad person. Basically roll with the dark humor/
Funny thing is that Savage actually responded pretty well to people criticizing and making fun of his movie at first. Not sure why things changed so dramatically.
To get back on topic, I think Tobias from the Pokémon anime would be a lot less hated if he didn't have any legendaries and was just a really strong trainer like Harrison and Tyson. Giving him some more development would probably have helped too.