Thursday, February 18, 2010

T^2: Who is...

M: Who is your most hated fictional character? And on a similar (but different) note, who is your favorite fictional character to hate?

Mira: For whatever reason, it's easier to think of favorite character to hate... Anyway, I pick Rebecca Logan from Greek. I love Greek, first of all, and secondly, they've developed her into this fun character that's got lots of layers, but not necessarily easy to like. Similar to Paris from Gilmore Girls. But Paris was just socially awkward because she was the stereotypical uber-nerd, but Rebecca isn't like that at all. Instead she's this weird mix of extremely spoiled, and really smart in terms of understanding how life functions, but insecure in unexpected ways and emotionally stunted, too. If that makes any sense in a package. I love what her character adds to the show, both her good and evil sides!

Now to the most hated character... it's tempting to say Amy from Little Women (movie version, I've never read the book)... Or Bingley's sister from Pride & Prejudice (book and all tv/movie adaptations)... Or Dan from One Tree Hill (the father, he's utterly worthless as a human being character. So evil!)... Or April in Gilmore Girls (I blame HER for Luke & Loralie not getting married, but I guess the kid wasn't terrible.)... But instead I'll choose... AHA! I got it! It's actually a character in a Korean drama called All About Eve (Heo Young-mi). She's supposed to play the antagonist, but let me tell you, she was sooooooo evil. What pisses me off the most about her?? She didn't get what she deserved at the end. UGH! I hated her! The drama itself I really, really enjoyed but have been unable to watch again because of the evil girl. Even thinking about her makes me really mad!

Jennifer: I guess I'm the opposite...it's much easier for me to think of characters I just plain hate. The first one that comes to mind is Joey Potter from Dawson's Creek. I hated her so much that the hate has transferred over to Katie Holmes, who of course is not helped by being married to Tom Cruise (ick). But I think the character I've most hated is actually Sylar from Heroes. Now I quit watching Heroes during the third season so I have no clue how what he's like now but I just could not tolerate him. He was a stupid villain and every time he was on screen I wanted him to get killed off.

That kind of brings me to the love to hate category. I think that in a way, all the best villains should be in this category. They're evil but you love reading about/watching them because they're complex and compelling. One complication is that a lot of love-to-hate characters end up being sort of redeemed in the end, like Spike on Buffy and Snape in Harry Potter. I didn't really want to pick one of those types so my pick is Cigarette Smoking Man from The X-files. It's been awhile so truthfully I don't remember how his arc ended but he was so evil and mysterious throughout the series. Runner up: Regina from Mean Girls. Heinous but so fun to watch!

6 comments:

mira said...

Regina from Mean Girls is a really good one!! :D A love to hate for me, too!

burkie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
burkie said...

good question(s)! i thought this would take me longer to think about than it actually did. most hated fictional character: tim curry as the clown in the TV version of stephen king's "It." i never read the book, but that clown scared the crap out of me. clowns are scary enough as it is, but he took scary clowns to a whole new level. scariest thing i've ever seen. and it turned out that the clown wasn't the main scary villian/monster/whatever in the movie. the main one turned out to be so incredibly lame and not scary at all compared to that damn clown!

now, remembering that clown from "It" i guess made it easy for me to come up with the fictional character i love to hate: The Joker, whether from the comic books, the TV show, the animated series, or either of the movies. he is such a brilliantly conceived--and interpretable (i'm sure it's a word!)--character that he is always a fresh, twisted, evil, entertaining villain every time you encounter him. i'm sure we haven't seen the last portrayal.

Fanny said...

It's much easier for me to come up with the character I love to hate as well. Even though I also really disliked Young-mi from 'All About Eve', I felt a little bit bad for her in the end. I figured, if Sun-mi could forgive her, so could I. Now, as for the character I love to hate, Sheriff Don Lamb of 'Veronica Mars'. Favorite scene: "Veronica Mars...is smarter than me."

mira said...

Fanny, I love that you're the one person I can count on to know about who I'm talking about American TV or Korean drama! :D

Jennifer said...

Sheriff Lamb is such a good choice!