Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

Least Favorite Character Thread

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Aziraphale:
Okay, a couple of ground rules:
1. These are a matter of opinion, not fact.
2. Try to start from the assumption that someone's dislike of a character you love is a reflection of their dislike of the character and not an assault on you, personally.
3. Don't resort to ad hominem attacks while discussing the merits (or lack thereof) of characters with your fellow forumites. They may be fictional characters; the rest of us are still (last I checked) humans, so keep it cool.
4. Optional, but think on this: if you dislike a character, I challenge you to also find something good about them.

Mmmmkay. So. Who's your least favorite character (or couple), and why?

I'll get things started: I don't particularly care for Penelope.

First, the positive: IRL, I'm sure we'd get along well enough; she seems smart, bookish, and a bit snarky.

But then, there's the negative. The snark crosses too often and too easily into negativity. And there's the prudishness. And a touch of hypocrisy (she looks down on Wil's lack of career ambition,* but hello? Your ambition's to work in publishing, and your steps to get there are 1: quit bookstore, B: work at coffee shop, and 3: complain that you don't have your dream job?) And the fact that it's all wrapped up in a plain brown wrapper. She is, in short, the kind of person with whom you paint the town beige. I don't hate her, but as characters go, she leaves me as warm and fuzzy as, say, a ball point pen, and if you removed her from the story altogether a la Sara, it'd barely make a ripple. In terms of the regular cast (not peripheral/one-off characters like Lt. Potter), she's close to expendable.

*Not without some justification -- I mean, dude hadn't worked a day in his life.

Somnus Eternus:
Clinton. Oh, Lord, Clinton...if he never reappeared I'd be totally cool with that.  But that's not likely since he's Claire's brother and she's most likely going to be playing a bigger role, so...

The one and only thing going for Clinton is how protective he is of his sister and how he treats her as his sister, not his "brother going through a phase" like some people I know IRL do with their trans family members.  He gets plenty of props for that, but...everything else about him is just repellant.  He's cranky, he's defensive, he's creepily obsessive, and I just get so uncomfortable whenever he appears in a strip.  That's probably the intention, but he's the only character I can't take at all.

(Unrelated, but on the other hand, my newest favorite character is the singing purple dildo prototype. Because of course it is.)

BenRG:
Huh... That's weird.

I really can't say that I have a 'least favourite' character. I base this on the criteria 'someone for whom I automatically switch off when I see him/her in the strip'. They all have their good days and they all have their bad days.

Faye is someone that I don't think I would like to know IRL, mostly because of her abrasiveness. Sitting in Marten's shoes, thanks to Jeph, we know that this has a reason. However, meeting her as a stranger would be a mostly-negative experience and I doubt I'd want to come to know her on a deeper level enough to come to understand her issues.

Raven, despite being okay really, isn't on my favourites list. This is mostly because fundamentally, women who are always talking about their sexual attributes in mixed company just annoy me (that's a gender-neutral attitude, by the way. Men with that habit equally rub me up the wrong way). That's a shame because I would normally consider a brilliant engineer and physicist like her wonderful company.

Pintsize is, basically, an archetype of the embarrassing friend of your friend whom you endure for your friend's sake but you would never like yourself.

Finally, the only strips for which I immediately hit 'close' are Yelling Bird strips.

Aziraphale:

--- Quote from: Somnus Eternus on 22 Oct 2014, 07:59 ---Clinton. Oh, Lord, Clinton...if he never reappeared I'd be totally cool with that.  But that's not likely since he's Claire's brother and she's most likely going to be playing a bigger role, so...

The one and only thing going for Clinton is how protective he is of his sister and how he treats her as his sister, not his "brother going through a phase" like some people I know IRL do with their trans family members.  He gets plenty of props for that, but...everything else about him is just repellant.  He's cranky, he's defensive, he's creepily obsessive, and I just get so uncomfortable whenever he appears in a strip.  That's probably the intention, but he's the only character I can't take at all.

--- End quote ---

I'm willing to cut Clinton some slack; he's been toned down slightly, and I think that some of the protectiveness, annoying and slightly paternalistic as it is, at least comes from an understandable place. As copacetic as Northampton's made out to be, it only takes one bad egg to ruin things, and some of what Clinton's said seems to hint around Claire having had some bad experiences. Most of the rest of the cast has grown in one way or another, so I wouldn't expect Clinton to remain static either.


--- Quote from: BenRG on 22 Oct 2014, 08:01 ---Huh... That's weird.

I really can't say that I have a 'least favourite' character. I base this on the criteria 'someone for whom I automatically switch off when I see him/her in the strip'. They all have their good days and they all have their bad days.

Faye is someone that I don't think I would like to know IRL, mostly because of her abrasiveness. Sitting in Marten's shoes, thanks to Jeph, we know that this has a reason. However, meeting her as a stranger would be a mostly-negative experience and I doubt I'd want to come to know her on a deeper level enough to come to understand her issues.

Raven, despite being okay really, isn't on my favourites list. This is mostly because fundamentally, women who are always talking about their sexual attributes in mixed company just annoy me (that's a gender-neutral attitude, by the way. Men with that habit equally rub me up the wrong way). That's a shame because I would normally consider a brilliant engineer and physicist like her wonderful company.

Pintsize is, basically, an archetype of the embarrassing friend of your friend whom you endure for your friend's sake but you would never like yourself.

Finally, the only strips for which I immediately hit 'close' are Yelling Bird strips.

--- End quote ---

I don't dislike Raven, but her lack of a filter is a bit annoying; I don't need to know that much about anybody's sex life if I'm not directly involved with them myself. Faye has redeeming qualities and seems to be someone who cares deeply about her friends, though I've come across porcupines who were less prickly. And like everybody, I've known people like Pintsize. The times I've liked him in the strip have either been when he's been so creatively but ludicrously over-the-top that it's funny, or when he says something that's unexpectedly insightful. Speaking about the strip more generally, I wish sometimes that the insights, when they come, weren't usually undercut with a punchline in the next panel. I mean, I know that's the convention of the form and all that, but to me, it almost comes across self-deprecating, or as if Jeph doesn't trust his own insights enough to let them stand on their own, if that makes any sense. Maybe it's because I like my humor with a serious undercurrent (I grew up on MASH, for god's sake), but I don't think it has to be funny all the time.

And I'm with you 200% on the Yelling Bird strips (though every once in a while, the profanity is creative enough to get a good laugh out of me). I understand that Jeph needs filler every so often, but I like some filler better than others (like the times when he's posted a bit of work in progress, or shown experiments with drawing style).

Zebediah:
Least favorite? Hmm. I'd go with Nat, except she was written out years ago and we're unlikely to see her again. I just found her incredibly annoying and useless.

Other candidates: Sven is the type of self-indulgent douchebag that I really can't stand IRL. Although he does have a couple of redeeming qualities (or used to, anyway).

Clinton has precisely one redeeming quality that we've seen - he cares for his sister. Other than that, he's like a gnat: small and annoying and difficult to swat away.

I have no opinion of Cosette. Literally. She does nothing for me, but I can't say I dislike her either.

I actually like the Yelling Bird strips most of the time. It's a glimpse into Jeph's unrestrained id. And I kind of like that there's a whole alternate universe inhabited by YB, Randy, Shelby, Shame Orb and Harriet/Sweet-Tits, even if we only get a brief dose of it once a year or so.

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