[Ulrik]

Macros, on 10 May 2010 - 11:28 AM, said:

5 - Althalus, I apologise to everyone for bringing this dog shit book back into memory, but he had to be listed.

I hate you...I HATE YOU!!! You brought it back! OHWWWWW...my mind!

[stone monkey]

Kurt Montandon, on 10 May 2010 - 05:39 PM, said:

Any protagonist from any Stephen R. Donaldson book.

Really, not even a contest.

Especially the uber-passive, super-victim chick from the Mirror duology - holy crap, was she annoying to read about. She just floated along, screwing everything up for everyone by never actually doing anything but being a simpering twat. And she was the main POV for the books. She made Covenant look like a fascinating, uncomplaining Hero.

I don't remember much about the one Gap book I read, except that the main-character was a slaver/rapist who was treated bizarrely sympathetically, even by his victim (I vaguely recall that he kept her imprisoned on his ship as a fuck-toy, but she didn't seem to hold it against him, or something).

Given what happens to him in the later books I think it's fair to say that Angus Thermopylae has at least as bad a time of it as his victim in the first... Not that her plight gets any better...

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 10 May 2010 - 07:52 PM

[The Tyrant Lizard]

Kityhawk, on 10 May 2010 - 07:26 PM, said:

Bayaz-- First Law.

DIE HORRIBLY!!

Kruppe--MBOTF

I'm just sick of having to keep wading through the bullshit every time he speaks.

Samwise Gamgee--LOTR

Samwell Tarley--ASOIAF

I guess I have it in for the Sams, but I just find them both so irritating in their roles playing the "sidekick"

Terisa Morgan-- Mordant's Need

Nice list. I happen to hate samwise and samwell too. although I'd never tell samwell becuase his dad's as hard as fuck.

Oh and I dont like kruppe either.

This post has been edited by The Tyrant Lizard: 10 May 2010 - 08:37 PM

[WhiskeyJackDaniels]

Catelyn Stark - Basically ever since she looked at her 14 year old step-son while he was grieving his half-brother's accident and said "It should have been you"

Cadsuane and the Aiel Wise Ones - One of them is bad, but when you combine them for planning sessions on how to manipulate people "to help them" I just get pissed.

Lasseen - Only in the books where SE wrote her. I actually thought she was badass and loved her her in RotCG, so maybe I'll like her better when I finally get to a re-read of the main series, but before RotCG I refused to call her Lasseen on these boards and always ref'd her as Surly as a sign of protest for her idiocy/decision to fuck over all the characters I liked.

Un-Cat - Because getting a new life gets her a new spot on my list. Also only being on here once wasn't enough.

Ron Weasley - For two reasons...1) The most predictable part of every HP book was gonna be the time when he became a little bitch and held the fact that Harry was famous against him and started to ignore his best only friend. and 2) If I list 5 women I'm nervous I'll upset half the boards.

[Mentalist]

EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER IN THE "TYRANTS AND KINGS" TRILOGY BY JOHN MARCO
except for possibly the crazy evil count/emperor guy--I guess since he was crazy, the author decided to write him WELL.... the only character out there.
everyone else.... ugh, I cannot help but cringe.

THe protagonist of Tom LLoyd's series, whatever his name is.

the cast of the "First Chronicles of Thomas COvenant"--didn't read the rest, but almost every character in that struck me as a naive and hopeless tool. Surprisingly, I liked Book 1 of the Gap cycle (haven't gotten around to buying the rest yet).

Characters in Russel Kirkpatrick's series--I read like 100 plages of Volume 1 and had to put it down. I just couldn't stand the unwilling, confused, farmboy hero anymore.

anyone else? oh yeah, that Born Queen girl from Keyes' "Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone". The books were great, but the Black Jester should've won instead. oh, yeah, her name was Anne.

[Gothos]

It brings me great surprise that LotR characters don't seem to make your lists... Are all these THAT bad that they don't even make you think of Tolkien's second worst weakness (right after dialogue)?

[amphibian]

Gothos, on 11 May 2010 - 06:30 AM, said:

It brings me great surprise that LotR characters don't seem to make your lists... Are all these THAT bad that they don't even make you think of Tolkien's second worst weakness (right after dialogue)?

They're in part representations of characters in epic poems and oral histories. The flatness is part of that tradition. That being said, I loathe Samwise Gamgee with a passion usually reserved for people going 45 in a 65 mph hwy for no reason. There is no reason why he should exist, other than Tolkien's whimsy.

[Tapper]

Gothos, on 11 May 2010 - 06:30 AM, said:

It brings me great surprise that LotR characters don't seem to make your lists... Are all these THAT bad that they don't even make you think of Tolkien's second worst weakness (right after dialogue)?

In the end, I think most of us started their fantasy reading either with Eddings' Belgariad or Tolkien or both, and nostalgia prevents them from making the lists. We'd be swamped in mentions of just about every character in those books if it weren't so. Funnily enough, I'd have put emo-Frodo or Denethor way higher on the bad-persona list than Sam.

[champ]

nynaeve or however u spell her name (WoT) leesha (peter brett) nish (ian irvine) regal (robin hobb) feather witch (se)

[Cable]

Salk Elan, on 10 May 2010 - 11:16 AM, said:

In no particular order:

Karsa Orlong – I really hate the mass-murdering, mass-raping brute. To be bad-ass alone doesn't qualify for me.

Every character from Gail Z. Martins Necromancer-series. – That kind of two-dimensional characters are barley tolerable in a RPG, but in a book… no way!

Bayaz (Abercrombie) – The Idea of an anti-Gandalf might have been new and interesting, but Bayaz is only crazy and bad. I can find nothing inspiring in him.

Khellus (R. Scott Bakker) – Mind-manipulative, mad Tyrant. (And I am convinced that he's going to become the No-God in the second Apocalipse!)

Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch) – Kind of a nice try, but imo far too boring.

I'm confused as to how people can think Bayaz is a bad character. IMO he's one of the better characters to come out in the past few years. He's not Gandalf, he's more than an anti-Gandalf, he's a very grey character. While I can obviously see why people wouldn't like him, his past and motives do make him at least a pretty good character, and quite interesting.

Richard whatever-his-last-name-is from Goodkind's books is a bonafide terrible character. One dimensional, inexplicable, pretentious douche. This is all from reading a book and a half of the SoT.

[Euler]

Have to agree about Bayaz being a well written character and his motives where clear.

Spoiler

But that dosnt help the fact that I myself feelt the urge to strangle the guy when I read the last book in the first law series

well here is my list:

Nynaeve or just about every damn female (1 or 2 exceptions may exist!)i in WoT, hate these whiny, thinking they know it all goody two shoes.

Well come to think of it, if I made a list it would be way to long bu suffice to say I generally cant stand characters who are whiny, thinking they know it all or just plain stupid characters (unless justified). Ops that may have been abit harse but to give afew examples (not all from books): Pretty much every character in stargate universe, Crokus/cutter after he went emo over apsalar. I shoul not have to tell you that while I have not read Twilight or anything by Terry Goodkind, from what I have seen on TV shows if they are anything like that in the books I would hate them to

[ObsoleteResolve]

Any character ever written by Ian Irvine.

Done in one.

[LadyMTL]

How to narrow it down to just four! Argh.

1. Richard freaking Rahl. I'll never get those weeks of my life back after reading that dreck.
2. Tom Bombadil from LOTR. Apparently he's a favorite of a lot of people but I just loathed him. Stop singing, already!
3. Rand al'Thor. I know hating the protagonist in a series as long as WoT is kind of counter-productive but I've disliked him from about book 5 or 6. And yet I still keep reading...*sigh*
4. Bella Swan. OK, calling Twilight "fantasy" is a stretch / insult to fantasy novels but I despise this character so much that I actually can't think of a word to define just how much I hate her, and I only read the first two books. Go. Away. Forever.
5. Joffrey Lannister. I was so happy when he died...so very, very happy. Effing brat.

An 'honorable' mention goes to Kruppe. I, too, am sick of wading through three pages of blah blah blah just to get to the one sentence that's important. And man am I glad I never read any Donaldson,

This post has been edited by Maia Irraz: 15 May 2010 - 12:44 AM

[Use Of Weapons]

ObsoleteResolve, on 14 May 2010 - 10:09 PM, said:

Any character ever written by Ian Irvine.

Done in one.

I'll see your Ian Irvine, and raise you a Sara Douglass. *shudder*

[Gabriele]

Badly executed:

Ce'Nedra
pretty much all the female characters in WoT (except maybe Moiraine, and Egwene in the Sanderson version)


Bitches and jerks:

Sansa
Bishop Loris (Katherine Kurtz, Deryni)
Frater Hugh (Kate Eliott, Crown of Stars)
No, I have no idea why two Church guys made the list.

[Fist Gamet]

Apparently I have an inate ability to remove all traces of crappy characters from my memory. I know there must have been many. There would have been everyone from Goodkind's first book (which I tragically read half of), probably everyone from all of Brooks' Shanara books, all of Feist's characters post-Darkness at Sethanon (excepting the dude with the magic bag or oranges) and yeah, Irvine and Douglas...but wonderfully for me, I cannot recall any specific names.