20 Characters Audiences Would Hate If They Weren’t the Protagonist

The choice of whose perspective from which to tell a story is an important one. You can go the Sherlock Holmes route, looking through the eyes of an outside bystander uncovering the story bit by bit. Then again, if the box-office returns for Wicked is anything to go by, the villain perspective is a lucrative one. However, most stories are told by the characters that everything seems to be happening to. It’s just more interesting that way.

It also has the advantage of providing a good amount of camouflage if it turns out your hero is a huge jerk. No matter how reasonably everyone pushes back against them, they’ll always seem like they’re in the wrong by virtue of not being the main character.

It happens again and again in fiction, which is why one Reddit user asked r/AskReddit, “What protagonist would have been hated by the fanbase if they weren’t the protagonist (i.e., the story is told from another character's perspective)?”