I love a good bad guy in fiction.
Who doesn't?
The villain is always the juiciest character.
In the end, they're the most broken and flawed. So they have the most to unearth.
But as generations have passed, and on a second glance, there are some characters we maybe give a little too much respect to and love to.
I mean, you don't watch Dateline NBC and root for the serial killer. Right?
RIGHT?!?!
I blame the book Wicked. It turned the villain story upside down... and The Sopranos.
Redditor TourSignificant1335 wanted to discuss all the characters in fiction we really need to re-examine. Maybe we shouldn't be lauding them so much.
They asked:
"What fictional character should people really stop glorifying?"
Hannibal Lechter. Yes, Sir Anthony Hopkins is brilliant. But he eats people. For fun. With wine. Not a good guy.
Bad Chris
"Christian Grey."
Freedom0001
"It's just cause he's rich and handsome. It's romantic only because of that. Imagine the story but a broke ugly guys tries to get a girl to get into BDSM and does a bunch if stalking. 100% guaranteed it will be advertised as a horror movie."
Ibreathoxygennow
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Hit the Road Jack
"Jack from jack and the bean stalk. He broke into the giants castle, stole all his stuff, ran away and when the giant tried to get his stuff back, he freaking murdered him."
Exotic_Imagination69
'...and then Jack chopped down the beanstalk, adding murder and ecological vandalism to the theft, enticement and trespass charges already mentioned, but he got away with it and lived happily ever after without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done. Which proves that you can be excused just about anything if you're a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions. Seems like you share something in common with a Miss Susan Sto-Helit."
gl0vely
'bad boy'
"JD (Heathers)."
shawtyalilperry
I think people romanticizing JD is the whole point. If you find his 'bad boy' traits attractive, if you want to fix him, if you grow blind to his flaws. You then understand exactly why Veronica stayed by JD's side, even through all the crazy shit he did and also planned to do."
Etaleo
Psycho
"I thought Patrick Bateman was cool as a teen & young adult and now I'm an angry awkward weirdo."
Significant-Garlic87
"I believe in taking care of myself and a balanced diet and rigorous exercise routine. In the morning if my face is a little puffy I'll put on an ice pack while doing stomach crunches. I can do 1000 now. After I remove the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser lotion."
"In the shower I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I apply an herb-mint facial mask which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine. I always use an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing protective lotion."
Limp-Munkee69
The Devil
"Madeline Wuntch. You might ask, if she’s here who’s guarding hades? That fork tongued lizard witch turned out to be a Korean toilet ghost."
itstimegeez
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I don't care how messed up 50 Shades is... I love you Jamie Dornan.
The Bad Guys
"Gordon Gecko - Wall Street."
"Jordan Belfort - Wolf of Wall Street."
"They are supposed to be cautionary tales of what not to do."
EnigmaCA
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Tony. Tony. Tony.
"Tony Montana... like seriously, he had about the worst ending you could ask for 🤷🏼."
karmaredemption
"I love shi**ing on this one, because he got assassinated solely because he did the least gangster thing and killed his associate who was going to blow up a car with the narcs kids and wife in it. He dies because he had compassion for innocent people, unlike the thug types that glamorize his image."
AubinSan93
Bad Romance
"For those that love The Notebook. Noah threatened to kill himself if she didn't go on a date with him. Nope nope nope."
AlwaysShip
"They have a toxic boderline abusive relationship. I don't understand how people say it's 'goals' when all they do is fight and manipulate each other."
TWWSi
"I hate that movie with a burning passion. Witch cheated on her fiancé. Her fiancé deserved so much better. I’d pay to see the movie from his perspective."
lonestarcom
Twilighted
"Edward Cullen."
ThiccccLatina1996
"Robert Pattinson has openly talked about how f**ked up that character was. He almost got fired because he played him too dark. He was like 'yeah, it's dark, it's a 100 year old vampire stalking a teenage girl!' He thought Stephanie Myers was like actually deranged."
ScarletCaptain
"I find Bella way worse."
HumanEcon
Him
"Dude from You."
joosypoosy69
"The show first got recommended to me by a woman in my checkout line when i was a cashier. She told me, 'I wish someone loved me like that! Well kind of, haha.'"
LifeNorm
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Oh Effy
"Effy from skins— the show literally romanticized her mental health disorders."
mygayla
"This is a good one, I watched skins when I was in high school and I really wanted to be Effy, she seemed so cool and awesome and did all the cool kid things. I was a typical teenager and I can only be grateful I didn’t do more stupid crap then."
MissNinja007
Interesting
"Luke Castellan. He is not a tragedy. Other characters had it just as bad as him (if not, worse) and didn’t turn evil or try to kill innocent people (including the one he loves)."
"Luke is an interesting one to me. I always thought he was the type of person that you weren't supposed to agree with, but you could at least see where he was coming from."
"Even Percy kind of sees it, since he makes the gods promise not to neglect their children so much. There's also the fact that he was being manipulated by Kronos. Not that he was right or people should look up to him, but his choices definitely make sense."
TheOncomimgHoop
Toxic Together
"The Joker."
PinkSweetGhost
"Someone once told me after they saw Suicide Squad that they wanted a relationship like what Joker and Harley Quinn have. I told her 'So you want to be both mentally and physically abused? You want to have to look over your shoulder when he gets mad and hope he doesn't take it out on you? You want to be beaten half to death and then be told it was you who made him do it? Ok whatever floats your boat.'"
Sassh1
Bad Guy
"Walter White."
Sontronite
"Yeah he's legitimately just an awful person from the very first episode. He could have taken the job and not put him and his family at risk. He has several opportunities to stop. He even admits it was just for him. He's an amazing character, but he's a villain that happens to be a protagonist."
-SlinxTheFox-
Kids...
"Romeo and Juliet."
TemporalTailor
"The play was written just after a plague outbreak in London. They were just two horny kids who had to be married before they could get laid, and wanted to get some before they maybe died too. And their families were both filled with a**holes."
Muninwing
leonardo dicaprio love GIF by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
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Bad Touch
"The Peaky Blinders. I recently watched the show and I just don’t understand why every guy wants to be like them. They are all horrible people who destroy everything they touch."
El_Diablo_09
"Glorified in the sense that they radiate charm and power? There's something appealing about the characters but someone watching the show would see that they are deeply troubled. There's a pretty big emphasis on their crippling PTSD, drug addiction and inability to form healthy relationships."
evilcreampuff
Bad People
"Ramona Flowers."
tr0jance
"This is the main reason that I prefer the comics over the movie of Scott Pilgrim (though the movie is great); by the end of the series both Ramona and Scott recognise that they're pretty shitty people but have made some kind of commitment to trying to get better together wheras the movie doesn't really go that far."
Mr_Pleasant2310
Bad Hamm
"Don Draper."
okaydamn
"Yeah, I think most people view the show in the lens of glitz and glamour of an idealized upper-class lifestyle of the time with some comedic and salacious side-story. "
"They miss the point that his most important character development comes later in revisiting his past. Facing being a paper tiger. Feeling lost in what most folk would value as an ideal life. Sad little kid hurt and haunted. And hurting many in the process of trying to run from that."
Dangercakes13
Alan is Genius
"Snape — he bullied a child so badly that he was that child’s boggart. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it came to being a bully or being unfair."
Altrano
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Hate Her
"Carrie Bradshaw."
TrashPandaShire
"Yes!!! Thank you! She was the narcissist of the show and Samantha is the sh*t. Carrie cheating on Aidan for the piece of sh*t Mr. Big made me realize how much she placed herself first. And let’s not forget the episode where she yelled at Charlotte for not giving her money to cover her financial mistake."
MotherAgnes
How is "YOU" so popular? I mean.. people, raise your standards.
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Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.
But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.
Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.
It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.
Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:
"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"
These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.
Bleeding Out
"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."
"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."
– DongLaiCha
Tragic News
"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."
– accountnameredacted
Bottom Of The Barrel
"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."
– Crotch-Monster
A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.
Like Father, Like Son
"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."
– psycospaz
Busted
"Flashing blue lights."
– FiddleOfGold
"This sobered me up just thinking about it."
– redmaple_syrup
Losing Sight
"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."
– MissHibernia
Quitting The Bottle
"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."
– omgtater
These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.
Unplanned House Guests
"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."
– Oneinsevenbillion75
Serious Health Warning
"Elevated liver enzymes."
"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."
"So I opted for recovery, instead."
"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."
– Far_Meal8674
The Joyride
"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."
– foxfood9116
The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?
How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.
But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.
Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.
We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.
Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.
These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.
From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.
Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:
"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"
"Tale As Old As Time..."
"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","
"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."
"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."
"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."
"Lol!"
"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom
"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."
"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."
"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."
"I think he was a germaphobe."
"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."
"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."
"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.
"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."
"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."
"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000
Money Burn GIF by nog
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Who Wore It Better?
"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."
"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."
"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."
"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'
"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"
"No."- mertsey627
Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...
"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."
"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."
"It was very low key."
"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."
"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."
"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."
"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."
"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa
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See You In Court!
"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."
'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."
"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."
"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."
"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."
"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin
It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!
"I work in a public library."
"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."
"A popular book that just came out."
"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."
"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten
A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!
"My own."
"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"
"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."
"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"
"Unacceptable!"
"This shall not stand!"
"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."
"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."
"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."
"I got over it."- DeathGrover
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Holy Matrimony!
"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."
"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."
"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."
"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."
"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."
"It's just a party."
"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree
When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...
"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore
In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...
"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."
"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."
"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."
"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."
"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."
"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."
"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."
"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."
"We don’t offer wrapping services."
"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."
'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae
Customer Service Waiting GIF by Juno Calypso
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Happiest Place On Earth!
"I used to work for Disney."
"That in itself should tell you everything."
"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."
"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."
"Suddenly got worse huh?"
"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."
"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."
"I'm not kidding."
"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."
"My wife worked booking."
"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."
"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."
"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."
"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."
"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."
"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong
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The horror!
Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!
It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...
Said absolutely no one.