Problematic Character Tournament

Welcome! This is a tournament intended to find Tumblr's Favourite Problematic Guy (/gender neutral).

Characters with all levels of "problematic" are allowed, but the general baseline is they have to... well, not be a great person. Maybe they're an asshole. Maybe they committed a genocide or two. As long as they've done something that would make people slap the word Problematic on them, send them on in!

Obviously, bad characters who did bad things are going to appear here, and they'll likely have some level of fondness expressed for them in the notes. If you're someone who thinks someone's taste in fictional characters reflects their real-life morals, this probably isn't the blog for you. Other than that, everything will be tagged with the names of characters and fandoms, so easy to avoid anything you have a specific issue with!

A similar tournament for problematic ships is something I'm likely to do once this concludes (unless people have other ideas that drum up more interest first), but that's a topic for later!

Please submit characters via the Google Form and not the askbox!

Note that it's required to specify why a character is problematic and why you like them/why they're a compelling character - just throwing in the name and nothing else would make it very hard for me to figure out who counts and why, plus it gives people unfamiliar with the characters something to go on when it comes to voting :)

You can call me Blue and despite the topics appearing here I'm very friendly I promise! Feel free to ask questions or send in feedback about anything at all and I'll do my best to help <3

ROUND 1 — Match 32 of 138

Rodrick Heffley (Diary of a Wimpy Kid)

Problematic because: "he bullies greg, embarrasses him on purpose, uses greg’s secrets to blackmail him, and regularly dumps work on him or manipulates him into covering for him. in rodrick rules, he’s the only person who knows greg’s humiliating summer secret, and he uses that as leverage. he also throws a party while their parents are away, leaves greg tangled up in the cover-up, and in the 2011 film version pranks greg at church with chocolate on his trousers, causing a public scene. he’s lazy at school, rude to his family, and usually happy to let greg take the blame if it means rodrick gets away with something." Propaganda: "he’s hot, he’s funny, he’s in a terrible band, and he has the exact smug older-brother energy that makes people lose all critical thinking skills. yes he bullies greg. yes he’s gross. yes his room probably smells insane. unfortunately the eyeliner/emo drummer thing works."

vs. Edelgard von Hresvelg (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

Problematic because: "She's one of those characters where you can absolutely argue she has a point, but the methods are still a lot. Fodlan’s Crest/nobility system is awful, the Church is hiding history, and Edelgard herself was tortured as a child by the same faction she later ends up using for her war. But she still starts a continent-wide war to force her reforms through, and she’s very much willing to decide that everyone else’s lives can be thrown into the fire if the world that comes out the other side is better. As the Flame Emperor, she hires bandits to attack the students early on, works with the Death Knight, raids the Holy Tomb for Crest Stones, and keeps a working alliance with Those Who Slither in the Dark, even though they’re the people behind some of the worst experimentation and political violence in the setting. She hates them and does plan to turn on them eventually, but “I’ll use the evil mole cult until I can afford not to” is still a pretty questionable political strategy. And depending on the route, she can become the person who drags the entire continent through five years of war, conquers territory, treats classmates and former friends as acceptable losses, and in Azure Moon pushes herself into an even more monstrous form rather than surrender. I love her, but she is not just “girlboss emperor who wants equality.”" Propaganda: 1. "She’s one of the few characters where I can understand the argument and still be horrified by what she does with it. She’s right that Fodlan is rotten. Crests decide people’s worth, nobles inherit power they haven’t earned, the Church has shaped history around itself, and people like Edelgard and Lysithea are living proof that the system grinds children up when power wants something from them. But she takes a real injustice, responds with real conviction, and then makes herself the person who gets to decide what everyone else must endure for the future she wants. She lies, allies with monsters, starts a war, and keeps going even when the cost is horrific. She’s driven, wounded, brilliant, ruthless, and sometimes genuinely right." 2. "sorry but if you grow up being tortured into a political weapon, watch your siblings die, and then look around and see the church/nobility/crest system still being treated as basically fine, you are probably not going to become a chill reformist who writes polite letters. does that excuse everything? no. obviously no. she still starts the war, she still lies, she still uses people she knows are dangerous because she thinks she can beat them later. but i do think people flatten her when they act like she just woke up one day and chose conquest because she likes red capes. she’s trying to destroy the system that destroyed her. the tragedy is that she’s willing to destroy a lot of other people’s lives to do it." 3. "She is fascinating because every route makes you deal with a different version of her. On her own route, she’s the revolutionary you can understand and even support if you buy into the cost. On other routes, she’s the former classmate across the battlefield who has decided the war matters more than anyone’s personal feelings about it. She’s sympathetic, stubborn, terrifying, painfully young, and somehow both the person trying to end the Crest system and the person willing to use a faction of nightmare scientists to get there. Incredible character."

ROUND 1 — Match 31 of 138

Simm!Master (Doctor Who)

Problematic because: "He becomes Harold Saxon, uses the Archangel mobile network to influence people into electing him Prime Minister, murders his own Cabinet, kills the US President on live TV, and brings the Toclafane to Earth. Then he rules the planet for a year, has the Toclafane slaughter huge numbers of people, keeps Martha’s family as servants/prisoners, imprisons Jack, and humiliates the Doctor by ageing him and keeping him as a pet-like prisoner. The Toclafane also turn out to be future humans from the end of the universe, so he’s using humanity’s own future descendants to massacre present-day Earth. In The End of Time, after being resurrected, he drains/kills people to keep himself alive, turns the entire human race into copies of himself, and tries to use the Immortality Gate for his own survival and power." Propaganda: 1. "My favourite flavour of Master because he is so unbelievably obnoxious in exactly the right way. He’s loud, childish, cruel, funny, needy, violent, and somehow both terrifying and ridiculous at once. This is a man who becomes Prime Minister under the name Harold Saxon, conquers Earth, keeps the Doctor as a little aged-up prisoner on a flying aircraft carrier, and then dances around to pop music while the world is ending. And the thing is, he’s not just goofy! He’s genuinely nasty! The year that never was is horrific. Martha’s family are trapped, Jack is trapped, the Doctor is humiliated and helpless, the Toclafane are slaughtering people across the planet. Simm!Master is funny because he’s so performative, but the performance is covering something really ugly - he wants the Doctor’s attention, wants the universe’s attention, wants to prove he matters, and if he has to break Earth to do it, fine." 2. "He makes the Doctor/Master dynamic feel personal in a very messy way. He hates the Doctor, misses him, wants to beat him, wants him to understand, wants him to suffer, and still clearly sees him as the only person who really matters. He’s ridiculous, cruel, funny, needy, and genuinely dangerous, which is exactly the mix I want from the Master." 3. "john simm's master is a pathetic soggy little man"

vs. Susan Ashworth (The Cat Lady)

Problematic because: "Susan isn’t a villain, but she’s also not especially nice at the start of the game. She’s isolated, bitter, blunt, and often hostile toward people who try to speak to her. Some of that comes from depression and years of loneliness, but it still means she can be cold, dismissive, and hard to deal with. Her early dynamic with Mitzi especially matters because Mitzi is trying to reach her, and Susan isn’t that warm or grateful about it. She pushes people away, assumes the worst, and often sounds like she’s already decided nobody is worth the effort. She gets pulled into a series of killings involving people like Doctor X, the cannibal pest-control couple, the masked attacker, and the Eye of Adam. Most of them are predators or killers themselves, so it’s not framed like Susan is hunting innocent people, but she still becomes judge and executioner under the Queen’s influence. The game also lets the player make some morally heavy choices around Mitzi and Adam, including whether to save Mitzi during the gas trap and whether Adam lives or dies." Propaganda: "She doesn’t feel like the usual horror protagonist. She’s middle-aged, depressed, lonely, blunt, tired, and not especially easy to like at first, which makes her feel more real. The game lets her be difficult without treating that as a reason she doesn’t deserve sympathy. What I like is that the game doesn’t make recovery simple - Susan doesn’t become a different person by the end, she just becomes someone who can keep living, with help, with friendship, with all the damage still there. She’s a very heavy character, but that’s exactly why she sticks."

ROUND 1 — Match 30 of 138

Byakuya Togami (Danganronpa)

Problematic because: "byakuya is what happens when a rich boy enters a murder game and decides the real tragedy is that everyone else is poor and annoying. he spends a lot of the first game treating the other trapped students like idiots, obstacles, or future corpses instead of people he should maybe cooperate with. like, everyone is locked in a school where the only way out is to kill someone and get away with it, and byakuya’s first instinct is still “interesting. i will now be unbearable.” the big obvious thing is chapter 2, where he messes with chihiro’s body/crime scene to make it look like the serial killer genocide jack did it, partly because he wants to test everyone and make the trial more interesting for himself. so yes, he sees a classmate dead and decides this is a fun little logic exercise. he also exposes toko’s secret in the trial, keeps using her obsession with him when it benefits him, and generally treats everyone’s fear and grief like it’s beneath him. he gets better later, but early-game byakuya is very much a human trust fund with glasses and no bedside manner." Propaganda: 1. "Byakuya is terrible at the start, but that’s what makes his arc fun. He walks into the killing game acting like he’s above everyone else, then has to slowly realise that being rich, clever, and smug doesn’t actually make him untouchable. I like that he doesn’t suddenly become nice in a fake way - he’s still rude, still arrogant, still Byakuya, but you can see him start taking the others more seriously and actually working with them instead of treating them like background characters in his personal survival story. He’s awful, but he’s useful awful, and sometimes that’s exactly what a cast needs." 2. "emotional range of a bank statement"

vs. Anne Wait (Family Treasures)

Problematic because: "kleptomaniac who doubles down and causes a lot of drama with her kleptomania" Propaganda: "maybe she taught them a valid lesson. maybe they'll all be less awful to each other now that they know they all had something to hid. who's to say :/"

ROUND 1 — Match 29 of 138

Ayumi Shinozaki (Corpse Party)

Problematic because: "in one bad ending, she burns naomi’s paper scrap because she’s jealous over satoshi, intentionally trapping naomi in heavenly host forever. which is so fucking nasty and personal. it isn’t her trying to save anyone or fix the ritual or make some desperate heroic choice, she just lets her jealousy take over at the worst possible time and ruins naomi’s only chance of escaping." Propaganda: "relatable? hopefully not. iconic? yes. she has the worst occult hobby success rate in history, but she commits. she cries, she panics, she tries again, she makes everything worse, she feels awful about it, and then somehow finds a NEW cursed object to trust. absolute disaster class rep. i support her emotionally and oppose her logistically."

vs. The Master (Doctor Who)

Problematic because: "the master is basically the doctor’s worst friend from school if that friend kept trying to conquer planets, steal bodies, start cults, weaponise alien tech, and make the doctor emotionally miserable for sport. they’re a renegade time lord, like the doctor, but instead of travelling around helping people, they usually turn up with some plan involving mind control, political takeover, mass death, or “i am in charge now because i said so.” the classic era already has plenty - in logopolis, the master kills nyssa’s father tremas by taking over his body, then messes with logopolis badly enough that the doctor is warned it could cause universal disaster. new who just makes the scale even worse. as harold saxon, the master becomes prime minister, murders the us president on tv, uses the toclafane to conquer earth, keeps the doctor aged and helpless, and turns martha’s family and jack into prisoners/slaves on the valiant for a whole year. then in the end of time, he turns almost the entire human race into copies of himself, because apparently normal tyranny wasn’t personal enough. and that’s before missy and dhawan!master. missy builds an “afterlife” that uploads the minds of dead people so they can be turned into cybermen, which is a genuinely horrible thing to do even by master standards. dhawan!master destroys gallifrey, turns dead time lords into cybermasters, and later tries to force the doctor to regenerate into him so he can use her identity as a weapon. so yes: murder, body theft, mass manipulation, political dictatorship, cyberman crimes, gallifrey crimes, earth crimes, doctor-specific emotional terrorism, and a level of clinginess that should probably require a restraining order across time and space." Propaganda: 1. "they are not just evil, they are ANNOYING about it. every plan has to involve theatre. every betrayal has to be personal. every time the doctor tries to move on, the master appears like “hello :) did you miss me :) i have ruined another government.” i love them because the relationship with the doctor is so messy. they hate each other, love each other, understand each other too well, keep trying to save or destroy each other depending on the day, and somehow make “we went to school together” sound like the most dangerous backstory in the universe." 2. "The Master is so funny as a recurring villain because no matter the incarnation, the basic energy is always: I am smarter than everyone, I should be in charge, the Doctor is obsessed with me specifically, and if any of that is untrue I will make it everyone’s problem. Delgado has evil charm, Ainley has panto menace, Roberts is doing whatever the TV movie was doing bless him, Simm is feral, Missy is flirting with redemption and murder in the same sentence, Dhawan looks like he’s one bad conversation away from biting through the furniture. They’ve done basically every kind of villain nonsense available: hypnosis, disguises, political coups, body theft, Cybermen, fake afterlives, dead Time Lord armies, forced regeneration, turning humanity into themself, refusing to die politely. But the reason they work is that it’s always personal with the Doctor. The Master doesn’t just want to win, they want the Doctor to watch, react, argue, understand, maybe join in, maybe stop them, preferably all at once. Absolute nightmare bestie."

ROUND 1 — Match 28 of 138

Monster Eliot (The Magicians)

Problematic because: "He’s an ancient godlike being wearing Eliot’s body around for most of Season 4 while Eliot is trapped inside his own mind. He possesses Eliot after escaping Castle Blackspire, uses his face to get close to Quentin and the others, and drags them into his mission to recover his memories, rebuild his sister, and get revenge on the gods/Librarians who imprisoned them. He also doesn’t care much about keeping Eliot’s body safe at first, which is pretty awful when the “body” is, you know, someone the main cast loves. The backstory is sad, but the behaviour is still very bad. He and his sister were created by the Old Gods, considered too powerful, stripped of their bodies, and locked away - his sister was later sacrificed/split up by Librarians who used her power to become gods. So yes, he has a real reason to be angry. But his response is killing gods like Bacchus, Iris, and Enyalius, kidnapping Julia so his sister can use her body, letting Eliot’s loved ones think Eliot might be gone, and generally treating everyone around him like either a toy, a tool, or an obstacle." Propaganda: 1. "He’s lonely, confused, childish, powerful, and furious because his whole existence was decided for him by beings stronger than him. I get why he wants his sister back, I get why he wants answers, I even get why he’s attached to Quentin, in his weird little “new favourite person” way. Still shouldn’t possess people, obviously." 2. "the monster is such a good problem because he makes eliot’s absence feel horrible without actually removing hale appleman from the season. you’re watching eliot’s face, eliot’s body, eliot’s voice, but the wrong person is driving, and every time someone who loves eliot has to look at him and deal with that, it hurts. and the monster is kind of fascinating because he’s so emotionally underdeveloped for something that powerful. he wants company, attention, memories, his sister, revenge, all of it immediately, and he has the power to make refusal everyone else’s problem. he can be funny and oddly charming for about five seconds, then you remember eliot is trapped, bacchus is dead, julia is in danger, and Quentin is trying to reason with something that could kill him by getting bored."

vs. Kanjuro Kurozumi (One Piece)

Problematic because: "SPOILERS FOR WANO!!! basically he pretended to be everyone's friend since childhood, and he betrayed them all. he tried to kill everyone. he beat a small child" Propaganda: "his entire bloodline was persecuted for a crime one man committed, and he when was a small child his parents were killed in front of him, traumatizing him for life. when he finds other members of his family, he's groomed by them and turned into a tool to destroy the Kozuki Family. he's very theatrical and stupid. he has the ability to bring anything he draws to life, and he pretended to suck at drawing to hide his true skills and kept summoning pitiful little creatures and almost killing the others with his incompetency"

ROUND 1 — Match 27 of 138

Ben Paul (The Walking Dead Game)

Problematic because: "He secretly makes a deal with the bandits attacking the motel, giving them supplies because he thinks it’ll keep the group safe. It does not. The deal helps set off the raid, Lilly’s breakdown, Carley or Doug getting shot, Duck getting bitten, Katjaa dying, and Kenny’s entire life collapsing in one afternoon. Ben is remorseful, but he also keeps it secret until the group is already falling apart. And then in Savannah he keeps making fear-driven choices at the worst possible times. When walkers attack, he runs instead of helping Clementine, which forces Chuck to save her and gets Chuck separated from the group and killed. In Crawford, he removes the hatchet keeping a door shut because he doesn’t realise it was holding the walkers back, and that causes another attack during the escape. If he survives Crawford, he can finally snap back at Kenny and point out that he never even got to know what happened to his own family, which is one of the reasons Ben is hard to just write off as “the useless one.” He screws up badly, but he’s also a scared teenager in an apocalypse full of adults who barely have it together either." Propaganda: "He's one of those characters I will defend more than I probably should, because yes, he messes up constantly, but people act like he’s some evil mastermind when he is literally a terrified high schooler. His biggest mistake with the bandits is awful, and it gets people killed, but he doesn’t do it because he wants anyone hurt, he does it because he thinks he’s buying safety and then doesn’t have the nerve to admit it once it all goes wrong. He’s not brave in the cool apocalypse-survivor way, he’s not secretly badass, he’s scared, guilty, awkward, and completely out of his depth, which honestly makes him one of the more realistic people in the group. Not everyone would become Lee or Kenny or Molly. A lot of people would become Ben - trying to help, making it worse, hating themselves for it, and still not knowing how to fix anything."

vs. Emily Davis (Until Dawn)

Problematic because: "She's exactly the kind of character people write off as “just a bitch,” which is lazy, but also like… she is definitely being a bitch for a good chunk of the game. She’s part of the prank on Hannah at the start, where the group humiliates her over her crush on Mike - Hannah runs out into the snow afterward, Beth follows her, and the whole tragedy starts there. Emily wasn’t the only person involved, and Jessica is the one usually credited with planning it, but Emily is absolutely in that room. A year later, she’s still messy with pretty much everyone around her. She’s awful to Jessica, treats Matt like he’s there to carry bags and back her up in arguments, she might be cheating with Mike, and can like it when Matt threatens Mike or sides against Jess, which says a lot about how she uses him in that relationship. She’s also harsh, demanding, spiteful, and very willing to make her insecurity everyone else’s problem. The basement bite scene is more complicated because Mike is the one who can pull the gun on her, but Emily can still slap Ashley afterward when she finds out the bite was never infectious, so even her very understandable terror comes out as “I’m going to make this someone’s fault immediately.”" Propaganda: 1. "She’s rude, jealous, controlling with Matt, and absolutely part of the Hannah prank, so I’m not trying to pretend she’s secretly innocent. But once the horror actually starts, she’s also one of the most capable people in the group. The mines sequence does so much for her because suddenly all the “mean girl” stuff falls away and you’re watching someone think fast, keep moving, and survive through sheer panic and competence. She’s not written to be pleasant, she’s written to be abrasive, smart, angry, scared, and very hard to kill if you don’t mess up her QTEs. I love a horror character who can be socially terrible and still earn respect because when the monster shows up, she does not simply stand there screaming. She runs, climbs, hides, improvises, and makes it out. Emily isn’t “nice,” but nice was never the assignment!!" 2. "yes, she is mean. yes, she is exhausting. yes, matt should probably have gone home single. but she is also SO entertaining and honestly one of the most competent people on that mountain. like people reduce her to “bitchy girlfriend” and then forget she survives the mines basically alone while everyone else is still in the lodge. she’s snappy, she’s selfish, she’s jealous, she has a horrible tone 90% of the time, but she also has survival instincts and a brain. i don’t need her to be sweet i need her to be exactly the kind of girl who would call me an idiot and then somehow get us both out alive"

ROUND 1 — Match 26 of 138

Volta (The Arcana)

Problematic because: "She's one of Lucio’s courtiers and is literally in charge of the city’s food, which is already not great when Vesuvia is plague-ridden and starving. The issue is that she’s hoarding supplies while people in the city go hungry, and her whole curse/deal with the Devil means she’s always hungry but never actually satisfied. She’s not cruel like Valdemar or Vulgora, she’s honestly kind of pathetic and scared most of the time, but she still goes along with the courtiers, benefits from Lucio’s court, and helps maintain a system where everyone else is suffering while she keeps trying to feed an appetite that can’t be fixed that way. Her backstory makes it sadder - she was starving when the Devil offered to “feed” her, without telling her she’d never feel full - but it doesn’t make the food-hoarding any less awful for everyone beneath her." Propaganda: 1. "She's probably the courtier I feel worst for, because she doesn’t come across like someone who wants power for the sake of it. She’s hungry, constantly, painfully hungry, and the Devil’s deal twisted that into her entire existence. Which doesn’t excuse hoarding food while Vesuvia suffers, but it does make her feel more tragic than malicious. I like her because she’s not scary in the same way the others are. Valdemar is clinical horror, Vulgora is violence, Vlastomil is worms and corruption, but Volta is more like need. The fact that she can side with the Apprentice and doesn’t seem to actually love the courtiers makes her feel like someone who got trapped in the wrong bargain and just kept surviving badly." 2. "volta apologist hours because honestly if i was starving for weeks, eating shoe leather and bones, and then a literal devil showed up like “hey i can feed you,” i cannot promise i would make a smart legal decision either. yes, she hoards food. yes, that is awful when the city is starving. but she’s not doing it because she’s some evil mastermind rubbing her hands together over famine. shes cursed to always want and never feel full, and the other courtiers clearly intimidate/control her more than they actually respect her. she’s sad and weird and gross and still somehow one of the least malicious people in that nightmare court" 3. "She should not be in charge of food distribution. I think we can all agree on that. Terrible appointment. Horrible for Vesuvia. But as a character? I’m fond of her. She’s small, nervous, constantly starving, sniffing around for snacks, eating beetles, getting bullied by worse courtiers, and generally giving the impression that she signed the worst contract in the world and nobody explained the terms. Like, is she part of the problem? absolutely. Would I trust her with a pantry during a crisis? no. Do I still want to wrap her in a blanket, give her soup, and then maybe overthrow the Devil for false advertising? yes."

vs. Lisa Sherwood/The Hag (Dead by Daylight)

Problematic because: "she grows up learning old village charms, gets kidnapped in the swamp, chained in a flooded cellar, starved, tortured, and forced to watch other prisoners be carved up and eaten by cannibals. when she finally breaks free, she’s dying, so she draws the elders’ symbols in blood, chooses vengeance, and whatever answers her turns her into the hag. the search party later finds the shack full of dismembered and eaten captors, with lisa gone. so, yes, the revenge is extremely understandable. still, in the fog she’s now the thing setting traps, stalking survivors, and feeding people to the entity." Propaganda: "shes tragic as hell but still a killer. kidnapped, starved, tortured, forced to watch cannibals eat people, then she gets revenge and becomes a swamp trap monster. i support the revenge part. i am less supportive of her making random survivors step in magic mud jumpscares forever"

ROUND 1 — Match 25 of 138

Dee Reynolds (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)

Problematic because: "a whole lot of reasons but ill keep it short and just say the blackface & rape" Propaganda: "on a show where every character is cartoonishly evil, they don’t pussy out on making the woman just as bad (and sometimes worse) than the men"

vs. Riko Moriyama (All for the Game)

Problematic because: "he is the obvious antagonist of the series. he's a big piece of shit that is constantly antagonizing and belittling the foxes and always expects to be on top. he ends up going so far as to torturing neil for two weeks while he makes him train with their team during their break. he's just an all around bad guy." Propaganda: "i know it doesn't excuse his behavior but i have to feel bad for him just knowing he was born into all of this and definitely raised that way. his family is awful and puts him up to ridiculous standards to winning. at the end of the series, when he slips up once and his team loses, his family kills him for it. i just feel like he had potential to be better because where neil, kevin and jean got out of there and had somewhere to go, riko could never get away from his family."

ROUND 1 — Match 24 of 138

Rufus Shinra (Final Fantasy VII)

Problematic because: "After his father dies, he takes over Shinra and openly says his father tried to control people with money, but he’s going to control them with fear instead. Which is at least honest, I guess, but not exactly a comforting political philosophy. Shinra under Rufus keeps chasing the Promised Land because they want even more mako, aka the planet’s life energy, to exploit. He commands the Turks, who do kidnapping/assassination/black-ops work for the company, keeps pushing the war-politics around Wutai, and in the original game uses enormous military force while Sephiroth and Meteor are already threatening the planet. He does sometimes fight the bigger world-ending threat, but mostly because Shinra can’t profit from a dead world. The charm, the white suit, the cool boss fights - all very fun. Still the president of the company that made half the setting worse." Propaganda: 1. "He has this icy, polished, terrifyingly young CEO energy where you can tell he thinks he’s smarter than every old man in the room, and half the time he might be, which is annoying. He’s stylish, controlled, ambitious, and absolutely not someone you want running a company with a private army. I like him because he’s charismatic without being soft." 2. "rufus is awful but he has insane presence. like yes babe congratulations on becoming president of planet-destroying capitalism inc, very impressive, still evil. but he walks onto the roof with the white coat and the shotgun and suddenly you’re like okay unfortunately i get it"

vs. Dr. Frank-n-Furter (The Rocky Horror Picture Show)

Problematic because: "He's a sexpest, he fucks a man's fiancé a few hours after meeting them both, THEN fucks the man, he EATS people, he whips his like servant guy thing, its fucking batshit" Propaganda: "he is SO fucking funny at times and genuinely complex as a character when you look past the flaws"

ROUND 1 — Match 23 of 138

Ketheric Thorm (Baldur's Gate 3)

Problematic because: "He helped Gortash and Dark Urge create the Absolute Plot to conquer Faerun with Illithid Tadpoles. He unleashed a curse on his village that turned the whole region into a shadowed wasteland. And he did all this just because he couldn’t cope with the loss of his wife and daughter." Propaganda: "He is arguably, either one of the most sympathetic or one of the easiest to hate of the three main villains, due to his tragic backstory and the disproportionate response he has to anything that goes wrong in his life. Also, the voice acting for all his scenes is so good."

vs. Stephanie (The Walking Dead Game: 400 Days)

Problematic because: "She’s part of Roman’s truck stop group with Shel, Becca, Boyd, Clive, Joyce, etc., and by the time Shel’s story jumps forward, the place has already become way more tense and controlling. Then Stephanie gets caught stealing supplies and trying to leave. In a normal situation, leaving a bad group is completely fair - in a tiny survival camp, stealing medicine/food/supplies on your way out can genuinely get other people killed. Roman’s response is horrifying - he orders Shel, Stephanie’s friend, to execute her - but Stephanie still put the group in danger before that. The reason she’s interesting is that she might honestly be right to run. Roman’s group is getting colder, stricter, and more execution-happy, and Boyd can even tell Shel that he understands why Stephanie did it and that she should take Becca and leave too. So Stephanie’s “problematic” bit isn’t villain behaviour, it’s more like self-preservation at everyone else’s expense, in a group that was already becoming unsafe." Propaganda: 1. "She barely gets any screentime, but the choice around her says so much about the group. She steals supplies and tries to run, which is selfish and dangerous, but the fact that Roman’s immediate solution is “make Shel kill her” kind of proves her point about the camp. I like her because she’s one of those minor Walking Dead characters where you can imagine the whole story happening offscreen. Maybe she panicked, maybe she saw the group turning into something she couldn’t live with, maybe she was just done waiting for Roman to decide who deserved to survive. She’s not innocent, but I honestly struggle to blame her completely for trying to get out." 2. "she doesn’t murder anyone, she doesn’t go full carver, she doesn’t become some big villain. she just steals supplies and tries to leave. and yeah, that’s bad! people need those supplies! but also roman’s group is clearly becoming terrifying, and if your options are “stay here until the next person gets executed” or “try to sneak away with enough stuff to survive,” i can understand why she chose badly. she’s messy, scared, and probably smarter than everyone still pretending that camp is fine."

ROUND 1 — Match 22 of 138

Enji Todoroki/Endeavor (My Hero Academia)

Problematic because: "Familial abuse, human trafficking(he bought his wife), implied marital rape, child neglect, child grooming" Propaganda: "He and his family are such an accurate representation of some people in that situation. Enji hurts his family, grooms two of his four children into being pro heroes(because he hates his own weakness and wants those two kids to be the strongest), drives one of his kids to what is basically a suicide attempt just to get his attention back, abuses and isolates his youngest child until he's 15/16, and neglects his two middle children because they don't have his fire quirk. After the whole war against the villains thing, he realizes that he fucks up and he tries his damn best to atone. He doesn't ask for redemption or forgiveness, but just atonement. And his family is all mixed up about it. His wife helps take care of him(he's in a wheelchair after the war), his daughter helps as well, his youngest WANTS to see him become better, his second youngest left because he can't stand seeing him changing(fair enough), and his oldest is in the hospital after trying to kill himself for the second time, and he is still glad because Enji comes and visits him in the hospital. Basically, I really really love their story, and Enji doesn't deserve all the hate he gets in the MHA Fandom because he genuinely did change, but he still did fucked up things for 24/25 years and he acknowledged that."

vs. John Murphy (The 100)

Problematic because: "Pissed on a guy, killed a couple people, tried to kill a couple more, generally irritating and uncooperative." Propaganda: "He’s a delight trust me. He has some really good character development after season 1 and he’s also literally unkillable. They have tried to kill him so many times they just can’t do it. He’s wonderful"

ROUND 1 — Match 21 of 138

Dora (Ayakashi: Ghost Guild)

Problematic because: "She's a bounty hunter who illegally captures spirits for profit, and she treats some of the spirits she captures like shit because she doesn't believe they'll make her any money (even telling such spirits they're only useful as a human shield), and SHE EVEN TRIES (AND NEARLY SUCCEEDS IN) STEALING THE PLAYER CHARACTER'S PARTNER BECAUSE THE PARTNER IS A RARE SPIRIT" Propaganda: "She's hot, and I'd let her dominate me, and even her vibes were enough to make me take one look at her and go "smash." also her game is defunct and obscure as all hell and i need more people interested in the funny defunct ghost gacha game from 2012"

vs. Caesar Clown (One Piece)

Problematic because: "1) blew up a lab because they were cutting his funding. 2) kidnapped and experimented on children under the guise of curing them. 3) released a poison on his own men to test it." Propaganda: "He's so silly with it and kinda hot sometimes"

ROUND 1 — Match 20 of 138

Yoru (Chainsaw Man)

Problematic because: "She is the war devil and wants to become more powerful and the way to do that in universe is to get people more scared of war, so she tries to start wars. It could also be argued that she is problematic because she has interest in the main character (I’m not sure if it was romantic or not I haven’t read it in a while), and she is cognitively far older than him." Propaganda: "I’ve seen arguments that if Makima (another antagonist from csm) is a criticism of Japan, then she is a criticism of America and I find that very compelling. Also she turns Michigan into a weapon at some point ts is hilarious"

vs. Orochimaru (Naruto)

Problematic because: "he did unethical human experiments, groomed children, and a lot more" Propaganda: "Orochimaru is deeply intelligent and unapologetic for anything he's ever done in his pursuit of knowledge"

ROUND 1 — Match 19 of 138

Malcolm Tucker (The Thick of It)

Problematic because: "He's the government spin doctor/enforcer whose entire job is bullying, threatening, leaking, smearing, and verbally destroying people until the day’s political disaster becomes somebody else’s problem. He’s funny as hell to watch, but in-universe he’s a workplace nightmare - ministers, advisors, civil servants, press officers, basically everyone around him gets screamed at, humiliated, intimidated, or used. The show itself treats him as the embodiment of a political culture where image matters more than policy - Armando Iannucci even described the show as a window into bullying culture, saying Malcolm “pulls people apart.” He punches Glenn in the nose during a conference panic, tricks a blogger into smearing Julie Price after she quits, helps engineer Nicola Murray’s downfall, and is tied to the leaking culture that leads into the Goolding Inquiry. The really nasty one is the Douglas Tickel material - Tickel was made homeless after a PFI housing sell-off and later died by suicide, and Malcolm illegally obtains private details including medical records, NHS number, National Insurance number, and personal contact information, then that information is leaked as part of a political attack. He denies leaking the records under oath, leaving him exposed to possible perjury charges." Propaganda: 1. "He’s brutal because politics rewards brutality. Every minister wants the benefits of his violence until they’re the person being shouted at. He’s not a good man, but he’s also surrounded by cowards, careerists, idiots, liars, and people who are perfectly happy to let him do the dirty work as long as they can act shocked afterward. Malcolm is the monster Westminster hires, fears, needs, and then pretends it never asked for." 1. "hes one of the funniest characters ever written and also absolutely the man who would make your job so bad you’d start browsing farms on rightmove. he’s a bully. he knows he’s a bully. everyone knows he’s a bully. but the thing is, he’s usually bullying people who are also doing something stupid, cowardly, selfish, or politically disastrous"

vs. Burong Sukapat/The Krasue (Dead by Daylight)

Problematic because: "She's a struggling opera singer who accepts Malai’s offer to drink a potion that will make her successful, knowing the deal involves “another” inhabiting her body at night. Afterward, she keeps going even when she coughs blood, wakes up covered in blood beside mutilated animals, and realises she may have been hunting in her sleep. She lies to Janjira by saying she’s only sleepwalking, asks her to watch over her, then wakes up to Janjira dead. She later confronts Malai, transforms into the Krasue, and kills her. When Burong gets the leading role afterward, she chooses the career and keeps feeding the creature at night until the Entity takes her. In the Fog, she attacks survivors in both her human and Krasue forms, infecting them and using her Intestinal Whip to injure and sacrifice them." Propaganda: 1. "She feels visually and culturally distinct from most of the roster. The opera singer angle gives her elegance and performance, then the Krasue form gives her full body-horror monster design. I like that she isn’t just “pretty singer becomes scary.” The voice, the stage presence, the transformation, the folklore basis, the split between public beauty and night-time hunger, it all gives her a really clear identity. She stands out immediately." 2. "she wanted fame. malai gave her a way to get it. at first burong is horrified by what’s happening, which makes sense, but then the lead role comes and she chooses not to stop, which is the intereting part of her for me. she’s not the original source of the curse, and she’s absolutely a victim of malai passing it on, but once she knows the cost, she keeps benefiting from it. also, design-wise, she rules. the human opera singer form and the floating-head krasue form give her such a strong contrast, and it makes her feel different from the usual slashers/monsters in the game."