Be honest with yourself; terrible character traits are the best. Who doesn’t tune into Game of Thrones every week to see what Joffrey Baratheon is up to?
Walter White isn’t the most despicable villain on the small screen. He was almost a household name, and was cheered and loathed in equal measure.
One of the most powerful and beloved scenes in the entire Star Wars saga is when Darth Vader enters the dark, smoke-filled corridors of the Rebel ship and unleashes hellish carnage on the crew.
It’s not the everyday nice people that make us lean forward on the couch with energy and expectancy.
It’s the ruthless degenerate, the vicious dictator whose bumbling father ruins his life, or the selfish spinster who always spoils the best characters.
Why? Who knows?
This is not an exercise in the philosophy of psychology.
Some creative people know how to make bad characters interesting by depicting their worst moments in the funniest way possible.
Captain Jack Randall (Outlander)
“Black Jack” is a far cry from the squeamish image of Tobias Menzie’s Edmure Tully.
An aura of restrained violence follows Jack wherever he goes, but his malice is tempered by careful observation of those around him, especially Claire.
Wrapping his sadistic hedonism in the red coat of an officer serving the British, he leads people through fear and control.
What makes Outlander’s Jack so compelling is his ability to maintain ruthless composure while wresting every last remnant of physical, mental and spiritual torture from his victims.
Worst of all, his most terrifying character traits remain hidden in the dark recesses of his icy gaze.
Although he was often able to circumvent the rules, there’s really no telling how far he would have gone without the social constraints and status of a British officer.
Beth Dutton (Yellowstone)
Few television characters have sparked as much divisiveness as Yellowstone’s Beth Dutton.
She is either loved or hated, with little in between. This is mainly due to her relationship with her brother Jamie Dutton.
Beth is a strong-willed force driven by the intoxicating visions of wealth, power, revenge, and fear. Yes, fear.
Her emotional insecurities fuel her behavior, often prompting her to take things too far. She’s one of those rare characters who manages to garner a lot of attention despite lacking a character arc.
No one can deny that the Beth Dutton of the later seasons is the same Beth Dutton of the first season. Even though Beth may never change, her vulnerability captivates viewers.
Homelander (The Boys)
Terrible character traits are best described as having different, potentially derivative traits. Homelander is extremely arrogant, conceited, and downright murderous when he doesn’t get his way.
It’s rare to see narcissism and psychopathy of epic proportions presented in an entertaining way, but Antony Starr pulls it off with gusto and unbridled enthusiasm.
Homelander’s morbid characterization stems entirely from his self-loathing, making him one of the most fascinating characters in the superhero genre in a long time.
He may be the Anti-Superman of the Boys universe, but he’s also the most vulnerable.
Theon Greyjoy (Game of Thrones)
Theon (Alfie Allen) is an interesting dichotomy, even more so from a fan’s perspective.
How could a character who did terrible things but was nowhere near as good as the likes of Jaime Lannister and Sandor Clegane become so hated?
The answer is simple: timidity. Although both Jamie and Sandor are condemned in their own ways, they are both warriors and loved for it.
Theon betrayed the show’s most beloved family before Ramsay Bolton imprisoned and tortured him.
After the betrayal, he became a broken coward and ran away in the face of his sister’s death.
His horrific character traits, both before and after his fall, were so well described that Theon became one of the most reviled characters on Game of Thrones.
Jinx (Arcane)
Jinx is perfectly portrayed as a young, lovable character who everyone ignores – someone who screws everything up and destroys the lives around her (at least from her perspective).
Little did her friends, family and allies know that this awkward, sympathetic portrayal was actually a cocoon. Growing inside is a crazy arcane version of Harley Quinn.
Her unpredictability is her strength, and she’s as likely to sit back and talk as calmly as she is to blow up a skyscraper while laughing hysterically at the sky.
She’s a walking powder keg that’s mesmerizing because you never know what she’s going to do next.
Ghouls (Fallout)
Not all bad character traits are revealed through slow-burn character arcs.
By all accounts, Cooper Howard was a good family man who loved his wife and children. Two centuries later, decades later, he is a cold, heartless killer with zero compassion.
Such drastic changes don’t usually work, but Fallout isn’t a normal, cookie-cutter series.
Full of love, hard work, and family, Cooper Howard witnesses his wife’s betrayal of humanity before the entire world is plunged into nuclear holocaust.
Even so, the difference is jarring, and works so well, as his transformation from family man to calculating, sometimes vengeful killer is left to the imagination.
Harmony Korbel (severance package)
Cold, lifeless granite and Harmony Cobel are one thing, until they aren’t anymore—often in shocking, explosive ways.
Patricia Arquette’s Harmony is perfectly calm and emotionless, teaching Spock how to suppress his emotions.
That’s why her sudden outburst is so shocking and unsettling, like her throwing a coffee cup at Mark’s head.
It comes out of nowhere—a cold, reptilian creature slinking explosive fury behind the dead eyes of a Luhmann Industries executive.
By the end of “Severance Order,” we witness a total collapse. It’s shocking not only because it comes from a seemingly lifeless rock, but because it’s hard to understand how this lifeless rock could have held it in place so easily for so long.
Aemond Targaryen (House of the Dragon)
Ivan Mitchell’s acting is superb, from the young warrior monk in “The Last Kingdom” to Aemond Targaryen in “House of the Dragon,” he’s the most subtle, unsettling, and powerful person in the room power.
Of Aemond’s many terrifying character traits, his quiet, near-whisper dialogue conveys the greatest menace. Of course, he was petulant, jealous, and ambitious about having his unworthy brother on the Iron Throne.
Yet he had no qualms about roasting his brother alive hundreds of feet off the ground and watching him fall.
However, his youth and impulsiveness are his weaknesses.
His malevolent nature isn’t as repulsive and cruel as his brother’s, but his quiet sinisterness is somehow more terrifying.
Sheldon Cooper (“Young Sheldon” and “The Big Bang Theory”)
Not all horrific character traits involve brutal oppression, murder, revenge, and psychopathic tendencies.
Despite having above average intelligence, some are much simpler. Shelton was the different result, though not necessarily in the worst way.
In short, he thinks he’s smarter than everyone in the room. question? He is. This is the most frustrating part of this character trait, and what makes it fundamentally annoying.
Ironically, this makes him the most disliked character on a show that has him as the central focus.
Luckily, he’s surrounded by lovable characters from The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon. If one of them is performed by a young man (or little boy), both will fail.
There are too many characters to list here, so feel free to leave a comment and let us know which characters you think embody the scariest character traits in fascinating ways!
