Is it healthy to have a stong dislike for TV show characters?

[TeamSunnydale]

I think it can be healthy to care about fictional characters. I think that there is a line though, where it does become unhealthy. For example, if all you ever talk about, think about is that character, then its unhealthy. But its okay, to hate or love certain characters very much, because its just showing an interest and its good to have opinions, its part of what makes people interesting. 🙂

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

I think more than a few of us will readily admit to having a rather unhealthy relationship with our favorite fictional characters.

The fixation you speak of to hate a particular character stems from the same thing that the desire to love one does - investment in the show. Or perhaps it's "personal", in the sense that hated character did something wrong/unfair, etc to loved character.

As for me, I don't "hate" anyone in Buffy. I love the show too much for that. Now, Angel's actions in S8 caused me to hate him a little bit (Okay, maybe a lot). But as for the televised series, no. No hate there.

Fanship (my word) is sometimes hard to understand. The connection that people have with the texts they love - it's hard to define why, let alone understand.

 

[Doppelgang]

I know, and I do. But there are some characters I've written who are douche bags but they're supposed to be. Even the characters I love and are very lovable IMO and who are supposed to be do things that suck sometimes. Because I write my characters to be real. If I wrote a perfect character I loved all the time and never did anything wrong ever it'd be pretty darn boring and awful.

Thats a good point, that is the difficulty when writing your own fiction, you have to try and make the characters realistic by having flaws, without it being done in a way that looks contrived solely for entertainment value. It's no good trying to create a perfect character as in reality we all have weaknesses and make mistakes, so such a character just wouldn't be believable. And, relating to this thread topic, I think it's not necessarily unhealthy to have a strong like for a character, including liking or accepting some of their weaknesses, as long as you keep it in perspective and don't see them as a role model when they do things that you can see are bad.

 

[sosa lola]

Hating a character is an emotion that can't be controlled. However, and that's my opinion, I find it a waste of time to think and talk too much about a character you hate. I personally love to spend my time discussing and writing fics about characters I love. I don't hate any character from Buffy and Angel, but there are A LOT of characters I'm not interested in and never bothered to discuss or read fics about. I don't hate them, but I don't care about them one way or the other.

 

[Washburne]

I dislike characters, random character moments, certain scenes or episodes. Sometimes strongly. I hope I don't turn it to hate into an obsession.

Not sure if it's healthy or not but as long as you can make a difference between the actor and the character I guess it's okay anyway.

Twitter is evil! Sorry. Twitter do however seem to make a lot of people thinking they can tell celebrities what every they want. Even if it's just what a character of them did. Hate what happened, sure. But spreading that to the actor? Reality check needed.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I think more than a few of us will readily admit to having a rather unhealthy relationship with our favorite fictional characters.

The fixation you speak of to hate a particular character stems from the same thing that the desire to love one does - investment in the show. Or perhaps it's "personal", in the sense that hated character did something wrong/unfair, etc to loved character.

As for me, I don't "hate" anyone in Buffy. I love the show too much for that. Now, Angel's actions in S8 caused me to hate him a little bit (Okay, maybe a lot). But as for the televised series, no. No hate there.

Fanship (my word) is sometimes hard to understand. The connection that people have with the texts they love - it's hard to define why, let alone understand.

AMEN, Joan.... very well said.