The Scrappy

"The more astute readers among you may have noticed that I haven't yet gone so far as to give anything an actual 'F'. That's not out of any kind-heartedness on my part, it's just that every time I got ready to give one out, I would ask myself, 'Is it really that bad, compared to the verminous, soul-tainting badness of Scrappy-Doo?'"

— Lore Fitzgerald Sjoberg, The Book of Ratings

There are popular characters that have fandoms. But sometimes, there is a character who instead has a hatedom. We call this guy The Scrappy: a character that the audience hates to see.

It's not enough that the character be hated, however. For any character to truly solidify themselves as a Scrappy in the eyes of the audience, all of the following criteria have to be met.

A Scrappy has to be:

• Unintentionally hated by the audience: If this character is supposed to be hated due to being a villain or Jerkass, and their cruel actions are treated as such by the narrative, that's a Hate Sink. They can be well-received by adding to the enjoyability of the work, if only for the satisfaction of them getting karma.^Examples Villains such as Ramsay Bolton, Dolores Umbridge and Micah Bell are not generally thought of as detracting from the works in which they appear, and were supposed to be horribly loathsome people that the audience would despise. Thus they do not qualify as Scrappies. Similarly, Chica's Magic Rainbow is an extremely obnoxious jerk that did detract from her work, but as she's written to be annoying and mean on purpose, she doesn’t qualify either. While such characters can overlap with The Scrappy, they have to be hated for different reasons than intended that detract from the work's enjoyability.^Example Bendy was meant to be a Hate Sink due to his obnoxious actions. However, due to becoming a Karma Houdini, he ended up being hated for reasons other than the creators intended, to the point they publicly apologized for it and wrote Bendy out of the show afterwards. A character's story should be concluded, seeing if they were supposed to be hated or get due karma, before judging them as a Scrappy or not.
• Hated by the majority of the audience: If they have about as many fans as detractors, even if the latter are more obvious, that's a Base-Breaking Character. Examples of Americans Hate Tingle and Germans Love David Hasselhoff similarly don't count, as they have fans somewhere. ^Example Hiyoko Saionji is incredibly hated by English-speaking fans due to being a cruel bully whose actions are too mean-spirited to be entertaining, to the point that someone only familiar with that part of the fandom could easily assume she's an example, but she's well-liked in the franchise's native Japan, which disqualifies her. Someone not personally liking a character is not this (unless it's a Show Within a Show example). For a character to truly be considered a Scrappy, even the Silent Majority has to dislike this character.
• A single hated character: The Scrappy, as an Audience Reaction, only applies to individual characters. Hated works, products, or real people do not count. Groups don't count either as they are not characters, and each character could vary in individual popularity (unless said group is small enough that all of its members can feasibly be judged Scrappies on their own). ^Example  The Minions seem to be quite hated for being annoying comic relief characters who are constantly shoehorned into everything related to Illumination, but since they are an entire race of beings, they cannot be considered Scrappies because it isn’t fair to judge every single one of them. Things like vehicles, weapons, or locations aren't characters either, so they cannot be Scrappies unless they're portrayed as sentient and have some characterization.
• Hated for narrative reasons: They're hated for the perception of being poorly written or detracting from the narrative. If the character is hated for gameplay reasons as opposed to narrative or character writing, that's a High-Tier Scrappy or Low-Tier Letdown (if they're a playable character), That One Boss or Goddamned Boss (if they're an enemy), or other Audience Reactions such as Scrappy Mechanic or That One Sidequest. ^Example  Canary Mary is widely reviled by the fandom, but most of the hate is due to the unfair difficulty of her races rather than how she is written, so she doesn't qualify as a Scrappy. However, if the character is hated for story and gameplay reasons, then they’re still fair game.^Example Although Lorithia is hated for being That One Boss, players also hate her for being a bland and ineffective villain, so she still counts. If the character is hated because people hate the actor portraying the character, that's X-Pac Heat.
• Hated by the fans of the work: They have to be hated by people who unironically enjoy the work otherwise. Characters hated by those who dislike the work to begin with, or whom the work wasn't meant to appeal to don't count.^Examples Barney and Caillou are definitely still hated, but the works they hail from are clearly meant for a different audience, and aren't hated by those young enough to enjoy those works; thus, they cannot be considered Scrappies. Hi-5 is widely hated for being The Millstone and having selfish motivations, but the movie he's from is generally considered horrible as a whole, so he's just another reason to hate it rather than a low point in an otherwise good movie, disqualifying him from Scrappy status.
• Consistently hated: If an otherwise well-received character does something objectionable that's temporary or minor compared to their liked portrayals, or is likable depending on who's writing them, they normally have enough fans not to count as Scrappies. ^Example  Patrick Star has been incredibly hated due to his stupidity and/or Jerkass behaviors being the causes of several of the show's most hated episodes, but there have been plenty of moments that make people think that he’s the show’s best character. Thus, he cannot be considered a Scrappy.

Not all Scrappies are doomed to their status. If the writers notice what's happening, they may change the character in order to make sure they are no longer hated, give them a tragic death scene, simply send them away, turn them into a villain in a reboot or adaptation and have the more popular characters beat them up, or at the very least show that the other characters are as annoyed by them as the fans are. In a few rare cases, a Scrappy will be replaced with a Replacement Scrappy; in this case, fans may be so irritated by the new character that they will retroactively find virtues to the old Scrappy.

This is an Audience Reaction, more based on the fandom than the character itself. The visceral response to The Scrappy can baffle other fans who don't take the character as seriously, or even sympathize with him or her.

As a result, dear reader, tread carefully: fans aren't necessarily always right. The catharsis from violently cutting into a character with a grating voice or an irritating tic may be cathartic for some, and extremely disturbing for others. This is a place to document a phenomenon, not to argue a character's merits, lack thereof, or vent.

Please only post examples of the fandom hating a character; posting Personal Scrappies could get messy, especially if the Scrappy is in at the center of a Fandom Rivalry. Die for Our Ship entries should also be placed on that page only, though someone could be a Scrappy because of that reason.

If the majority of the characters are scrappies (especially the main characters) then expect the audience to utter the Eight Deadly Words.

Contrast Ensemble Dark Horse (an unexpectedly popular (usually minor or secondary) character) and Unpopular Popular Character (a character hated or disliked In-Universe but loved by the fandom), compare Creator's Pet (a character loved In-Universe but hated or disliked by the fandom), and compare and contrast Base-Breaking Character (where one part of the fandom thinks a character is the Scrappy but at least a sizable chunk like them). A protagonist who becomes unpopular despite the author's intentions is Ron the Death Eater, which is an example of Misaimed Fandom. If the Scrappy dies or suffers in some painful way where the audience actually starts to sympathize with the character, then it becomes Alas, Poor Scrappy. Not to be confused with Cute Bruiser which is the original meaning of the word scrappy.

No Real Life Examples, Please! The real world isn’t a story with characters that could potentially make it worse. We also ask that you wait 6 months after a character is introduced or becomes hated before adding a character as an entry, to cut down on kneejerk reactions.

Although this applies to individual characters, as a YMMV item, it should not be listed on character pages. This seems counterintuitive, but character pages are meant to list tropes audience members can see in the work in question, not fan opinion expressed outside of the work.

Examples subpages:

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Other examples: