No matter how much you love a work of fiction, there are
going to be characters you don’t like for one reason or another. And that’s
okay, it doesn’t necessarily reflect on the film itself. Some characters will
not appeal to some. There are heroes that some find contemptible, villains that
some find sympathetic, and every other permutation.
Sometimes, that’s the desired effect. I think JK Rowling
would be glad to know that Dolores Umbridge was the one character in the Harry
Potter series that I actually wish had died in the end. Gruesomely. And I have
no doubt that instilling that level of loathing was a major purpose of her
character.
But what I find far more interesting is when a character is
presented in a more neutral way, and whether or not an audience likes a
character is more left up to their own interpretations of events. Which brings
me to the subject of this week’s article.
