Random Terrible Fictional Characters Who Totally Don't Deserve Their Happy Endings (15 items)

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  (#1) Ross Geller

  • Friends

  Ross and Rachel have to end up together on Friends because they're Ross and Rachel. But despite Rachel's flaws, Ross probably doesn't deserve her. Ross is obnoxious, self-important, condescending, rude, jealous, and irritable. He takes the woe-is-me trope to a whole new level. His undesirable personality isn't the only reason that Ross doesn't deserve Rachel, though.

  When the two drunkenly marry in Vegas, he refuses to divorce her for fear of how people might perceive a thrice-divorced man. That is an unspeakably selfish act which illuminates the wonting character of the man. That he would do something like that should disqualify him from ever finding love.
• 

  (#2) Emily Weaver

  • Crazy, Stupid, Love.

  In Crazy, Stupid Love, Emily cheats on her longtime husband Cal with her coworker and the movie opens with her asking for a divorce. She has a mid-life crisis and that's tough but does she really deserve to get her husband back?

  First of all, she somehow feels that she deserves to keep the house and kids in the separation, even though she's definitely the one who destroys the marriage. Besides that, cheating on your spouse when you have a family together is selfish. Plus, she toys with everyone's emotions by getting back together with Cal in the end.

  Yes, it's an ending the audience wants but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's the ending Emily deserves.
• 

  (#3) Lily Aldrin

  • How I Met Your Mother

  Many How I Met Your Mother fans focus on Ted, his transgressions, and whether or not he deserves his happy ending. Well, his ending is more bittersweet than anything and Robin proves to be a somewhat selfish character throughout the show herself, so maybe they do deserve each other. Lily, however, does not deserve Marshall.

  First, she calls off their engagement to pursue a hopeless art career in San Francisco. While this is selfish, it's understandable. She definitely should have included Marshall in the decision making process, though. It's a bad look but it doesn't make her irredeemable. But then her actions in marriage are equally selfish. She runs up credit card debt, forcing Marshall into a corporate law career that makes him miserable. Furthermore, they move to Italy for her career, once again thwarting Marshall's ambitions, this time to be a judge. Theirs is an astoundingly one-sided relationship.
• 

  (#4) Ted Stroehmann

  • There's Something About Mary

  Anyone who hires a private investigator to look into a woman they're "in love with" is seriously shady. That's precisely what Ted does in There's Something About Mary. Yes, Ted is painted as a kind, sweet, all-around good guy but what he's engaging in is nothing short of stalking, even if he's using an intermediary.

  What's more, that intermediary, Pat, is a supremely shady character. Ted subjects the unwitting and undeserving Mary to him and it's awful. In the end, Ted gets the girl despite introducing chaos and maybe even mortal danger to her life.
• 

  (#5) Seth

  • Looper, Beauty & the Briefcase

  To be fair, Seth is a high schooler and young people are often monsters, but he stands out. He's selfish, whiny, dumb, and super perverted. He puts Evan in actual danger on his quest to get alcohol and feels wronged when Evan has finally had enough.

  Seth is a little horn ball but in the end he somehow lands Emma Stone's character. She's a pretty girl and a decent person so it doesn't add up. Hollywood loves to couple a great gal with a loser dude. 
• 

  (#6) Walter Hobbs Is A Bad Father And Husband In Elf

  Yes, the whole point of Elf is that the coldhearted Walter Hobbs becomes ultimately a better person, but does that really excuse a lifetime of being bad? His marriage has always been one-sided with Emily being a wonderful wife and mother that he simply takes for granted. He doesn't treat her particularly well and he pretty much ignores his son until the end of the film.

  In the end, he begins to do little more than display love for his family but that's somehow sufficient. Since he is lucky enough to keep his family, he has a lifetime of making up to do. 
• 

  (#7) Willie

  • Bad Santa

  Willie is a lecherous, derelict alcoholic who robs shopping malls for a living. He takes advantage of a young boy and his senile grandmother and then moves into their home. During this time, he also meets the woman of his dreams, Sue. Yes, Willie is redeemed as he comes to care for the boy, Thurman, but after a lifetime of crime, he gets away with everything.

  He's not charged for his indiscretions, he's given a job with the local police department, and he gets the girl. Still, Willie is kind of a prick. Things shouldn't have worked out so well for him.
• 

  (#8) Angel Clare

  • Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Tess

  Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a late 19th century drama that's been adapted a number of times, with one of the most recent being a four-hour BBC special starring Eddie Redmayne. In it, Tess Durbeyfield meets Angel Clare and the two fall for each other. However, when Tess reveals that she once had a child out of wedlock (a result of a heavily implied rape, in fact), Angel is disgusted that she's engaged in premarital sex, something which he has also done.

  Later, Tess murders the man who raped her, and before she's hanged, she tells Angel to marry her sister. He agrees, waits for the black flag of the prison to rise signaling Tess's execution, and strolls away, hand-in-hand with Tess's sister. The story effectively challenges the morals of Victorian England, yet Angel isn't painted as a villain, while evidence suggests otherwise.
• 

  (#9) Clark Griswold

  • National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, National Lampoon's European Vacation, Vegas Vacation, Vacation

  In Vacation, Clark actually starts out as a good husband and father but by the end of the trip, he's done some pretty unforgivable stuff. First and foremost, he kills a dog by leaving it tied to the bumper of the car. Yes, it's an accident but it's disgustingly negligent, and a criminal offense. Then he flirts with the Ferrari girl while in the car with his family. Of course, he later goes skinny dipping with her and that's even worse. Somehow, Ellen just forgives him for this. Finally, he threatens a security guard at Walley World with a realistic-looking gun, forcing the man to take them through the park as he's become unhinged after the disastrous getaway.

  Owner Roy Walley decides not to press charges against Clark out of sympathy and the Griswold family enjoys a lovely romp through the park. If Clark isn't going to be imprisoned for his crimes, Ellen should have left him in the desert.
• 

  (#10) John "Bluto" Blutarsky

  • National Lampoon's Animal House

  National Lampoon's Animal House is actually full of bad people. Pretty much every member of the Delta Tau Chi fraternity is terrible. Throughout the film, the brothers treat women as sex objects (one almost date rapes a 13-year-old), kill a horse, and nearly kill dozens of people when they intentionally drive a vehicle through a parade.

  Despite all of this moronic behavior, the members of the Delta house go on to have great careers, including head idiot, Bluto, who becomes a Senator. Given the actions of the Deltas in the climactic scene, they all should be tried for attempted murder but frat boys tend to get away with a lot.
• 

  (#11) Benjamin Barry

  • How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

  Both Benjamin Barry and Andie Anderson (excellent character names, by the way) play some pretty shady games in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Anderson comes up with the idea to write an article by the titular name. To do so she has to toy with a man's feelings. However, the man she chooses is, fortunately, even more of a jerk because he is acting on a bet that he can make a woman fall for him in 10 days, after which he would presumably toss that woman aside.

  In both cases, the casual manipulation of another person is appalling. One could make the argument that both main characters are terrible and thus neither deserves a happy ending or perhaps, that they actually do deserve each other because that way they each end up with a horrible partner. 
• 

  (#12) Ronald Weasley

  • Harry Potter Universe

  More so in the movies than the books, Ron is depicted as a real pill. He's whiny, jealous, immature, not particularly bright, and often inconsiderate. His negative qualities are front and center in the films with very little revelation of the positive traits that make him lovable in the books.

  Immediately after the Battle for Hogwarts, Harry breaks the Elder Wand and tosses it aside, which Ron laments because he's an example of a lesser man, greedy and desirous of power. Still, though, he ends up with the real hero of the series, Hermione (Harry and Ron are ridiculously helpless without her).
• 

  (#13) Catwoman

  • Maggie, Catwoman, Batman: New Times, Grayson, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2, Fight Batman Fight!, Batman: Year One, DC Showcase: Catwoman, Batman, The Dark Knight Rises, Batman Returns, Alyas Batman en Robin, DC Universe

  It's debatable whether or not Bruce's happy ending in The Dark Knight Rises actually happens or is just Alfred's imagination. If it is real, there's an issue. Selina Kyle may have helped thwart Bane but she seems to be driven more by her feelings for Bruce than her desire to help people. What's more, she displays a lot of problematic character traits throughout the film. She's very manipulative, she steals (stealing from rich people is still wrong), and she kicks a crippled Bruce Wayne's cane out from under him while robbing him.

  Everything works out for her in the end, though, as she apparently lives happily ever after on the arm of that same handsome, rich man.
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  (#14) Aladdin

  • Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, DuPont Show of the Month, Aladdin, The Arabian Nights: Adventures of Sinbad, Time Travel Tondekeman, Aladin, or the Wonderful Lamp, The Return of Jafar, The Desert Hawk, Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse, Aladdin, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Aladdin and His Lamp, Thief of Damascus, Arabian Nights, Aladdin, Aladdin, Jr., Aladdin

  The poor orphan boy gets the princess at the end of Aladdin and they live happily ever after until the sequel. The thing about Aladdin, though, is that he's actually quite terrible. He not only steals food, but he does so with gusto. He's trained a sweet little monkey to be his accomplice, he treats the genie like a slave, completely ignoring his sound advice to be honest with Jasmine - the 15-year-old girl he courts despite being 18 himself.

  Aladdin does indeed lie to Jasmine repeatedly to trick her into falling for him and he coaxes the girl out of her room in the middle of the night. Ultimately, Aladdin gets everything he wants and all he has to do is lie, steal, and manipulate a minor.
• 

  (#15) Vegeta

  • Dragon Ball Z Kai, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn, Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound, Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku, Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks, Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler, Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan, Plan to Destroy the Saiya-jin, Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!, Dragon Ball

  Vegeta's story arc is one of redemption. He's a bad man who ultimately becomes something close to good. But he's still a tool to the very end. The Dragon Ball Z character is outrageously mean to Bulma, screaming at her constantly and virtually never displaying affection or care for her. Somehow, though, they end up married. Bulma is a brilliant woman; she deserves a lot better than Vegeta.

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