10 Once Hated TV Characters That Made You Love Them

By Simon Gallagher / March 22, 2021

If you're writing a TV character and your intent is to have the audience hate them, it's always nice when that actually happens. Not only does it vindicate the writing, but it also gives the story the necessary dramatic darkness to amplify the heroes and supporting characters we're supposed to like.

Unfortunately for the characters who are hated - even if that wasn't even the intention of the writers - it's hard to come back from. Skyler White from Breaking Bad could probably have cured several diseases and people would still think of her as "Walter's bitch wife." Successful writing has that effect on people.

But what of those characters who managed to go from the most hated list to the loved one? Because, whether through achievements or just better, more complex writing, there have been some stellar examples. And they often end up being the most interesting characters by the end.

10. The Hound - Game Of Thrones

Why He Was Hated

You were initially supposed to hate Sandor Clegane. He was a fairly one-dimensional monster figure, employed to do unspeakable things in the service of unspeakable people and while his brother was clearly far worse, we were supposed to see him through the eyes of the younger Stark kids who feared him.

Sure, he said some disarmingly funny, barbed things (and he was a master with a c-bomb), but The Hound was deeply unsympathetic and the best he could muster early on was a sort of love-hate feeling.

But Then...

Thanks to his relationship with Arya, The Hound was softened massively. Strangely enough, he didn't really change that much as a character, it was more that our perception of him changed thanks to how Arya saw him. He was still cantankerous, hostile, sweary and violent, but he wasn't the cold psychopath we thought and when we thought he'd been left for dead, it was genuinely quite wrenching.

Then he came back and basically became one of the show's best ever characters.