No main character or story is any good without supporting characters, actors, apparitions, or whatever else. Except when it’s a mono story, of course. But, besides that case, just think about it - supporting characters are really what makes the story come alive and our main hero shine in all their glory. Without them, the story wouldn’t be as vivid, or our main character as real. That is, if the arc of supporting characters is done right - otherwise, you get… well, you get useless characters, is what you get. And, if you’ve ever wondered who might be among just the most useless characters ever, you’re in luck, as people on this cool Reddit thread shared their opinions on the most meaningless characters that have ever graced our screens.
So, what makes a bad supporting character? Well, for starters, if it’s a movie, it is bad acting. That’s a constant and unbeatable truth. However, if the acting is good, it might be that the writer or director completely forgot what purpose said character might’ve once had and left them literally just hanging around without supplementing the story in any way. Moreover, such a character might be done in the most cliched way, and nobody likes that, right? Now, when it comes to useless cartoon characters, it all boils down to them literally interfering with the main story, leaving you with more questions than answers and very often bewildered by their annoying traits. Sure, if you have your own ideas on what makes a useless character, do share them in the comments section, as we always value your opinion!
But first - let’s check what people had to say on this AskReddit thread, shall we? If you agree with their picks of the most useless movie characters (or TV series, cartoons, animes, and so on), upvote their submissions. And, after all that is well and done, share this article with your friends, too!
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"Bella in Twilight. Followed closely by every other character in Twilight."
"The lifeguard in SpongeBob. He saves fish. From drowning."
"Every character who says 'let’s spread out.'"
"Jar Jar Binks was extremely useless in everything he was in."
"Lori Grimes. Absolute last person I would want to be stuck in a zombie apocalypse with she was nothing but an inconvenience in every way."
MooMoo4228 comments: "She ties with Andrea."
brittwithouttheney replied: "Andrea was awesome in the comics. The show did her zero justice."
"Every cartoon comedy sidekick ever. Orko, Nono, Scrappy Doo, Godzooki, Uni, Snarf etc. I found them difficult to watch and they always mess up more than they help so they're actually worse than useless."
"The Joker in Suicide Squad. Take all scenes with him out and the movie still makes sense, still crap though."
espilono replied: "Alternate title for Suicide Squad: Edgelords Consolidated."
"That one kid character from every kids’ animated series where the main cast are adults and not kids themselves. You know the one. He/she tags along with the main team and only serves to be kidnapped/get into trouble every episode so that the heroes will have someone to save. Often times the main characters won’t LET them come along with them because they KNOW this kid is absolutely useless. But it doesn’t matter because they find their way into trouble anyways while shouting sassy one-liners all the way.
The first one to come to my mind was Steven Universe. But he’s a cool twist on this trope because the whole gist of the series is that we watch him grow OUT of it. He’s the only character I can think of who went from tagalong kid/load to the strongest character in the cast."
Acastamphy replied: "Scrappy - Doo."
Not an animated show, but the kid Seven from Married with Children dragged the show down
"The one that gets killed first in a horror movie."
I'm sorry, if I hear a weird sound or a door opening on it's own, I'm noping in the other direction.
"Chloe from Fairly Odd Parents."
hunterdawn3421 asked: "Who's Chloe?"
ilikeicing454 answered: "Exactly."
"Every single cop in every superhero movie.
I get that the hero is supposed to come in and save the day from the bad guys but they make cops seem absolutely useless in every way imaginable. The hero has to do absolutely everything. It seems like cops can't even handle common crooks in superhero movies."
biznatch11 replied: "Jim Gordon in The Dark Knight wasn't useless."
"Riley from Buffy the Vampire Slayer... he's supposed to be likable and sweet and instead he's the most boring character of all time and also fills me with hatred for absolutely no reason."
"DeAngelo from The Office 100%. I don't even remember if DeAngelo was his first name or last name, that's how useless he was. I don't even know if I'm spelling the damn name right but I don't care 'cause he was just- I don't know what he was."
"Barbara from Stranger Things."
Grumm-SkullCaver replied: "Yeah... she deserved better, she was the token grief character for the main character to develop."
"The Phoenix from the live-action Mulan."
Snoo79382 replied: "I was hoping someone would say that that useless thing that keeps following her replaced the one character that should've been in the movie. Plus the movie gave her Force powers and didn't work to be a trained fighter."
"The mum from Jurassic Park 3. She's constantly screaming and shouting and drawing attention to herself on an island with killer dinosaurs."
"Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Such a wasted character, he's only there to die."
EmseMCE comments: "I'm pretty sure they had a sharing arrangement. Fox got Quicksilver for the X-men movies and Avengers killed him off. And though it's not stated it's her, X-men killed off a "Scarlet Witch" character so Avengers could have her. Though Quicksilver did have a little sister so..."
"I remember seeing a tweet about Rise of Skywalker saying something along the lines of 'Rose is the Asian kid who's stuck at home studying while everyone else is out saving the galaxy.'"
"Captain Phasama. I was really hoping she’d be a badass villain but was just wasted. I’ll always love Star Wars, but that entire franchise just wastes the potential for awesome characters."
"The Night King. Apparently, he and the entire WW army didn’t mean jack s*it to the plot."
user replied: "I wish he won it all. Would’ve still been better than what we got and then he wouldn’t be so useless."
"Is nobody gonna mention the elephant in the room? That thing literally never does anything except be mentioned occasionally..."
"Virtually every character from the first sixty seconds of a Doctor Who episode. 'What was that noise?? Oh nooo, I died.'"
Kirilli replied: "Same with Supernatural lol, still love both shows though."
"Mark Brendonowitz (if that's even how you spell his name) from Parks and Rec.
It felt like he was supposed to be the token "normal" guy to contrast with everyone else's craziness, kind of like Jim and Pam from The Office. But while those two actually had their own personalities and character development and often got involved with the surrounding wackiness, Mark was just kind of there and never really seemed to be too involved with the overall plot. He even left the show pretty unceremoniously. Seems like even the writers saw the character as useless, given he only lasted 2 seasons.
It's even played for laughs later on when Ann is carrying boxes with each of her ex-boyfriends' names and Mark isn't even mentioned."
"Mineta from My Hero Academia. He's just a little creepy perv. Nobody would worry what happened to him if they never saw him again."
I hate how many anime have to have a token perv character. Its not funny or amusing or entertaining in any way. Its downright disgusting that such behavior is played off for laughs.
"Mumen Rider. Seriously dude, this freaking guy. I love him for being so unuseful."
Yusuf_Fulat15 replied: "The dude goes around trying to stop evil riding a bike."
"Most of the humans in any Transformers franchises."
Snoo79382 comments: "In the 2nd Transformers movie, Skids & Mudflap were nothing but annoying racial stereotypes that didn't contribute at all during the film."
Package-Worth replied: "In the 2nd film they send a cyborg girl to kill Sam and are nearly successful, why bother transforming into cars and trucks if you can do that?"
"The chicken from Moana."
SpiffyPaige143 replied: "Pua is more useless. Just there to be cute. The trailers and promotional art made it seem like Pua would be in most of the movie. Nope. Maybe 5 minutes total."
"Rose Granger-Weasley from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Don't get me wrong, there was a LOT wrong with that book, but Rose is up on the list. Her character is basically just there to serve as Scorpius's love interest so it's clear to everyone he's not actually gay for Albus even though they act super gay. And people who are like 'No that's just friendship' go read the actual books. Harry and Ron are a great example of a super platonic friendship. Scorpius and Albus just scream gay. And Rose was there because they wanted to pull a no homo I guess. Absolutely useless. I wish they actually made her a real character."
"Dr. Nick. His appearance on the screen makes me feel like I'm responsible for a toddler that I can't interact with."
"Iris West from The Flash. Nothing against Candice Patton but her character is so annoying. It's like the writers wanted us to hate her from the very beggining. And don't get me started on Ralph..."
I started watching The Flash a few months ago. She really annoys me and I can’t pinpoint why. Makes it hard to watch the show sometimes.
"Willie Scott, from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Has absolutely no plot-based reason to be there, and does nothing."
Trumpsucksputindick replied: "She actually does do something. She saves Indy and Short Round from that trap room where the ceiling was going to crush them and she had to put her hand in some bugs to pull the lever to reverse the trap."
"Vision... He did nothing but make things more difficult and get stabbed."
RemydePoer replied: "Hey now, don't forget he also crippled Rhodey."
He was important for the end of age of Ultron and a key point in Wanda’s character development, I wouldn’t quite say he was useless but it’s true that he didn’t to much.
"Pretty much everyone in the last season of Game of Thrones. All of those characters deserved better."
"The guy in my D&D group that plays a pacifist character."
"Tuxedo Mask. 'Hey, I threw a rose and said some stuff, now get to work girls.' He's Charlie except even Charlie paid the angels."
Katana314 replied: "I just started watching the series out of curiosity and it’s hilarious how true this is in every damn episode."
"Admiral Ackbar. Completely useless, unless you need someone to tell you there's a trap."
Sorry for the rant, but as a huge Star Wars nerd, I can't allow this slander of Admiral Giall Ackbar. No matter what happens in the Galaxy, he's always there. He already served prince Lee-char during the Clone wars. After the rise of the Empire, he led anti-Imperial mutiny on his home planet Mon Cala. Then he was a vital part of the Rebel alliance, fought in the battle of Endor and led the New Republic forces when they defeated Empire for good in battle of Jakku. He lost his life fighting First Order. Giall Ackbar is a hero and should be addressed as such.
"Preston Garvey still infuriates me."
"Hey violence prone guy I just met, you're now the leader of the organization I dedicated my life to!"
"Randy in That '70s Show."
elmoteca replied: "An idea they considered was recasting Eric and saying he came back from Africa a changed man. Why didn't we get that? It might have been a disaster, but it would've been more interesting."
"The three Jedi 'masters' who went with Mace Windu to arrest Palpatine. I don’t care how great Kit Fisto was in other mediums. In the movie, he did jack f*cking s*it and died just like the other two doing absolutely nothing."
"Booster from Jingle All The Way. NOBODY likes Booster."
Poor Booster. Underrated holiday movie with the Schwarz and Sinbad
"Nala from the lion king. She’s purely there as a love interest. Mufasa himself had to astral project to Simba in order for him to be convinced to save pride rock."
daughtrofademonlover replied: "I might have agreed with this in the past, but I’ve rewatched several times lately and now I appreciate Nala.
Three characters appear to Simba to convince him to return home: Nala, Rafiki, and Mufasa. They all appeal to him in different ways, and obviously, Mufasa has the biggest impact.
However, there is an important element to Nala. Early in the movie, after the cubs sneak off to the elephant graveyard, Mufasa stresses that the worst thing Simba did was put Nala in danger. Since the whole movie is about Simba taking responsibility and fulfilling his role as a leader, it makes sense that this sentiment is repeated when he learns that adult Nala is suffering as a consequence of his actions."
How about just eliminate the boring love interest in ALL movies and shows?
"Harry Strickland, commander of the Golden Company. After hearing about this great army, all he does is sit on a horse and end up getting his army incinerated by a dragon and him dying while running for his life."
lordkenyon replied: "Literally the entire Golden Company in the show. In the books, they are a badass mercenary army famed for never breaking their contracts. They are founded by Westrosi exiles from the losing side of the Blackfyre Rebellions, but over the years have picked up all sorts of people, like a group of Summer Islands archers and a bunch of war elephants. They hang the gilded skulls of their dead leaders from their banners so that when they can finally return to Westeros their dead will come home with them.
Then they cropped up in the show. No skulls. No exile. No freaking elephants. Just stood around to serve as s*itty barbecue."
"Fabian from Pulp Fiction. Damnit, woman, Butch told you how important that watch was. Stop obsessing over what you're gonna eat for breakfast and focus."
"Brian in Family Guy.
Now, in earlier seasons, the dog was actually a useful character, he was the voice of reason in the Griffin house, and he had a lot of wits. But starting around season 8 or 9 he gradually started to become a liberal douchebag that takes advantage of women and doesn’t actually do anything useful. I actually wish they wrote him out of the series in “Life of Brian”.
Some of the best episodes earlier in the series were the Brian and Stewie ones. There hasn’t been a good one of those in 10 years; the last one was probably the bank vault one.
At least the show is self-aware enough to have Quagmire point out his flaws, especially when he went on that huge rant at the steakhouse."
Nah Brian is great. I was happy when they stopped doing the giant chicken episodes with the fighting sequences that wasted 15 minutes. Although I do miss the Conway Twitty sequences!
"Annie from the Magic Treehouse books. She always screwed things up for Jack and made the situation worse."
FlorenceCattleya replied: "My kid is 8 and we’ve read probably the first 6 books in the series. He’s not really interested in reading more because Annie is such a pain. It got to the point where he was actively rooting for Jack not to save her so she could suffer some consequences for her actions."
I refuse to read my kids these books because of how dumb they are.
"That girl Trudi in Pulp Fiction - she did absolutely nothing except sit on a couch holding a skull bong the entire time Vincent, Lance, and Jodie were running around trying to save Mia Wallace from dying of a heroin overdose. Even after Mia was revived from the adrenaline shot to the heart, she barely moved and never said a word."
She wouldn't even answer the phone that kept ringing for 5 minutes straight even though she was sitting right next to it.
"For me, it’s Big The Cat from Sonic The Hedgehog. He literally contributes nothing to any story he is in. Sure his frog has ties to Chaos in Sonic Adventure 1, but that’s just a coincidence and Big does nothing to help Sonic or the others. In his first appearance, his gameplay is just fishing! fishing in a Sonic game! A game where you run fast!"
"Shippo from Inuyasha. He hides during all the fights, and the most damage his abilities do is put soot on their faces. His only purpose is being cute."
"Olaf in Frozen. He's so beloved and I just don't get it.
He does nothing of note, the characters ignore him 90% of the time he says anything, and if you cut him out of the movie, you wouldn't even notice. He's like a walking Family Guy cutaway."
Geminii27 comments: "He's not there for the plot, he's there to be funny for small kids so they'll want to watch it over and over and over."
In addition to being there as comic relief and to attract little kids who maybe won't care so much about the relationships between the princesses, he serves as an anchor point between the two women, reminding Ana of what had been stolen from her memory and making her realize that Elsa hadn't distanced herself because she hated Ana, she did it because she couldn't bear the thought of hurting her again. He's common relief, but there's also a lot more to the reason he's there
"Delphine from Skyrim."
ChinChins3rdHenchman replied: "Nazeem: am I a joke to you? Oh wait, he is."
"Aqua from Konosuba."
_Zekken replied: "Well that's a literal answer to the question. To be fair she has... Her moments. As few and far between as they are. And even if half of them are fixing her own damn f*ckups."
"Sasuke Uchiha failed at virtually everything he set out to do with his life. First, he vowed to kill his brother and ran out of power in the middle of the fight. Itachi used Susano'o to drain the rest of his own lifeforce and died. Even before that, he stopped Orochimaru from taking over Sasuke's Body. Next, he learned the truth about his brother and vowed to kill everyone in Konoha. He killed Danzo, just barely. Then he vowed to become Hokage. Naruto beat the living heck out of him."
"This is a rare answer but I would also like to add Gwen & Kevin from Ben 10: Omniverse. I know not a lot of people are familiar with the 4th show in the franchise and a lot of the franchise which is pretty much underrated, but after being badass characters in the first 2 shows, they became side characters. I really wished they had kept being useful sidekicks as the show go on because they were such badasses and greatly written ones. I did like Omniverse a lot, but the biggest problem I had was Ben's sidekicks Gwen & Kevin being reduced to lesser side characters. There were a couple of episodes though that at least revolved around them. Also, let's not forget that the unnecessary reboot we shouldn't think of."
Any small child in any survival or horror movie. They always endanger everyone else and the adults are always so intent on making sure they are safe when, let's face it, in an apocalypse, at least until the new normal is established and some form of civilization forms, they are nothing more than liabilities and would be better off dead
The boring love interest from every single movie and show ever made. These often are not believable and kill the flow of a good story.
Any small child in any survival or horror movie. They always endanger everyone else and the adults are always so intent on making sure they are safe when, let's face it, in an apocalypse, at least until the new normal is established and some form of civilization forms, they are nothing more than liabilities and would be better off dead
The boring love interest from every single movie and show ever made. These often are not believable and kill the flow of a good story.
