-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Happy Father's Day. Who are the shittiest dads in fiction?
- Thread starter DrForester
- Start date
Udo Heinemann from Monster
Shou Tucker from Fullmetal Alchemist/Brotherhood. That man should not be considered a dad; he's a straight up monster.
We made it 53 posts before getting to Walt. Damn. At least he's here.
I'd like to also add the dad from Invincible if they haven't also been added.
I'd like to also add the dad from Invincible if they haven't also been added.
He's more complete idiot than anything. Fuck I hated that episode.
For me what really makes Clay genuinely terrifying on a personal level is not just his empty moralizing, which serves mainly as a pretense for his self-indulgence and physical terrorizing of his family, it's that when you strip that all away what you're left with is a deeply broken and pathetic human being, who hurts those closest to him due to his inability or unwillingness to hurt those he's truly resentful of.
So yeah. Clay Puppington. Too real.
By this point he had given up on that completely hence his submissiveness
I like how Jonas was such as awful father that Rusty's life got considerably better when he was kidnapped and held for ransom.
Even, like, before the kidnappers felt bad that Jonas didn't realise Rusty was missing and threw him a sympathy party.
If you don't know, then just watch full metal alchemist and get in on a generation of anime fan's collective trauma.
Jonas is easily worse than most every father mentioned in the thread, even Shou Tucker. He invented new ways to fuck with everyone around him but Rusty in particular on a weekly basis. I think he got into super science just to be better equipped to fuck with people.
Didn't Indiana Jones' dad kinda abandon his son? Or am I misremembering the plot of The Last Crusade?
They had a falling out but Indy was an adult by then IIRC.
I think they got distant after his mom died and Henry became engrossed in the grail quest.
At least going by Young Indy, Indiana was the one to physically run away and join WW1, though his father could have already abandoned him emotionally.
Denethor
Dude's favorite son gets killed, tells his other son that he should have died instead, that kid goes on a suicide mission way overmatched against an orc controlled town, comes back wounded as shit, denethor tries to burn him alive on a funeral pyre, ends up setting himself on fire too, then falls off the edge of Minas Tirith to his death
Dude's favorite son gets killed, tells his other son that he should have died instead, that kid goes on a suicide mission way overmatched against an orc controlled town, comes back wounded as shit, denethor tries to burn him alive on a funeral pyre, ends up setting himself on fire too, then falls off the edge of Minas Tirith to his death
Henry Jones does also save Indiana's life at the very end, and there's a moment of genuine heartfelt love between the two. They also slowly reconcile throughout the film as various circumstances bring them closer together. While certainly distant for much of Indy's life, I don't think I'd label him one of the worst fathers all things considered, at least relative to some others.
But speaking of Spielberg, Richard Dreyfuss' character in Close Encounters is probably a contender. Haven't seen the movie in ages though.
You could argue that the aliens altered his brain, but he does give up absolutely everybody in his pursuit of them. Not a cool move.
Ermac was brought into being by Shao Kahn, if he counts. The picture is also missing Skarlet, who is adopted daughter of Shao Kahn.
Is that a kid in blackface? Fuck me, that IS a kid in blackface. Jesus Christ, was it that hard to just hire a black kid?!? The worst dad is officially whoever was in charge of casting at TNG.
No, that approximate skin tone was used for all Klingons from the movies onward.
Did you see Fire Walk With Me? It's not as black and white as that.
I've always found Tywin Lannister to be a fascinating example of a successful, grounded yet exceptionally shitty father. His children's arcs all, in some way, reflect how much toxicity, trauma and psychological abuse he inflicted on them.
You could make a case that he lifted his his family up from a laughingstock to rulers of the continent, just for it to collapse in hands of his children because of his awful parenting.
Yeah I think this is a great choice because (as much as the show can be grounded), he truly was a shitty person that cared only for the power his family name carried without thinking of the damage it would inflict on his family. In the end, everything he worked for crumbled because his children were all deeply flawed, damaged people that all had one thing in common: they hated their father. Tywin believed that if he left his family in a powerful position that all else would be forgiven. Selfish to the end.
Um yes. When it came out.
And I've watched it multiple times since then.
I own it and Missing Pieces, the Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, the Secret History of Twin Peaks and the Last Dosier and all of the series and the Return.
And your not wrong. It's not black and white, but the death of Laura Palmer is on Bob and Bob alone.
Leland Palmer was a piece of shit. And Laura Palmer is a truly tragic character.
But Bob killed Laura, not Leland.
Though to be fair both Leland and Sarah pushed Larua so hard that it lead to everything that caused her death (except Bob)
Holy shit, No Geese Howard from SNK? Dude just sucks.
Not to mention Heihachi Mishima and his son Kazuma.
Malik's father from Yugioh, dude abused the shit out of his son.
The Soma family father's for the most part, shout out to Kyo's shitty dad who basically treated him like crap.
A number of father figures in Fire Emblem.
Not to mention Heihachi Mishima and his son Kazuma.
Malik's father from Yugioh, dude abused the shit out of his son.
The Soma family father's for the most part, shout out to Kyo's shitty dad who basically treated him like crap.
A number of father figures in Fire Emblem.
I think the movie showed through Ray Wises excellent performance that it was both of them, just my opinion of course. There were times when he was in cartoony bobmode and other time were he was an exceptionally shitty overinvested father like the dinner scene. I agree that when he was committing the act he was in bobmode but Bob wouldn't have gravitated towrds him if there wasn't already a darkness in him.
That is fair, but I think that Leland leaving when he realizes he accidently hired his own daughter as a prostitute shows that while he has the darkness in him, he is not the monster that Bob is.
Leland is evil, hell Sarah is evil. But Leland didn't willingly rape and kill his daughter. That was Bob. And I belive the Return made that made it more clear.
Leland is evil, hell Sarah is evil. But Leland didn't willingly rape and kill his daughter. That was Bob. And I belive the Return made that made it more clear.
Wolfenstein 2 and Peacemaker are extremely similar and they obviously share the main characters having absolutely terrible fathers.
White Dragon, Peacemaker's father, is a Klan leader and basically KKK Iron Man. He forces Peacemaker and his brother into fights when they were kids so this boxing could be bet on. Peacemaker accidentally killed his brother, causing intense psychological trauma. Afterwards, White Dragon continued to abuse Peacemaker, especially for Peacemaker being bisexual and for Peacemaker having had relationships with black women. White Dragon eventually attempts to kill Peacemaker before being stopped by Peacemaker's best friend/boyfriend Vigilante. Afterwards, White Dragon taunts Peacemaker, saying that Peacemaker will never have the balls to kill him, Peacemaker does while crying.
BJ's father, Rip, married a Jewish woman for her land and badly abused BJ growing up. After the Nazi takeover of the United States, Rip sold out BJ's mother to the Nazis who killed her. Rip then sold out BJ to the Nazis who attempted to kill BJ. BJ kills Rip gladly.
BJ's father, Rip, married a Jewish woman for her land and badly abused BJ growing up. After the Nazi takeover of the United States, Rip sold out BJ's mother to the Nazis who killed her. Rip then sold out BJ to the Nazis who attempted to kill BJ. BJ kills Rip gladly.
LOL I agree with a lot of these dads being bad dads, but the one that always takes the cake for me is Chronos just because he literally ate all his children XD
I maintain that every single fucking parent in Ace Attorney is either a shit parent or they are dead 🤣
Shadi Smith
-Hides evidence from his lawyer that would've cleared both their names
-Abandons his daughter, entrusting her to that same attorney he ruined. Also because he never discussed any of that with said attorney, he had no way of knowing the attorney would take her in instead of sending her to an orphanage. His plan was entirely meant to exploit and abuse the attorney's altruism for his own convenience
-Shows up seven years later to rig a card game with the express purpose of ruining that attorney again, after he raised his daughter for him which, again, was done solely out of the goodness of his heart
-Beats a woman with glass bottle
-Regularly beats his best friend and only confidant
-Shot his wife (probably) and made no effort to try to locate her when she suddenly went missing
-Got blood on perfectly good poker cards
This guy, is a JERK!!
and yes I actually put Phoenix in that group because while he was a million times better than Shadi Smith, he was also a major asshole in Apollo Justice LOL.
I'm also including every single parent that has disappeared/faked their death to completely abandon their children even if they had justifiable reasons lol.
I feel bad for Apollo and Trucy because not only was Trucy's bio dad shit, her mother and adoptive father still having told her and Apollo they are half siblings D:<
I'm also including every single parent that has disappeared/faked their death to completely abandon their children even if they had justifiable reasons lol.
I feel bad for Apollo and Trucy because not only was Trucy's bio dad shit, her mother and adoptive father still having told her and Apollo they are half siblings D:<
Shit yeah these def both good choices.Udo Heinemann from Monster
Shou Tucker from Fullmetal Alchemist/Brotherhood. That man should not be considered a dad; he's a straight up monster.
The unfortunate thing is that these archetypes of people are fairly common in american society.
I wanted to quote the pic and agree but noticed that he was already quoted more than most. As bad as many of the dads posted are, the way this plot line played out obviously left a mark on people. Shame it's a bit of a spoiler just having him in the thread…or maybe it's better people have a little fair warning.
I'm playing Fire Emblem Three Houses right now and all parents are either horrible or dead (except for Seteth)
Special shout out to Count Varley - Bernadetta's physically and emotionally abusive dad. He's in the Three Hopes demo and I hope we kill him by the end of the game.
Special shout out to Count Varley - Bernadetta's physically and emotionally abusive dad. He's in the Three Hopes demo and I hope we kill him by the end of the game.
Lol, holy shit how have I not seen this until today? I need it.
Don Draper is about as bad as a father can get without actually being abusive. And his father was even worse.
Cal Jacobs and Clay Puppington are both pretty realistically horrible dads as well.
Cal Jacobs and Clay Puppington are both pretty realistically horrible dads as well.
Also, Yondu. Not as bad as Ego, but I hated how he got the hero's death and the big fireworks show and treated like he was Quill's real father figure when he was also an asshole, just on a smaller scale.
Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Bill's dad was pretty awful too and liked to lock Bill in a rabbit hutch. Idk how many times I rewatched before I heard and realized that detail.
Leland Palmer.
Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?
Daniel Plainview from There Will be Blood
Noah Cross from Chinatown
Satan in Rosemary's Baby (I suppose by definition)
Noah Cross is as despicable as it gets. Good choice.
Bronn : Our lord here used to be married.
Shae : Married?
Tyrion Lannister : [annoyed] How did you hear that?
Bronn : You hear lot of things playing dice with Lannister soldiers.
Tyrion Lannister : [stands] Another night, perhaps.
Shae : [grabs his hand] Not another night. This night!
Tyrion Lannister : It's not a pleasant story.
Shae : Or maybe I will cry.
Bronn : I'm guessing the lady and I can tell more unpleasant stories than your lordship.
Tyrion Lannister : [sits down] So... I was sixteen. My brother Jaime and I were riding when we heard a scream. She ran out onto the road, clothes half torn off, with two men on her heels. Jaime scared away the men easily enough while I wrapped her in my cloak. She was too scared to send off on her own, so Jaime hunted down the rapers, I took her to the nearest inn and fed her. Her name was Tysha. She was a wheelwright's orphan, and she was hungry. Together we finished off three chickens and a flagon of wine. Impossible as it seems, there was a time when I was unaccustomed to wine. I forgot how frail I was around girls. I was always waiting for them to laugh at me, or look away embarrassed, or ask me about my tall handsome brother. I forgot about everything but Tysha, and somehow I found myself in her bed...
Bronn : For three chickens, I should hope so!
Tyrion Lannister : Didn't last long: I didn't know what the hell I was doing. But she was good to me. She kissed me afterwards, and sang me a song, and by morning I was deep enough in love to ask for her hand. A few lies, a few gold coins, and one drunken septon, and there you have it: man and wife. A fortnight anyway, until the septon sobered up and told my father...
Bronn : Well, I imagine that was the end of all that.
Tyrion Lannister : Not quite. First my father had Jaime tell me the truth: the girl was a whore, you see. Jaime had arranged the whole thing: the road, the rapers, all of it. He thought it was time I had a woman. After my brother confessed, my father brought in my wife and gave her to his guards. He paid her well, a silver for each of them. How many whores command that kind of price? He brought me into the barracks and made me watch. By the end, she had so much silver, that the coins were slipping through her fingers and rolling onto the floor.
Bronn : I would have killed the man who did that to me.
Shae : You should have known she was a whore.
Tyrion Lannister : Really? I was sixteen, drunk and in love.
Shae : A girl who is almost raped doesn't invite another man into her bed two hours later.
Tyrion Lannister : As I said, I was young and stupid.
Shae : You are still young and stupid.
[Shae approaches Tyrion and lies on top of him. They start having sex. Bronn realizes that he is not needed, and leaves
Shae : Married?
Tyrion Lannister : [annoyed] How did you hear that?
Bronn : You hear lot of things playing dice with Lannister soldiers.
Tyrion Lannister : [stands] Another night, perhaps.
Shae : [grabs his hand] Not another night. This night!
Tyrion Lannister : It's not a pleasant story.
Shae : Or maybe I will cry.
Bronn : I'm guessing the lady and I can tell more unpleasant stories than your lordship.
Tyrion Lannister : [sits down] So... I was sixteen. My brother Jaime and I were riding when we heard a scream. She ran out onto the road, clothes half torn off, with two men on her heels. Jaime scared away the men easily enough while I wrapped her in my cloak. She was too scared to send off on her own, so Jaime hunted down the rapers, I took her to the nearest inn and fed her. Her name was Tysha. She was a wheelwright's orphan, and she was hungry. Together we finished off three chickens and a flagon of wine. Impossible as it seems, there was a time when I was unaccustomed to wine. I forgot how frail I was around girls. I was always waiting for them to laugh at me, or look away embarrassed, or ask me about my tall handsome brother. I forgot about everything but Tysha, and somehow I found myself in her bed...
Bronn : For three chickens, I should hope so!
Tyrion Lannister : Didn't last long: I didn't know what the hell I was doing. But she was good to me. She kissed me afterwards, and sang me a song, and by morning I was deep enough in love to ask for her hand. A few lies, a few gold coins, and one drunken septon, and there you have it: man and wife. A fortnight anyway, until the septon sobered up and told my father...
Bronn : Well, I imagine that was the end of all that.
Tyrion Lannister : Not quite. First my father had Jaime tell me the truth: the girl was a whore, you see. Jaime had arranged the whole thing: the road, the rapers, all of it. He thought it was time I had a woman. After my brother confessed, my father brought in my wife and gave her to his guards. He paid her well, a silver for each of them. How many whores command that kind of price? He brought me into the barracks and made me watch. By the end, she had so much silver, that the coins were slipping through her fingers and rolling onto the floor.
Bronn : I would have killed the man who did that to me.
Shae : You should have known she was a whore.
Tyrion Lannister : Really? I was sixteen, drunk and in love.
Shae : A girl who is almost raped doesn't invite another man into her bed two hours later.
Tyrion Lannister : As I said, I was young and stupid.
Shae : You are still young and stupid.
[Shae approaches Tyrion and lies on top of him. They start having sex. Bronn realizes that he is not needed, and leaves
I'll have to disagree with your take as well. Leland is a victim of Bob and most likely also a victim pedophilia in his youth, but he's also a monster himself (as you acknowledge). I actually believe that the episode with Leland's death and confession is bottom tier Twin Peaks, and probably one of the worst episodes Frost was directly involved in writing. This is mainly due to how contrived and on the nose it is and feels like the safe approach to a dark subject matter in a time when television was a lot...nicer. The takeaway of that episode directly lines up with your interpretation of Leland. The opening of the following episode during his wake is just as guilty in wanting to absolve him of his malicious acts. Lynch, and his use of subtlety, was terribly missed there during the conversation between Cooper and Sarah. She even says something along the lines of how Leland wasn't the monster here, which of course is shown as an untrue statement in the prequel.
When he returns during the finale he starts throwing in seeds of doubt, particularly with Leland's doppelganger taunting Cooper with the whole, "I didn't kill anybody." It's part of what makes Lynch so crucial to the show, just his ability to take what's there, and make it much more interesting on a creative level. In this case, using the series takeaway of Leland and merging it with Cooper's naivety and hubris.
Of course he takes it further in Fire Walk With Me, which is why the other poster asked if you had seen it yet. For me, FWWM shows that the split between Leland and Bob are blurred at best. On one hand, he's the family man who has goofy dinners with his family learning Norwegian aka the charismatic and endearing character that's so great to watch; but he's also the guy that cheats on his wife with prostitutes, represents and has a close relationship to the Horne brothers, and abuses his family. Bob influences Leland, and is possibly the catalyst for pushing Leland to the point of acting on his worst desires and impulses. There are times he's in control, but also others where he's just along for the ride (much like he was with DoppelCoop).
The other dinner scene, the one that's actually in the theatrical version, truly shows the yin and yang that is Leland. It's not just how he treats Laura but also Sarah's reaction to it which is indicative to me of showing that it's a reoccurring thing. There's also Leland's reaction to Mike in the car confrontation. How Theresa's murder was in response to her directly blackmailing him and being more out of a sense of preservation. His reaction to Laura sneaking out as well as finding her diary. The fact that Laura sees him and Bob during THAT scene. His reaction during the reveal and the conversation with Laura after. Plus, his line before the murder where he tells Laura, "I always thought you knew it was me."
Lynch's exploration into the duality of Leland, as well his direct relationship with Bob, is terrible because of the subject matter while also being insanely compelling. It's kind of a retcon in many aspects, particularly with continuity with the earlier series. We already know that Leland of capable of murder as we see him kill Jacque, but the show originally gave the impression that he thought he was killing Laura's murderer. That is unless he was killing him for a different reason. It's a bit messy.
Regardless of everything I wrote, I'm not going to say you're wrong. The whole Leland/Bob deal is definitely ambiguous at the least.
When he returns during the finale he starts throwing in seeds of doubt, particularly with Leland's doppelganger taunting Cooper with the whole, "I didn't kill anybody." It's part of what makes Lynch so crucial to the show, just his ability to take what's there, and make it much more interesting on a creative level. In this case, using the series takeaway of Leland and merging it with Cooper's naivety and hubris.
Of course he takes it further in Fire Walk With Me, which is why the other poster asked if you had seen it yet. For me, FWWM shows that the split between Leland and Bob are blurred at best. On one hand, he's the family man who has goofy dinners with his family learning Norwegian aka the charismatic and endearing character that's so great to watch; but he's also the guy that cheats on his wife with prostitutes, represents and has a close relationship to the Horne brothers, and abuses his family. Bob influences Leland, and is possibly the catalyst for pushing Leland to the point of acting on his worst desires and impulses. There are times he's in control, but also others where he's just along for the ride (much like he was with DoppelCoop).
The other dinner scene, the one that's actually in the theatrical version, truly shows the yin and yang that is Leland. It's not just how he treats Laura but also Sarah's reaction to it which is indicative to me of showing that it's a reoccurring thing. There's also Leland's reaction to Mike in the car confrontation. How Theresa's murder was in response to her directly blackmailing him and being more out of a sense of preservation. His reaction to Laura sneaking out as well as finding her diary. The fact that Laura sees him and Bob during THAT scene. His reaction during the reveal and the conversation with Laura after. Plus, his line before the murder where he tells Laura, "I always thought you knew it was me."
Lynch's exploration into the duality of Leland, as well his direct relationship with Bob, is terrible because of the subject matter while also being insanely compelling. It's kind of a retcon in many aspects, particularly with continuity with the earlier series. We already know that Leland of capable of murder as we see him kill Jacque, but the show originally gave the impression that he thought he was killing Laura's murderer. That is unless he was killing him for a different reason. It's a bit messy.
Regardless of everything I wrote, I'm not going to say you're wrong. The whole Leland/Bob deal is definitely ambiguous at the least.
Last edited:
Came to post the same thing. No one else tops the list for me.
The Gendo.
Last edited: