Top five worst fictional fathers.

[runespoor]

ganked from etrangere

1. Ozai (Avatar the Last Airbender)

Being the worst possible dad isn't a contest, but that man approached it as if he intended to make sure the competition would be destroyed for all times and never rise from the ashes of their humiliation.

Cases in point: back when they were at their happiest, Zuko was scared into thinking his father might kill him because his father ordered him to. This is Ozai at his best; from there, it all goes downhill into forcing his thirteen-year old son to duel him for speaking out of turn, permanently scarring him, kicking him out and on a wild goose chase. And Zuko got off easy. After all, at one point he does realize that his father is a horrible man and that, more importantly, he doesn't love Zuko.

And the worst part? Zuko is the one that got off easy. The favoured child, Azula, who was as intent as her brother on making daddy proud but more successful, got her reward in the shape of the title of "Fire Lord" that Ozai threw at her like scraps to a dog when he moved to "Pheonix King".

2. God (the Bible)

On the subject of distant fathers that demand sacrifices.

3. Chronos Ouranos (Greek mythology)

Eating one's children. That's pretty damn bad. Zeus gets a pass because I can't put the two of them on this list and Chronos Ouranos came first. That's okay, Zeus would probably be on the list of top five worst fictional husbands.

Edited because I am a moron and Etrangere was good enough to point out that I was sadly mythtaken.

4. David Cain (DC Comics)

Maybe it's just me, but I think the most terrible thing about Cain is that, unlike others on this list, he genuinely loves his daughter. She's the most precious thing in his life, or just about.

And he doesn't consider what he did to her abuse.

5. Slade Wilson (DC Comics)

Not sure about this one, but I'm suddenly out of convincing worst-fathers-ever (? how can it be, when the world of fiction is just made of worst-dads-ever?) and I was just telling etrangere how reallyreallyreally fucked up as a father Slade is.

He loves his children and he wants what's best for them, even if that involves joining the Titans, but he's never above using the hell out of them. He also did horrible things to them.

Bonus: Spencer Reid's father (Criminal Minds)

Leaving your wife because you can't take her mental illness is entirely within your rights. I respect your right to lead your own life, and I respect your right to get out if you're in a situation that is damaging to yourself.

Leaving your ten-year-old kid with someone you think can't take care of herself anymore?...

DIE MOTHERFUCKER.

Edited again because I had to add Hyuuga Hiashi (Naruto) on this list. I forgot him yesterday, but I don't know how I did it, as he's definitely one of the top five to me.

Hiashi is such a terrible father it pains me to have to select an adjective at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, and he in no way, shape, or form reaches redemption as far as Hinata is concerned.

Comments

[q99.livejournal.com]

*Follows from etrangere's journal*

-He loves his children and he wants what's best for them, even if that involves joining the Titans,-

"Join the Titans" rarely is the safest choice to begin with :)

Personally I rate him as worse than Cain. I mean, Slade- you've got one kid made mute from a sliced throat, killed, came back, then more weird stuff. You've got another just dead. Then the third, popped her own eye out. The end results are much worse than Cass. For all the shooting and such, he made sure that the training itself didn't traumatize her.

[runespoor7.livejournal.com]

Unsafe, but heroic! Titans give me Rose: I'm all for Rose being in the Titans. I also like the myth aspect of it, that the rivalry between Deathstroke and the Titans isn't always an enmity. That Slade was once an ally of the Titans.

As for Cain, I don't think it's that Cain made sure she wasn't traumatized as much as she just wasn't. The man raised his daughter without speaking to her once and kept her practically entirely without human contact for eight years. He kept her brain from developing normally.

I guess he terrifies me because he's so oblivious to the fact that what he did to her was abuse, unlike Slade, who at least acknowledges that things went/were wrong.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I guess he terrifies me because he's so oblivious to the fact that what he did to her was abuse
I'm not entirely certain of that, actually. When Cass tells him "stop!" he's so totally stunned by the fact she can speak; and he immediately seem to relate differently with her due to that. I think for that alone, he understands what he did as abuse. He doesn't understand training her to be the most deadly assassin ever as abuse though; just the part that prevented her from talking; so, yeah. But I think he does sow some amount of regret/shame.

I'm totally biased.

[runespoor7.livejournal.com]

As a reader I'm biased: I tend not to count how a character was shown on her/his first appearance as as important/'true' as how she/he solidifies later on. Like a pilot: things can change between the pilot and the rest of the series and it's pretty much forgotten or retconned (remember Jesse, Xander and Willow's friend, or Willow's clothes, or Xander's skateboard... or Batman using a gun before Robin was introduced). There are exceptions, like Cass' Character Establishing Moment.

So I mostly judge him by the confrontations between Bruce and him, and Cass and him. And he creeps me the hell out and I want to cry and tear my hair out.

When Cass tells him "stop!" he's so totally stunned by the fact she can speak; and he immediately seem to relate differently with her due to that. I think for that alone, he understands what he did as abuse.
I can't remember if that was ever touched upon later. :/

Re: I'm totally biased.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Well, he is totally, totally creepy x_x

Re: I'm totally biased.

[q99.livejournal.com]

I think he still shows regret later on; he's rarely willing to raise a hand in his defense against her.

I think the regret is a large part of his character. It's not explicit, but it's a subtext to his depression.

[q99.livejournal.com]

I got the impression she had human *contact* in good amounts, just no *speech*. He was always there for her, without question.

It's a slanted, weird way of growing up, but if you look at them interact in the flashbacks, you can see "this is not a girl deprived of human relations."

And I think that's why she wasn't traumatized by the training. Cain was always there for her, physically and emotionally, and she knew it to the core.

[runespoor7.livejournal.com]

No speech from anyone, ever. That means a heavily monitored environment and no spontaneous contact with people who weren't commissioned by her father. Her idea of childhood games was trying to keep from crying out when she was shot, she didn't have any playmates other than him.

Cain was always there for her, physically and emotionally, and she knew it to the core.
I agree, but he was the only thing she had; and he (I'm coming back to this, sorry) kept her brain from developing normally.

[q99.livejournal.com]

-No speech from anyone, ever. That means a heavily monitored environment and no spontaneous contact with people who weren't commissioned by her father.-

Yea, but some of the other people who Cain knew could be trusted to follow that and communicate in body language only. Like Bronze Tiger, for example.

- and he (I'm coming back to this, sorry) kept her brain from developing normally.-

In a way that gave back (body reading) as well as took (speech).

I mean, don't get me wrong, it's horrible, I just don't find it *as* horrible.

[runespoor7.livejournal.com]

Still not great socialization.

In a way that gave back (body reading) as well as took (speech).

I think I'm going to side with Babs on that one. He made her so that, bar meta intervention, she could not have a normal life or fit into normal society ever. The only way for Cass to belong somewhere was with him, or as Batgirl. And by Batgirl I mean "Batman's double".

Like I said, I'm biased: but mostly it hangs on the issue that Cain loves her and thought that he was doing it for her own good. Or found a way to justify it. It's more threatening than malice or manipulation to me; at least I know I can defend myself against that. How do I defend myself against good intentions and selective blindness?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Zeus gets a pass because I can't put the two of them on this list and Chronos came first.
Actually Ouranos did. :p

[runespoor7.livejournal.com]

...T'AS RIEN VU JE CORRIGE.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

XD I can't even remember if Ouranos was as abusive as a father as Chronos. I mean, probably, yes, but I can't remember it. I need to reread my greek mythology.

[q99.livejournal.com]

Ouranos was something of a non-entity compared to Chronos, iirc.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

I vote for Tywin Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire (and his counterpart in HBO's A Game of Thrones). The man SPECIALIZES in fucking up his kids. These are some of his charming activities:

1) Hating his younger son from birth because a) the boy's mother died in childbirth and b) the boy himself has a case of dwarfism. Hardly Tyrion's fault in either case. Does Tywin care? No.

2) Refuses to admit that Tyrion IS his son, even though, by all accounts, Tywin and his wife Joanna were madly in love and cheating was not to be thought of. He hates his son for being disabled that much.

3) Puts Tyrion in the vanguard of a battle while knowing that his dwarf son has no battle training or experience and that he will likely be killed. Oh, and Tyrion calls him on the murder attempt. In public. The order stands, and none of his bannermen--hell, not even Tywin's brother--have the balls to tell him that this is a really shitty thing to do.

4) Has spent most of the past twenty years trying to found a royal dynasty (by marrying his daughter to a man who hates her but who, until recently, held the throne) and by fighting various rebellions.

5) Refuses to accept that his elder warrior son is a member of the Kingsguard and is therefore pledged not to marry or to inherit land. He's still furious that Jaime hasn't resigned this job and gone on to become either his heir or the ruling king. (This also means that he refuses to admit that Tyrion is his legal heir, not Jaime.

6) Continually downgrades his daughter's intelligence and effectiveness because she is, after all, ONLY a woman. This has resulted in Cersei wanting desperately to prove to her father and the world that she's more intelligent and better able to handle power than either of her brothers...to the point of murder and kingdom-destroying madness.

7) Is well aware that his grandson Joffrey is selfish, cruel, has a vicious streak of sadism, and revels in killing people...rather like the Mad King he helped overthrow. Though Joffrey can't rule himself, let alone a kingdom, Tywin's only concern is that Joffrey behave respectfully toward him. The rest of Westeros can go hang.

8) Knows that Jaime and Cersei are lovers (at least, he's never shown any surprise on hearing this tale). He has never reprimanded them for this; he only wants to prove to the rest of the world that it's a lie.

9) When Tyrion wed a cottar's daughter at a very young age, Tywin forced Jaime to lie and say that the girl was a whore he'd hired to play the part of an innocent needing rescue from rapists. He then gave the girl to his guards to be raped by each man (giving her a silver for each rape, since Tywin's story was that she was a whore)...and forced Tyrion to watch and do nothing.

(There's more to the story but I'd rather not spoil all of it. Suffice to say that when Tyrion found out the truth...something snapped.)

TERRIBLE father. Seriously, I think he and Ozai would be drinking buddies, if either of them were capable of making friends.

[runespoor7.livejournal.com]

Aaargh, i can't read your comment or I'll spoil myself hopelessly, and I'm still hanging onto the hope that I'll get myselg in shape to read and/or watch the series. *cries forever* Please don't hate me? I'll keep this as a motivation if I think it can help me push myself into the series?

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

You should TOTALLY watch the series. Do you have HBO? Because if you do, you can watch it on http://www.HBOgo.com at your leisure (at least until the end of December)--and you can watch it with interactive bits. Videos, visuals, maps, interviews, the works.

And why would I hate you?

Also, why is Slade an awful father? I've never heard of him.

[runespoor7.livejournal.com]

Don't have HBO, or TV, much less American... *envies*

And why would I hate you?
Because you've taken the time to write what looks like an awesome comment and I just flounced that my delicate spoiler sensibilities won't allow me to read it without having the vapors.

OhSlade. I love him as a character, but as a father... He's this... vaguely anti-heroic super-villain called Deathstroke who's a mercenary for hire and follows his own code of honor. He had three kids. The first became a mercenary like Dad and was killed, dying in Slade's arms in a way that can convolutedly be construed as because of him. The second was kidnapped as a child to get back at Dad and when Slade shot the guy, his son ended up with his vocal chords cut; he grew up to become a Titan, and then he died. (and came back/evil/died again, but that's the gist of it.) (Side note: Slade's wife was extremely unamused with this development, so she promptly became his ex-wife and took his eye - she was trying to kill him at the time. Adeline = pretty awesome.)

The third one lived happily with her mother until Slade came back and bad stuff happened, and even then she found loving adoptive parents. Whom Slade then had killed so as to swoop in and pretend to be Rose's only chance at safety and revenge. Then he doped her full of crazy-making super-strength serum, so much that she popped her own eye out hoping to gain his approval (the saddest part is that she already had it). Then he proceeded to implant Kryptonite into her empty eye-socket.

He alternates between causing horrible things to happen to his children and using them for all they're worth to further his plans, and genuinely caring about what's best for them. He's an antagonist to the Titans, but he's also been a quasi-official ally. There's a lot of respect involved, and sometimes compassion. Slade's children have been on the team often; it creates bonds. Deathstroke knows all their secret identities. (I think he's an excellent foil for Bruce, but that's because I have a one-track mind.) He knows he's not good for his children.

This thread (http://etrangere.livejournal.com/381542.html?thread=4722278#t4722278) actually tells you more about Slade as a father, if you're not fed up yet.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

see, Tywin was my #2. *nodsnods*