I hate so-called "cool, calm, and collected" characters being presented as superior beings that are shown being correct so often that the consumer take-away message is that being emotionally cold and abrasive makes them smart too. :reddit-logo: worshiped characters like that pretty much since Digg collapsed and also LARPed as being the same way in their own self-descriptions. The "misanthropic genius asshole flattered by the script and by total screen time" cliche is related to this too.
the leftist villain who wants to Improve Society Somewhat, but then suddenly does something random and extremely violent to show that actually all of their beliefs are bad and evil and you should just listen to The Billionaire Adults In The Room about everything..
It's one thing if the villain is cynically using a Bleeding Heart cause to gain power, like an evil billionaire funding a charity because they actually want the real-estate it's on or something cliche like that, if it's properly foreshadowed. But the LulRandom violence from an antagonist that has an otherwise completely justified cause just to get the audience to turn on them is just :agony-shivering:
Edit: and then at the same time they'll take a hatchet to the antagonists ideology to make it something incoherent like "restoring the balance" just to make sure their ostensibly political piece of art can't say anything coherent or meaningful about real politics :agony-consuming:
Also similarly, when you have the protagonist that wants to do good "the right way" and then you have a rival antihero/villain that wants to do the same thing, but he has no scruples about it and goes TOO FAR in achieving his goals and is therefore bad and must be stopped.
You can tell the politics of a Star Wars showrunner by seeing how they treat Saw Gerrera
I was also thinking about FF Tactics, which I hear so much about but then reading about it you have the pure noble-born main character who is the "real hero" and then his commoner childhood friend who uses skillful political manouvering and dishonest tactics to get into power and he also steals all the glory from our real hero, then he has the classic "Oh no was it worth it" shit cause he had to be mean to reach the top.
"I want to put an end to all the evils in the world! Now excuse me while i shoot this orphan in the face"