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From redemption arcs that fell flat to promising characters who took baffling turns, some TV journeys left fans feeling betrayed. Join us as we count down our picks for the most disappointing character arcs in television! These once-beloved characters had their development derailed by poor writing, rushed endings, or inexplicable choices.
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00:00Burned them in their homes, burned them in their beds.
00:05Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the TV characters whose character development didn't sit well with fans.
00:13This list spoils the fates of several characters, so a spoiler alert is in effect.
00:17And that, kids, is how I met your mother.
00:2110. Spike, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
00:24We love a redemption arc, as long as it feels earned.
00:288. Spike starts out as a worthy adversary to the Vampire Slayer.
00:32Bloody hell, woman, you're cutting off my circulation.
00:36You don't have any circulation.
00:38Dangerous and complex, actor James Marsters' performance made us want to see more of him.
00:43But his romance with Buffy rarely feels earned.
00:46Once he starts to do good, Spike's behavior seems even more disturbing than when he was a straight-up villain.
00:52Now what do you want?
00:53Easy.
00:54If you think I like putting myself here, surrounded by people who don't particularly like me, you'd be wrong.
01:01In those early seasons, at least we knew we were supposed to think he was bad.
01:05His mission to find a soul feels more like a one-size-fits-all solution than an actual attempt at inner growth.
01:11It certainly didn't work when he was resurrected as an anti-hero on the spin-off Angel.
01:219. Debbie Gallagher, Shameless
01:24Once upon a time, the youngest Gallagher daughter was an intelligent and morally upright girl surrounded by familial craziness.
01:32Ah, Debbie, sent by God. Total angel. Raises money for UNICEF year-round. Some of which she actually turns in.
01:43As the seasons wore on, she became a completely different person.
01:47Her romantic life is a mess of toxicity and manipulation, including a hard-to-stomach storyline about her trapping a young man into fathering her child.
01:55Mine wasn't a mistake. I did it on purpose. I lied to Derek that I was on the pill, because I know what I want.
02:03While her siblings showed some growth, Debbie was the only one to consistently dig herself into a deeper hole of moral bankruptcy and delusion.
02:12Some fans think it's unrealistic, while others reluctantly accept that it was all probably Debbie's response to how she was raised.
02:20Either way, Debbie was probably the show's biggest disappointment.
02:23Wrongly convicted lesbian welder.
02:26It's blowing up. Everybody wants to hire you.
02:308. Robin Scherbatsky, How I Met Your Mother
02:33For a show about marriage and relationships, Robin stood apart from the other characters on How I Met Your Mother.
02:39I think I like your nose.
02:43I think I'm in love with you.
02:45What? What? What?
02:47She genuinely seems like someone who could take or leave romance.
02:51When she and Ted get together early in the series, it falls apart.
02:55It's not going to happen, is it?
02:59Sorry.
03:01Through the next several years, they explore how these two grow as people by being friends.
03:06Then that's all undone in the controversial series finale, when Ted realizes he's still in love with Robin, and the two reunite.
03:14At the same time, it's better than the series' alternate ending, which sees her back with womanizer Barney Stinson.
03:25But it begs the question, why does she need either of these guys?
03:30It's my ex-husband hitting on slutty cops right in front of me, and it's the guy I probably should have ended up with.
03:387. Rachel Green
03:40Friends
03:41When we first meet Rachel Green, she's a rich, spoiled, runaway bride who needs to be taken care of.
03:47It's like all of my life, everyone has always told me,
03:50You're a shoe!
03:52You're a shoe!
03:53You're a shoe!
03:53You're a shoe!
03:54And then today I just stopped and I said,
03:56What if I don't want to be a shoe?
03:58What if I want to be a...
03:59A purse?
03:59Over ten seasons, we watch as she becomes a self-assured professional.
04:04Yes, it was fun to watch her and Ross Geller's on-again-off-again messiness,
04:08but if Friends is about anything, it's about moving forward from the mess of young adulthood.
04:13But rather than commit to that, the show doubled down on the Rachel and Ross story in the very last episode,
04:19by foregoing a job in Europe to go back to him.
04:22I do love you.
04:23It feels less like a satisfying conclusion to their individual arcs and more like a bid for nostalgia.
04:30Don't make jokes now.
04:33Number 6, Roseanne Connor.
04:36Roseanne.
04:37In its initial run, the working-class Connor matriarch's acerbic wit and strength ran counter to a lot of classic sitcom moms.
04:45I left a message on your scum-sucking ex-boyfriend's machine that he better not bring his bony ass over to that apartment
04:51while we're moving you out or else I'm going to bash his skull in.
04:54Roseanne ran her household with an iron fist.
04:57Not only that, she was also a flag-waving feminist who stood up to sexism at every opportunity.
05:03Your dad and I will just be here waiting for you, alone, together, with no witnesses.
05:09Guys, wait up!
05:10Many fans were upset when the show's 2018 revival premiered, as Roseanne Barr's real-life politics retooled her characters.
05:17That could have made for some decent drama if she felt like the same Roseanne Connor.
05:22In one final insult, after Barr was fired over controversial comments, the spin-off The Connors killed her off as a comment on the opioid crisis.
05:31Politics at any point in the spectrum can spoil anything.
05:34You know, you want the government to give everybody free health care because you're a good-hearted person who can't do simple math.
05:43Number 5, Miranda Hobbes.
05:45Sex and the City and Just Like That.
05:48Of the core four on this HBO juggernaut, Miranda seemed to feel the most solid.
05:53But let me say, as far as the Mackenzie brief, Miranda Hobbes is kicking ass.
05:57She embodied a lot of Sex and the City's themes of juggling careers, independence, and romance, and did it with a pretty level head.
06:06It seems like a bonus that her husband, Steve Brady, was one of the better guys on the show.
06:11Steve?
06:12Hey, ma, you still hungry? Come on, let's get some chow.
06:17But once the sequel series and Just Like That came around, week after week, fans were shocked at how much Miranda's writers had lost the plot.
06:26Her impulsive affair with Shae Diaz pleased absolutely no one.
06:30All it did was take a character we loved and throw away all the things we loved about her.
06:34It's okay. I'm awake.
06:37Oh, God. Why don't... Do you not have the earplugs in?
06:40Number 4, Alex Karev.
06:42Grey's Anatomy.
06:43Starting out as insensitive, arrogant, and childish, Alex's journey since the beginning of Grey's Anatomy has been about becoming a better man.
06:51I swear it's not about work or you or Joe. It's about me.
06:59His relationships with fellow doctors Izzy Stevens and then Joe Wilson were a major part of that growth.
07:04However, when actor Justin Chambers left the show, the character got a terrible send-off.
07:10Alex literally broke up with Joe in a letter.
07:13And if it was just about two women I love, I'd choose my wife.
07:17That's just one step above a text message. And to add insult to injury, he leaves to go back with Izzy.
07:24Shut up.
07:28There's no lead-up, no attempt to make it make sense.
07:31It was a plot twist that did more to undermine his character than literally anything else could have.
07:37Number 3, Jaime Lannister, Game of Thrones.
07:40When we first meet the Kingslayer, he was one half of one of Westeros' most twisted romantic couplings.
07:47The things I do for love.
07:51While Cersei spent the rest of the series descending into her own wickedness,
07:55Jaime Lannister actually began to live up to his role as a knight.
07:59But like all things in Game of Thrones last season, his ending was rushed and completely betrayed the growth he had made.
08:05His bizarre turn to be with Cersei in their last moments could have been a tragic moment.
08:21But it lacked any grounding in emotional realism or narrative lead-up.
08:25Don't look away. Don't look. Look at me. Just look at me.
08:34Nothing else matters.
08:36Number 2, Daenerys Targaryen, Game of Thrones.
08:40This show never shied away from questioning whether the Mother of Dragons would rule justly or destructively.
08:45But what we didn't expect was such a rushed conclusion.
08:49I, Daenerys of House Targaryen, first of my name, breaker of chains and mother of dragons, sentence you to die.
09:00The last season of Game of Thrones felt more like a Wikipedia summary than an actual story.
09:06And Daenerys Targaryen got the worst of it.
09:08She goes full-on evil when she sets her dragons on King's Landing, killing many innocent people.
09:15But the suddenness of it turned people off.
09:29The tragedy of her story could have been the series' crowning achievement.
09:33Instead, it was just another reminder that they couldn't pull off a satisfying ending.
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10:01This is one of those character arcs that's just disappointing, mostly because it makes too much sense.
10:13Rory Gilmore starts out as a straight-A student with a bright future and a lot of support.
10:17A toast to Rory entering Chilton in an exciting new phase in her life.
10:23Hear, hear.
10:24As she grew up, she got so used to praise that she became hostile to any criticism or pushback.
10:30A lot of people feel betrayed by what a brat Rory became as she grew up.
10:34But the writing was on the wall from the jump.
10:37No more scheduling, no more planning.
10:39I am just going to spend my days making ice cream, beer floats, and just taking life as it comes.
10:45You'll see.
10:45New me.
10:46Gilmore Girls is about a mother who shirked her own upper-class background only to raise a daughter who aspired to that same life.
10:53Her self-destructive entitlement continued in the show's limited revival A Year in the Life, culminating in Rory announcing her pregnancy.
11:01We don't do the passive-aggressive thing.
11:02That's how you and your mother work.
11:04You're supposed to be on my side.
11:06I need this.
11:07Can't you understand that?
11:08What beloved character disappointed you the most?
11:11Tell us in the comments.
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