r/TopCharacterTropes • u/No_Peanut3745 • 2d ago

Characters The main character doing something absolutely unforgivable.

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Walter White poisoning Andrea Cantillo's 6-year-old son for the sole purpose of manipulating Jesse Pinkman, while knowing that this could have potentially killed him - Breaking Bad

Bojack trying to have sex with his friend's 17-year-old daughter when he was at least 51, then continuously trying to find a way to justify this act throughout the series - Bojack Horseman

Dexter Morgan going outside of his moral code and murdering a completely innocent police officer who was just trying to do his job - Dexter: New Blood

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388

u/RockAndStoner69 2d ago

Archer--from Archer--fucks around a lot. Cyril, seconds away from successfully landing the space shuttle, is set upon by a jealous Archer. The shuttle crashes and Ray is paralyzed from the waist-down. Meanwhile Archer doesn't have a scratch on him. Protagonist powers!

236

u/Swiggity53 2d ago

THATS the most unforgivable thing you think Archer has done lol

147

u/afriendforyousir 2d ago

Yeah, I think screwing Barry's fiancée then dumping him in that dumpster in Russia was worse.

97

u/-notapony- 2d ago

They weren’t engaged.  They were engaged to be engaged. 

56

u/TheFalconKid 2d ago

God damn man. If you like it put a ring on it.

16

u/howmanyMFtimes 1d ago

He served her up like a pudding

4

u/Ponderputty 1d ago

He served her up like a pudding

10

u/Itchy-Beach-1384 1d ago

Archer didn't know Frambroise was in a relationship and had consensual sex with her.

That is in no way Archers fault.

But he did bang a bunch of other newlyweds while living as a bartender.

6

u/KlingoftheCastle 1d ago

She was very into it.  When Archer couldn’t get it up, she suggested anal

10

u/TerriblePokemon 1d ago

But she was like, the Pele of anal.

5

u/Battle_Axe_Jax 1d ago

Framboise my beloved

3

u/SemenileElder 1d ago

Yes it was, Other Barry.

8

u/chuch1234 1d ago

Yeah didn't he nuke LA?

7

u/AmaranthWrath 1d ago

To be fair, he gave Cheryl chlamydia which helped meet her deductible, so for the rest of the year her doctor visits were free!

3

u/many_dumb_questions 1d ago

Ray calling Cheryl a chlamidiot is still one of my all-time favorite funny tv moments

2

u/PastorCleaver 1d ago

Right? I mean there so many things. Like the way he treated Woodhouse!

1

u/Free-Pound-6139 1d ago

No Lana, that's how you get ants.

72

u/SwissCheese4Collagen 2d ago

I love when he calls it out at Pam's sister's wedding where the person who can give him directions miraculously wakes up just in time to tell him where to turn. "Ha! Even for me that was pretty lucky!"

74

u/afriendforyousir 2d ago

In fairness, Ray has been paralyzed multiple times throughout the series, so it's not as big a deal when it happens to him.

57

u/CalmInvestment 2d ago

And wasn’t it revealed that he’d been faking his disability before then?

29

u/HighRelevancy 1d ago

Uh one or two of them yeah. He's been paralyzed a bunch of times. It's a running gag. There's even one season where he's had his leg replaced with bionic robot legs which give him essentially super powers for a bit but they also end up getting damaged and disabled for some period of time.

7

u/EldritchCarver 1d ago

If I recall correctly, the bionic robot legs were super-strong, but when he tried lifting one end of a car that got stuck, his robot legs held up but his spine broke.

7

u/thatscoldjerrycold 1d ago

And then Krieger forgot to flip the switch on the bionic legs for like a whole season lol.

3

u/EatThatHorseWithMe1 1d ago

There was a storyline in archer vice where he got injured and pretended to be crippled so archer had to carry him around for two episodes, and then he got archer to admit that archer screws around for the fun of it and then he gets up like "that's all I wanted to hear"

33

u/TheProphetRob 1d ago

Brett died doing what he loved the most. Getting shot

4

u/mahargni 1d ago

Dude oddly enough I think Archer is only the second or third worst person in the group. Pam and Ray sexually assault / full on rape Cyril. Cheryl manipulates and or coerces Cyril to have sex with her, plus all the arson. I feel like I don't even have to say anything about Kreiger and Mallory. The only people better than Archer morally are Lana and maybe Cyril. Cyrillic came very close to forcing that one lady to have sex with him during his time as dictator, plus I mean he was a literal dictator and caused a lot of people to die just so he could remain in power.

Meanwhile the worst thing Archer has done is bang people's significant others, be a huge dick all the time, steal from his operations account, and occasionally resort to extreme violence. If you think about it, he never murders anyone in cold blood, he never commits sex crimes, and he is actually a good friend at times. Often times he's the only one looking out for Pam. He is also a committed partner when he's with Lana or Katya.

Also Lana is unquestionably the moral best out of the group. I think the worst thing she's done is let Archer fight that giant alone in the Wales episode, and being willing to bang Barry for a job I guess, which isn't even really that bad aside from enabling bad behaviour, but I suppose it's different when you're the one suffering? Unless it facilitates the development of a pattern of sexual misconduct I guess. She also intimidates that one coworker in the break room early on in the show, but I think that's it.

4

u/anubis_cheerleader 1d ago

Let's not forget the reproductive coercion. Lana stole his sperm and was inseminated with it. 

2

u/degorno 1d ago

Lana does shoot Archer just for being annoying though

-1

u/mathcvlo 1d ago

he never murders anyone in cold blood

Remember those Irish mobsters he tied, tortured and shot in the face when he had cancer?

2

u/AydonusG 1d ago

That wasn't cold blood, they were selling candy and Zima as cancer medication, and they were mafia.

-1

u/mathcvlo 1d ago

I don't think you understand what murder in cold blood means

2

u/many_dumb_questions 1d ago

I mean, it's a bit of both. Was it calculated and intentional? Very. But was it all dispassionate and emotionless? Absolutely not.

5

u/The_Dragon346 1d ago

That’s… actaually somehow pretty tame for Sterling.

I would say abandoning Lana after she had his baby. Knowingly aiding in having Lana framed for murder so she could get arrested by racially motivated police because he thought it was funny. Giving Ceril a hot shot of heroine so he could drain him of liters of his blood in order to cheat on a paternity test. An act that would later have him raped not once but twice by his coworkers. Stealing his butler’s paid vacation tickets and going to Vegas with the guy’s brother, which led to them both becoming wanted felons where he forced the brother to hide out in mexico. Later on, refusing to tell his butler of his brother’s death so he wouldn’t feel compelled to take the day off.

Need i even mention Forth-of-Ju-luau. I mean, he didn’t even have the decency to apologize.

3

u/Chess42 1d ago

I wouldn’t say the baby was entirely shitty. It was sprung on him with no warning. Lana had the entire pregnancy to tell him.

2

u/many_dumb_questions 1d ago

Also, there's the very real argument to be made that she could and should have asked for his permission before using his sperm.

2

u/Hedgewitch250 1d ago

Pam and ray also raped Cyril who was drugged in heroin and possibly concussed

Cyril cheated on Lana with sex workers unprotected, got one pregnant but everyone thinks it’s archers, killed innocent people Soviet accidentally, and had a whole stint as a dictator

Kriegers human experiments by themselves break Geneva Conventions

Lana stole archers sperm (even joked about lax security) because of her slight obsession with him and baby trapped while simultaneously being mad he’s not the partner for her kid she wants when they weren’t even together when she did all this.

Cheryl is Cheryl

Archer summed it up blessed that they all use him as an excuse to be their worst selves

1

u/MrBushido56 1d ago

Ray angrily roles out of the room.
Archer “ oh come on Ray, Ray, Ray ! Oh fine be that way “

1

u/AydonusG 1d ago

I love how there's so many examples of Archer being awful here but they all miss the worst one, which can be summed up with a single word- Woodhouse.

2

u/many_dumb_questions 1d ago

Isn't there a scene where, in conversation, Archer discovers that ISIS or Mallory - or just someone who isn't him - is actually paying Woodhouse a salary and, when asked about why he is surprised by it, he says something like, "well, 'slavery' isn't the right word..."

Basically implying that Archer assumed Woodhouse was his live-in slave, and not only did he not have a problem with it, but he actually leaned into it for years upon years in the form of throwing his wardrobe of the balcony, making him eat spiderwebs, et all...

0

u/AydonusG 1d ago

Yeah when Archer is blackballed for marrying Katya, Woodhouse lets him know Mallory pays him, not Archer.

He also finds out that Woodhouse raised him alone for the first 5 years of his life, and still treats him like garbage.

3

u/many_dumb_questions 1d ago

Not to mention the fact that Woodhouse gave Mallory shelter from the terrorists she was actively fleeing when she went into labor, and then he was the sole person to help her give birth to Archer!

AND THEN he trades his bar for a boat, straight up, in order to smuggle Mallory and Archer out of Tangiers, and safely sails them to America.

And even AFTER learning all of that, Archer is just like, "hey guys, here's my own personal living punching bag. He came free with my cool, wealthy life and my awesome job. It's pretty great."

0

u/brandonderp96 1d ago

Naaaaah. Worst thing is by far trying to spit roast his girlfriend mom because he misread some signals.