Worst father in animation

[Bloody Marquis]

In defense of the Rugrats' fathers, most of them (with the exception of Charles Sr. until after the 1st movie) aren't raising their kids by themselves. Their mothers weren't any less neglectful/oblivious.

Also, some of the babies get into things that no average father should be expected to handle.

 

[Restless]

Peter Griffin probably, as well as the fathers who have twisted and/or abused their kids (such as Ozai). For the latter, I think it's fairly obvious why. Peter...I just didn't think they would go so far that he would admit to not caring about them. The "humorous" abuse was bad enough (playing with family dynamics=/=let's verbally and physically abuse them for laughs!), but I don't see how any of the writers can "fix" that blunder. I think Timmy's Dad from FoP has gotten worse, too.

Also, some of the babies get into things that no average father should be expected to handle.

I consider the Rugrats parents in this whole other unlabeled category. Sure, their lack of attentiveness often led to the kids getting in trouble, but they were still rather loving and none of their actions were devious. The series required the babies to escape, yet the writers avoided demonizing the parents or making it seem as if they didn't care at all. It's rather hard for me to adequately explain It's different from other shows where the kids goes on adventures and the parents are oblivious to all of their child's wants and needs.

Shake doesn't count because he wasn't Ezekiel's father. At the end of the episode, Frylock ran a DNA scan and revealed that not only were Shake and Zeke not related, but Zeke was in fact older than Shake.

I suppose you could label him a bad father figure for the short time that he was one. But Ezekiel really isn't pivotal to the plot and appeared in, what, 2 episodes? Shake's role as a father was minor and didn't serve his character much more than to show that, no matter what the situation, he somehow fails at it or screws it up.

 

[Shredhead]

Magneto (Wolverine and the X-Men): This version of magneto played favoites. Quicksilver was exiled and treated like trash by his father. He berrated him everytime he failed a mission and at one time he ratted him out to the MRD just to get rid of him for being a failure. Even then his son stayed loyale to him and and was still mistreated. Lorna his youngest wasn't much better sometime you can love to much he kept her so sheltered she was completely unbalanced. Wanda was his favorite but even then he treated her as a general and political advisor then a daughter.

Magneto Evolution: This version was probraly worse then the other Magneto. This version he pretty much treated Quicksilver the same he was just dumbass hired help. Wanda was more tragic he ditched her when she was crazed and ddidn't look back. He later brainwarshed her in thinking he was the best dad ever so he coud use her as a weapon.

Clay Puffington (Moral Orel): Monster is the best way to descibe him. He didn't even have the excuse of being a supervillain or doing things because there wacky like Peter Griffin who knows at times he's just a cartoon.

Firelord Ozai (Avatar the Last Airbender): He never cared about his kids Zuko he treated like trash and Azula he turned her into a crazed monster. He never loved either child all he cared about was his family's vision of an all Fire Nation world.

Norman Osbourne (Spectacular Spider-Man): He was pretty terrible to Harry pretty much using his addiction to throw Spider-Man off even going the lengths to abuse his son to do it. He didn't love his son either he wanted him to be a man but he seemed that he only wanted to love Harry if he could be useful to him and his legacy and really thats not love.

 

[Shawn Hopkins]

As for Kalibak, it's the classic case of favoritism. Darkseid saves all of his, well I wouldn't call it love, but interest for his other son Orion. And, actually, Darkseid is just so generally evil that on a relative scale even Kalibak is a golden boy. When Darkseid kills Kalibak for displeasing him, for instance, he always brings him back to life. What an old softie.

Butters is the saddest one for me because it's just too realistic. His dad and his mom really are just wrapped up in their own stuff and don't care about him, to the point where his mom tries to kill him as part of their selfish relationship drama and then they both try to cover it up. They also physically abuse him. What Peter Griffin does to Meg is like a Bugs Bunny cartoon, what happens to Butters happens all the time.

 

[A.Magik]

Donald duck deserves a mention for the way he treats his nephews. Granted, he's not nearly as bad as some of the other examples mentioned here, but still probably among the worst fathers (well, father figures, anyway) seen in golden age animation.

I think you're being rather unfair to Donald; yes, the duck gets ballistic on Hugh, Dwight, and Louis, but it's usually because of something the nephews had done to him. One Disney historian labeled the trio as more terminal than the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!

 

[Mandi-chan]

Donald duck deserves a mention for the way he treats his nephews. Granted, he's not nearly as bad as some of the other examples mentioned here, but still probably among the worst fathers (well, father figures, anyway) seen in golden age animation.

If I remember the old shorts correctly, Donald's anger at those little spawn was pretty much always justified. They're horrible little brats, and even as a child I hated them and always sided with Donald. The three of them only became likeable to me on Ducktales, because they didn't act like nasty little brats.

 

[stephane dumas]

I knew a few best worst fathers in animation that come to mind & are worst than the first two from Manhunter's choices,

Randy Marsh/Stephen Stotch(South Park) - They were pretty bad awful fathers with Randy doing many dumb crazy things that were hilarious, hahahaha, while raising a nasty bully for a daughter like Shelly, & Stephen being crappy/horrible/abusive to poor Butters which made me hate him.

Good point about them, but what about Gerard Browsfloski (Kyle's and Ike's dad) and Stuart McKormick (Kenny's dad)?

 

[dth1971]

Stan in American Dad?

 

[Cartman]

Good point about them, but what about Gerard Browsfloski (Kyle's and Ike's dad) and Stuart McKormick (Kenny's dad)?

How are Ike/Kyle and Kenny's dads bad? Stuart may be a drinker, but at least the show lets us know he cares about his son. He doesn't ground Kenny for no reason like Butters' parents do, nor has he ever tried to sell him to any whores for several million dollars.

As to Kyle's dad, he may have set a bad example when he became a Jewfin, encouraging Kyle to become black, but generally he doesn't do stupid or abusive things to any of his kids.

 

[USSManhattan]

I think it was insinuated once or twice that Stuart beats his wife... hardly the best situation for a child.

 

[Bones Justice]

Robert Freeman - The Boondocks, who knows were his own kids are, beats his grandkids, abandons his grandkids, greedy at the expense of them, sets every bad example you can think of; when he thought he had a son (Lando), he tried to get rid of him, he only allowed him in to keep from being involved in Gin Rummy killing him

 

[SamTheGreek]

I'm giving my vote to Judge Claude Frollo from Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame".

He was technically Quasimodo's father. Outside of that, do I really need to justify why?


Pic of Frollo about to throw a baby down a well:

 

[The Great Vega]

All these other guys are better than Timmy Turner's dad, because at least they're honest. Some are backstabbing jackasses, but they know it and think being that way is best for their kid. Some are self-destructive idiots, but idiocy is excusable. Kinda.

Meanwhile, when Timmy Turner was a baby, his parents intentionally tricked him into thinking they had left him forever, just to see what he'd do about it.

Robert Freeman - The Boondocks, who knows were his own kids are, beats his grandkids, abandons his grandkids, greedy at the expense of them, sets every bad example you can think of; when he thought he had a son (Lando), he tried to get rid of him, he only allowed him in to keep from being involved in Gin Rummy killing him

You realize that Riley and Huey are no angels, right?

I mean, Riley outright tries to rob and vandalize with two grown men. Robert's got to spank Riley before the government does it for him

 

[Romperstoomper]

Peter Griffin is an awful father figure and a horrible human being all around.

Yeah, that's the first dad that comes to mind.

 

[JesseCuster]

To be honest, I never thought of Ozai as a bad father. He was the leader of the nation and especially its military. Zuko was an overzealous brat who shouldn't have been in the war meeting in teh first place. Ozai couldn't show favoritism so he did what he had to do. He was the only person to actually support Azula who turned out to be especially loyal and smart.

My vote would actually go to the 4th Hokage (Naruto). He should have known what kind of life Naruto would have especially without his mother or father around, but he sealed a demon within him anyway.

 

[JAG]

Originally posted by JesseCuster:
To be honest, I never thought of Ozai as a bad father. He was the leader of the nation and especially its military. Zuko was an overzealous brat who shouldn't have been in the war meeting in teh first place. Ozai couldn't show favoritism so he did what he had to do.

I thought it was pretty well-established that Zuko's overzealousness was brought on by Ozai's utter lack of affection and support. Ozai apparantly treated him like an unwanted mistake from day one, and Zuko was always desperate to try and earn Ozai's approval. And disfiguring a thirteen-year-old for speaking out against a clearly sick and wasteful military doctrine seems a bit harsh, doesn't it?

He was the only person to actually support Azula who turned out to be especially loyal and smart.

...and she tortured ducklings for fun. Clearly some issues at work there.

 

[Bloody Marquis]

To be honest, I never thought of Ozai as a bad father. He was the leader of the nation and especially its military. Zuko was an overzealous brat who shouldn't have been in the war meeting in teh first place. Ozai couldn't show favoritism so he did what he had to do. He was the only person to actually support Azula who turned out to be especially loyal and smart.

Overzealous or not, Ozai did not need to incinerate a chunk of his son's face and send him off to a snipe hunt.

And his support for Azula wasn't that of a parent to a child. He viewed her as a weapon rather than a daughter.

 

[Cullen]

Cotton Hill was pretty horrible to Hank all his life. And even in death, Cotton left ways to make Hank miserable one last time.

Also, I'd like to mention when sometimes a character has a horrible father, they usually end up seeing someone else as their father figure. Hank sometimes sees his boss, Buck Strickland, as a father figure. And Uncle Iroh has been a better caring and loving father figure to Zuko than Ozai.

 

[Urusei Yatsura]

Cotton Hill was pretty horrible to Hank all his life. And even in death, Cotton left ways to make Hank miserable one last time.

I can't believe I forgot Cotton.. Yeah he was a terrible father. He was probably my least favorite character in that show...

 

[GregX]

Also, I'd like to mention when sometimes a character has a horrible father, they usually end up seeing someone else as their father figure.

We have to fill that void somehow. Don't you think?