Collider has published a ranked feature revisiting movie characters the writer believes have been unfairly maligned by audiences, arguing that closer examination reveals them as complex and realistic rather than annoying or unlikeable. The piece counts down seven examples, showing how characters often dismissed as frustrating are in fact shaped by trauma, difficult circumstances or narrative roles that make their behaviour understandable.

Among those included are Jenny Curran from Forrest Gump (1994), criticised for repeatedly rejecting Forrest despite a backstory involving childhood sexual abuse that explains her difficulty with intimacy, and Karen Nelson from Halloween (2018), often derided as whiny despite her portrayal reflecting a childhood disrupted by her mother Laurie Strode's trauma-driven parenting. The list also references Cho Chang from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), though the excerpt cuts off before detailing her entry, with further characters ranked further up the list.