The worst character in every Arrowverse show, ranked

The Arrowverse was a light for superhero fans during a very dark time for the genre on television. There just weren't that many superhero shows in the 2000s and early 2010s, but the explosion of The CW's shared universe of DC Comics heroes changed the game, kickstarting a huge wave of comic book content on the small screen.

Through shows such as Arrow, The Flash, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and Batwoman (and later offshoots such as Black Lightning, Superman and Lois, and DC's Stargirl), TV viewers got the chance to meet plenty of beloved heroes and villains, falling in love with so many of them along the way.

However, the Arrowverse shows weren't always great at introducing new characters (or even giving longer-standing ones the right kind of spotlight). With that in mind, let's look back through the archives of the Arrowverse and pick out the characters from each show that fans just couldn't get behind. From being forced to the forefront of a show that had nothing to do with them to too much of a good thing, here are the characters that fans grew tired of very, very quickly.

Note: This list will only focus on the shows that have spent their whole runs as Arrowverse series. Thus, it won't include Superman and Lois, Black Lightning, or DC's Stargirl.

5. Jacob Kane (Batwoman)

The fact that Batwoman - a show all about the Kane family in the beginning - achieved its greatest season without much focus on the Kanes really does highlight how it got things wrong with the iconic DC family. There is no greater example of this than Jacob Kane.

Jacob was the father of Kate and Alice, so he was at the forefront from the beginning due to the traumatic storyline at the center of the show; but the writers wouldn't let him have a moment to breathe. Yes, this man was grieving the loss of his daughter and the guilt over being unable to find her when she was younger, but the show also kept feeding him trauma after trauma and it was tough to watch him go through it every time.

He also wasn't very likable as he often took out his anger and resentment on those around him, specifically Batwoman. And that was an interesting dynamic, as it presumably would have led to some kind of resolution between him and his daughter Kate, but Ruby Rose's departure from the show and the immediate change in direction rendered all of that useless; so when he started a rivalry with new Batwoman Ryan Wilder, it felt redundant.

The show's pivot away from Kate also left the character feeling a bit redundant in season 2, so it was probably right to write him out (even if that was also done in a harsh and traumatic way).

4. Mona Wu (DC's Legends of Tomorrow)

Amazingly, DC's Legends of Tomorrow didn't have too many bad characters throughout its seven-season run. That was probably down to the fact that it expertly balanced its ensemble cast, so it didn't struggle with forcing supporting characters to the forefront of shows that weren't about them in the way that the likes of The Flash and Arrow did.

One character, however, that fans did struggle with was Mona Wu. While Legends thrived with the unserious, its fourth season is considered one of its weakest and a large part of that was down to its reliance on Mona, who was an inherently silly character. A kaupe hybrid also named Wolfie, she was totally at home in the show's more mythical season, but it very quickly became all about Mona, which didn't sit well with audiences who weren't taking to her character as quickly as the show wanted them to.

She wasn't a bad character, but she did pale in comparison to the show's main characters such as Sara and Ava, while other new arrivals like John Constantine were much more interesting.

3. William Dey / Andrea Rojas (Supergirl)

Supergirl introduced two new characters in its lacklustre fifth season and somehow both of them lasted until the sixth and final season. Neither one was particularly great and it didn't help that their arcs were tied together, which made getting to know both of them a tough task for viewers.

William was first introduced as an arrogant and mean reporter that often disregarded Kara Danvers. That was an instant red flag to viewers who had a tough time taking to him. The subsequent revelation that he was actually just undercover while investigating Andrea Rojas could have been great but the obnoxious way in which he was introduced to the show was hard to overlook. And then the fact that Crisis On Infinite Earths rewrote parts of his backstory and the complete 180 that his character took all just rendered him pointless to the show. Staz Nair brought an energy to the character but the material didn't give him much to work with.

Andrea Rojas was in a similar situation as she was set up to be a Cat Grant-like figure without any of the warmth or integrity, so she simply came off as antagonistic without depth. Sure, there was the Acrata persona and her relationship with Leviathan, but both were so underexplored (and altered by Crisis) that viewers just didn't care. And when her storyline came to an end, she continued to have a presence on the show, offering nothing outside of contradicting everything Kara and William did. Her role in season 6 added nothing of value to her own character or the plot.

2. Felicity Smoak (Arrow)

How the mighty fell. Felicity Smoak was once a delight; a brightness in Arrow's darkness. And then Arrow attempted to find some brighter days, only for Felicity to pull it down into its darkest era of all: Season 4.

The character was once Team Arrow's light-hearted and lovable IT titan, a.k.a. "the guy in the chair", helping Oliver Queen and John Diggle in their many Star City adventures from the Arrow bunker. However, the show decided to focus the majority of its attention on the developing relationship between her and Oliver, effectively having her graduate from supporting character to leading character. And no, we don't mean "leading character outside of Oliver", we mean leading character.

Arrow became all about Felicity throughout its fourth season, leaning on the once fan-favorite character in a dramatic role and it very quickly highlighted the limitations of the character. She often found ways of making situations about herself, refusing to talk to Oliver when his son William was kidnapped by Damien Darhk and wasting those valuable moments arguing with him. The melodrama involving the pair very quickly had audiences voicing their frustration, and ratings eventually dropped as a result.

The only reason that Felicity isn't ranked in the top spot is because she was a great character in the beginning. Those first two seasons still do a lot of the heavy-lifting when looking back at Arrow's run, but it's not enough to undo the damage that the subsequent seasons did to the character.

1. Cecile Horton (The Flash)

Oh Cecile; where did it all go wrong?

Cecile Horton began her run on The Flash in its first season when she was the firm and independent District Attorney, but when the show opted to bring her in full-time, it changed everything about what made her interesting. She developed empathic abilities, which was a good excuse for her to feature on the show more regularly, and played a major role in Team Flash's defeat of The Thinker. That was actually pretty cool, but everything that came after it was not.

The sad thing is that The Flash stopped treating Cecile like a serious character and only used her for laughs. She was unserious all of the time and that made it hard to take her seriously any of the times she appeared on-screen. Fans also hated how she would impose her powers on people by publicly revealing what they were feeling - which was seriously not okay.

The show's unlikely obsession with Cecile unfortunately continued to the end of its run, as season 9 was all about proving that she was "the most powerful metahuman in all of Central City" (again, this show is called The Flash), giving her superhero suit, codename, and the unanticipated (and unexplained) power of flight. Fans had long grown tired of Cecile but unfortunately the creative team just weren't listening to their viewers.