Fictional heroes/heroines and red flags

[ImperialBlether]

I've just been thinking about Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre. I loved him when I was young but I was thinking just now I bet he was a right moody bugger to live with when he was older, particularly due to his sight.

Are there any fictional heroes you loved when you were young that you think now would have actually driven you mad? Would Mr Darcy in P&P make Lizzie happy? What about Wickham? How long would it have taken Lydia to realise what he was really like? That man showed more red flags than a Communist convention, but she was blind to them.

Who would be on here, doing an AIBU or a relationships thread?

I can't stop thinking about that thread I was reading here about the fictional characters in the early 20th century and how they would have died in WWI.

I am pretty sure the guy from Tess was never meant to be read as hero? Like, wasn't the intent of the book to show what an asshole he was?

I can't tell you any names because I avoid modern romance like the plague, but the cheapter bodice-rippers I read before I realized they're all the same (i.e. horrible) have heroes that are actually worse than even some by the Bronte sisters.

And of course, there is Edward Cullen/Christian Grey. Of course, the heroines in that novels would be too stupid to go and seek help, they reject even their friends' offers of help, but .... there would be plenty cause for a "My husband is abusive, please help me escape" thread.

I think modern heroes are worse because they should know better. At least the older romantic heroes make no bones about being control freaks.

Edward Cullen is my abusive teenage boyfriend to the life.

I have been engaged in a Jilly Cooper re-read and am sadly starting to put Rupert and Taggie in that category too. Rupert is horrible to Taggie a lot of the time post-Rivals - force ten rages, rabidly jealous of her talking to other men, freezes her out for months over her job as a cook/food tech teacher in Wicked, tells Xav not to let his mother talk to men, and that's before you get into the mess that is Mount. It's not a healthy relationship at all!