Some of Animal Crossing: New Horizons' colorful and unique animal villagers inspire the fandom awarded to the likes of beloved Pokémon, despite being less useful in-game than Game Freak's magical creatures. And just like Pokémon, certain Animal Crossing villagers also inspire hatred from fans, be it because of ugly designs or terrible personalities.
Animal Crossing games are generally about relaxing among a peaceful community, but problematic villagers can make that particularly difficult. Much of Animal Crossing fans' hatred is usually reserved for characters that play a more integral role in plot progression or events, like the stingy Tom Nook or the egg-hiding Easter bunny, Zipper. But, sometimes, normal villagers can have such terrible attitudes that their mere existence in players' towns causes the same level of vitriol.
It makes sense, after all, that in a franchise with hundreds of characters, a few would seem annoying or be downright hated by fans. Here are Animal Crossing: New Horizons' most disliked animal inhabitants.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Worst Villagers
Each of the following villagers has received quite a bit of hate around the internet and on social media. Of course - like Pokémon, again - there's a good chance every villager is someone's favorite, but it's at least safe to say these characters are generally disliked by much of the Animal Crossing community.
Barold
A lazy-type cub villager, Barold is a victim of the dreaded "weird beard" that plagues several of Animal Crossing's characters. The presence of a full-on beard on a bear cub is perplexing, and it's not helped by the glasses-shaped pattern on his face and his human-like mouth. These give him the look of a middle-aged human man rather than a cute bear cub, which is a little off-putting. Couple that with the fact that his house is full of security monitors (seen in the tweet below from Twitter Maxine), as if he's spying on everyone else on the island, and that's one creepy dude.
Rocket
Players' hatred of Rocket is mostly aesthetic. She has a sisterly personality, which means there's nothing outright rude or offensive about the way she acts by design. Instead, players just seem to hate her appearance: She's a blonde gorilla with a pink racing suit and pink lipstick. It's certainly a rather loud look, so she definitely doesn't easily fit in with most of New Horizons' other villagers. Additionally, her catchphrase is "vroom," which is awkward and a little on the nose. Yes, Rocket, everyone knows you like going fast. Got it.
Moose
Moose is awful. In fact, most of Animal Crossing's rat villagers are terrible. Chadder and Limberg could easily have made this list, but Moose takes the cake because of that raised eyebrow. He looks like he's constantly propositioning everyone he looks at, and his catchphrase, "shorty," only ads to the illusion he's hitting on the player. Pair that with his greasy sideburns and other features, and Moose is just a total creep.
Eloise
A villager from the original Animal Crossing on GameCube, Eloise's cute appearance belies a terrible attitude. Her catchphrase is "tooooot," which is less than ideal, but the real problem is her snooty-type personality. She's known for criticizing players and other villagers, as exemplified in the video from Twitter kristal below, in which she rags on both the player's island and another villager there.
Rodney
Rodney has no redeeming qualities. This hamster has been described by fans as "the Animal Crossing version of an incel" and a "tiny little arrogant demon" - along with a whole lot of other colorful language - and he has an entire subreddit dedicated to hating him ("r/f***rodney"). The hate is likely due to the combination of his smug personality and his lackluster appearance, which add up to make an overall unappealing neighbor.
Luckily for Animal Crossing fans, there is a way to get rid of unwanted villagers. In many ways, however, it's not an exact science, so players might need to simply get used to seeing their least favorite animal folks trotting around their island paradise.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons released on March 20, 2020, for the Nintendo Switch.