One of the most bizarre and fun fan experiences ever existed in Once Upon a Time, an entire show about basically making crossover fanfiction stories about famous stories. The concept is wild and, for a while, worked super well. After all, the show lasted for seven seasons on ABC. However, the show did juggle a ton of characters and not all of them could be top tier hits like Hook or Regina.
In fact, there are quite a few supporting characters that fans outright hated. Whether it was because they didn't really fit into the story well or were boring, they didn't make OUAT a better show. They just got in the way and annoyed everyone.
Prince Phillip
OUAT fans really fell in love with Mulan, the series' first LGBTQ+ character. She was an amazing warrior who fell in love with an inordinately brave, albeit naive, princess named Aurora. When she promised to protect Philip's love, she didn't expect to love her, too.
It's no surprise fans adored the idea of the pair actually ending up together.
Then, of course, Phillip came back, they married, and she announced that she was pregnant.
Yeah, between his absolute zero screen time or personality, fans came to despise Phillip for ruining their beloved ship. This guy never had a chance and it's no surprise that shortly after their baby's birth, Phillip and Aurora were rarely seen.
Victor Frankenstein
While many of the characters in Storybrooke are from various fairytales or Disney movies, Dr. Whale threw the series for a loop by being the first character from a very, very different place. He actually ended up being Victor Frankenstein, AKA a guy from a fictional Victorian Europe?
Yeah, it was a weird addition that didn't really fit in with the rest of the fairytale characters. Worse, he dared have a one-night stand with Snow White ad always creepily flirt with the ladies of the town.
David Anders may have played him well, but fans were never that into him. If anything, they kinda hated his guts. Happens when you're a womanizer way too ready to start angry mobs.
Violet Morgan
The central heart of OUAT was Emma Swan and her family, including her son, Henry Mills. Unlike all the adults in the show, though, Henry slowly grew up throughout the series and went through different phases of his life. He may have started a kid, but he became a teen and, eventually, left the town once he graduated high school.
Of course, along with aging up often comes young romance. Well, for Henry, his first love came in the form of Violet Morgan.
A Mark Twain character and a pretty bland young woman, Violet didn't really have the space to grow into an interesting, vibrant character. She simply didn't fit into this world of magic. Fans definitely thought someone more interesting and fairytale should be with Henry instead.
Gideon
Rumple and Belle became a general back and forth mess during the later seasons of the show. All of that culminated in their son, Gideon. Somehow, he ended up being evil, annoying, and bland at the same time. If he could have at least been dramatic or campy he would've had a shot, but no. He was just boring and never would go away.
The writers deserved to make Rumple's second son a lot more complex than he ended up being, coming from such a powerful and dark family. However, that didn't happen and fans hated it.
At least The Black Fairy was extra enough to be of some interest.
Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde
There were so many things working against this guy, it wasn't even funny. Dr. Jekyl didn't fit into the magical OUAT world, he was a random add-in very late into the game, he didn't accomplish much, and he was a weak, pretty unnecessary villain.
Of course fans wouldn't really like him at all. Instead, they'd just complain about a rando taking up the screen time of their beloved ships and favorite characters. He's not a boring character inherently, but he just so doesn't fit into this series. He was doomed to be a "most hated" side character the second he stepped on screen.
Milah
Over the seasons, Rumple became a serious favorite anti-hero or villain, depending on the day. Fans completely adored him, either in a "love to hate" way or as true admirers. Robert Carlisle plays the character way too well. Therefore, it's no surprise that fans absolutely abhor his ex-wife, Milah. Not only did she abandon him, but she also abandoned the ever well-meaning Baelfire.
Her selfishness will always taint her fandom-image. She may have been pressured by the town, she may have been miserable, and Rumple may have been a meh husband, but she hurt Bae.
And that's a hard thing for Rumple, Charming, and general fans to forgive.
Will Scarlett
In the failed OUAT spin-off, OUAT In Wonderland, Will Scarlett was the fans' most favorite character. An ex merry man, his love for the Red Queen and his friendship with Alice really made this Knave stand out. He was witty, fun, and generally enjoyable.
But fans hated him when the show got cancelled and they moved him to OUAT. After all, it was pre-return to Wonderland Will, a drunk and miserable man who stuck his nose in the most die-hard ship: Rumbelle.
Will never really deserved all the hate he got, but there just wasn't a place for him in the show. He belonged to Wonderland, even if that show never got a real long-term shot.
Maid Marian
Beautiful, thoughtful, and really unfortunate, Maid Marian was a heroine that didn't deserve any of the bad things that happened to her. The Evil Queen's wrath, freezing, Zelena, all of it. She just had the worst time the second she joined the show. After all, her first scene had her slowly passing away from an unknown illness.
However, despite her bad luck and good girl appearance, fans really hated this lady. No matter how kind she is, she did get in the way of Regina's happiness for way too long. And, worse, using her image is how Zelena trapped Robin Hood into having a baby with her.
Yeah, it's all pretty gross and yikes. Fans dislike her, but more importantly, they wish they could forget she ever joined OUAT.
King Arthur
Of all the out of place characters on this list, King Arthur might be the worst. While Camelot is not the wildest place to include in a fairytale world, a good then evil then good version of King Arthur is.
Yes, King Arthur is a complex character in legends, depending on which story you're talking about. But OUAT just threw his character around left and right, almost as if on a whim. While most everything about him was confusing and unsatisfying, his ending really took the cake. After all the mayhem he caused he just gets to be the King of The Underworld? Okay then.
No wonder fans hated him.
Lucy
While there are a lot of Hyperion Heights characters that fans didn't love very much, Lucy is probably the most annoying and disliked. Her, and her mother Jacinda, but she counts more as a main character. Lucy supported the story, much like Henry did in the first season, pushing Emma's progress forward. Now, she did that for Henry.
Except, unfortunately, because Lucy was also cursed, she was much more distracted and unsuccessful in her connections with Henry. And considering people found Henry a little annoying, it's immeasurable how annoying they found her, confused and unfocused.
Fans had a lot of problems with the doomed seventh season, but Lucy was something at the top of the list.