Aw, Wolfy, I wasn't giving you the silent treatment. Not intentionally, anyway, and I certainly was never mad at you. I'm sorry. If you feel like that again just drop me a line and be like "hey quit being a douchebag," please? I hate to think I'm hurting my friends.
Can you think of any TV series -- live action OR animated -- with a "dark and brooding" character where some of the fanbase DIDN'T recast the broody character as the hero?
Well, *some* of the fanbase always will, every character is somebody's favorite. Fandoms with a high teen/preteen girl ratio tend to take it to extremes, though. (Actually, I kind of love Avatar fandom for the fact that the batshit insane Zuko-lovers tend to be Zutarans - yes, they're all still insanely misogynistic about the Mai-bashing, but on the other hand, at least they're pro-Katara. If it were an older fandom it'd be all Aang/Zuko and *all* the girls would get skank-bashed out of the way.)