Nickelodeon, the network made for kids is, no
surprise, filled with plenty of amazing and lovable Nicktoons characters. For many of these
characters, they also have families - siblings, mothers and, the subject of today’s list, fathers.
Some dads can not only be a means of support and love, but also an amazing influence on their
kids’ lives. Others… not so much. But who among these Nicktoon dads are the most good and which
ones need to go take some parenting lessons? I’m with WickedBinge, and this
is Nickelodeon Dads Good-to-Evil. Just a quick thing to keep in mind: This list
may not include every single Nicktoon dad. We’re focusing on the most memorable as well
as the ones who had an impact on their kids, whether that be a good thing or a bad thing. We
also aren’t including grandfather characters like Phil Shortman, Lou Pickles or Puma Loco. While
yes, they are still obviously fathers, considering how many Nicktoons characters have grandparents,
that could honestly be a whole list on its own. Alright, as usual, we’ll be starting
with our most noble characters, the ones who easily deserve a shot at a
“World’s Best Dad” mug. These are the Good Dads. We’re presenting our Gold Medal of Fatherhood
to Lynn Loud Sr. from The Loud House. For some fathers, it can be hard to balance taking care of
two or three kids, but try taking care of eleven! Just the fact that Lynn is able to give all of
his kids time and attention already makes him a bit of a Super Dad. Throughout the show, we
see him making time for his kids, whether it’s jamming out with Luna, reading bedtime stories to
Lola, or going on a gameshow with Lincoln. He’s always incredibly encouraging when it comes to
all of his kids’ hobbies. He’s also the family chef. We often see him making homemade meals for
his family, and given that he has thirteen mouths to feed, this is obviously no small task. There
have also been moments where Lynn has gone above and beyond his duties of a dad, showing just
how much he cares about his daughters and son. One of these instances is in the episode "It's
a Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud House". After Lynn gets tired of hearing his kids argue over money,
instead of simply grounding them for fighting, he instead sets up an elaborate treasure hunt for
them to teach them the value of working together and sharing money rather than being
greedy. He even sacrifices the $500 bonus he earned at work to give
his kids a worthwhile treasure. Then in "Home of the Fave", when he suspects
that he may accidentally be favoring his kids, Lynn practically runs himself ragged trying to
make sure he treats all of his kids equally. It later turns out that his kids never even
thought he was playing favorites, but it just goes to show just how much Lynn loves his kids
and wants to make them happy. Occasionally, he may make a mistake or be a little too enthusiastic,
but these small errors still don’t do much to take away from the fact that he’s honestly
the best dad that eleven kids could ask for. Earning the silver medal is Miracle City’s
greatest hero, White Pantera - aka Rodolfo Rivera from the show El Tigre. Obviously being a
superhero, Rodolfo has a strong sense of morality and honor. But even stronger than that is the love
he holds for his family, especially his young son, Manny. We even see him put his family above
his reputation as a hero in the episode “Yellow Pantera” where it’s revealed that Rodolfo ran away
from a fight with El Mal Verde, not because he was afraid of being eaten, but because he didn’t
want his wife and son to be without him. Rodolfo is constantly trying to inspire Manny to be the
best that he can be, instilling in him lessons of honesty, endurance and hard work in episodes like
“Fool’s Goal” and "A Fistful of Nickels". Whenever Manny does mess up, Rodolfo is also
usually pretty fair in his punishments. He’s also openly affectionate with Manny, showing
that even if he doesn’t always understand him, he still very much loves him. So why is he only
second place? Well, while he’s usually fair, Rodolfo’s high level of morality means that
he can sometimes be a bit too stern. And, while it’s good that he’s encouraging Manny to be
a hero, sometimes this encouragement can come off as him trying to push Manny into the career of a
hero despite Manny not yet knowing what he wants to be. Though not perfect, his good qualities as
both a father and a hero easily shine through. Up next is Chief Hakota of the Water Tribe,
Katara and Sokka’s father from Avatar. As the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, Hakota
is a strong and noble man. Unfortunately, like many parents who have to serve in their nation’s
armies, Hakota had to leave his kids behind while he went to lead the men of their tribe in the war
against the Fire Nation. Understandably, this had a negative effect on his kids, especially Katara,
as seen in the season three premiere. However, Hakota does what he can to make this right.
While he had a duty to his people, he lets Katara know that this still wasn’t a decision
he made lightly, and he tells his daughter that he missed her and Sokka every single day he was a
way. Even if he isn’t able to see them too often, when he does interact with his kids,
Hakota is nothing but loving and supportive. In “The Day of Black Sun”, he
encourages Sokka to step up as a leader, seeing his potential and helping his son believe
in himself. Later on in the episode, he and the other adults let themselves get captured in order
to protect the rest of Team Avatar. Encouraging, protective and strong, Hakota is clearly the
best dad we meet from the world of Avatar. Ray "Raymundo" Rocket from Rocket Power takes
fourth on our list. Taking care of a kid as, well… let’s just say frustrating to be
polite, as Otto Rocket is no small feat, but Ray manages to do a good job parenting both him
and his daughter Reggie, and even acts as a father figure to their friends Twister and Sam. Though
maybe not as sagely as his business partner Tito, he still does a decent job at giving his
kids advice and teaching them lessons. He’s passed along hobbies like surfing to them,
and will happily join his son and daughter out on the waves. He can be pretty stern at
times but, again, when you have a kid like Otto, you kinda have to be. Episodes like "Big Thursday"
and "'D' is for Dad" show this the best, where we see that even if he sometimes seems unfair, Ray
always has his kids’ best interest at heart, and he absolutely has their back when things
get dicey - even being willing to go out into a storm to save Otto from drowning.
All in all, Ray is a pretty rad dad. Next, we have the first two of
our four Rugrat dads on this list, Chaz Finster and Howard DeVille.
Looking at them as fathers, they’re pretty similar. While maybe a bit meek and
nervous on the surface, both of these guys have no problem stepping up as fathers. With twins to take
care of, Howard always makes sure to treat them equally, as seen in the episode “The Unfair
Pair”. Then, in the series “All Grown Up”, when Lil starts wanting to be seen as separate
from her brother, Howard supports her, even if it means giving up their family vacation to a
twin-themed amusement park. As for Chaz, while he may sometimes be overprotective, he’s also a great
father to his son, Chuckie, and then later on his daughter, Kimi. While it was hard for him to talk
about, he was willing to be honest with Chuckie about his late mother in the Mother’s Day special.
He dressed up as Santa and went down the chimney in the hopes of helping Chuckie get over his fear
of Santa, and in the movie “Rugrats in Paris”, we see how much Chaz trusts in his son and values his
opinion, even if Chuckie barely knows how to talk, wanting a wife who loves his son just as much
as he does. Like pretty much all of the adults in Rugrats however, they can be somewhat
oblivious about what their kids do, which is a bit concerning given how much trouble these
toddlers tend to get into. Still, the two seem like the most responsible of the Rugrats dads, so
they still make it pretty high on the good list. Up next, we have the first of our Rat
Dads, Splinter from Rise of the TMNT, also known as action film star, Lou Jitsu.
When we first meet this version of Splinter, he seems incredibly lazy and pretty uninterested
in his sons. Thankfully, we soon learn this isn’t the case. In the episodes “Evil League
of Mutants” and “Goyles, Goyles, Goyles”, we see that Splinter, back when he was still Lou
Jitsu, saved his sons from becoming child soldiers at the hands of Baron Draxum. He took the turtles
in as his sons, and because this version of him isn’t quite as focused on keeping his ninja
clan alive, the Turtles were able to explore hobbies and have a real childhood. Later on
in the episode “Shadow of Evil” when Splinter discovers that the Foot Clan has returned and is
planning on resurrecting the Shredder, he takes it upon himself to go undercover and take on the Foot
himself so that his sons don’t have to. It’s only when his sons reveal that they want to fight that
he steps up their training so that they can become true ninjas. This isn’t the only time Splinter
is willing to sacrifice for his sons though, as we see it again in both the season one and season
two finales. But while Splinter clearly cares and loves the Turtles, he’s not perfect. As mentioned
before, he can sometimes be lazy or careless, and is sometimes even a bit rough whenever his
sons are being disrespectful or not focusing. Then there was the episode “Turtle-Dega Nights'' where
he lies to Donnie about going to a demolition derby just to relive his glory days in front of an
audience. While Splinter did apologize and made it right in the end, it was still pretty messed
up. Also, while he claims that they sometimes need to learn the hard way for it to really set
in, you have to wonder if Splinter scaring them in the episode “Flushed but not Forgotten” just
to teach them a lesson about lying was maaaybe a bit much. Perhaps not the best sensei, but
still a pretty great dad, all things considered. Sir Nigel Thornberry from The Wild Thornberrys
is about as wacky of a dad as you can get. And, despite being voiced by Tim Curry, he
actually ISN’T evil or even that bad of a guy. Go figure! Though one would think being the host
of a nature show that travels the world wouldn’t leave him much time to be a parent, Nigel
still does a decent job of being fatherly towards his daughters, Debbie and Eliza, and
his son Donnie. Although he loves his job, he was willing to settle down in Oxford
to give his daughters more normal lives, showing that he’s willing to sacrifice for their
sake. He’s also put himself at risk several times to protect his family. Unfortunately, as
much as he’ll do anything for his kids, he can sometimes be a bit oblivious and struggle
to understand them. This can make him come off as a bit bumbling and even a little frustrating,
but it’s obvious he still has a good heart. Only two notches below the other incarnation of
this character, we have Splinter from the 2012 TMNT series. Like his Rise of the TMNT
counterpart, Splinter from the 2012 series can be a very loving and protective father. As a sensei
and ninja master, he’s able to teach his sons to be the best ninjas they can be, and offers them
advice throughout the series. From trying to help Raph control his anger, to offering Donnie tips
on how to deal with his crush not sharing his feelings, to teaching Leo how to be a leader.
However, because he tends to act more as a teacher than a father, this can sometimes make
him a little too stern, especially when it comes to his punishments. He tends to spend the most
time with Leo, teaching him techniques that he doesn’t teach anyone else and putting pressure on
him to be a proper leader, even after Leo is still recovering from being injured by the Shredder in
the first half of season three. Ignoring the fact that he’s sorta playing favorites, that’s a lot
of pressure to put on a fifteen year old turtle. Additionally, compared to his more relaxed
counterpart, we don’t really see 2012 Splinter spend much time with his kids outside of the
dojo. They don’t have movie nights or play games together like the Rise family, in fact we hardly
ever see this Splinter joke around with his kids. But hey, some dads are just like that, and
even if he may come off as distant, Splinter is still active enough in his sons’ lives,
protecting them as best he can and preparing them for a world that may not always accept
them, which is pretty admirable in our book. Next on our list, we have Hugh Neutron from
Jimmy Neutron. Just by looking at this guy, you can sorta tell that Jimmy’s genius didn’t
come from his father’s side of the family. As far as goofy dads go, Hugh is
one of the goofiest. He loves ducks, pie and is known for making up silly songs
and tripping over himself. Still, just because he’s a bit strange and eccentric doesn’t make him
incompetent. He’s even able to teach his son some things! In the episode “Time is Money”, we learn
that Hugh had the chance to invest in Retroville’s local burger joint, which would’ve made him a
millionaire. But instead of using the last of his funds at the time to do this, Hugh instead decided
to use the money for a wedding ring to give to his future wife, Judy. This goes to show that even
before he even had one, Hugh was a family man. We also see in episodes like “My Son, The Hamster”
just how truly accepting Hugh can be, even in the most extreme situations. He loves spending time
with Jimmy during events like the Parent-Child Games and Father’s Day, and even if he doesn’t
always understand his strange hobbies or quirks, Jimmy likes spending time with his dad too.
Guess ‘bumbling’ isn’t all that bad after all. On the surface, Jack Fenton from Danny Phantom
certainly seems like the type that would put his career above his family. As Amity Park’s resident
ghost hunter, he and his wife Maddie spend hours in their lab making ghost hunting weaponry
and trying to track down real ghosts. But while ghost hunting is certainly important and he does
focus on it quite a bit, much to the annoyance and embarrassment of Danny and Jazz, Jack almost never
lets it overshadow the needs of his kids. He loves them, and will often take time to bond with them
in episodes like "Maternal Instincts" where he bonded with Jazz, and “Girls’ Night Out” where
he took Danny fishing and ended up saving him from being eaten by a sea monster. Speaking
of which, he’s also fiercely protective, becoming more competent when it comes to
defending his family from evil ghosts. Although he was often calling the secret identity
of his son, Danny Phantom, his biggest enemy, this hatred is almost immediately pushed aside
when he learns the truth at the end of the series. Jack even offers to be Danny’s
sidekick! Clearly, being a dad is the most important job he has, even
more than being a famous ghost hunter. Rounding out our good list is father
AND godfather, Cosmo Cosma from the Fairly Oddparents. As a fairy, Cosmo can be
incompetent at best and dangerous at worse, due to how careless he can sometimes be combined
with his lack of intelligence. But when it comes to his son, Poof, and godson, Timmy- ...well, he’s
still sort of incompetent, but he’s also loving and attentive. This is especially true with Timmy,
whose own father is often absent in his life. Through Cosmo, Timmy is able to have a fairly
positive father figure in his life, one who loves spending time with him. Unfortunately, Cosmo can
also sometimes encourage and even enable Timmy’s rash decisions and bad ideas. So, he isn’t the
most positive role model. For both his sons, he tends to act more like a friend than an
actual parental figure, leaving his wife Wanda to pick up the slack. But he makes
his boys laugh, and that’s not nothing. That’s it for the good characters. Now it’s
time to descend into neutral territory, the fathers who aren’t yet awful, but perhaps
a bit more distant. This is the Gray Area. At the top of this list is father and inventor
Stu Pickles from Rugrats. Stu is a pretty fun dad, and we’re sure any baby would love a father who
could invent any toy they wanted. Unfortunately, Stu’s toys don’t always work properly
and are sometimes dangerous. In fact, there are instances where they’re the
exact opposite of what a child wants, like with his Mr. Friend toy, which Tommy
and the others are absolutely terrified of! Then there’s his lack of attentiveness. In nearly
every single episode and ESPECIALLY in the movies, Stu’s focus on his inventions and him not
paying attention can lead to the babies he’s supposed to be watching getting out of
their playpen and toddling off into danger. In the episode “Touchdown Tommy”, he specifically
puts watching football with the other dads above looking after the kids, which leads to a battle
over chocolate milk and a huge mess to clean up. Still, when he manages to focus on it, Stu can be
a good dad. In the first Rugrats movie, he takes the time to teach Tommy about what it means to
be a big brother, and when the babies go missing, he puts his all into finding them. So, while
you may not always trust him to babysit, you do get the sense that if not for him being a bit
of a scatterbrain, he would be in the good list. Next we have Harold Squarepants from Spongebob.
Because Spongebob is an adult, we don’t get too many examples in the series of Harold taking
care of his son. But, from his few appearances, we can gather that he’s at the very least
supportive of his son. There’s never been a negative on-screen interaction between these two,
and when Spongebob loses his home to nematodes, he and his wife are more than happy to let his
son move back in with them. He even helped buy Spongebob a brand new boat mobile when he finally
got his boating license. So, while they don’t seem as close as other father and son pairs on this
list, there’s certainly a good foundation there. One fine day with a woof and a purr, a little
baby CatDog came into their father’s life. Though he doesn’t have an official
name, this frog is CatDog’s adopted dad, first seen in the special “CatDog and the
Great Parent Mystery”. He and his wife, a blue sasquatch, found CatDog outside the edge
of their cave, taking them in without hesitation. Though a bit grumpy and sarcastic, the love he
has for his boys was there from the beginning. From playing with them, to balancing them
on his nose and singing them lullabies, this frog was a father through and through.
Unfortunately, since we didn’t really see him much in the series due to a tornado taking CatDog
away from him and his wife, we don’t know how well he would have done as a father had he raised
CatDog into adulthood. We only know how he did those first few months. So, while not a bad dad
by any means, we do have to put him in the grey. Similarly, Miles Shortman from Hey Arnold was
another dad who missed out on most of his child’s life due to unforeseen circumstances. Both Miles
and his wife, Stella, were explorers. Through their adventures in the jungles of South America,
they met the Green Eyed People and helped them find a cure that was killing off their people,
the sleeping sickness. After having their son, Arnold, they decided to move to Miles’ hometown
of Hillwood to keep Arnold safe and give him a normal life. But, when they were told that the
sickness had returned to the Green Eyed People, Miles and his life decided to make the hard choice
to help the tribe that had helped them and headed back to the jungle, going missing for nine years,
finally being found in the Jungle Movie. Now, our take on this decision is complicated. On one hand,
Miles obviously didn’t know that he and his wife would fall to the sleeping sickness, he thought
they were only going to be gone for a couple weeks at most. On the other hand, we don’t know
how long Miles and Stella were down there before they fell into a coma, which makes you think,
couldn’t they have sent a letter or something at the very least to let Arnold and his grandparents
know that they had made it there safely? Again, there’s a lot of unknowns here, so it’s hard
to know how much of it was the fault of Miles and how much was just bad timing and bad luck.
Still, as great of a father figure Grandpa Phil was, Miles’ absence on Arnold’s life had a
strong impact on his son’s life. Though his choice was noble, you have to wonder if
it was the right choice for his family. Up next is Professor Membrane, Dib and Gaz’s
father from Invader Zim. Membrane is a man of science, which often clashes with his son’s
beliefs in aliens and the supernatural. Due to his work, he’s very rarely at home.
Even on Parent-Teacher Night at school, he sends a robot and uses video chat to
attend instead of being there in-person. He does the same thing with his children,
setting up video greetings whenever he can’t make it to breakfast on time. Still, he’ll
occasionally try to share a meal with his family and does value them. In the episode "Future
Dib", Membrane invented a device that would supply unlimited energy to the entire planet,
but refused to activate it without his kids being there to share the moment. He also steps
up in the TV movie, “Enter the Florpus”, where he protects Dib and fights alongside him.
While he still doesn’t quite understand Dib’s obsession with aliens, he still tells Dib that
he’s proud of him. It’s a really nice moment, buuut it doesn’t completely make up for how
absent Membrane is for 90% of his kids’ lives. Next is Timmy’s Dad from the Fairly Odd Parents,
who I’m sure some are surprised to see here. Yes, there are times where Timmy’s Dad can be seen as
somewhat neglectful, leaving Timmy alone with an evil babysitter. It’d be fine if Timmy’s Dad
had to work the night shift and had to use a babysitter, but often we see him and his wife go
out on date nights instead, which occur weekly if not nightly, leaving Timmy to suffer alone. So why
is Timmy’s Dad here and not in the bad tier? Well for starters, as we’ve discussed earlier in the
list, incompetent doesn’t always mean malicious. Though he does get worse in the later seasons,
that could extend to nearly EVERY character in this show. In the early seasons at least, when
he does spend time with Timmy, he seems to enjoy bonding with his son. He sometimes takes the time
to lead Timmy’s Squirrly Scout group, and can be protective of Timmy when he actually notices
his son’s in danger, even going so far as to fire Vicky in “Channel Chasers'' when he finally
learned how cruel she was. He was also willing to give up his awesome superpowers for the sake of
his son in the episode “Mighty Mom and Dyno Dad”. Unfortunately, these nicer moments don’t take away
from just how absent - and absentminded - Timmy’s Dad can be. It’s really no wonder that Timmy
seems to prefer Cosmo, despite all his flaws. For the last of our grey list, we have
Ed Bighead from Rocko’s Modern Life. Ed and his daughter, Rachel, have
a complicated and pretty tense relationship. In the episode, “I Have No Son”, we
see how much Ed disapproves of his daughter, then named Ralph, and her job as an animator. Compared
to his own job as an office worker at Conglom-O, Ed sees animation as something to be ashamed of
and wants Ralph to follow in his own footsteps. Later on in the episode though, we see that Ed
still loves Ralph, even saving the donut half that he had planned on giving her and still wanting her
to be part of the family deep down. Later on in the TV movie, “Static Cling”, Ed has a hard
time accepting Rachel after she comes out as transgender, being overwhelmed with all
the changes in his life. He does eventually come around, thanks to the advice of Rocko, and
while it’s admirable for him to accept that he was wrong and show love towards his daughter,
his father skills still seem somewhat lacking. That wraps up the gray area.
Now entering the bad territory, it’s time for the dads with the worst parenting
skills ever. These are the bad to evil dads. First off, we have Lao Beifong, Toph’s dad from
Avatar. So, Lao clearly cares about his daughter, wanting to keep her safe from a dangerous
world. However, after first meeting him, it becomes obvious that Lao cares about the version
of his daughter that he built up in his head, not the person she actually is. He repeatedly
reminds his daughter that she’s blind, telling her that she’s helpless and fragile.
Due to him isolating her for the sake of safety, she also doesn’t have any friends before meeting
Team Avatar. When he learns just how strong and independent Toph, he only doubles down, enforcing
24/7 supervision and forbidding her to fight. When this naturally leads to Toph running away,
he sends bounty hunters after her! Sometimes the hardest thing a father can do for their child
is to let them go, allowing them to live their own life, but Lao refuses to do this. It should
be noted that this issue is eventually resolved in the comics, but since we’re only looking at
the series, we have to put him in the bad tier.
Next is Drew Pickles from Rugrats. Much like
his brother, Stu, Drew’s work often keeps him from spending actual time with his daughter,
Angelica. When he is spending time with her, he’s often spoiling her and doesn’t always do
a good job stepping in when Angelica is being a bully to her cousin, Tommy. That job often
falls on her Aunt Didi, given how little Drew actually notices it. Given how he’s raised
Angelica, it’s easy to see that he isn’t the best father figure on here. Really, the only thing
that keeps him from falling lower is that he isn’t abusive towards Angelica, and he does occasionally
put his foot down with her. Unfortunately, these punishments don’t always stick, as
seen in the episodes “Runaway Angelica” and “Pickles VS Pickles”. The latter is especially
frustrating, given that the dream Drew has shows EXACTLY why he should do his job as a dad to
make sure Angelica doesn’t become entitled over something like eating broccoli, but in the
end, he just gives in anyway. Drew Pickles is a perfect example of why it’s maybe a bad idea to
treat your kid like a little prince or princess.
In third place is Mr. Eugene Krabs
from Spongebob. Early on in the series, we saw how loving Mr. Krabs was towards
his daughter, Pearl. But even back then, we could see the cracks in their relationship. In
the episode “Squeaky Boots”, Pearl asks her dad for one specific present, and instead Mr. Krabs
gets her the exact opposite of what she wants, all because he was able to buy them at a bargain. Now,
there’s nothing wrong with a dad setting limits on what he buys for their child, but considering that
Krabs has plenty of money and Pearl only wanted one thing, it’s still not a good look. We see
later on in the episode, “Whale of a Birthday”, just how cheap Krabs can be, even when it comes
to his daughter. He reuses old decorations, gives her dishwater punch and stale popcorn
as snacks for her party, and cheaps out on the entertainment. This breaks Pearl’s heart, and her
16th birthday is only saved by Spongebob buying her a bunch of gifts, which Krabs reluctantly
allows her to keep. Despite Mr Krabs’ cheapness, he does care about his daughter’s well-being. He
allows her to completely change his restaurant in the episode, “Bossy Boots”, and didn’t want to
hurt her feelings when he saw that the changes weren’t working out. And, in “Growth Spurt”, while
he does resort to stealing to do it, he helps keep her fed when Pearl is hungry and in pain due to
her growth spurt. Though still caring at times, his greedy and cheap mindset often gets
in the way of him being a better father.
Earning our silver metal of poor parenthood
is “Big” Bob Pataki from Hey Arnold. Remember earlier in the list when we suggested that the
2012 series Splinter maybe played favorites with his sons? Well, Big Bob takes favoritism
to a WHOLE new level. Of his two daughters, Helga is often ignored while Olga is praised, with
Bob usually only paying attention to Helga when she can do something for him, like when he wanted
her to win the city spelling bee to keep up the tradition of a Pataki winning. Later on when it’s
recommended that Helga get therapy to help with her issues, Bob tells her to not “blab about them”
to her therapist. Later on, in “The Jungle Movie”, we see that he is stubborn enough about his beeper
business that he forces his family to sell their home and live in the store, just to keep it
afloat. Thankfully, as awful as Bob can be, he refuses to let any of his business schemes get in
the way of his daughter’s safety and will go out of his way to protect her. He was even horrified
at himself for nearly hurting her when he thought she was an alien in the Halloween special. Then
there was the episode “Quantity Time” where, after hearing how miserable Helga is, Bob puts in the
effort to get her tickets to the musical, RATS. While this was a mistake on his part, given that
Helga actually wanted to go to a wrestling show, the gesture was still felt and he and
Helga both had a fun time making fun of the musical together. Bob may be a bit of
a pompous blowhard, as Helga often puts it, but those rare moments of kindness towards
his youngest keep him from our top stop. Naturally, out of all the Nicktoons dads, there’s
only one dad who’s awful enough to get our Gold Medal of Evil: Firelord Ozai from Avatar. Come on,
of COURSE the top spot is going to Ozai. Although we don’t officially meet him until the third
season, his influence and impact on his children, Zuko and Azula, is felt throughout the
series. With Zuko, Ozai was downright abusive, giving him his scar simply for speaking out
of turn and then giving him the impossible task of finding the Avatar. As for Azula, while he
offers her more love and praise than he does Zuko, this love is hollow and has its limits. In the
series finale when he became the Phoenix King, it became clear that Ozai cared more about
his power than his daughter’s feelings, wanting to rule alone instead of having her
by his side like she had thought. For Ozai, love is conditional, and is only worth
earning when his children earn it by being perfect heirs and doing everything he
tells them. As if that weren’t bad enough, he was willing to kill Zuko to get the role of
Firelord. When Zuko finally stands up to him, Ozai ends up shooting lightning at him, and this
is again done with the intent to kill. Unlike the rest of our bad tier dads, there are NO good
qualities for Ozai, who sees his children more as pawns than family. He more than deserves the
lowest of low rankings in terms of being a father. But what do you think? Let us know in the comments
section who you think the best and worst Nick Toon dads are. Be sure to hit that notification
bell and binge our Good-to-Evil playlist… Where we break down the morality of the
characters in your favorite cartoons, shows and movies. But most
importantly, stay wicked!
