I've noticed a lot of people in The Office fandom defending Roy, saying he's a good guy and not an asshole. This is... no.
I. Hate. Roy. Anderson.
God, I hate him. I hate him so much more than I hate S4 Ryan, because we know Ryan still has some good deep down in his soul, is totally addicted to drugs, and is desperate, jealous, and paranoid. Apart from the Jim thing, S4 Ryan is more pitiable than hatable.
Roy, on the other hand, I just hate. I hate him so much that when I read quotes like when David Denman said, early-mid-S3 (this isn't an exact quote, but it gets the basic meaning), "I think Pam will end up with Roy because he's dependable and Jim's just the cute guy you flirt with," and when Jenna Fischer's on some video giggling about him and saying she keeps pitching ways for the writers to bring Roy back, I get really fucking angry at both of them. Yes, I know it's a TV show. It still angers me.
A lot of people get angry at Jim at various points in S3, and I don't blame them. He definitely wasn't blameless. But, Pam gets almost no flack for S2. Yes, I know, Jim should have picked a better time to confess, and yes, Pam was shy and scared to try new things, but that in no way excuses her completely. Hey, guess who played a big hand in making her so timid, in draining her of all her self-confidence?
Many, many people bash Karen blindly. I hate Jim/Karen, for reasons other than "OMG she stole Pam's man!!!!", but Karen? Yeah, she's a bitch, but she's also kind of awesome. She's smart and funny. Roy very rarely is the subject of a blind bashing-fest like he is right here, and that's just not cool when Karen is bashed all the time. Roy has almost no redeeming qualities. Let's see when he was nice... okay. One time when he was talking to Pam's mom. And then when he wanted Pam back, AKA he realized other girls wouldn't put up with his bullshit and he wasn't getting laid on a regular basis. Once he got back with Pam, and thank God that was short-lived, he was the same old stupid asshole Roy - she had to force him to do anything couple-y, and when he did his heart just wasn't in it and he let that be known.
Did he love her? Probably. But a lot of that love was tied in with obligation, and a lot more of it was tied in with how he felt incredibly superior to her all the time. Was he abusive? Not in the obvious way, but using his physicality to dominate her must have been a large part of their relationship (see "The Dundies," and we all know he could get violent), and he was incredibly mentally abusive - maybe inadvertantly so, but he was. Like I said right above, many of Pam's character flaws are very much Roy's fault, or at least, he contributed majorly to them.
Oh, and I hate reading fic (yeah, I read fanfiction, you got a problem with it? When I start writing it, that's the problem) where Jim and Roy are like, BFFL or having these great conversations. I don't care how in-character the dialogue is, I don't care how well-written it is, the entire concept is incredibly flawed because it's wildly OOC (it's a little like "The Coup," where I can't really say Dwight is OOC because that's definitely Dwight in there, but the entire concept is just not right for Dwight).
So, basically, in S5 (and S6, and S7, and...), the writers are not to bring back Roy. Actually, there is one possibility where they can: Jim and Pam are happily married or their wedding is extremely soon, and they run into Roy and his new wife somewhere, and Pam sees how messed up Roy's wife is and realizes how lucky she is to have ended up with Roy, not Jim. Seriously, I don't see what bringing back Roy as a regular could do. They wrote him off with the most dignity they could give him and his arc, but he should really be gone forever.
Wow. That was long. That's what she said. And terribly-written. But I just had to get my feelings out, what can I say? Every time you defend Roy as "a good guy," God makes Andy propose to Angela again.
