The Cody Fern Character That American Horror Story Fans Prefer

Each season of "American Horror Story" essentially stands on its own as a complete work. While there's a sort of connective tissue tying all of its discreet seasons together, viewers can nevertheless watch any given season without the context of those that came before or after it. Thanks to the essentially stand-alone nature of each season of "American Horror Story," the series' producers are able to cast certain actors in different roles from season to season and do so with some regularity.

Evan Peters is an example of an actor reused throughout the various stories told in "American Horror Story" with some frequency. Peters, in fact, is currently credited on more episodes of "American Horror Story" than any other actor to appear on the series due to roles in almost every season thus far. Because of the nature of the series, Peters, then, has portrayed a wide range of characters over the course of its run.

By comparison, Cody Fern has only portrayed two distinct characters across the two seasons of "American Horror Story" in which he was cast. That said, both roles remain memorable among the series' fanbase. As it turns out, however, one of Fern's two roles is held in slightly higher regard by at least one subsection of the "American Horror Story" fanbase.

In late April 2021, Reddit user Distinct-Art1207 created a thread in the "American Horror Story" subreddit asking fans to vote for their favorite character portrayed by Cody Fern to have appeared in the series. The winner, receiving 235 of the 393 total votes, was Michael Langdon from "American Horror Story: Apocalypse."

Michael is an Antichrist figure in "Apocalypse," driven by the sort of pure evil that one might imagine motivates the son of the literal devil. Fans of the series have described Michael's evil actions as feeling somewhat arbitrary, motivated not by human wants, as some of the series' various other villains are, but simply by his base impulses.

Fern's other role in "American Horror Story" is as camp counselor Xavier Plympton in "1984," the ninth season. Xavier is a more complex figure than Michael, debuting not as a villain but a member of the ensemble cast of "1984." That said, Xavier has a complex backstory and isn't always noble in his actions.

Despite votes predominately going to Michael, some users have made a case for Xavier in the post's comments section. User jhunter131201, for example, argued that Micahel is a disappointing Antichrist, whereas Xavier was one of the most fun characters in "1984" by their estimation. Meanwhile, user senjougaharas-socks simply stated, "both. Both are good."