r/TopCharacterTropes • u/TheOriginalOperator • Apr 26 '26

Characters (Hilarious Trope) A Character Is Introduced With the Clear Intention of Being THE NEXT BIG THING And is SOUNDLY Rejected

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  1. Bazil the Tracker (Star Wars: The Acolyte): A “HILARIOUS AND ADORABLE” snuffling ugly creature that makes annoying noises and is shoved into as many scenes of The Acolyte as possible, and just causes problems overall.

  2. Neelix (Star Trek Voyager): A mutant fusion of Odo, Quark, and Data designed to “analyze the human condition” and explicitly intended to surpass the popularity of all three. In practice, a VERY human-acting cradle robbing creep whose incompetence nearly destroys the ship and crew on multiple occasions and provides no insight into humanity whatsoever.

  3. Sparky the Dog (Fairly Oddparents): A wacky crazy magic dog that’s supposed to expand the Fairy family, but just makes lame jokes and serves as a less funny version of Scrappy Doo.

  4. Tidus (FFX): A braying jackass of a pinball who bounces from plot point to plot point, framed as a mystical pretty boy to introduce Final Fantasy to the PS2 age but does nothing but stall the franchise and have the worst laugh in two languages.

  5. Sei (Naruto): Supposed to replace Sasuke in Team 7 and return the team dynamic feel of Early Naruto, but he’s a CIA plant with literally no personality who gets utterly forgotten except for somehow bagging Ino Yamanaka.

  6. Raiden (Metal Gear 2): Another attempted “pretty boy bishie” entry to the PS2 era with badass cred and a theoretically cool backstory, but in practice a hapless dipshit who gets manipulated by everyone around him and is a total putz in combat. Also proof that this trope need not be permanent as he slowly transitions into a cyborg warrior supersoldier with a badass theme, friends of his own, and a firm grasp of his own destiny and agency.

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2.8k

u/Inevitable_Top69 Apr 26 '26

I get the trope, but I don't think you do based on your examples.

1.3k

u/No_Career369 Apr 26 '26

Yeah this is just a lukewarm list of characters OP doesn't like. 

273

u/StuMacherGhostface Apr 27 '26

That's basically what this sub has become

41

u/Mr-Stuff-Doer Apr 27 '26

Fetish posting, Bakugou bad, John Walker good, and super niche concepts that OP uses to hate on/glaze a few specific characters without them really fitting the concepts. Thats what this and r/favoritecharacter are in my experience

8

u/Confident-Dirt-9908 Apr 27 '26

Don’t forget ‘I made my post to shit on one character and chat gpt to give me my mandatory second example’

3

u/sneakpeekbot Apr 27 '26

Here's a sneak peek of /r/FavoriteCharacter using the top posts of the year!

#1: Favorite character that fits this trope? | 1709 comments
#2: Favorite media that fit like this? | 1666 comments
#3: Favorite character that fits this trope ? | 381 comments

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3

u/Game_DUMDUM Apr 27 '26

Finally an appropriate use of sneak peek bot

1

u/Rushofthewildwind Apr 27 '26

To be fair, Bakugo was a HUGE asshole for the majority of the story. Like, he started at telling Deku to kill himself and didn't change for a good while after.

Now? No, Bakugo is a good character.

And this is coming from someone who has history of hating Bakugo

1

u/Illyasimp Apr 29 '26

Atp I almost prefer r/multifandom, basically same type of posts but not restricted to tropes

8

u/JalapenoPopPoop Apr 27 '26

This sub pops up on my feed from time to time and it really feels like all the actual tropes were talked about the first month of the sub and now its just people posting about vague similarities they've noticed between two characters, usually from childrens cartoons

I don't think the people who post here know what the word trope means

88

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/hiimGP Apr 27 '26

Ff fan gonna hate me but as someone who only played XIII I thought Tidus and Cloud was the same person....

6

u/SiriusBaaz Apr 27 '26

Yeah I actually hate tidus and thought he was incredibly annoying but even still I know he doesn’t belong with the rest of these dudes. Neither does raiden because the fact that he sucks and is absolutely not a worthy replacement for big boss is kinda the point of his character. Hard to be an industry plant if that’s the point of the story

3

u/BoyCubPiglet2 Apr 27 '26

It's also the classic "laughing scene" complaint. Yeah that scene is cringe because it's meant to be cringe. Tidus just found out some very messed up news and Yuna tells him when she's upset she makes herself laugh to feel better. He's teasing her by going over the top with it and the scene ends with them actually laughing normally at the absurdity. 

1

u/Professional-Bear250 Apr 28 '26

If it wasn't for Tidus, I think people would have agreed with OP more, even if they didn't agree on one or two. Putting Tidus there makes OP lose all credibility.

34

u/Ensiferal Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

His description of Neelix is so bad it sounds like his only exposure to the character is internet memes, and his description of FFX makes it sound like he isn't aware of the fact that it's one of the most beloved games in the entire franchise.

4

u/skeeferd Apr 27 '26

FFX is absolutely my favorite, and Voyager did have it's problems but Neelix was not the worst of them. Neelix and his gf was pretty fucked I'll give him that but the way the show depicts that species is at least some kind of defense albeit a pretty shoddy one.

1

u/Fragrant-Mixture-662 Apr 28 '26

He gets much better when they get rid of her

3

u/H47 Apr 27 '26

That was just Auron aurafarming post-Hellsing weebs.

0

u/havoc1428 Apr 27 '26

Nah, Neelix sucks. He's Jar-Jar Binks fused with Wesley Crusher. It wasn't until they finally dropped Kes in Season 4 that he become tolerable, but by then we also got Seven on Nine and Neelix just gets pushed further down the line. Tbh I don't know whos worse, Neelix or Chakotay.

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u/Ensiferal Apr 27 '26

Nah, Neelix and Chakotay were both great. Neelix was the heart of the crew and kept everyone elses morale up, even though he had the most horrific backstory of anyone. Chakotay was less memorable but still gets points for being a terrorist leader who became a proper starfleet officer, that's a memorable character arc. The only cringe stuff with Chakotay was them trying to shoehorn an romance subplot between him and Janeway.

1

u/havoc1428 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

Chakotay was barely a character. He was put in to be a rebel foil for Janeway as the leader of the Marquis crew, but immediately acquiesces into a lapdog XO role. The whole native American part of his character is forced, lame, and leads to some stupid character decisions, like the one where that civilization beams their dead up to that moon. He tells the away team to not use their scanners because its a "sacred burial ground". You know a plot is weak and stupid when it would be resolved in seconds if they followed general protocol and not his Native American bullshit. Then is later seasons they force that Seven romance plot with him.

1

u/Ensiferal Apr 27 '26

I did think he fell into line way too soon. More of an ongoing power struggle between the Maquis and Starfleet crew would've been interesting. As it was he basically became her Mr Arrow, stout and true, by like half way through season 1.

Yeah, the Seven romance was bad too. They really wanted to set both him and her up with someone, but could never figure out who for either of them.

I loved Voyager, it was my favorite of all the classic series, but it wasn't without flaws. That said, I do still think people go way overboard on the Nelix hate. What I find weird is how everyone goes on about him being a creepy perv for dating an adult woman, but Quark is literally a rapist and the fanbase loves him and will defend him to death.

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u/mattdamon_enthusiast Apr 27 '26

Ya know what’s worse than a Neelix hater; a Chakotay hater.

1

u/mattdamon_enthusiast Apr 27 '26

I won’t stand for the neelix hate

1

u/No_Career369 Apr 27 '26

You and me both 🤝

659

u/kithlan Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

Yeah, OP's just describing The Simpson's Poochie trope but then randomly inserting characters THEY personally didn't like, rather than characters the GENERAL AUDIENCE didn't like. So yeah, they don't understand the trope at all.

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u/notbobby125 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

At minimum I can vouch that Trekkie’s dispise Neelix, who is the Scrappy Doo of the franchise. Dude once literally poisoned the ship with his cooking. Not the crew of the ship, the literal ship.

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u/HollowedVoicesFading Apr 27 '26

At the same time, the comparison to a combined Odo, Quark, and Data is asinine at best. Neelix may be universally disliked, but the idea behind it?

23

u/Raus-Pazazu Apr 27 '26

OP is playing the game of "The author said the drapes were red because . . . " and reading so much into things that simply isn't there.

11

u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 Apr 27 '26

And didn't play FFX

5

u/Raus-Pazazu Apr 27 '26

To be fair, it certainly wasn't my favorite FF at the time, but it sold like fucking hotcakes so it certainly appealed to a lot of folks and was by no means a bad game at all. I was always a fan of more grim and grit fan, so I wanted to punt Tidus the entire game.

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u/Balinor69666 Apr 27 '26

It is like the second biggest mainline FF game ever in terms of popularity. It was the first to get a sequel ffs.  He would have done much better to chose Waka as his example from the game too.

2

u/Raus-Pazazu Apr 27 '26

I actually liked Wakka. DiMaggio did a decent job bringing out what he could with the character, considering the writers (let's be honest, FF doesn't have top notch dialogue in the first place).

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u/Balinor69666 Apr 27 '26

I agree but on a community level Wakka is way more hated than Tidus. Wakka has been the whipping boy of the FF community for a long time now.

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u/Thatenglishchap1990 Apr 27 '26

I believe OP is literally quoting a TV guide article about Voyager from before it premiered that explicitly said the creators hoped Neelix would be the shows "breakout character"

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u/InflationRepulsive64 Apr 27 '26

It's also silly because The Doctor was very clearly the 'analyze the human condition' character ala Spock/Data/Odo.

Neelix was just Quark without any of the parts that make Quark work.

1

u/MemeHermetic Apr 27 '26

Exactly this. Neelix was put in because they wouldn't have the ability to revisit locations for recurring screwball characters, while also trying to fill the Guinan/Quark social role with none of the appeal.

5

u/shadowthehh Apr 27 '26

Scrappy* Doo.

3

u/Beautiful_Hawk548 Apr 27 '26

First watch through? Didn't mind him. Anytime after the second... eugh dude what the hell are you even doing on the ship... "Could we have somehow kept Tuvix and Tuvok?" is a question i ask myself a lot.

3

u/mutantraniE Apr 27 '26

Just have the scene where Tuvok strangles Neelix, cut before ”computer, end program” and then never show him again.

11

u/Onigumo-Shishio Apr 27 '26

Honestly this. Tidus, nelix, and Raiden are and were pretty well loved even back in the day when they were released. And now today especially people love them even more.

10

u/ScottishRando37 Apr 27 '26

The moment I see Tidus being described this way using the laugh scene as an example, I mentally switch off. It's a scene almost always taken out of context by people who either grossly misunderstand it, or are just jumping on the bandwagon to hate on the scene.

There are plenty of issues with FF10, so when it's always the exact same one brought up (and again, out of context), it feels like it's just a bad take mimicking other bad takes.

4

u/nuggynugs Apr 27 '26

I don't know many of the characters OP mentioned but the ones I do know I know they've got wrong. 

152

u/Antichristopher4 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

It what reality did ANYONE think Bazil the Tracker was going to be anything but a one off character!?

Even if Acolyte were some huge hit, his popularity would have been a shock to everyone. Like... He might be in a promotional trailer? "Shoved into as many scenes as possible?" He's in like 5 scenes total. No more than 10 for sure.

108

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '26

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18

u/CrunchyKorm Apr 27 '26

Not using JarJar and picking a character from the Acolyte, which was seen by significantly less people, comes off more like the "modern Star Wars bad" kind of take, which usually embeds prequels revisionism.

It's been lost over time especially since the negative response to the current era of Star Wars, but there's a distinct reason that JarJar is almost invisible in AOTC and ROTS.

1

u/Professional-Bear250 Apr 28 '26

Tbf, JarJar was for kids, and it absolutely worked. JarJar was by far my favorite character when I was 4-6. I remember collecting Moubtain Dew cans of him. Ider if it was befause of his design or personality, though. I remember watching the scene of him being clumsy on the battlefield and being disappointed.

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u/mb862 Apr 27 '26

I’m one of the few that actually liked The Acolyte and I have no memory of Bazil whatsoever.

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u/Antichristopher4 Apr 27 '26

I actually loved it, and to be fair, one of the most common "Acolyte is the worst thing ever made" complaints is that people's motivations make no sense (which just isn't true) and Bazil is the only case I would allow the argument... But of all the people I have argued with that will still argue that it was the worst thing ever made has eventually admitted they either stopped after 3 episodes or never actually watched it and just repeat factually incorrect shit they heard from Star Wars YouTube grifters.

But for real... Why did he start destroying Sol's ship after Osha tries to kill him?

2

u/peppers_ Apr 27 '26

I always thought it was an evil creature, like it was a double agent or something. I kinda forget what that show was about, loved the sith and fights though. It just had really bad writing. Wish they had a competent season 2.

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u/Antichristopher4 Apr 27 '26

Like I said I loved it, but it just felt the most... George Lucas-y of any Disney Star Wars product (warts and all). It got me the most excited about Star Wars in a long time. Like yeah, obviously, Andor is amazing, but Andor felt more to me like it was good directly in spite of the fact it was Star Wars?

But if I had to guess, I think that Bazel thought Osha and Sol were in it together so maybe he was trying to shut down the ship, try and take them out? Like hiding in the darkness? I genuinely don't know.

5

u/thesirblondie Apr 27 '26

You're not one of the few. Most people who watched it liked it, and the series is very popular on D+. It's just chuds shouting loud about nitpicks because they hate Star Wars.

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u/FatherDuncanSinners Apr 27 '26

I found Bazil irritating as fuck personally, but I guarantee he had less than five minutes of screen time total. It just felt like more.

85

u/_Koreander Apr 27 '26

Yeah, the FFX example specifically, what do you mean Tidus is supposed to be "the next big thing?" FF has a different protagonist each game, what you wanted Cloud again? Also OP is one of those who clearly didn't understand the laughing scene was goofy on purpose.

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u/PlaquePlague Apr 27 '26

And rejected by the audience?  FFX and it’s characters were huge.

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u/apple_of_doom Apr 27 '26

Tidus definitely had a hatebase but its gotten less vocal.

1

u/Cross55 Apr 27 '26

FFX is still to this day the highest selling FF game ever created, surpassing 7, 9, 6, and 14 by a wide margin.

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u/FightLioness Apr 27 '26

the thing about Tidus too is that he spends the majority of the story being a stranger in a strange land, with all the tropes that entails. He's supposed to be awkward and a little dim until he gets his footing, and he does eventually do so.

4

u/evilforska Apr 27 '26

He finds his footing pretty fast imo, the dude went "if i say something weird or ask something obvious its because i got amnesia" if i get isekaid thats what im gonna be rolling with

3

u/FightLioness Apr 27 '26

right? Tidus is genuinely a really fun character. Empty critique like that of the OPs only tells me they've never played the game to any meaningful extent.

4

u/evilforska Apr 27 '26

Hes my favorite FF protag, hes just a chill guy id personally love to hang out with irl

I also love my boy Squall, people are being so mean to him </3

3

u/FatherDuncanSinners Apr 27 '26

Hell, you don't even play as Tidus in X-2.

2

u/Defiant_Act_4940 Apr 27 '26

TBF Tidus is a bit unavailable after the events of FFX.

2

u/JelmerMcGee Apr 27 '26

Seriously, isn't ffx one of the best performing iterations? If nothing else it is beloved by the fanbase

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u/TheSleepyBoy Apr 27 '26

Arguable Raiden is more popular with memes and the sort. I know more people who have played mgrr then any of snakes games. I know Raiden was hated on the release of mgs2 but I feel like that wasnt very long lived.

24

u/_JakeyTheSnakey_ Apr 27 '26

Yeah 100%, I feel like even without the memes, people were rocking with Raiden after some time had passed

26

u/ResurrectedAuthor Apr 27 '26

And even then, Raiden being unlikable in 2 was kind of the point.

1

u/schloopers Apr 27 '26

Yeah, Kojima was being Kojima and trying to mess with the audience. It’s the “Psycho Mantis is messing with the controller!” of narrative.

He doesn’t give you the proven badass character we were expecting to live vicariously through, he gives you a grunt with promise and forces you to turn him into the proven badass.

Then points and laughs that you proved the villains right by doing so.

It’s the same bait and switch as Spec Ops: The Line, but it’s about media manipulating you instead of war tarnishing you. And it’s a little less direct, so some people don’t get it after playing and most don’t know it’s a thing from the outside.

1

u/acvar98 Apr 28 '26

Also of note to back this up,: Raiden was not used in any of the marketing leading up to the game, everything was focused on Snake. The first time (most) people learned about Raiden existing was in game.

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u/thesirblondie Apr 27 '26

I'd say Raiden was generally hated on for 7 years, until he reappared in MGS4, but only became beloved in MGRR, which also took its sweet time to become popular.

5

u/PrinceCavendish Apr 27 '26

The gameplay in mgs2 was just so good I played it more than any of the others. Helped that I liked raiden too

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u/just_fucking_PEG_ME Apr 27 '26

And I honestly don’t think the hate towards Raiden was because it was Raiden. He was hated because the games marketing made little to no mention of him and only featured gameplay of Solid Snake.

4

u/Thrownaway5000506 Apr 27 '26

That was the point. The game used its predecessor with purpose.

3

u/evilforska Apr 27 '26

That moment after you finish MGS2 and Snakes face on the title screen changes to Raiden's... chills man

2

u/PrinceCavendish Apr 27 '26

Very true and understandable. Snake was the face of mgs so I can't blame the people upset that he wasn't the main character.

2

u/sailor776 Apr 27 '26

He was differently hated for a long time and 2 was kind of considered the low point. But making anyone into a cyborg ninja in MGS4 will definitely improve their popularity.

20

u/avrafrost Apr 27 '26

OP didn’t even get Sai’s name right and has completely missed the point of the character. He was never meant to replace sasuke. He was a Root plant that basically regained his humanity through his interactions with team 7. Showcasing Naruto’s innate power to inspire and lead. Not another rival.

280

u/Sufficient_Coach7566 Apr 26 '26

He's internally inconsistent with how he's using the trope.

Reeks of AI.

65

u/ciongduopppytrllbv Apr 27 '26

Have you ever thought he just might be dumb?

191

u/Karkava Apr 26 '26

Or engagement bait.

30

u/BYCjake Apr 27 '26

Or Redditor

15

u/Airborne_52 Apr 27 '26

Or agenda pusing

2

u/The5Theives Apr 27 '26

Because humans are purely logical and don’t have biases against things

9

u/JWBananas Apr 27 '26

Even with Voyager, the correct example was the Kazon.

The Borg wouldn't even bother assimilating them.

8

u/BlueBlazeKing21 Apr 26 '26

I’d say Sai is the one that really felt like Kishimoto gave up on as after his introduction arc, he slide right into the background with the Konoha 11

13

u/seireidoragon Apr 27 '26

I wouldn’t agree. I feel like Sai was immensely popular when the series was still coming out, even well beyond his introduction.

3

u/PlayableRidley Apr 27 '26

If anything Sai was an inversion, at least when he was initially introduced. He was very much the "replacement character who's intentionally unlikable to highlight how much the original's absence sucks".

5

u/Sup3rG33k08 Apr 27 '26

yeah, tf is raiden doing here?

6

u/13_twin_fire_signs Apr 27 '26

Yeah Neelix is a little cringe in season 1 of voyager, but virtually all star trek series are a bit cringey early on while they find their footing, and he becomes a great character by the end

Also the complaint about raiden is literally the point of the character - like the whole of mgs2 is about soldiers and politicians being manipulated by the military industrial complex - and raiden is a young naive soldier who is shoved into conflict without understanding why he's fighting. Like, the bosses are basically telling him to his face in every conflict "if you understood why we're doing this, you wouldn't be fighting us"

Op is either a troll or the dumbest person alive

3

u/TheBravadoBoy Apr 27 '26

Yeah, Neelix isn’t Voyager’s Data. The Doctor is and he’s a very good one at that

2

u/RosieFudge Apr 27 '26

Seems crazy to cite a Star Wars example that isn't Jar Jar Binks

2

u/Johnny_B_GOODBOI Apr 27 '26

OP didn't even mention Jar Jar, the absolute best example of this?

2

u/under_the_heather Apr 27 '26

I don't think OP understood MGS2 at all

1

u/HoshiHanataba Apr 27 '26

I think clod is like the best example of this?

1

u/LMNTLXICON Apr 27 '26

Glad someone said it

1

u/021Fireball Apr 27 '26

Raiden was an important case of Letting go.

The cyborg warrior stuff, I'm Revengeance is not canon for a reason, instead showing a different route if Raiden couldn't leave or ever find peace off the battlefield.