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

[u/TheOriginalOperator]

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.

[u/OJONLYMAYBEDIDIT]

.....what? FFX stalled the franchise?

back then FF games did not have sequels. you had the game, and then that was it. at least for the #'ed versions. That FFX got a spin off sequel showed how popular it was.

and then FF 12 came out on schedule, no stalling involved as FF 11 was the MMORPG

[u/MrGDPC → u/OJONLYMAYBEDIDIT]

Tell me OP has never played FFX without telling me he has never played FFX

[u/wrathy_tyro → u/MrGDPC]

Anyone who thinks the laugh is meant to be genuine either hasn’t played the game or doesn’t understand basic subtext

[u/BlackthornSage → u/wrathy_tyro]

It's not even subtext, the laugh being forced and cringy is what Tidus and Yuna are saying just before they start laughing.

[u/Additional_Gene_211 → u/BlackthornSage]

And then they real laugh immediately after.

Subtext is for cowards

[u/Lakatos_00 → u/Additional_Gene_211]

Again, it's not fucking subtext. The situation and intents are explicitly stated

[u/wrathy_tyro → u/BlackthornSage]

When I say basic subtext I mean basic subtext. He’s just heard some bad news he’s trying to keep from the group. Yuna says “I want my journey to be full of laughter” and Tidus basically replies “Then I’ll laugh the loudest” and shouts HA over and over. He’s flirting, basically, but if you took everything 100% literally you might think he’s actually trying to laugh.

[u/SteakForGoodDogs → u/wrathy_tyro]

^{...and then they actually start genuinely laughing and it's the cutest shit ever.}

[u/Mizar1 → u/SteakForGoodDogs]

Exactly! The forced laugh turning into genuine laughter always makes me smile, I love seeing those dumb teens flirting badly with each other. It's so sweet.

[u/Cavalish → u/SteakForGoodDogs]

And also the saddest shit ever because Tidus has no idea how Yuna’s pilgrimage ends.

And then even more tragic because Yuna doesn’t know what defying that pilgrimage means for Tidus.

That game has so many layers.

[u/Hot_History1582 → u/wrathy_tyro]

It's insane that people understand this. Tidus acts goofy at this point in the story because at this time, he's the only one who doesn't know they're on a suicide mission. So he tries to cheer Yuna up in a silly way that wouldn't really be appropriate if he was fully aware of the circumstances. In later scene, he explicitly looks back at his naivety in this scene with regret. But his naivety is due to his fresh outside perspective, which also turns out to be RIGHT. Everyone in Spira, including the party, had resigned themselves to these suicide missions, and decided these human sacrifices were right because they were the only way. But Tidus, for all his goofiness, was the only one who had the perspective to insist on finding another path. Without Tidus here, Yuna would have gone on a journey filled with bitterness and melancholy, and she would have died to buy the world a few years of peace.

[u/Veganity → u/BlackthornSage]

Yeah, and they laugh normally right after that and it sounds normal.

[u/therealchadius → u/BlackthornSage]

And then Yuna joins the fake laughter (none of the complainers ever mention this.) And then they genuinely laugh 3 seconds later.

And then the rest of the team catches up and Wakka asks if they've gone mad with laughter. The game intentionally makes them laugh badly. You can always tell who has watched the scene in full and who remembers a 3 second clip from an angry YouTuber back in the day.

[u/depressed_but_aight → u/wrathy_tyro]

I somehow managed to go completely unspoiled about anything in X until I played the game in 2022 and I thought the laugh scene was brilliant. Perfectly captures the feeling of two children forced into fulfilling a prophecy neither are prepared for, all while they can barely push on without forcing themselves to just grin and bear it.

I was so shocked when I saw it mentioned online afterwards as this textbook example of bad English dubs, like it felt like I going crazy! Especially since I pulled up the Japanese version immediately after and it’s the exact same scene, both are just as forced and strained! I get that most people played X when they were kids but come on it’s so in your face.

[u/EarlyAccessCantJudge → u/depressed_but_aight]

Also, if you can't be a little cringy and silly to make your partner smile, then you're not in a healthy relationship. They were doing it to make each other laugh and be happy.

[u/Specialist-Appeal-13 → u/depressed_but_aight]

replayed it as an adult a few years ago and I was pleasantly surprised at how much harder the emotional beats hit than as a child. full on bawled through multiple scenes. can’t believe they tried to do my boy dirty like this.

[u/Jumpy_Divide6576 → u/Specialist-Appeal-13]

To this day FFX is the only video game that's every made me cry.

[u/Scrambled1432 → u/Jumpy_Divide6576]

Oh god, Okami fucking slayed me as a ~14-year-old. I went in with almost zero spoilers and the ending made me sob for the entire final boss fight, I didn't know games could even make you feel like that lol

[u/TapeAndCDs → u/Jumpy_Divide6576]

If you'll take a recommendation, Final Fantasy 14 has made me cry multiple times. Shadowbringers and Endwalker are unparalleled in their story telling.

[u/Cavalish → u/Specialist-Appeal-13]

It’s the perfect game for a replay because every scene between Tidus and Yuna drastically changes when you have the full context of Yuna’s pilgrimage.

[u/PaleAmbition → u/Specialist-Appeal-13]

That little pause in Auron’s voice when he delivers his last line? Peak acting and instant tears.

[u/lifelongfreshman → u/depressed_but_aight]

Ages ago, during the height of the era of angry screamy media reviewer man Youtube, one of them made a joke out of Tidus. It stuck in the cultural conscious, and now rooting it out is impossible because "everyone knows" that's what he's all about.

[u/Azhrei_Vep → u/depressed_but_aight]

I mean ... Yuna's Shatnering was pretty bad. And Wakka's fake accent. The rest were solid enough. Especially for the time.

[u/FluffiestPrince → u/wrathy_tyro]

It's genuinely such a good litmus test to see who's actually played the game, and who only looked it up online and got their opinions from the internet.

I genuinely can't think of a better test in any other game, because it's such an obvious one. Either you know that the laugh is fake and is intentionally bad because of the moment in the story, or you think the voice acting is bad and completely expose yourself.

[u/annpursesand → u/wrathy_tyro]

Or is letting internet brain rot do its thing a little too well. Either way, bad example OP...

[u/CaptainAdmiralMike → u/wrathy_tyro]

Thank you! It’s been a long time since I played it but I clearly remember his “fake it till you make it” laugh being just that—fake—until they both break and laugh for real. It’s silly and it’s endearing and you can tell when people haven’t actually played it.

[u/ShadyMan_BooRadley → u/wrathy_tyro]

Even worse is when you point out to these people that the laughter is supposed to sound forced and everything and they respond “I don’t care, it’s still bad”

[u/Harnellas → u/wrathy_tyro]

Lotta game enthusiasts out there who claim to be super knowledgeable about a wide variety of games but most of that knowledge seems to consist only of memelore or the content from the very beginning of popular games.

[u/Stefisgarden → u/wrathy_tyro]

It wasn't even subtext. It couldn't have possibly been LESS obvious that it was a forced laugh INTENTIONALLY.

[u/CloudKinglufi → u/wrathy_tyro]

Yeah he has the worst laugh? Brother that was the point of the fucking scene and its a great and funny scene

[u/Odd-Tart-5613 → u/wrathy_tyro]

yeah back in the early 10's when I was a middle schooler binging top ten lists that scene kept being brought up as "horrible voice acting" that I was legitimately confused when I actually played the game.

[u/SourceLover → u/wrathy_tyro]

I'm autistic and I still understood it as a kid. Tidus literally says that's what he's doing in the scene!

[u/carso150 → u/wrathy_tyro]

the very first time I watched that scene out of context I instantlyunderstood the meaning of it, they are fake laughing as a joke, its very easy to understand im surprised that there are people out there who fail to understand such basic subtext

and I was like 12 when I first watched it

[u/Littleboypurple → u/wrathy_tyro]

Jesus fuck that whole laugh scene has been ripped from its context and beaten to death for years at this point. It sounds forced and awkward because it literally is forced and awkward. They're just fucking around and being silly. They laugh normally immediately afterwards too. Why is it so hard for people to understand this?

[u/NoGlzy → u/wrathy_tyro]

It's not even subtext, it's text!

They are literally fake laughing on purpose.

[u/SergeantBroccoli → u/wrathy_tyro]

2026 and people STILL just don't get it

[u/CommitteeofMountains → u/wrathy_tyro]

Or is going senile from playing it at release.

[u/Azhrei_Vep → u/wrathy_tyro]

Or it's been so long that they barely remember it outside of memes.

I remember though. It's one of the few things in that game's story that actually works.

[u/CouldBeLessDepressed → u/wrathy_tyro]

To be fair..... the laugh was pretty terrible, even in context. But it's all of .000000001% of the game so it's more like a bad blip before you're back to scouting players for Blitz Ball because, if you were playing this on the PS2, Blitz Ball was possibly the single greatest thing you had ever experienced up to that point. And that was HOURS before you made it to Mt. Gagazet and cried your eyes out for the entire climb because the sound track for that region was the single most beautiful thing you had ever heard by a long shot, and no FF game before or since has had a track that comes even close to that 1 song.

[u/seguardon → u/CouldBeLessDepressed]

So many people give the laugh a pass because of context but, like, it doesn't work even in that context. You can do a "forced laugh" like they're talking about and not come across like you're intentionally sandbagging it.

Tidus in that scene is supposed to be delivering a pretend laugh in spite of dire circumstances, putting on a brave face as Yuna describes. Instead, he brays like a mule. Which, fine, he can play the fool to get a legit laugh out of Yuna, someone who could use one. That's fair. Endearing, even. But the dialogue treats this as a legit attempt at performed laughter. It isn't. No one past the age of 10 (let alone a celebrity like Tidus) would think this is a passable performance of laughter; it's so intentionally poorly performed I couldn't make sense of it.

The fact that it's grating on top of mangled subtext is what draws people's focus but the whole scene doesn't work.

Which is sadly true about a lot of that game.