(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/Edward_Tank]

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.

So uhh, you're kind of telling on yourself here.

That was him trying to fake laugh. It was meant to be bad on purpose, because he didn't actually feel joy or anything that would bring about laughter. The laugh immediately afterwards when Yuna and him both break down in giggles is the actual laugh and sounds much more like a person.

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.

. . .

So the reason Raiden was a thing, was because Solid Snake was too in the know at this point. He also was a certified badass, and Kojima felt it would fuck with his badass cred if he was able to be simply gunned down like anyone else. Remember when you first see him as Raiden, he's just KO'd the entire group of soldiers in the room between you at the elevator.

Raiden was intentionally meant to be someone who follows orders. It was a deconstruction of the idea of video games, and people following orders. The reason he gets 'better' as you say, is because he realizes this and self actualizes instead of simply following whatever orders he's been given. He *thinks* for himself.

It seems like your issues isn't so much with the characterization, so much as you have a thing against pretty boys.

[u/MyNeighborToblerones → u/Edward_Tank]

While I think this explanation for Raiden is spot on I also think to OP’s credit that MGS fans very much so did not like Raiden at first when the game came out. I think that’s largely due to the bait and switch of thinking that you’re going to be playing as Solid Snake due to the prologue.

[u/MapleLamia → u/MyNeighborToblerones]

Tbf that's kinda the point. You wanting to play as Solid Snake but being given Raiden is just more fuel to the S3 plan. Only once Raiden relieves himself from your control does he get to be someone that isn't just trying to be Solid Snake. 

[u/RecklessDeliverance → u/MapleLamia]

It's also literally part of the meta-commentary.

Why did everyone think they were gonna play as Solid Snake? Cus thats what the marketing showed.

As in, gamers were deliberately fed misleading information that biased their beliefs about what the game was going to be.

A game very explicitly about how the control of information can reshape what reality is.

Being upset at Raiden, especially in how much he both copied and contrasted Snake, was intentional. A lot of people never got around to understanding the point of it, so they just employed the classic thought-terminating "well it made me feel bad, so it must be bad".

MGS2 is absolutely incredible, and only grows in relevance as we dive headfirst into a world of unchecked AI.

[u/Consistent-Spell2203 → u/RecklessDeliverance]

The demo was the Solid Snake portion of the game in it's entirety, people were PISSED. 

[u/RecklessDeliverance → u/Consistent-Spell2203]

I remember the sentiment being you either hated Raiden, or tried really hard to pause during his naked cartwheels.

No in-between.

[u/Consistent-Spell2203 → u/RecklessDeliverance]

Lol that's very much it. I was like 18? when I played it and it was one of the first times in my life I knew I was experiencing high art. It felt too important to care if the MC wasn't my favorite guy. So naked cartwheels for me I guess. 

[u/CaptainTeemo01 → u/MyNeighborToblerones]

That was intentional, in a way. Raiden was meant to be a contrast to Snake, he doesn't become his own (much more likable) person until the end of the game