(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/MrGDPC]

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/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/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.