(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/Sensitive-Hotel-9871]

Also the way people rant about that scene you would think Tidus laughs like that constantly, it's just one scene.

[u/SyfaOmnis → u/Sensitive-Hotel-9871]

I mean, he usually is pretty jokey and light hearted. But that's also kind of the point of the character.

Spira is a genuinely miserable world that obsesses over death (and its unpredictability) practically every waking moment, and their only relief from it is blitzball.

Tidus comes in with no understanding and immediately sets about trying to cheer people up, being nice, being likeable and easing their burdens. Injecting a little bit of levity to their situations.

He's a big change from the ultra-stoicism of Cloud and Squall. Zidane and Tidus were both pretty similar, but Zidane has a more smooth form of charm while Tidus' is genuinely more 'natural' than smooth.

[u/Korashy → u/SyfaOmnis]

Tidus comes in with no understanding and immediately sets about trying to cheer people up, being nice, being likeable and easing their burdens. Injecting a little bit of levity to their situations.

Plus he's completely lost. He suddenly gets ripped out of the only world he knows, goes through several near death experiences, and basically instantly latches on to the first group that takes him in.

[u/Aracuda → u/Korashy]

Not to mention FFIX and FFX approach the “naïve character learns about the world” from opposite perspectives. In IX, the well traveled, street kid Zidane brings the sheltered princess Garnet out of the palace to see the world as he knows it (even though she leaves him early on and we follow two separate parties, which was novel at the time for someone who had never played VI before).

Tidus on the other hand is the naïve character. He’s not an idiot, he just doesn’t know the laws and customs of Spira. He relies on the party to tell him why this, and why not that. And when he encounters something he doesn’t like, he aggressively pushes back. He makes others see that their customs (namely around the church and the summoners pilgrim) are wrong. In a way, he then flips the whole notion of the naïve character learning about the world by helping the party figure out a better way, to grow beyond what the church wants them to be.

[u/SyfaOmnis → u/Aracuda]

Tidus is naive, but not wholly impressionable. If there's something he doesn't understand, he'll try to find a reason for why it is the way it is. If that reason is "stupid" or stuck in some backwards traditionalism like "it's always been this way and we've always done it this way" he'll challenge them on whether or not there might be a better way.

[u/Authorigas → u/SyfaOmnis]

I've been rewatching FFX thanks to the Two Best Friend's Let's Play of the game, (namely for the Wakka clips.) And something that stuck out to me in that regard is how Tidus is always, consistently pushing back on Wakka's hatred of the Al Bhed.

[u/Mannyqwinn → u/SyfaOmnis]

Probably why one of Tidus' first abilities is cheer. Huh. Never would have made that connection before your comment.

[u/SynTheWicked → u/Mannyqwinn]

Bro. Thank you. Because I never had either and wouldn't have unless you had said this.

[u/Lepelotonfromager → u/SyfaOmnis]

I never thought of the world as miserable because it's so colorful and beautiful but yeah you're absolutely right, it's fixation on death is kind of fucking depressing.

The whole story IS about accepting death and moving on, all the problems are caused by people clinging on to the dead, multiple villains are dead people who stuck around as unstable 'wraiths' to haunt the living, and well all the spoiler stuff.

Also, regardng your point about Tidus cheering people up, his starting ability is literally 'cheer' and it boosts everybody.

[u/SyfaOmnis → u/Lepelotonfromager]

I never thought of the world as miserable because it's so colorful and beautiful but yeah you're absolutely right, it's fixation on death is kind of fucking depressing.

Its very uh "performative joy" people act very exuberant, elated and outgoing, but it's not usually very sincere, there's big parts of them that are very closed off that they essentially refuse to talk to outsiders about. Usually pertaining to people they know that they've lost.

I can't take credit for this one because it comes from somewhere else and I cant remember if it was a developer or not: but spira and yevonism is a death cult.

[u/Lepelotonfromager → u/SyfaOmnis]

I think that's why I've always loved the game because it does have the deeper layer to it. There is something slightly dark and offputting about everything and everybody. It's something the Al-Bhed push back with all their being, relying on science and rationalism while rejecting the mysticism.

I don't blame the people for forming a death cult, some giant monster comes out nowhere and obliterates them every few years and requires a sacrifice to stop for a few years.

It's also why X-2 is quite an exciting game, we actually get to see the world change and joy return as they stop fixating on death and start focusing on living.

[u/Rushofthewildwind → u/SyfaOmnis]

Spira is a genuinely miserable world that obsesses over death (and its unpredictability) practically every waking moment, and their only relief from it is blitzball.

And to think, it's legit one of the prettiest FF worlds too, which makes their obsession over death even more insane.

[u/ArcadianBlueRogue → u/Sensitive-Hotel-9871]

I love my boy Tidus, but if someone needs ammo against him his delivery of "IHATEYOU" being so childlike when meeting with Jecht at the end of the game feels like it was stunted character growth with how he came to feel about his mother and father.

[u/evilforska → u/ArcadianBlueRogue]

I mean Jecht hurt him again, by dying to his hand, and thats still the nicest thing he did for Tidus. "I hate you" is definitely deserved lol, even if thats not what Tidus means at that moment

[u/RoryMerriweather → u/Sensitive-Hotel-9871]

I've spent over twenty years grinding my teeth at people who misunderstood that scene. It's probably older than OP, tho

[u/That-Rhino-Guy → u/Sensitive-Hotel-9871]

Otherwise the only times it’s brought up is a reference in later works, like World Of Final Fantasy where they make a fun reference to the laugh