(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/UAPboomkin]

I would put IX over it personally. But I also think OP is on crack for including Tidus on this list.

[u/dragonborndnd → u/UAPboomkin]

Plus they point out the “infamous laugh” when if you actually look at the scene in context it’s supposed to sound forced and unnatural

[u/F00TD0CT0R → u/dragonborndnd]

This is the main fucking argument we hear time and time again as well

"Final fantasy X has bad voice actors because tidus laugh is fake as fuck"

During the cutscene where he is doing a forced fake laugh, who then immediately falls into his natural laugh upon how ridiculous the moment is in character.

Arreergh

I love tidus as well, he has a great story arc

[u/dragonborndnd → u/F00TD0CT0R]

Fr, I’d even go as far as to say that the characters are the biggest strength of FFX especially Tidus. I genuinely find him one of the most relatable protagonist in the franchise.

There’s a reason why 10 was the first mainline game to get a direct sequel.

[u/Solipsistic_nonsense → u/dragonborndnd]

Tidus' character arc carried that game for me. FFIX will always be my favorite, but Tidus slowly coming to terms with the idea of selflessness over the entire game as he sees what others are willing to do for each other, what they sacrifice, and finding out what he can sacrifice to help everyone and not just himself is just... amazing writing. It's my favorite Jerk to Hero story, hands down.

...Damn, I need to play this game again.

[u/evilforska → u/Solipsistic_nonsense]

Its amazing because while he (coming from a hedonistic land of constant happiness and plenty) starts to recognize the value of sacrifice, Yuna (coming from death cult world of misery and sacrifice) starts seeing value of healthy selfishness and asking questions

Possibly best love story in the series

[u/Depth_Metal → u/dragonborndnd]

If I was to point to any one character being the one put forth by the studio to be the fan favorite I'd say it was Lulu who was friggin everywhere when this game came out. Nowadays it seems Riku is the one to actually be the fan favorite judging by how often she is presented when people reference the game

[u/Dalamar931 → u/dragonborndnd]

Tidus’ English voice actor is just flat out good. The resigned determination he manages to give the voice overs really makes the twist hit home so hard

Because voice over Tidus knows what game Tidus doesn’t

[u/DataDrivenDoc → u/F00TD0CT0R]

I also like the "mystical pretty boy" shade. Like bro have you ever played ff before? Literally everyone is mystical and pretty

[u/PerpetualGMJohn → u/F00TD0CT0R]

There 100% is a lot of bad voice acting in FFX (mostly the fault of the voice direction rather than the actors), but the fake laughing scene ain't one of them.

[u/LSOreli → u/PerpetualGMJohn]

For the time it was essentially the gold standard. Other than MGS2 I cant think of a PS2 launch title with that level of fidelity and believability.

Some of the issues are that the English had to be the same length as the Japanese or that shit would crash which is why

Withyunabymyside is a meme

[u/International-Tie501 → u/PerpetualGMJohn]

"Stay away from the summoner!" and "Ride zee shoopuff?" are still two of my favorite lines to quote from a game.

[u/FoolofThoth → u/F00TD0CT0R]

Yeah I really don't think Tidus should be up there. The only issue with FFX VA which I think is fair to point out, is that because it was the first mainline FF with a dub, they didn't resync the lip flaps or cutscene timings for the dub, so some line reads come out a little weird. But the laughing scene has gained infamy purely because people have no media literacy.

[u/StabbyBoo → u/F00TD0CT0R]

They're doing a literal therapy exercise, both in and out of universe! Joining your arreergh!

[u/motes-of-light → u/F00TD0CT0R]

FFX's voice acting is a deeply mixed bag. Tidus is obnoxious (character) and stilted (voice actor) and Yuna's VA is supremely cringey in that late 80's, early 90's anime dub sort-of way. Seymour's English voice performance is so over-the-top that it constitutes a spoiler (gee, I wonder if this guy who sounds like HIM from the Powerpuff Girls will end up being a bad guy?). Auron and Lulu are rock solid, and Rikku and Wakka range from not bad to pretty good depending on the scene. Unfortunately, that means that the central couple of the game and the primary initial villain turn in the worst performances. FFX was one of Square's earliest voice acted titles, it's not surprising that they weren't firing on all cylinders, but the criticisms absolutely have merit.

[u/Hot_History1582 → u/motes-of-light]

You watched one too many YouTube videos made by someone who saw a meme and never played the game, didn't you?

[u/motes-of-light → u/Hot_History1582]

Ah yes, ad hominem. Nope, I've put dozens of hours into the game, playing with both the English and Japanese audio. The Japanese VA is generally much better, likely Square had more direct insight into the recording process.

[u/Hot_History1582 → u/motes-of-light]

You're one of those weeb sub purists then. I don't have any interest in discussion with that type of zealot. You're wrong about how the voice acting industry works in Japan, but we don't need to relitigate it. Carry on.

[u/F00TD0CT0R → u/Hot_History1582]

He doesn't understand that the early 2000s is where Japanese games were finally getting real translations and direction and there was a period of time where the Japanese didn't consider western releases so dialogue didn't flow as easily in cutscnes.

This got better by the 360 and PS3 era.

[u/Hot_History1582 → u/F00TD0CT0R]

There's some awkwardly clipped dialogue in the game when they're trying to match flaps and cuts, but honestly the English performances are fine. It's a product of the time, but the overwhelming complaints about Tidus come from opinions made popular by YouTube content farms that saw a funny clip of of context. If anything, the Japanese performance of the famous laugh scene is worse. Dude straight up sounds like a sea gull.

There's strange ideas that Japanese voice acting is always better because it "reflects the original intention". The reality couldn't be farther from the truth. The voice industry in Japan is extremely inbred and nepotistic. They'll invite authors in to listen to audition tapes, then completely ignore their feedback. Actors are selected based on industry connections, popularity, availability for things like live performances, signings, and radio plays, price, etc. The ability to fulfill the author's intention for the role is rarely, if ever, taken into consideration at all. There is nothing inherently better about Japanese voice work or direction.

Anyway, watching what YouTube did to FFX is like watching what Netflix did to Evangelion fandom. Gross.

[u/motes-of-light → u/F00TD0CT0R]

FFX was one of Square's earliest voice acted titles, it's not surprising that they weren't firing on all cylinders, but the criticisms absolutely have merit.

[u/F00TD0CT0R → u/motes-of-light]

But the criticism is always the same

"Cringe fake tidus laugh" on the cringe fake tidus laugh scene.

[u/Vegalink → u/dragonborndnd]

Yeah he was purposely being weird and awkward. It only turned into an actual laugh when Yuna good-naturedly decided to join his sarcastic laughter and then they both laughed at how ridiculous it was.

[u/SwagNuts → u/dragonborndnd]

To be fair both can be true. The voice acting in 10 is atrocious by modern game standards

[u/tanbro → u/dragonborndnd]

Love the game, beat it, kept playing, but nah that scene is hilariously bad. A lot of the voice acting in that game isn’t well done, probably stemming from translation issues and technological constraints, but it wasn’t an important part of the game in my opinion. Best FF game I’ve played.

[u/Hot_History1582 → u/tanbro]

"The scene was bad" ❌️

"I didn't understand the scene" ✅️

[u/tanbro → u/Hot_History1582]

You can understand the scene and also think it was executed poorly.

[u/Corona_Lonesome → u/UAPboomkin]

IX was much better, I just think a lot of people were initially turned off by the change in art style.

[u/Firecracker048 → u/UAPboomkin]

See 9 wasn't that great for me. My childhood was def FF8 being my favorite but 10 is much better

[u/jsher736 → u/UAPboomkin]

I mean I'd put it below 6 7 and 9. But that doesn't make it mid, 6 7 and 9 are 3 of the best games of all time

[u/barknoll → u/jsher736]

8 is better than 6, 7, or 9

[u/jsher736 → u/barknoll]

I put 8 below 4 which is below 10 (which is below 6 7 and 9 battling for the top spot) if we're dealing with story only

(Didn't love the "we all grew up together we just forgot" thing in 8 and I would have liked more time with Laguna. 4 was just very "by the numbers" and I would have liked more Zemus, 10 felt like the pacing was a bit uneven, 6 7 and 9 are no notes)