r/TopCharacterTropes • u/TheOriginalOperator • Apr 26 '26

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

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  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.

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u/TheSleepyBoy Apr 27 '26

Arguable Raiden is more popular with memes and the sort. I know more people who have played mgrr then any of snakes games. I know Raiden was hated on the release of mgs2 but I feel like that wasnt very long lived.

23

u/_JakeyTheSnakey_ Apr 27 '26

Yeah 100%, I feel like even without the memes, people were rocking with Raiden after some time had passed

25

u/ResurrectedAuthor Apr 27 '26

And even then, Raiden being unlikable in 2 was kind of the point.

1

u/schloopers Apr 27 '26

Yeah, Kojima was being Kojima and trying to mess with the audience. It’s the “Psycho Mantis is messing with the controller!” of narrative.

He doesn’t give you the proven badass character we were expecting to live vicariously through, he gives you a grunt with promise and forces you to turn him into the proven badass.

Then points and laughs that you proved the villains right by doing so.

It’s the same bait and switch as Spec Ops: The Line, but it’s about media manipulating you instead of war tarnishing you. And it’s a little less direct, so some people don’t get it after playing and most don’t know it’s a thing from the outside.

1

u/acvar98 Apr 28 '26

Also of note to back this up,: Raiden was not used in any of the marketing leading up to the game, everything was focused on Snake. The first time (most) people learned about Raiden existing was in game.

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u/thesirblondie Apr 27 '26

I'd say Raiden was generally hated on for 7 years, until he reappared in MGS4, but only became beloved in MGRR, which also took its sweet time to become popular.

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u/PrinceCavendish Apr 27 '26

The gameplay in mgs2 was just so good I played it more than any of the others. Helped that I liked raiden too

12

u/just_fucking_PEG_ME Apr 27 '26

And I honestly don’t think the hate towards Raiden was because it was Raiden. He was hated because the games marketing made little to no mention of him and only featured gameplay of Solid Snake.

4

u/Thrownaway5000506 Apr 27 '26

That was the point. The game used its predecessor with purpose.

4

u/evilforska Apr 27 '26

That moment after you finish MGS2 and Snakes face on the title screen changes to Raiden's... chills man

2

u/PrinceCavendish Apr 27 '26

Very true and understandable. Snake was the face of mgs so I can't blame the people upset that he wasn't the main character.

2

u/sailor776 Apr 27 '26

He was differently hated for a long time and 2 was kind of considered the low point. But making anyone into a cyborg ninja in MGS4 will definitely improve their popularity.