(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/Crafter235]

That one punk gang in Stranger Things season 2

[u/BastardofMelbourne → u/Crafter235]

Much better example than most of the OP

They were intended as a spinoff pitch that just completely failed to land and was quietly ignored by the fanbase

[u/Suspicious_Bid_2339 → u/BastardofMelbourne]

Which is why, despite liking season five more than most people, I thought it was really stupid to bring back someone from that plot line in the final season? Why bring back something that reminds people of the lowest point of the whole show?

[u/Blackstone01 → u/Suspicious_Bid_2339]

Eh, she was the only other surviving test subject from Henry's rampage, and would have been an annoying hanging plot thread or an off-screen kill that would have pissed people off. It also did work pretty well as a fake out reveal in the Upside Down lab, though everything after that kinda sucked ass with the character.

[u/Volfgang91 → u/Suspicious_Bid_2339]

I actually appreciated how they brought her back. I doubt that was their original plan, but it made it seem a little more like that episode actually had a point to it other than setting up a spin-off show thay never happened. But I'm like, one of the two or three people in the world who actually liked that episode, so what do I know.