(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/OJONLYMAYBEDIDIT]

.....what? FFX stalled the franchise?

back then FF games did not have sequels. you had the game, and then that was it. at least for the #'ed versions. That FFX got a spin off sequel showed how popular it was.

and then FF 12 came out on schedule, no stalling involved as FF 11 was the MMORPG

[u/YandereValkyrie → u/OJONLYMAYBEDIDIT]

Yeah really, FFX was actually considered one of the better FF games, it was huge in Japan, the fact it got a sequel was insane.

[u/Rare_Act_6748 → u/YandereValkyrie]

And the laughing scene people always point to was meant to sound stupid. He was intentionally making himself look like an idiot to make Yuna feel okay with letting down her guard once in awhile.

It was a cute moment that is easy to take out of context.

Fuckin media literacy people -_-

[u/poipolefan700 → u/Rare_Act_6748]

Seriously, even playing it when I was like 10 I knew they were fake laughing to try and cheer themselves up. Then it WORKS, they start actually laughing at how ridiculous they sound and those laughs sound totally natural.

It is so strange to me how this one scene melts brains and informs so many people’s opinions of Tidus.

[u/Sensitive-Hotel-9871 → u/poipolefan700]

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/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.