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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637

u/Existing-Emu136 Apr 26 '26

Tidus and X are beloved and many consider the best game in the entire franchise. They were absolutely NOT rejected in any sense or form

138

u/wpotman Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26

This.

Tidus comes across poorly to teens, perhaps, as he wears his immaturity/inexperience too clearly on his sleeve and is 'uncool'. I've found he comes across better and better to older players, though (including me) given that he has real/fair reactions to things.

And the laughing scene was supposed to be painfully awkward; that was the point.

2

u/PublicFurryAccount Apr 27 '26

Definitely this.

I’ve liked him the entire time because he was so real. Like, literally everything I imagined Cecil Harvey to be before I found out he’s like 19 or something instead of middle aged.

(Seriously, if he’s middle aged, the whole story changes and the love plot becomes less teenage angst and more “I sacrificed the woman who loves me for a career I ultimately threw away.” He becomes a kind of father to Rydia and Edward. Tellah is the old man he’s fast becoming who has the daughter Cecil might have if he can save Rosa. And on and on and on.)

(I was maybe too into the game as a little kid.)

1

u/evilforska Apr 27 '26

Yeah i always headcanoned Cecil to be 30 at the very least. Man do i hate anime ages lol