Fictional characters you hate/dislike?

[azoo]

53 minutes ago, Singapore Sling said:

Don't even try to hide from my seething rage, you unforgivable cunt. 

1 hour ago, Singapore Sling said:

I want Paddington Bear to fucking kill himself. 

Okay I know we all like to have our giggles, but this is just spammy and not really contributive to the topic at all. Try to elaborate on why (without making such ridiculous / inflammatory statements too btw) or I'll have to hand out a strike. Thanks!

2 hours ago, Mikyeong said:

I know opinions are opinions however I really don't get why Blaze sucking in Sonic 06 is Silver's fault. He didn't ruin the character, the game's terrible writing did. Damn, hate the character and blame the fans all you want but it's still the games code that made the characters incompetent. They saw that Blaze was popular and decided to shoehorn her in any chance they got without even thinking twice. 

I don't care if you hate the character but blaming Silver for that one just makes me cringe and most of the time it's for shipping reasons.

Silver was created for 06 in particular (so I'd say that even without much thought or tact, the intention really was to make Blaze his sidekick / shipbait), and his presence + constant association with Blaze continues to reaffirm just how badly they messed up her everything. If the two were left far away from each other by Sega, that'd be one thing, but we can't even get away from Generations and ColorsDS and etc trying to poke at those ties that in all honesty shouldn't even be there.

The fanbase just makes it infinitely worse with how hard they like to rail Blaze into being tsundre for Silver the Lovable Naive Anime Protag, and how Silvaze is completely undodgable when looking into Sonic fan works, let alone stuff based particularly around Blaze. To 85-90% of the fanbase, Blaze isn't "princess of another dimension / protector of the Sol Emeralds", she's "Silver's sidekick and/or possible girlfriend" and that's terrible, especially since Sega enables it so much.

Ughhhh.

[Your Vest Friend]

Sonic Colours DS, Generations, Runners, Riders in a small way, Black Knight (I'm serious; Percival and Galahad are closely linked in Arthurian Mythology), Mario and Sonic, the list at this point is quite extensive. I think only the Rush and RIvals series are the only exceptions, and they both ended in 2007. 

[KHCast]

Elizabeth Swan. She was decent in the first Pirates film, but after that her whole arc just felt forced and uneeded, and detracted from the "Pirates" feel of the series. And making her the Pirate Lord? Eh, just was random. It's why I was so happy that 4 did away with Will and her, and 5 is supposedly just bringing Will back.

[DiamondX]

Beerus( Dragonball Super). I hate this guy so much. He has no personality, he's annoiyng, and to make that worse hes the second strongest in the universe. Its like he was made to be annoying.

[Singapore Sling]

Anyone who gets to know me knows that I'm a pretty passionate McDabbler. The lore behind McDonalds has always meant a lot to me, ever since I was a kid. Most of the milestones of my life that I hold close to my heart (getting my first A in school, learning how to drive, and losing my virginity) were either celebrated at, happened adjacent to, or even happened within a McDonalds. My dad was a McDonalds fry cook when he met my mom, and on their wedding day they decided to order a mass of Big Macs and nugs in lieu of a wedding cake. It seemed more appropriate. And I feel that the grease and blood from which I was born would be best suited to procure the perfect, salted taste of fries.

Ronald McDonald is my favorite fictional character of all time, and feels more like a father to me than even my own mother was. I knew that, if something ever went wrong in my or my brother Amberdelico's life, I could just sit in front of the TV, clutch my day's McDonald's bag and watch The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald in the same way Sunday school children would recount the story of Lot and his daughters: undeniable proof of a caring, logical reality condensed into a technicolor Plato-Hedron. It is the most secure canon in literature both in terms of consistency (practical AND thematic) and quality. It has never been surpassed, and it all brings me joy.

Except for this.

I have never, in my entire life, understood why Ronald McDonald would keep this monster around. I want to be able to sympathize with his plight: McDonalds cheeseburgers are factually and objectively superior to other foods, but that does NOT justify stealing them, and even the idea that someone would lose so much of their humanity that they'd want to steal burgers and deprive others of them...no, don't go there with me. Don't do it. He's an awful, awful person and Ronald's usual solid judgment of character massively lapsed when he accepted Hamburglar into their group.

It especially bothers me how Hamburglar treats the Grimace, which we CANONICALLY KNOW is suicidal: Scared Silly very clearly establishes in its final act that the Grimace is very ready and willing to kill himself. Grimace attempts to forfeit Franklin's game with Ronald there just so he won't die alone, and is so grief stricken and depressed the only comfort he can manage is the idea that someone might care enough to watch him die. He is very clearly a damaged person who needs to be watched and taken very good care of...and what does Ronald do? LET'S THE HAMBURGLAR AROUND HIM. Who does nothing but try to scare and prank the Grimace. 

And I know someone's going to bring this up, but yes, I realize that the Grimace used to be evil and used to steal food as well. I'm not fucking stupid. But he clearly feels horrible for how he acted and if THIS is the way he feels now, there must've been a much deeper coping mechanism. I feel like Uncle O'Grimacey's visits were probably a shallow reminder of what little familial love he might've really gotten. And regardless? Hamburglar DOESN'T repent or feel bad for his actions like Grimace does. But he's somehow just allowed to go through McDonaldland under Ronald's supervision and Ronald makes no real attempt AT ALL to teach the Hamburglar the error of his ways. It's almost as if Ronald WANTS Grimace to keep suffering even though he tries his hardest to show he's not the bad person he used to be. Every time I see the Hamburglar, the very foundation of my life's ethos just crumbles down.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

19 hours ago, Mikyeong said:

I really don't like Boom!Sonic, meaning from the TV show. I mean yeah I know he's supposed to be very confident and I like that about him, however there have been many times where he seems bored and lazy and really doesn't want to be there. I also find him to be so watered down in terms of personality. He does have his good moments but most of the time, he just annoys me.  All he cares about is his so called street cred.

Sorry men, but I just not a big fan of Snape here. I find him to be rather creepy plus his reasons and some of his backstory doesn't make sense. Also I'm not gonna get much into it because it would take me forever but the character himself has done something fans shouldn't be defending him for. But hey, he's got some funny moments in the movies, especially the 2nd to 3rd movie. Still, not a fan.

Eh, your opinion and all, but I like the new additions to Boom!Sonic in the series. He's still got his overconfidence and snarkyness, but now he has more personality outside of that. He gets easily annoyed, and he does play the deadpan snarker from time to time, or the only sane man in the squad. It works well because in terms of the squad, Sonic's snarky as hell, but is really the only normal one. Tails is a zany inventor, Amy is a control freak and overbearing, Knuckles is dumber than dumb, and ends up doing really over the top things, and Sticks...is Sticks. It works well having Sonic be the reactor because he can play off all of them. One moment, he can be snarking along with the best of them, the next he just delivers a deadpan "...Because you're a horrible roommate and nobody likes you" the next moment. Plus I like how more caring he is than Modern!Sonic. 

Boom Sonic actively cares about all his friends despite how much of an asshole he can be. He called out everybody for bullying Tails after one of his inventions went haywire, he actively did things he hated just to cheer Amy up, him and Knuckles always get into friendly competitions, and hang out with each other, and he helped Sticks to go to the awardy awards despite not wanting to do so. I also have a personally head-canon that the reason why Sonic was living in Tails' house in Can A Evil Genius Crash On Your Couch for a few days for out of Sonic's kindness, he agreed to stay with Tails, due to his fear of lightning, and because of the fact there was a storm, so Sonic stayed with Tails to help him feel safe until the storm ended, only to stay with him longer after Eggman moved in to ensure his safety.

As for Snape, I'm pretty sure it was actually explained why he was so much of a asshole to Harry and friends. If I remember correctly, James Potter, and his friends bullied Snape a lot back during their early years at Hogwarts, which caused Snape to grow an incredible grudge against James Potter and his friends, which also plays a big part of why he's so pissed off against Lupin in Prisoner of Askaban. Fast forward, and Snape grows a crush on Harry's mother Lilly, but never actively goes after her due to nervousness or shyness or something (Again, it's been a while since I saw the movies/read the books). But the result was James Potter coming in and charming Lily, causing Snape's grudge and jealously to fly through the roof.

So Voldemort happens, and young Harry Potter is left an orphan. Snape makes a be-grudging promise to Lilly that he will try to keep Harry safe, or at least give him the tools to remain safe against Voldermort, but it then turns out that Harry ended up sharing many of the features that James had, which also includes a group of friends who breaks the Hogwarts rules, so it of course reminds Snape of all those bad memories from his time in Hogwarts. So while he still maintains his promise to Lilly Potter, he still holds a grudge against James Potter, and thanks to Harry's resemblance of him, he can't help but feel anger towards Harry.

[Nepenthe]

5 hours ago, Detective Panda said:

-She held Ash responsible for her bike getting wrecked when it really wasn't entirely his fault. She *saw* how bad a state Pikachu was in and even felt sorry for the little guy, the only hope Ash had of getting to a Pokemon Centre before the worst happened was by riding something. Instead of being understanding, she throws a hissy fit, blames Ash for the fact it got fried when it was *Pikachu* who did it, by accident in a desperate situation may I add, and tracked him down to the Pokemon Centre to bitch at him while he was already in a really low place. Ash even *apologised* to her, and she snapped at him! And finally, she took it upon herself to following him around nagging him for a new bike.

I can't get with this reasoning entirely. In the real world property has value and accidents and irresponsibility with other's property has legal consequences. First of all, Ash actually stole the bike. He did not ask for permission, wasn't given permission, nor even indicated that he would return it in an appropriate time (not that this matters in light of the first two points). Misty was also visibly upset about the ordeal despite having sympathy for Pikachu. And speaking of which, unless Pikachu is considered a civilian under Pokemon's law, Ash is still responsible for any damage incurred by his Pokemon or during any other situations where the bike would've been under his care. On top of all of this, bikes are expensive, in the real world and Pokemon world, and it was probably Misty's only way of getting around at the time. 

I'm sorry but Misty is in the fucking right on this one. If there was a life or death situation going on with some stranger and their dog, and they took my car suddenly without even asking me and said "they'd give it back someday (what the hell?)," and their dog caused it to be completely totaled in the process, I'm sorry but I don't care how sad they are that the dog is in the vet not feeling well. I want my fucking car replaced or some equivalent compensation for it. I need my car to get around, to run errands, to live my life. You are not entitled to my car nor allowed to walk away from actually fulfilling your legal and moral obligations in light of its destruction just because your dog is hurt.

[Blue Rainbow]

The only characters that I can think of are:

* Mark Jefferson (Life is Strange)

Spoilers?

Spoiler

First time I saw him, I actually thought he was a cool teacher. A bit hipster-y but he was nice. And while some people didn't like him from the very begging, I did, so after seeing that HE was the one who shot Chloe I was actually kinda shocked... aaaand that's how he lost all my respect. He's creepy and annoying, there's nothing to like.

* Azusa Kujoh (1bitHeart)

Well... I don't HATE her per se, but... really, really, really dislike her. She just annoys me, with that constant 'oh, whoops I'm not supposed to do that but I did it anyway for the 10th time'.

* The Smurfs

Everyone loves them over here, but I think they're - again - really annoying and boring.

* Monaca (Danganronpa)

Spoiler

How can you NOT hate her after all the horrible things she did? I mean, yeah I like her design but that's it. She's a little psycho that will probably come back again and I'm not really looking forward to it.

* Jean-Francois (Rhythm Thief)

Spoiler

Same thing that happend with Jefferson. "Hey, he's a nice guy" and then "WELL HELLO THERE, GUN". What the heck.  

* Double (Skullgirls)

It's not the character itself but the way she/he looks. It just... disturbs me. Same goes with Painwheel and Eliza, but I like their personalities. Double is kinda eh.

* Dickson (Xenoblade Chronicles)

Spoiler

He could've be a cool dad/uncle figure, but nah. 

And... I guess that's it. I'm that type of person who usually loves even the most hated characters (I'm looking at you Nagito, Sticks, Marine and Warren)

[Chaotix Prime]

I really don't like using the word hate. It's a bit strong for the realm of entertainment. Not to mention the flack it can bring, but this is a thread for salt so I'm gonna say it. (I feel like someone needs to.)

Amy Pond (Doctor Who)

I don't like the show frankly. My brother is the one who tried getting me to watch it, and I got sick of it real fast. A big part of that was this... horrible person  (I'm inclined to use stronger language, but will refrain). Nevermind the fact that she was a total brat in her debut episode (An episode that's lauded but I found annoying due to her). I can get over that. What I can't get over is how she just blatantly ignores the doctor when he's trying to warn her of danger, an action for which a normal generic cast member might get killed for, but she's Amy Pond, she doesn't need to worry about normal. And that's just it: all throughout the show we're shown just how "special" she is. Especially in the season premiere where the doctor laments parting ways with her. Apparently she's some kind, yet stern soul who is worthy of your friendship and -OH COME ON! Let's look at her for what she is. She rambles on the doctor for taking actions she doesn't approve(because she's morally superior, it seems), she wanted to sleep with him even though she had a boyfriend (that's loyalty for ya), and she generally treated her fiance/husband like her stepping mat. Even my brother hates this character (he gave me some of these points), and that says alot.

I almost hate River Song just as much for trying to be some edgy counterpart to the doctor, but at least none of the characters ogle over her like Amy Pond. *sigh.

I get it, no need to hate the show, it's just the writer. At the same time I see some people who actually like Amy Pond -and for what? Because she's "hot?" (That's how "how it should have ended" Batman put it) Seeing that; just leaves me in a constant state of facepalm; for the side of humanity that is the Amy Pond loving Dr. Who fan.

[E-122-Psi]

Concerning Misty, wasn't it revealed later on that she just faked overreacting about the bike because she wanted an excuse to hang around Ash? She was essentially stalking him at one point early on despite insisting she hated him. The Caterpie issue is pretty valid, though from what I remember she admitted she was wrong after he saved them from Team Rocket and even TRIED to be affectionate before he evolved, just she still had her phobia. This was at least more sympathetic, we can fear snakes or spiders but it doesn't mean we're a douche to them.

I admit while the 'pompous hothead girl' archetype in anime tends to be hit and miss with me at times (especially the ones that outright abuse the male characters), Misty didn't aggravate me too much. Maybe it was because she was allowed to get humiliated or wound up as much as Ash was, they knew when to take her down a peg. I remember her suffering to slapstick too. If anything I thought she was less enjoyable when Team Rocket started stealing the sympathetic spotlight and especially so when Togepi got fastened to her. Most of the heroes start off fun but usually turn into dull foils rather quickly, hence Ash barely having any character anymore.

 

And for Boom characters, I think all of the depictions are pretty loveable compared to the Gogobas. They are an interesting concept, being entitled manipulative civilians who play on Sonic's altruism to make him go above the call of duty. The problem is however, they almost always get away with it. They feel like the show's attempt to make an amusing magnificent bastard like Roger in American Dad! but it just makes it harder to watch. They're characters who just scream a comeuppance, being conniving guilt tripping bastards who just ooze smugness in both voice and design. I can understand Sonic being powerless against them because they caught him by his weakness, but I see no reason karma can't hit them, not even Eggman will give them what they deserve. There is only one episode where the chief appeared and suffered in any way for it. Otherwise, for as long as he's onscreen, he makes Sonic his bitch:

Say you don't want to give that asshole a smack.

[Big Panda]

Concerning Amy Pond, she kinda had a right to be a brat in her first appearance.

-Meets the Doctor as a child. Doctor goes away, promises he'll be back to take her on adventures (he claims to be back in, like, 4 minutes) She packs her stuff and waits for him. He never comes back.

-Goes on to fantasise about the Doctor, plays make believe about him, gets her close friends in on it. Makes her own toys based on him.

-She ends up being admitted to four different psychiatrists because the adults are growing concerned over her undying obsession with what they think is an imaginary friend.

-This shit goes on for 12 years before the Doctor finally returns to her.

Now tell me, if this happened to you, if you got put through years of psychiatry and being told that something that happened to you wasn't real, all because the one person that could prove it all didn't show up when he was supposed to, for years, wouldn't you be pretty fucking livid too? 8D

 

@Nepenthe bikes don't even cost as much as cars do they?

...wait, actually all the more reason for Ash to cough up. I stand corrected :/

Still wanna slap her across the face for the Caterpie thing though.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I have one. Sonic Boom's citizens. Every one of them.

They share the Spongebob problem of all of them being a bunch of apathetic entitled idiots who treats Sonic like dirt, and then as soon as he either complies with their demands, or when they are thrown in trouble, they all get in some kind of trouble as expected, and suddenly they all expect Sonic to come and save their lazy asses. I could give so many examples of how fucking infuriating they are with their hypocritical and idiotic attitudes. How about Don't Judge Me? Eggman has placed them in danger fifty times over, and Sonic has saved their asses every single time, and yet they're all ready and willing to believe Eggman's word that Sonic attacked him during one of his own attacks on their village. How does it end? OF COURSE EGGMAN ATTACKS THEM AGAIN EXPECTING SONIC TO SAVE THEIR STUPID ASSES.

Then comes one of my most hated episodes/characters in TV history. Blue with Envy, featuring my personal most hated character in the series, right next to Elise and Chris, Swifty. I get his joke. He's a parody of the 90s. He's meant to be the Sonic of that time, and meant to look lame because of how dated it's become. Unfortunately, that one joke falls flat on it's face when he's actually seen as cool, instead of lame, meaning the joke gets ruined in the first minute they try to pull it off. The townspeople are even bigger idiots. Sonic has saved them at least 27 times over by the point this episode aired, and yet this asshole comes in, says a bunch of unbelievably awkward words from the 90s, and gains their admiration (Are we sure they didn't hire Ken Penders for an episode? This is sounding like one of his fan characters from Archie Sonic). 

So what happens? Sonic gets jealous thanks to all of the townspeople, and even his fucking friends falling in love with Swifty for just skateboarding, and saving one person, something Sonic has done fifty times over may I add. This coaxes Sonic into a race in which Swifty cheats, and successfully exiles Sonic out of the village. Of course the townspeople don't give a shit that their hero has just been exiled, the only exception being one line from the mayor of the town. But what happens? Turns out Swifty was an army of Eggman robots that wanted to exile Sonic, and the second Eggman comes into the village, they are of course begging Tails, Knuckles and Amy to bring Sonic back to rescue their useless faces once again.

But the worst episode hasn't even come yet. The absolute worst, and most fucking hateable these pieces of shit have been is easily Just a Guy. Where they all single handedly ruin an episode with a few good jokes. So what do they do? There is a normal guy. No powers, no abilities. No strength, speed, fighting technique, weapons, nothing. Knuckles is his friend.This guy is called Mike. Eggman pulls another attack, and Sonic blasts into Meh Burger, telling Knuckles that they need him, only for Mike to want to tag along. Sonic doesn't act like an asshole to him either. He simply states that Mike would end up getting hurt due to his lack of abilities needed to fight Eggman and his robots, stating that Mike is "Just a Guy".

Little does Sonic know, the entire world now hates his guts for thinking about Mike's safety. Knuckles, Amy, Sticks, and Tails (I think, can't exactly remember, but I assume he did due to the others doing it) all turn against him, and start calling him out for his "supposed" insensitivity towards Mike's abilities. But things increase from there. The entire town turns completely against Sonic for doing it, and force him to join one of Amy's stupid sensitivity classes. Throughout this, Amy basically gets to indulge her control freak tendencies, and just speaks a lot of stuff that Sonic really doesn't care about. He manages to pass the class, and he says sorry to Mike, despite him doing absolutely fuck all wrong, and agrees to allow Mike to tag along to the next battle. Mike then proceeds to act like a five year old, asking can they go yet. 

So, predictably, Eggman attacks, and Sonic & friends blast into action, and what happens? BIG SHOCK, MIKE GETS HURT. So, when they get back to the village, what is Sonic's friends, and the entire village telling Sonic? "What were you thinking taking Mike into action! He got hurt! "HE'S JUST A GUY". If that one line doesn't prove how fucking hypocritical this asshole of a village is, then I don't even know what else to say. Sonic gets absolutely pissed off, and flies into a rant against the village, and says he's done saving them. 

Of course, the village doesn't give two shits until surprise surprise, The Lightning Dolts Bolts attack them, and they of course come running up to Sonic with their tails behind their legs, begging him to save them once again. Sonic gets them to say sorry to him, and beats the lightning bolts. But one line. Just one line managed to make them absolutely irredeemable to me. After the entire mess their idiotic shit talking of Sonic throughout the entire episode, and after what happened when they started giving Sonic shit for calling Mike "Just a Guy", they prove once and for all that they are not one bit sorry in the slightest by flat out starting the entire thing over again with The Lightning Bolts, telling them to stop because every one of them are nothing more than "Just a Guy".

Just fuck these assholes. Sonic, come Season 2, I think it's time to relocate your base of operations to Station Square.

[Blusolyn]

The Gogoba Chief from Sonic Boom. Old dude guilt trip a plenty. He gets away with this mess many times and I just roll my eyes. Stop just stop.

[DarkLight]

3 minutes ago, ebongrey23 said:

The Gogoba Chief from Sonic Boom. Old dude guilt trip a plenty. He gets away with this mess many times and I just roll my eyes. Stop just stop.

Just the chief? The entire Gogoba village participates in guilt-tripping as well.

[Blusolyn]

3 hours ago, DarkLight said:

Just the chief? The entire Gogoba village participates in guilt-tripping as well.

Yeah I know DarkLight but I just wanted to just mention him.

[Chaotix Prime]

4 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

So, predictably, Eggman attacks, and Sonic & friends blast into action, and what happens? BIG SHOCK, MIKE GETS HURT. So, when they get back to the village, what is Sonic's friends, and the entire village telling Sonic? "What were you thinking taking Mike into action! He got hurt! "HE'S JUST A GUY". If that one line doesn't prove how fucking hypocritical this asshole of a village is, then I don't even know what else to say. Sonic gets absolutely pissed off, and flies into a rant against the village, and says he's done saving them. 

Of course, the village doesn't give two shits until surprise surprise, The Lightning Dolts Bolts attack them, and they of course come running up to Sonic with their tails behind their legs, begging him to save them once again. Sonic gets them to say sorry to him, and beats the lightning bolts. But one line. Just one line managed to make them absolutely irredeemable to me. After the entire mess their idiotic shit talking of Sonic throughout the entire episode, and after what happened when they started giving Sonic shit for calling Mike "Just a Guy", they prove once and for all that they are not one bit sorry in the slightest by flat out starting the entire thing over again with The Lightning Bolts, telling them to stop because every one of them are nothing more than "Just a Guy".

Just fuck these assholes. Sonic, come Season 2, I think it's time to relocate your base of operations to Station Square.

Yep.They were big hypocrites, but I just loved it when their idiocy was turned to the (sub-par) villains in the show.

 

10 hours ago, Detective Panda said:

Concerning Amy Pond, she kinda had a right to be a brat in her first appearance.

-Meets the Doctor as a child. Doctor goes away, promises he'll be back to take her on adventures (he claims to be back in, like, 4 minutes) She packs her stuff and waits for him. He never comes back.

-Goes on to fantasise about the Doctor, plays make believe about him, gets her close friends in on it. Makes her own toys based on him.

-She ends up being admitted to four different psychiatrists because the adults are growing concerned over her undying obsession with what they think is an imaginary friend.

-This shit goes on for 12 years before the Doctor finally returns to her.

Now tell me, if this happened to you, if you got put through years of psychiatry and being told that something that happened to you wasn't real, all because the one person that could prove it all didn't show up when he was supposed to, for years, wouldn't you be pretty fucking livid too? 8D

 

All true about Pond. Which is why I didn't make an issue out of it. Though it's not like she had the right to handcuff him just because she was (rightfully)upset with him.

[E-122-Psi]

Both the Gogobas and the apathetic civilians do play on an interesting concept that isn't seen as much with other versions of Sonic; that being the hero will sometimes be a thankless job. People won't always appreciate you helping them, some will be flat out exploitive and vindictive. The sad part of being a full hero is that you can't always just save nice people.

The problem however is that it feels kinda flanderized, not only is nearly every side character is like this, but they constantly pull this crap and they usually get away with it. There's only a very small selection of nice or at least reasonable civilians and they aren't commonly seen (eg. Perci, Zooey) meaning achieving karma with the town is actually the far rarity rather than just reasonably inconsistent. It makes Boom feel a bit too on the cynical side and hard to really feel much achievement in what the heroes do. Eggman is more likeable than the douchebags they save.

Concerning Swifty though, I kinda feel everyone worshiping the ground he walked on was part of the joke, since that's what happened with 90s Sonic as well. Sonic lampshaded how ridiculous and over exaggerated it all was anyway.

[Singapore Sling]

3 hours ago, E-122-Psi said:

Concerning Swifty though, I kinda feel everyone worshiping the ground he walked on was part of the joke, 

...No shit?

[Sean]

7 minutes ago, Singapore Sling said:

...No shit?

Drop the snarky brevity, please.

[AdventChild]

On 2/17/2016 at 10:03 PM, Monkey Destruction Switch said:

There honestly aren't a whole lot of fictional characters I hate/dislike passionately, but...that Starlight Glimmer, man.

*Post

Yeah, agreed about Starlight. And to add a bit more, when you put the premiere and finale side by side, it becomes contradictory. What I mean is that if she is against Cutie Marks so much then why does she still have hers and doesn't remove along with the others? It just makes her look pretty hypocritical into the whole "I'm more equal than anybody else" sense and doesn't add up.

Still on the subject of FiM, it is no surprise about how I feel about the EQG sub series and that I just really don't like it from the bland high school setting to the human designs to the premises/plots to other things. One of the unlikable things that comes from this goes by the name of Flash 'Brad' Sentry.

He is by far the definition of the high school pretty boy, cool guy cliche' whose main purpose is to be a blatant romantic interest for a pointless and mostly unneeded subplot that can be easily cut out. Heck, his contributions to the plot about Twilight being framed can be replaced with anybody else and it wouldn't even matter. Even to the point where the other two movies that come after it don't use him as much so why even bother using him at all? Just to let us know this poorly contrived romance is still going/exist? Still rather pointless if you ask me. Not to mention how he barely has any character outside of playing guitar and driving a 'cool' car like the high school stereotype is perceived nor does he have any discerning development whatsoever throughout; he comes off as uninteresting and bland overall. Even his pegasus counterpart barely does much either, let alone to remind that EQG is a thing. Just a pointless and throwaway character IMO.

 

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

Clark Kent - Superman: The Animated Series version

OK, here's a weird one. For one thing, it's actually a character I absolutely love under normal circumstances, but this particular version of him is easily one of the worst I've ever seen...and what's also weird is that I'm only talking about the Clark Kent aspect of the character. (The Superman from this show is generally okay, not amazingly good but not problematic enough to warrant a post.)

What's so wrong with this version of Clark? Well, maybe it would help to first discuss what I find so "right" about other versions. Honestly, the answer to this question varies because the character (or more specifically, this particular identity of a certain character) himself varies so widely. To simplify majorly, you could say there are two basic "takes" on him - one that seeks to be the opposite of his alter ego Superman, and one which instead manifests the personality traits of Superman in a different context. Of course, this is certainly an oversimplification, in part because all versions of Clark Kent manifest some traits of Superman, but some do so much more obviously, emphatically and consistently than others, and also because there's truly an enormous amount of variance within each "take".

But one thing that usually stays consistent, regardless of what take is chosen or what specific take on that take is devised, Clark Kent is usually very interesting, even fascinating, to me. A lot of that has to do with the basic premise of a being of such power willingly, not under any sort of compulsion from anyone, choosing to live a life as a seemingly completely normal human being - a situation to which a beautiful complexity is added by the fact that he also lives a life in which he does not adopt any such pretense and instead uses his powers freely and again, without being under any compulsion to do so.

As fascinating as this premise is, a premise is only as valuable as what you do with it. The fact that Superman chooses to live as a normal human has no impact unless we see what kind of human he is. It's not enough to know that Superman has such an alter ego, or to look at him or know extremely basic facts about him. You can't reap the benefits of an interesting premise, no matter how interesting it is, if you don't actually do a darn thing with it.

Thankfully, most pieces of Superman do do something with this premise. As established, what precisely that "something" is varies immensely. But even versions as disparate as George Reeves' generally mild, but relatively assertive no-nonsense crime reporter who was pretty amicable and gained both respect and friendship from others, and Christopher Reeve's ridiculously wimpy and inept and yet adorably charming super-nerd have something in common, if you ask me: they're all, well, interesting. They do something with the premise of Superman's alter ego. They let us see things about Superman that we simply couldn't see otherwise. There's almost always something about Clark to intrigue me, oftentimes quite immensely. I can be interested in his journalistic career, I can revel in his interactions with his friends and others, I can laugh at his clumsy and timid traits when they exist, I can admire his moments of bravery when they exist.

But Superman TAS, on the other hand...well, let's just say that they chose the route of not doing a freaking thing with him. I used to think that the problem was he didn't appear enough, but I came to realize that was an extremely minor issue compared to the fact that, when he does appear, he just doesn't have any personality! It's actually a bit hard for me to describe what's wrong with him because there's just nothing to him. He's a gaping void where meaningful characterization of any kind goes to die. There's honestly very little I can say about this character that isn't just extremely basic information such as "he's a reporter" and "he's Superman's alter ego". Seriously, we never come to a meaningful knowledge of his life or what kind of person he is at all. We just know that, well, he exists. And uh, he...kind of acts like Superman sometimes. But unlike a good version of an assertive/Superman-like Clark such as George Reeves', who manifests Superman's traits in an interesting and different way, with TAS Clark it feels pointless and a bit awkward, like the only reason he acts this way is because they couldn't think of anything else to do with him, couldn't come up with anything about Clark other than "uhhh he's Superman".

Perhaps the best way to describe this version of Clark is that he's only included because the creators know that they can't just ignore the pretty fundamental fact about Superman that he has this bespectacled journalist for an alter ego, but that's literally the only reason he was included. Because he exists and he's always existed as an aspect of Superman, so he has to exist here. And as a result, that's all he does in this show: exists.

Considering that Superman TAS can be a pretty tightly-written show at times, it's more than a little disappointing to see my favorite aspect of Superman reduced to pure uninteresting blandness with no redeeming value other than "well, they didn't do anything actively bad with him" (though in a weird way I could respect that more because at least they'd be trying), "occasionally it looks like he might have a shred of personality, even though they never expand on it and nothing ever comes of it, completely nullifying whatever potential was there and just leaving you more frustrated", and "he looks cute". It's just one of the several problems which unfortunately drag this extremely potential-laden show down a few notches.

[Uraraka]

Since we are discussing it ....

    I can't stand Sally Acorn! Yeah, she was there before Amy... Yes , she was in in the first Sonic series... But she is so perfect, knows she is perfect and is stuck up about how perfect she is ( and dang it, she is always right. ALWAYS!!)  it is hard to imagine (especially considering her debut when sonic was acting like nothing more than a dunce cap) that she would even be into him. Maturity wise she acted 30 and sonic acted 10.  That's not all folks!  Who is the person who seemingly figures everything out in the comics? Her. Who is the one who is so good that doing wrong is totally out of her vocabulary? Her. In fact , sonic is just HER feet. He does everything she says and if he doesn't he ends up paying. So maybe Archie should have called it Sally Acorn featuring Sonic?   

  On that note, I never liked Julie-su much either.  She was way too Boyish and way too proud. and honestly I just feel that in a real world situation she would be the wrong type for knuckles. I just feel knuckles would be better with a more feminine girl (but also a girl who is not afraid to get her hands dirty at the same time.). I also feel she has a big attitude for little reason. Lien da has a bad girl attitude but she rocks it so much better than  Julie-su.  (I actually love lien-da as a character, she is so much more authentic!) 

     So yeah ... not much into Archie's alternate girlfriend line! 

[E-122-Psi]

Lein Da is also a butt monkey villain however, so she's hardly glorified in her attitude either.

The comics unfortunately REEKED of girl power attitude, even when the 90s had long passed. They like developing action girls in a very superficial way, having them super competent and make some loser out of some chauvinistic boy, while still keeping to stereotypes like them being an underdeveloped love interest and making overemphasis on them being a girl who kicks ass. Did I mention they're a girl? And they kick ass?  They rarely get round to putting many genuine foibles into them. Sally's spin off comic was dull since she couldn't hold a story without being Sonic's straight man, while Julie Su, yeah she sorta has flaws like a stroppy temper, but there mostly dumbed down variants of Knuckles'. STC Amy had the same problem, though at least she was mandated to be blandly competent.

The sad thing is Sally ISN'T always right, Ian has tried to give her flawed moments, but the problem is he sucks at them. She's so empty a character at this point that he can't really latch onto a genuine foible out of it to make for good development. As I mentioned in WANT to love thread, there is some big potential for a good concept out of her initial character (meticulous, by the book foil to spontaneous, chaotic Sonic) but they never exploit that. They always just simplified that aspect to her just being a voice of reason, ie. smarter and more logical where Sonic is misguided and dumb, rather than just having a different, equally fallible direction. Not only is this a bland somewhat insufferable character, but it simplifies and ruins Sonic's in the process.

[Phos]

Bloo: Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends

Bloo is basically just an insufferable jerk virtually all of the time. As far as I can tell, that's his character. 

Whenever I think about Silver's role in the plot of 06, I can't help but think he comes off as "that" sort of fancharacter, he's a hedgehog with a new power and he's from the future and paired with a canon character. Tragic backstory, but still naive to a fault. 

Sally tending to not be a good character to continue having around the principle action of the Sonic comic was so obvious that Ken Penders managed to figure it out. She doesn't actually have any powers, so she has to be in charge in order to have a reason to be there, which saps the protagonist's volition, and she has to (almost) always be right in order to justify her being in this role while the protagonist is somehow missing part of the picture, meaning that the story is going to tend to be outside the main character's understanding, meaning there is no story. 

[Stardust]

Jack, Kai Leng, Grunt, Liara - Mass Effect

Rendon Howe, Isabela, Ser Alrik, Livius Erimond, Vivienne, Florianne de Chalons - Dragon Age

Snivelly, Robotnik (the original), echidna in general - Sonic Archie Comics

Thor, Jane - Thor movies

Charmy, Rouge, Cream, Knuckles, the Biolizard - Sonic X, Modern Sonic games

 

Just a few chars I remember, anyway.