Characters love for whom you don't understand

[IllumInaTIma]

Just what the title says. Are there any characters with visible fan-base love for whom you simply don't get?

So, for me it's Adachi from Persona 4. Looks like many people are hyped about his inclusion in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and many simply call him their favorite. I don't understand. Sure, his reveal was surprising and he ended up being much smarter than you would assume, but at the end of the day he's a miserable and whiny loser with rapist and pedophilic tendencies. He's just downright creepy. So what the hell?

Anyways, your turn.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Oh, boy, I haven't had a chance to tear into BioShock Infinite lately! With that said: Elizabeth.

Now, I guess I can sort of understand the love Elizabeth got. She constantly showed signs of potentially good character development, but it never really materialized. Her joy at experiencing freedom versus the horrors she had to experience as a result of that freedom was touched on but barely explored. Her struggle with figuring out Comstock was her father looked to be a great sub-plot that would run through the game, at least until it got ended with some stupid comment about a puppy. Her grief at having killed someone looked to be another theme that would heavily define her, but it served little more purpose than to get her into the outfit everyone was crazy to see her in. Overall, I could see the compelling character everyone else saw developing, but in the end, she just came across as not defined by much except the numerous glimpses into what she would have been at different parts throughout the game's development.

Also, I couldn't help but compare her to Eleanor from BioShock 2. After all, she pretty much was just Eleanor in a different game and had an almost identical background, near identical relationship to the player, and almost exactly the same personality traits. There were some differences in what they had to go through, but they were at least highly comparable. But while BioShock 2 explored Eleanor's character in some depth, Infinite just skimmed over Elizabeth. As a result, I've only become more confounded at Elizabeth's appeal, considering there is such a far superior example of her character type in the exact same series.

 

[RJ 17]

Also, I couldn't help but compare her to Eleanor from BioShock 2. After all, she pretty much was just Eleanor in a different game and had an almost identical background, near identical relationship to the player, and almost exactly the same personality traits.

While I certainly do agree that Elizabeth doesn't really have much chance to grow into anything more than an ammo dispenser, I just wanted to point out that I'm convince the above-quoted details were intentional. What's really funny is that while some people complain about BS2's story, when you boil everything down BS Infinite's story is almost exactly the same as BS2's.

Father figure seeking daughter figure who is being isolated and held captive by a charismatic leader whose followers have built a cult around. The daughter figure is imbued with super powers and is intended to be used as a weapon against the surface world.

Those two generalized statements describe both BS2 and BSI's plot, and I'd imagine they did that specifically to play into the whole "constants and variables" stuff.

OT: Rei from Evangelion. Seriously, I don't get the fanboy idolization of this character...it just eludes me entirely. All I know is that Rule 34 really went ape-shit with her. *shudder* The things I've seen...... >.>

 

[Casual Shinji]

Rei from Evangelion. Seriously, I don't get the fanboy idolization of this character...it just eludes me entirely. All I know is that Rule 34 really went ape-shit with her. *shudder* The things I've seen...... >.>

That's the wonderful irony behind her character; She was created as a way of saying 'This is what a fantasy girl would be like in real life, and it's not a good thing'. And then fans proceed to idolize her for being the perfect fantasy girl.

 

[Padwolf]

I get the feeling this might just rustle some people up a bit, but I don't get the love for Chie from Persona 4. I can't stand her. She's loud, constantly loud and it drives me insane to the point where I don't want to play the game.

I don't get the love for the random ponies from My Little Pony. I don't get why there is so much love for ponies that haven't even spoken at all. I could understand Derpy Hooves, but not the others.

 

[Madame_Lawliet]

Spoiler: THIS LOATHSOME PRICK

I will never, NEVER, understand the love every other Dangan Ronpa fan seems to have for Byakua FUCKING Togami.

The guy's a dick, plan and simple!
He truly and vocally thinks he's better then every one else because of his money/family
He treats everyone around him like second class citizens
He's actively screwed with an investigation of a murder because "he got board"
He treats Fukawa like shit even though she worships the ground he walks on
And, with one debatable exception, during the course of his ark he NEVER acknowledges that he was in any way wrong or at fault for any of it!

And the fandom sodding loves him!
He's one of the most popular characters!
He's more popular then the canonically gay character in a fandom that started on TUMBLR!

DOES. NOT. COMPUTE.

 

[DaWaffledude]

Thane from ME2. I just never cared that much for the guy. It was sad when he died, yeah, but he just didn't seem that interesting.

Granted, I was already hating the game by the point I met him, so that probably didn't help matters.

 

[Hades]

Ishida Mitsunari from Samurai warriors.

Mitsunari is the kind of tsundere that's rude and unfriendly to everyone he meets by default but because he has a select few he cares for we are supposed to overlook him being such a jerk.

Mitsunari's rival is a friendly uncle type of guy who is full of compliments to everyone he meets and wants to bring peace to all.

For some reason Mitsunari constantly ranks as the most popular character despite being a jerk while his nicer rival ranks rock bottom. I have a feeling its because Mitsunari is a prettyboy while his rival is old and fat.

 

[Kingjackl]

Just what the title says. Are there any characters with visible fan-base love for whom you simply don't get?

So, for me it's Adachi from Persona 4. Looks like many people are hyped about his inclusion in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and many simply call him their favorite. I don't understand. Sure, his reveal was surprising and he ended up being much smarter than you would assume, but at the end of the day he's a miserable and whiny loser with rapist and pedophilic tendencies. He's just downright creepy. So what the hell?

Anyways, your turn.

I'm not disagreeing with you (I don't mind Adachi, but I can see why others would have a problem with him) but you should probably consider spoiler-tagging that. A few people might not have played Persona 4 and it's kind of a big reveal.

As for me, I find a lot of the cast of Firefly to be overrated. Mal and Zoe are cool, Jayne's alright once you forget that his actor wants to set fire to Sesame Street and I've got nothing against Book. But Wash and Kaylee just seem too meek and beta for the kind of stuff they do to the point of being unrealistic, River has the same problem someone above mentioned as Rei where she's meant to be played for drama but ends up being fetishized, and Simon and Inara can be pretty damn up themselves at times. I personally hated that scene in the hospital raid episode where Simon broke off from the group to swoop in and save a dying patient while chewing out the surgeon who was working on him. Sure it was lovely that he could do that, but it's also smug and border-lining on Mary Sue territory.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

Sephiroth

Ooh, I dun did it now, didn't I?

I mean, I kind of GET why, but it just doesn't make any sense.
Let's start with his looks. He's tall and effeminate as fuck, so the fangirls are gonna be all over him. He has a "cool" black coat and carries a sword way too long to be practical (definitely overcompensating for something), so the fanboys are gonna be all over him as well.

However, once you take that away, you're left with one hell of a douche. First of all, huge mommy issues. Second, god complex. Third, except for the Nibelheim Incident (which was a very nice sequence, admittedly), Sephiroth didn't do any of the things that are attributed to him. If you're worried about spoilers of a game that's almost two decades old, skip the next paragraph.

The real Sephiroth didn't enter the stage till Cloud gave him the black materia (except for flashbacks). Killing the Shinra boss? Killing the Midgar Zolom and sticking its corpse on a tree? Killing everyone on the ship? Killing Aerith? it's just Jenova's headless body disguised as Sephiroth, leaving behind bits and pieces of herself that turn into monsters - like something straight out of John Carpenter's The Thing. The only thing Sephiroth does in the present is use the black materia to summon Meteor - and that ends up failing!

Seriously, why doesn't Jenova get more love as a great villain?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Edward Cullen.

I mean, yeah, everyone spends all the books blathering on about how wonderful he is, but apart from that, there is nothing to him.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Sephiroth

Seriously, why doesn't Jenova get more love as a great villain?

Because Jenova isn't long-haired and handsome and shirtless and built like a male model.

With regards to Tohru Adachi, everything the OP stated are good qualities for a villain you love to hate. You want him to be creepy and detestable underneath the skin, and he's also a comic relief character who turns out to be a complete monster within (the Star Wars EU did something like that and the reveal was extremely creepy then too. No, not talking about Jar Jar). Also I feel the way the party rebukes him is much better than how most JRPG parties handle The World's Most Dangerous Nihilist (tm). Additionally schadenfreude, since he was created as a dark mirror to the protagonist who makes all the wrong choices after being gifted with the same power by a gas station attendant.

Hm? What's that? Oh right, the OT...

I suppose I can chalk this one up to the Sephiroth effect as well, but Bleach's Byakuya Kuchiki. For a while I made excuses for him, but I realize now it's not an act. He really is the conventional stuck-up nobleman in modern times despite living and watching human progress for thousands of years and a great deal of training under a far more humble and fun teacher, unable to give due credit to anyone save himself, even to said teacher. For a noble, his manners are nonexistent.

 

[Thyunda]

Add me to the Daenerys-hate club, because I can't stand the woman. I find her decisions to be awful, her manner demeaning and ungrateful, and her personality childish and petulant. If Daario was anybody but Daario, he'd have politely reminded Daenerys that he is practically working for her for free after her 'You serve me' outburst. Turning on Jorah at the words of Ser Barristan Selmy was also a bizarre choice, given that Barristan was a loyal Kingsguard to Robert Baratheon, who ordered Daenerys dead and it was only Joffrey's decision that turned Barristan loose. He's also done a total of jack shit since joining Daenerys, whereas Jorah has a hundred accomplishments by her side under his belt.

Tactically, Daenerys is a bloody clown. She's got the right resources for one swift crusade across Essos. She can't maintain a siege. She can't get through a city's walls without the help of Daario or one of the others.

So in brief - Daenerys is the rightful queen of Westeros, and has so far been carried across Essos on the backs of Jorah, Daario and three goddamn dragons. Beyond that, she's a useless tyrant. At least Viserys had character.

 

[1Life0Continues]

Spoiler: Caution. Extreme cursing about Assassin's Creed 2 ahead

Ezio fucking Auditore da FUCKING Firenze!

Who gave this pathetic whinging prick a blade? Who thought it was a good idea to make this egotistical, arrogant self serving scum fuck an assassin? No, seriously!?

The stupid prick doesn't shut up about killing people. He's loud, obnoxious and brash and all around unlikeable. His complete dickery just makes the bullshit mechanics stand out like dogs bollocks, and breaks all immersion for me. He doesn't deserve to be an assassin, he deserves to be hung drawn and quartered for the murder HE CONFESSED TO AT THE VERY BEGINNING!

What a shit heel.

[sub]*pant pant pant*[/sub]

 

[Zhukov]

Rei from Evangelion. Seriously, I don't get the fanboy idolization of this character...it just eludes me entirely. All I know is that Rule 34 really went ape-shit with her. *shudder* The things I've seen...... >.>

That's the wonderful irony behind her character; She was created as a way of saying 'This is what a fantasy girl would be like in real life, and it's not a good thing'. And then fans proceed to idolize her for being the perfect fantasy girl.

Wut?

Okay, it's been a whole since I watched it and I only watched it once, so I might be misunderstanding something here, but wasn't Rei the blue-haired chick? The who was, like... a barely functional human being?

Exactly which fantasy are we talking about here? Is there some kind of widespread lobotomy fetish of which I have somehow remained blissfully unaware?

....

OT: Batman. Can't be bothered actively disliking the guy, but I just don't get it.

 

[Thaluikhain]

OT: Batman. Can't be bothered actively disliking the guy, but I just don't get it.

Yeah...he works well as something to build a Bat-family around, and to yell at them occasionally, but by himself he's mostly meh.

 

[syaoran728]

Rei from Evangelion. Seriously, I don't get the fanboy idolization of this character...it just eludes me entirely. All I know is that Rule 34 really went ape-shit with her. *shudder* The things I've seen...... >.>

That's the wonderful irony behind her character; She was created as a way of saying 'This is what a fantasy girl would be like in real life, and it's not a good thing'. And then fans proceed to idolize her for being the perfect fantasy girl.

Wut?

Okay, it's been a whole since I watched it and I only watched it once, so I might be misunderstanding something here, but wasn't Rei the blue-haired chick? The who was, like... a barely functional human being?

Exactly which fantasy are we talking about here? Is there some kind of widespread lobotomy fetish of which I have somehow remained blissfully unaware?

....

OT: Batman. Can't be bothered actively disliking the guy, but I just don't get it.

Hideki Anno designed Rei around being the otaku's ideal shy, obedient, love interest, which would of course be creepy. Unfortunately for him, the fans still ate it up and the character he created to creep everyone out became a TV Trope.

 

[Casual Shinji]

That's the wonderful irony behind her character; She was created as a way of saying 'This is what a fantasy girl would be like in real life, and it's not a good thing'. And then fans proceed to idolize her for being the perfect fantasy girl.

Wut?

Okay, it's been a whole since I watched it and I only watched it once, so I might be misunderstanding something here, but wasn't Rei the blue-haired chick? The who was, like... a barely functional human being?

Exactly which fantasy are we talking about here? Is there some kind of widespread lobotomy fetish of which I have somehow remained blissfully unaware?

She's the closed off, soft-spoken girl. I don't know if you've ever seen The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, but it features a similar girl character who's popular among fans for the same reason. The girl who's just waiting for the right guy to come along and melt her heart.

 

[fhmy]

Bridget from Guilty Gear. This guy got top spot at ASW's 25th anniversary character poll, and I can't figure out why. Sure, the cross dressing thing's amusing and everything, but enough to make him the most popular character? Not to mention he has a really annoying idle stance.