Characters love for whom you don't understand

[Dragonlayer]

Boba Fett from Star Wars

Never understood it. He's usually just standing there next to real villains, like Jabba the Hutt and Darth Vader. He manages to follow Han Solo to Bespin, which was quite clever, but then Darth Vader freezes him so Boba Fett can just load him onto a ship without really doing anything noteworthy. Then in the next movie, he's defeated by a clumsy blind guy and gets eaten by a plant.

I hear Boba Fett is regarded as the epitome of cool badassitude in certain segments of the Star Wars fandom, which confuses me no end because in the films he did two things: capture a man trapped by other forces and then get knocked into a monster by the same man, who was blinded and did it accidentally. Maybe its an Expanded Universe thing?

I brought this up the other day with a good friend, throwing out the theory that he may be so admired because of his uniform and plethora of gadgets about his person. But giving the perfect weapon or combination some of to someone who struggles to get results with it...I just give up. IN ROTJ he just blindly points his blaster at Luke in an almost goofy "Stick 'em up!" and bzzzt. The blaster is halved.

In the expanded universe he makes the odd appearance but nothing that's ever grabbed my attention. Gets swallowed by the Sarlacc again and develops a weird bond with it...it's just weird.

So its sort of like Batman then: the actual character sucks (I don't think so for the Bat, but others do), but he has a ton of equipment to make up for it.

Also: wait what? He bonds with the Sarlacc?

But I too can't stand him, much less the pedestal the fans have created for him. I would put money on any of the IG-88 quadruplets (he alone has a more intriguing back story) than Fett.

 

[sageoftruth]

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.

They do? We clearly come from different parts of the internet. In my experience, that guy gets almost as much hate as every teen pop star of the year.

Let me remind you that Edward exists in books which sold by the truckloads. They were successful enough to spawn movies really shortly after being released. The movies got a lot of audience, too. Therefore, it is fair to say that Edward Cullen does have some people who like him.

I'd also like to remind you that teen pop idols have fans, too. Otherwise, if they were unknown, you wouldn't have heard of them.

You've got a very good point there. Argument obliterated.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

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.

Ah, how people missed the point of the Evangelion girls. Eva basically said that "all those tropes you love: Kuudere, Tsundere, whatever the Hell Mari is supposed to be, are all severly off in real life" and yet people still want a person who is very hard to connect to, a girl who is violent and unstable, or one who is just plain crazy.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

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...... >.>

I'm the exact opposite. It's all the Asuka fan boys that I don't understand. She's a loud, neurotic, narcissistic, attention-seeking *****, who's deep-seeded trauma, while making her a compelling character, just drives the point that she's one crazy ***** that I do not want to be around with.

Misato is best girl.

Asuka is supposed to represent what type of damage it would take to make the "tsundere" that so many people (me included) love. It basically shows that a real tsundere would be very hard to connect, be abrasive, and generally unpleasant and cause you a lot of pain

Misato is kind of odd, she is likable but she really has problems. She is still very well adjusted but I can't help but find her behavior around Shinji to be a bit of a coping mechanism

 

[jhoroz]

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...... >.>

I'm the exact opposite. It's all the Asuka fan boys that I don't understand. She's a loud, neurotic, narcissistic, attention-seeking *****, who's deep-seeded trauma, while making her a compelling character, just drives the point that she's one crazy ***** that I do not want to be around with.

Misato is best girl.

Asuka is supposed to represent what type of damage it would take to make the "tsundere" that so many people (me included) love. It basically shows that a real tsundere would be very hard to connect, be abrasive, and generally unpleasant and cause you a lot of pain

Misato is kind of odd, she is likable but she really has problems. She is still very well adjusted but I can't help but find her behavior around Shinji to be a bit of a coping mechanism

I like Misato, because besides all her own personal issues and improper ways of raising Shnji, she still ends up being one of the most functioning individuals by the end of the show, even if it does make her as cold as Gendo.

 

[Itchi_da_killa]

Hinata Hyuuga from Naruto, I for the life of me cant understand why so many fan boy's love her. She's boring and the entire series could have been done without her.

Note*This is before the time jump, I'm sorry I tried but the series wore me down before I could reach it*

If I had to guess, it's because she's pretty much a injured puppy in little girl form which a double whammy for people to sympathizes with. On top of that she gets extra sympathy points from a sad backstory, and the cherry on top is cause she's fallen for the clueless hero that barely notices her since he's too focused on another girl who's totally in love with another guy. (good god how did I manage to watch so many seasons of this????!!!)

To her credit though she does have close to if not the best power out of the female kids and thanks to her quiet nature is much less annoying then her more...vocal comrades. Again this is pure speculation on my part but considering she's really minor character in the pre-time jump portion of the show and never really did anything remarkable enough to get a lot of fans, I'm going to stick with the idea that the fans are actually a bunch of nice guys that's making her sound great since it's a lot better than the story treats her.

Unless of course all the fans are of her post time jump, where for all I know she became a actual great character worthy of all the fandom. Kinda sad that I don't care enough to do the few minute google search to find out.

As I said to another poster, My biggest problem is that her fans hate Sakura for being useless yet somehow raise Hinata for every little thing. In fact Sakura is probably the most developed character in the series.

P.S Be glad you got out when you did, The series is dragging it's corpse around and the only reason I'm still reading it is because I've invested to much time to quit so close to the end.

It's really a sad thing that happened to that series. I was "so" into it, but I had to leave at like 130 something of Shippuden.

 

[Pierre Poutine]

Loki

Maybe it's because I only saw The Avengers, [haven't seen either Thor movie, or anything comics related], but I legitimately don't get the love for him as a villain.

Firstly, his motivation to conquer earth doesn't work because he's basically following some guy's orders. He's not a villain, he's a henchman.

Secondly, he's not remotely intimidating. He has one scene in the beginning where he wrecks humans, but he's mostly just using his magic spear, so I think without it, he'd be nothing. Even Iron Man, without the suit, as he put it is a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist. Loki's nothing without it. Every other scene he gets his ass kicked by just one of the Avengers.

Thirdly, I get that his schtick is he's supposed to more of a schemer than a physically threatning foe. Maybe in the other movies he has better plans, but he employs no real strategy apart from going into a place and destroying stuff. The only plan he has is to willingly get captured, like the Joker and Silva did, but Loki's elaborate plan was just, I'll let them capture me, and then their ship will get wrecked when the Hulk gets pissed and my guys come in to attack. He's basically banking on them to screw up. The invasion force wasn't unmanageable, so if the Avengers had been more competent and not let the Hulk get pissed, it wouldn't have happened. Hell, they figure out Loki's plan and are too incompetent to deal with it. The Joker meanwhile, apart from having that dual kidnapping occur to put everyone on edge, he also allowed Batman to beat him up enough so he could get a piece of broken glass, use it to threaten one of the cops, ask for something seemingly innocent [a phone] and activate a bomb he smuggled in the stomach of a guy. That is devious, and he did all that not just to screw with the cops, but as a way to get to Lau. Loki didn't need to take out that ship. His invasion force would have been able to deal with it fine, so there really was no reason to let himself get captured, so it doesn't come off as devious, it comes off as being weak.

 

[ISearchForTraps]

Boba Fett. That is all.

 

[Drake Barrow]

I'd say Batman, but I do understand why so many people love the character. Hate the reasoning, but understand it.

Instead, I'm going with Dexter, from the novels and the TV series that ended last year. I just can't wrap my head around why someone who is a marginally more appealing version of Patrick Bateman from the film version of American Psycho gets such love. The only coherent response I ever got from fans of the show was about how pretty he was, and that places him into the same category as vampires and werewolves that actively feed on random humans.

 

[Lupine]

Marvel's Loki. I think all the love he gets comes from being played by Tom Hiddleston rather than being an actually interesting character, or an effective bad guy for that matter.

I'm sorry, but because of this post I have to recommend Journey into Mystery to you. http://www.amazon.com/Journey-into-Mystery-Vol-Itself/dp/0785148418

Spoiler

At this point, Loki had died during the siege of Asgard. He was dead, however he has what is essentially a safety net in place so that he can be resurrected. However the entire point is that he is resurrected not as the Loki we've known but for the first time as a completely new consciousness that becomes Loki.

This series is what made me a fan of Loki and it has nothing to do with Tom Hiddleston and everything to do with a decidedly interesting and deep character with flaws, victories, and defeats. At the end of it you are left asking who is Loki and so to is Loki himself.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Marvel's Loki. I think all the love he gets comes from being played by Tom Hiddleston rather than being an actually interesting character, or an effective bad guy for that matter.

I'm sorry, but because of this post I have to recommend Journey into Mystery to you. http://www.amazon.com/Journey-into-Mystery-Vol-Itself/dp/0785148418

Spoiler

At this point, Loki had died during the siege of Asgard. He was dead, however he has what is essentially a safety net in place so that he can be resurrected. However the entire point is that he is resurrected not as the Loki we've known but for the first time as a completely new consciousness that becomes Loki.

This series is what made me a fan of Loki and it has nothing to do with Tom Hiddleston and everything to do with a decidedly interesting and deep character with flaws, victories, and defeats. At the end of it you are left asking who is Loki and so to is Loki himself.

That's all good but when I specifically puzzled over Tom Hiddleston's Loki I was referring to the movie version. I don't know about the comic book Loki, I just wonder about the movie one.

 

[Lupine]

Marvel's Loki. I think all the love he gets comes from being played by Tom Hiddleston rather than being an actually interesting character, or an effective bad guy for that matter.

I'm sorry, but because of this post I have to recommend Journey into Mystery to you. http://www.amazon.com/Journey-into-Mystery-Vol-Itself/dp/0785148418

Spoiler

At this point, Loki had died during the siege of Asgard. He was dead, however he has what is essentially a safety net in place so that he can be resurrected. However the entire point is that he is resurrected not as the Loki we've known but for the first time as a completely new consciousness that becomes Loki.

This series is what made me a fan of Loki and it has nothing to do with Tom Hiddleston and everything to do with a decidedly interesting and deep character with flaws, victories, and defeats. At the end of it you are left asking who is Loki and so to is Loki himself.

That's all good but when I specifically puzzled over Tom Hiddleston's Loki I was referring to the movie version. I don't know about the comic book Loki, I just wonder about the movie one.

Ah. Well as far as film Loki goes, I just enjoy his spirit. I'm already a fan of Trickster gods these days and while I'll admit I enjoy pre-Baldr Loki much more than, "look I'm the god of chaos now" Loki, he is still interesting at least in the personality and fun he brings to the table. This is also true of his film version I think. Think The Joker...he isn't an attractive character (talking mentally here), nor is he any sort of fantasy that people actually strive toward, but he is fun and entertaining. Also while not a woman, women do love Tom Hiddleston. XD

I think the answer becomes that people like a wildcard.

 

[The Funslinger]

Ok, guys, thread is called "Characters love for whom you don't understand", not "Characters I don't like, who everyone seems to like" or "Characters who I find overrated". There's a pretty big difference.

This, pretty much. People seem to be taking a lot of liberties with the topic.

Also, people disliking characters because they... have flaws? In my opinion, it's usually the flaws that make the character.

 

[Hochmeister]

Sakura from Naruto. 700 chapters in and she's just as useless and annoying as when the series began. Can't understand how anyone can like her when she's basically the third wheel on team 7 and has no influence on the story.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Sakura from Naruto. 700 chapters in and she's just as useless and annoying as when the series began. Can't understand how anyone can like her when she's basically the third wheel on team 7 and has no influence on the story.

Unfortunately, this is the Shounen Effect. Most (not ALL, but almost all) shounens like Naruto and Bleach usually introduce female characters that ultimately end up being worthless compared to the male characters. Even Tsunade is fairly worthless, and when she was introduced, we were told she was extremely badass.

That said, I have no idea why anyone could ever have liked Sakura in the first place, considering her entire story arc is centered around a boy she liked in Junior High. It's pretty creepy.

 

[LittleBumble]

Snip

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I also want to add, as a fan of Mordin myself, that he also seems to subvert several things that seem to be kind of archetypical in fictional scientists. Including sci-fi.

For starters I was caught off guard when he mentioned actually being spiritual, even looking into religion. Maybe it is just a trend I notice but a lot of scientists in fiction reject religion outright as stupid or foolish, but no Mordin actually turned to it. Granted it was for atonement but in a lot of other stories I don't see the scientist(or scientist analogue) do that sort of thing.

Also that he seems to respect culture, whereas a lot of fictional scientists they ignore it at best or consider it frilly and useless at worst. Going so far as to say if there is no art there is no culture at all. Again, I don't see too many scientists or people of logic in fiction do that sort of thing.

OT: Hmm, I think I might have to say I've never understood the fanbase that had seemed to form around the villains of the first season of Legend of Korra. Well, more that I don't understand some of the thinking because they had been pretty interesting villains, I agree with that much. But more how that fanbase kinda glosses over their nastiness because 'they had a horrible past'.

 

[AgDr_ODST]

content cut for convenience

To be totally honest, Ashley Williams is my favorite character...I ain't even trollin'.

I never got the total bro/romance option vibe from Garrus but I'm with ya there regarding Ashley. I couldn't fathom why she was so widely reviled for being a racist [though I think xenophobic is a better term] and yet everyone went doe-eyed for the equally hate filled Tali [toward the Geth atleast] and Liara. Ashley's rational for disliking them made sense me to me and getting to know her and subsequently changing her mind about the other alien races was a minor victory in and of itself.

OT: I'm not sure how widely loved she is compared to other minor characters but I hate[d] Ginny Weasley with a passion. I nearly stopped reading the Half-Blood Prince when seemingly out of nowhere Harry realized/decided that he was in love with her. Cho Chang might have had her issues but I liked her far more than Ginny and I hated the way her relationship with Harry ended. That big gripe aside the whole falling for his best friend's sister thing in the end felt so cliched and contrived that it ended up being one of the reason's why I never got around to reading the last book in the series.

 

[Battenberg]

Dany in Game Of Thrones.

I don't think I personally know a single person who actually likes Daenerys's character, it just seems to be a very vocal group on tumblr (much like with Matt Smith as the Doctor).

OT: Kind of an odd one but the first character that sprang to mind was 47, the main character from the Hitman games. I mean I absolutely love the games (barring Absolution) and wouldn't change 47 at all but ultimately the guy's an emotionless gun for hire, that's it. His only defining characteristic is his ability to kill people without showing any emotion, hardly a full and interesting character.

Also on a side note I'm not hugely fond of Commander Shepard as a character (although again I am a big fan of the whole ME series so far). I know that seems a lite odd given he/she can be vastly different between playthrough but despite this there's not really any way of playing Shepard that I think is interesting enough to warrant huge praise. When it came to conversations there were consistently only 3 options for how to make Shepard act: Johnny law (your totally average hero character), captain exposition (who just asks mundane questions so the player can get background on the ME universe) or total dickwad (occasionally amusing but ultimately kind of pointless). There's not really enough choices or control over what you say to feel like you're shaping an actual interesting character. You either pick one of those three paths and stick with it all game, which is pretty dull, or you try mixing them up but that just ends up making Shepard seem very inconsistent.

 

[Zak757]

I honestly don't remember liking Kamina all that much, nor do I remember his death bringing much more than a brief tinge of sadness. I can appreciate what his character represents and I like his determination, but I just wasn't a fan of his brand of MANLINESS, nor did I like that he is essentially the poster boy for "good is dumb!" I preferred Simon, Yoko, and Viral a lot more. If I want to see manly men doing manly things, I'd rather rewatch JoJo Battle Tendency for fabulous posing action. On that note, and I guess this only applies to the Japanese fanbase, I don't see why Jotaro Kujo is so popular. I'm just going off the anime which is on episode 10 of Stardust Crusaders right now, but so far he is a bland jerk with a soft side too unnoticeable to matter.

 

[t850terminator]

Master Chief.
He's bland generic space marine, with the exact same mentality I had Gordon Freeman clean off his crowbar many times...
Just so boring, no progression, and I just don't get it...
Too bland, I would have called Halo 4 emotionless if it weren't for Lasky saving the scene everytime he stepped into it, cause Chief was ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh................
Maybe cause of Halo's fanbase, but idk...