Characters love for whom you don't understand

[DoPo]

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.

 

[Trunkage]

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.

Batman's appeal is not Batman but his villains

 

[Trunkage]

Garrus Vakarian or Urdnot Wrex.

...I really don't get why people like these characters.

I knew Wrex was going to be a liability the second I laid eyes on him and chose to *not* enlist his help...and consequently the mission on Virmire went off without a hitch. Upon subsequent replays I found him to be pretty dull "Grr...I'm such a badass, look at my badassiness."

Garrus was...okay. Frankly I didn't really think he had anything interesting to say (and I'm a sucker for dialogue). Let alone any reason anyone would want to touch his...*shudders*.

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

I liked Garrus. He knew when I betrayed people and understood my position. He knew when the price was worth the result.

I never really liked Tali. She was always portrayed as potentially beautiful but nothing was shown. Her conversations were boring

 

[Spider RedNight]

Along with the MLP minour characters, I think the one I'm just kind of put off by is Tiny Tina (with the exception of Dragon's Keep because she actually has CHARACTER in that one). She's loud, "random", kinda bossy and childish - granted, those are all marks of a kid but I still found it aggravating that her role had been elevated so much.

And for that matter, I personally can't stand Patricia Tannis. I will NEVER understand why she's so popular, I don't care how well-written she is. Maybe it's because I've been likened to her several times but I mean DAMN. I'll just never get it.

I've seen this one split but I REALLY don't get the whole "Tree Trunks is adorable" thing. Call me biased for not liking apple pies but she just seems like a load - again, with the exception of maybe "Mystery Dungeon".

Other notable mentions include Toshiro Hitsugaya(Bleach), Yuno Gasai(Mirai Nikki), Garrus(Mass Effect), and Tony Stark - or anyone played by Robert Downy Jr., for that matter.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

A lot of characters from Bioware games. I think something about the way those games and the dialog are designed rubs my misanthropy the wrong way. Almost every character uses you as their emotional toilet and the character or game itself will get pissy with you for one thing or another if you try to ignore them. If I don't like the character to begin with it REALLY rubs it in. Alistar, Morrigan, Tali, and Thane all seem to be fan favorite characters and I absolutely hated all of them.

I don't really get the appeal of the video game version of Master Chief. Besides being quite a capable fight, there's not much to him.

And YES, I do know that he is better characterised in Halo 4 but he's still mostly bland. And no, what Cortana tells him and the deus ex machina at the end doesn't change anything.

John from the novels is quite an interesting character, especially since he's used to establish the rivalry between ODSTs and SPARTANS. Sadly in the games he's just not interesting.

That one's kind of a weird animal. He's extremely stoic, but there's a really interesting background to why he's like that. On his own with no context he's definitely boring, and I guess the context being enough to justify it varies from person to person. It also doesnt help that the book and game universes didn't touch each other much until more recently.

 

[soren7550]

Yeah, I've got a few:

Levi (Attack on Titan) - By and large, he rarely gets out of his I don't give a shit/indifferent to you all thing he has going on, which bores the shit out of me. "Ooh, but he's quirky because he's a clean freak! That makes him kawaii!" That's been barely displayed all of three times, and briefly at that.
"But he's the best titan slayer!" You only see his battle prowess twice maybe, and the second time he fails to kill his target.

Garrus and Tali (Mass Effect series) - I get them fine as characters, but as love interests? Yeah, I really don't get that. Especially Garrus, to the point where my deviantArt page is flooded with romance fan art of the creepy nature, and I'm not even a part of a character fan group of his!


And one that I both do and don't get:
Sherlock and Watson (Sherlock) - While watching it, and for some time after, I totally get the love for them even if I don't fully understand. But after a while, I don't get it again.

... crap, I'm blanking. Might be due to that possible food allergic reaction.

 

[ShogunGino]

Garrus Vakarian or Urdnot Wrex.

...I really don't get why people like these characters.

I knew Wrex was going to be a liability the second I laid eyes on him and chose to *not* enlist his help...and consequently the mission on Virmire went off without a hitch. Upon subsequent replays I found him to be pretty dull "Grr...I'm such a badass, look at my badassiness."

Garrus was...okay. Frankly I didn't really think he had anything interesting to say (and I'm a sucker for dialogue). Let alone any reason anyone would want to touch his...*shudders*.

If I may, I also knew Wrex was going to be a liability when I first played, but that's kinda what made me want to bring him along; to see what he would do. I personally thought his dialog was the most interesting of all the party members in the first game, both on missions and his backstory. I don't think it was just "Grr I'm a badass", because going through his dialog and eventually his little sidequest in the game helps him regain a certain hope that his people can be saved, and that he trust you completely, leading to, imo, a very good way to talk him out of the Virmire situation. Doing this makes the events of 2 with him more satisfying, as he pushes through his men just to happily shake your hand again after so long, because you gave him a reason to stop the sulking 'Grr, piss off, I'm a badass' attitude. He's generally happier in 2 and 3 in your company because of it. At least, that's why I like him.

Garrus I'm more mixed about. I mean, I like him, but I never understood the great love for him. I thought he wasn't too interesting in 1, and only kinda interesting in 2. I personally think his best moments came in 3. I think people like him because he's always very supportive towards Shepard, and always seems to understand why you do something, paragon or renegade.

For me, I never understood why people adore Han Solo or Boba Fett. I'm often very critical of the Star Wars fanbase, with too many cringeworthy examples for me to complain about right now.

Han Solo I think only got likeable in Jedi. I thought he was too stock in New Hope, and a never-ending whiner in Empire until they get to Cloud City.

And Boba Fett, dear Lord, I almost believe that the expanded universe was created just so that authors could make their 'Boba Fett survives!!' fanfiction into something resembling canon. It's like everyone just collectively wanted to make him into a mythical Batman figure of the Star Wars universe until he reached Chuck Norris levels of implied perfection. How else do you explain that one official Star Wars comic that gave Boba Fett his own lightsaber? Since I never cared about the expanded universe, I just saw what the movies showed, and what they showed me was someone who was apparently only badass off-screen, because when he tried to fight on-screen in Jedi, he sucked pretty bad. His father was shown to be more competent, if you ask me.

 

[Lizmichi]

Oh my god, spoiler that OP immediately. As the de facto Persona 4 fan here (shut up I am) that blatant spoiler wounds me. Do you have no respect for the sanctity of the murder/mystery stories? You're one step away from being that guy who underlines the killer's name in a public library copy of a mystery novel.

Spoiler

But yeah, I'm not pleased about Adatchi being an S Link in Golden or what have you. He's the fucking main villain and is a total sociopathic, homicidal maniac, how about you keep him as the lovable joke character turned suddenly evil instead.

In regards to your spoiler, I'm glad there was an S Link in Golden for that character, as it actually helped throw off suspicion. I would have found it pretty odd to have S Link connections with virtually every other character you interact with and NOT that one. Admittedly I haven't played vanilla P4, so I don't know if the character was less present in the original, but I would have been very suspicious indeed if there had been no S Link with all the interactions in Golden.

In vanilla you really don't see him much. He's ether with Dojima, or walking around town. It would of been like if you had a S Link King Moron. I didn't know it was Adachi untill that part in the game.

OP: I don't get the love for a lot of characters such as Loki(flim). Yes he's good looking, and a bad boy, but he wanted to kill EVERYONE, or enslave them. As a girl that is not attractive to me.

Let's see, I don't get the love for Lighting from FF, or Nathan Drake.

 

[Reaper195]

Anything Nintendo. None of the characters are anything other than colourful images with some accents and catch phrases. None of them have ever developed in the last thirty years.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Most of the characters from Dragon's Age I find a bit overrated, but there are two in particular that I see get praised fairly highly, and I just don't get it.

Sten: To me, he seemed to just be a brooding warrior, with a deadpan demeanor and a very pragmatic way to look at quests, where he'd get annoyed if you did what he saw as irrelevant sidequests. To a degree, I appreciated that. But his entire character could be pretty much summed up in those words. He just felt out of place compared to every other companion, and had a personality that felt very two-dimensional to me, whereas all the other characters had at least some hidden depths if you took the time to talk to them. Except for...

Shale: I don't get it. I liked Shale...when she was a male robot in KOTOR called HK-47. It's not that I didn't find Shale's black humor amusing at times, but I've seen her be described as one of the most entertaining characters, and as someone who was desperately needed in the game. To me, she wasn't great mechanically (you'd think a golem would be a better tank), and she definitely had very little personality. She was good for amusing campside chats, but that was a bout it.

If you are a fan of these characters, please tell me what I'm missing. Be polite about it though.

 

[Peaceful Winter]

I can't stand the entire cast of the the witcher 1 y 2 and the books. Every character has one or more of the following traits: dark , greedy , evil , selfish , ignorant , cruel , and most characters are murderers or rapist and murderers . The worst part is that WE are supposed to care for them because they are the main characters of both the books and the games . the few good / inocent characters exist only to be tortured or raped and then killed .

 

[IllumInaTIma]

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.

 

[Nubrain]

i can't believe no one has said this yet but Light Yagami from Death note. I only recently got to watch Death note as I didn't really have the time to watch it when it was at his peek of popularity so I had a few things spoiled such as the major twist about 2/3rds in and how it ends. But I had also heard about what a complex anti hero Light was and what a shame it was that the corruption of the shinagami and the note book leads him down the wrong path from his noble goals. I don't see any of that in the character at all. He's a straight up villain playing with things he shouldn't because he's board and just smart enough to think he can get away with it. I mean the cat and mouse between Light and L is compelling and defiantly watchable but that doesn't make Light a hero or worth the love he gets.

I may have gotten some spoilers having watched it later as I know a lot of people that were disappointed by it's weaker last arch but after watching SAO first and seeing what really happens when a show saves all the sludge for the end i think I was a bit more forgiving.

 

[Malty Milk Whistle]

Those 2 guys from Supernatural.
They have a stupidly large fanbase, yet their personality and motivation is pretty much "Hot sarcastic guys". I just don't get it. The best part is when you find posts (or people in real life) comparing them to fucking Shakespeare characters in their complexity and emotional depth. (which is funnily accurate, but not for the reasons they think)>

Also, Iron Man. Could be that I think he's just a selfish prick (which may or may not be an integral part of his character) but the along with Batman, instead of honestly focussing on helping people and being a "billionaire playboy philanthropist inventor" they spend all their time making gadgets that make fighting stuff easier.
Reginald D Hunter said it much better than me.

 

[GabeZhul]

I can't stand the entire cast of the the witcher 1 y 2 and the books. Every character has one or more of the following traits: dark , greedy , evil , selfish , ignorant , cruel , and most characters are murderers or rapist and murderers . The worst part is that WE are supposed to care for them because they are the main characters of both the books and the games . the few good / inocent characters exist only to be tortured or raped and then killed .

I have the same feelings for almost every character in all the "dark fantasy" books I have read lately (Night Angel, Mistborn, etc.). In fact I am at the point where I am pretty much sick and tired of the grimdark stories of these grimdark characters, but it's just so hard to find some actually light-hearted adventure and/or heroic fantasy novels nowadays.

As for actually overrated characters, people have already mentioned all my picks, so just to list them:
-Uchiha Sasuke (Naruto)
-Aizen (Bleach) [Here I would like to add that I understand why people liked him pre-Hueco Mundo, but I can't wrap my head around how anyone can find him a good villain afterwards]
-Adachi (P4)
-Miranda (ME2/3)

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

It's not so much a specific character as it is a certain archetype that really gets on my nerves. It's the overly submissive, shy woman. It's pretty common in but by no means limited to anime. Fluttershy in My Little Pony is a notable western example. I think that particular archetype is called the "Shrinking Violet" or something.

I don't mind a certain amount of submissivenes in a character but there is a certain point where "nice, introverted lady" turns into "barely funtional, spineless doormat". No, I understand how that kind of character can be interesting if these traits are presented as personality flaws to be overcome but I don't see for the life of me how a character that is constantly like that is supposed to be likeable much less attractive.