The 10 Most Awesome Characters Ruined by Fans
Posted at 5:07 AM Jun 09, 2008
By Todd Ciolek
If fame is a curse, it’s perhaps most damning for the celebrities who aren’t actually real. After all, stars who destroy themselves in whirlwinds of booze, heroin and ill-advised “concept” albums at least bear some responsibility for putting themselves there. Entirely fictional characters have no choice. They’re at the mercy of writers, directors, artists, producers, marketers, and, in the worst cases, their fans.
Caving in to the wrong type of fan has sullied, overexposed and devalued countless potentially likable characters, proving that getting what you want is often the worst thing imaginable. We’ve chosen ten such fallen characters from the whole of geek canon.
10) Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean
We’re not about to deny that Johnny Depp’s mincing, quick-witted pirate captain was the best thing about Pirates of the Caribbean, and, in the sequels, perhaps the only good thing. But his appeal grew milder as the sequels arrived and turned him goofier and goofier. It was fine in the first film because no one really expected it—he was a cartoonish Disney attraction made cinematic flesh, pulling it off better than even the most devoted theme-park enthusiast would have expected.
Those expectations might’ve been too high, or perhaps too low. We didn’t really want to see significantly different or better films with Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End. For the most part, we just wanted Jack mugging and skipping and generally being more like a Warner Bros. cartoon character than ever before. And we got just that. Serves us right.
9) GLaDOS from Portal
It’s not just the manipulative A.I. named GLaDOS that’s been sullied by fans; just about everything that made Portal an amusing game has been offered up for sacrifice on the altar of the Internet Meme. Portal’s full of clever ideas beyond its basic concept: the catty bitch of a computer is an excellent villain, the storyline feeds off the level design well, and the concept of the Weighted Companion Cube is amusing and even bizarrely touching in a broken-toy way.
Of course, people had to spoil it. It wasn’t long before everyone with the slightest interested in videogames knew the truth of GLaDOS’s promises about cake and the complete lyrics to “Still Alive” whether or not they had actually played Portal. Yes, the cake is a lie. The Companion Cube must be destroyed and it’s very sad. Just let us play the game.
8) Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII
Perhaps the best thing about any given Final Fantasy is that it ends. We’re not being snide here; the series has lasted for years (and through scads of jokes about how it’s never the Final Fantasy, har har) simply because it reboots with each game, starting over with a different cast of largely stereotyped characters and changing just enough design elements to piss off half the people who liked like the previous game.
Or at least it used to do that. In Final Fantasy VII, Cloud was an iconic spikish-haired amnesiac mercenary, both an insecure everywimp and, in time, a vengeful hero. He had problems, he overcame them, he watched the more spirited of his two love interests die, and then he saved the world. And, good or bad, it should have ended there.
It didn’t, of course. Years down the road, Square revived Final Fantasy VII with Advent Children, which did little more than re-enact Cloud’s bout with insecurity and indecision, and then brought him back for games like Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus. The only thing changed: he’s much prettier. And for most Final Fantasy fans, that makes far too much of a difference.
7) Venom from Spider-Man
Some longtime comic fans like to point out that Venom is a weakly written and overused villain, and really just a monstrous version of Spider-Man when you get down to it. Yet there’s one reason he’s popular: nearly all of the other Spider-Man villains are either laughable nutjobs in Halloween costumes or bizarre, one-joke pushovers, reflecting the fact that Spider-Man himself wasn’t all that serious to start with. The slavering, fanged wreck of Venom is as imposing as you can get.
Unsurprisingly, Venom was a hit with kids of the ’80s, when all of the superhero icons established in decades past started to look a little bit lame. A hideous Giger-ian Spider-Alien was just what the youth of America looked for in their comics, and they got a little too much of it. Before long, Venom inspired a spin-off villain called Carnage, a clone of a clone. And by then, the ’80s were long over.
6) Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons
The clearest sign that a TV show has lived too long: it devotes entire episodes to what were formerly one-joke characters. Such was the descent of Comic Book Guy, the bloated, bearded, sarcastic nerd-of-all-trades who started as a plot framer in a single Simpsons episode and returned time and time again. Fans eventually adopted him as a self-mocking stereotype of hardcore geekery, and there was a time when he was perhaps the most quoted Simpsons character; no small feat, when you think about it.
Then the show made that fateful mistake: it paid too much attention to Comic Book Guy. A good chunk of one episode focused on him recuperating after a heart attack, and it wasn’t so much that the script had him finding love with Principal Skinner’s mother. It was that other characters actually referred to him as “Comic Book Guy.” It was the end of an illusion, the fateful acknowledgment of the writers and the fans becoming one. Any point from The Simpsons’ last eight years could be the moment where it all went wrong, but we prefer to single out the one where Comic Book Guy became a collapsing black hole of an in-joke. We learned his real name, Jeff Albertson, a while after that, but it didn’t really matter then.
Comments
I think you should make 8 a tie between Cloud and Sephiroth. I find the his otaku much, much more annoying.
Posted 06/09/2008 at 06:02:49 AMCome on, Wolverine deserves at least an honourable mention!
Posted 06/09/2008 at 06:29:51 AMWolverine should be the 11th on this list, no doubt. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan, but his overexposure in the past ten years or so has bordered on the absurd. They may as well rename it: The Marvel Universe, featuring Wolverine.
Posted 06/09/2008 at 08:07:45 AMI so remember that whole tale of Boba Fett’s missile firing! Upon learning that it was a farce as an adult I swore lifelong resentment towards my Sunday school friend who first told me of that yarn. It is a farce right….. right?
Posted 06/09/2008 at 08:22:39 AMI liked the Pirates sequels, they did some classy stuff and strayed away from established Hollywood boundaries for storytelling. But they made a great character in Tia Dalma in Dead Man's Chest, but cheapened her in At World's End. Shame.
Posted 06/09/2008 at 11:21:19 AMAnother unfortunate thing about sonic is his hijack by the furry fandom: Sexual degenerates who write sonic into their own sexual fantasies in their fan art and fan fiction. Ugh.
Posted 06/09/2008 at 11:39:24 AMCripes, I never understood why even half of these characters got as popular as they did. Boba Fett? He went down like a bitch (I don't read Star Wars books, so all that blah-blah-blah snarlax escape crap doesn't even count to me.) That anime robot thing was just freaking creepy, I saw one episode on Adult Swim and thought I was watching some weird mish-mash of anime/child porn.
Posted 06/09/2008 at 11:51:13 AMI'd like to point out that Sonic never officially liked chili dogs. When Archie Comics adapted him to thier own series, they tacked on that food preference. The three cartoons in 90's were all spun off of the comics. In-game, however, Sonic never had an affection for that sloppy treat.
Posted 06/09/2008 at 01:24:05 PMBoba Fett? He went down like a bitch
And George Lucas eventually admitted that his part in Return of the Jedi was a stupid mistake, much like the Ewoks (not that he's actually admitted that the Ewoks were a stupid mistake yet, to the best of my knowledge, but you get the idea).
And that Boba Fett's should become a popular and even iconic character was arguably intentional on the part of Lucasfilm right from the beginning, considering the amount of exposure the character got prior to his appearance in . Here's his introduction in the summer 1979 issue of Bantha Tracks:
Posted 06/09/2008 at 04:40:59 PM"Not much is known about Boba Fett. He wears part of the uniform of the Imperial Shocktroopers, warriors from olden time. Shocktroopers came from the far side of the galaxy and there aren't many of them left. They were wiped out by the Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars. Whether he was a shocktrooper or not is unknown. He is the best bounty hunter in the galaxy, and cares little for whom he works -- as long as they pay."
George Lucas admitting he made ONE mistake (not even one of the big ones) does not fix that he ruined Boba Fett and then tried to make him cool again and failed. Creators are responsible for most of these mistakes, they just made them in the name of the fans. And Uncle Soaky gets a high five for calling the Sarlacc pit the "snarlax". It's a much better name.
Posted 06/09/2008 at 06:49:39 PMGeorge Lucas admitting he made ONE mistake (not even one of the big ones) does not fix that he ruined Boba Fett and then tried to make him cool again and failed.
That he tried to "make Boba Fett cool again" is beside the point. That trying to off a popular character in a completely half-assed and entirely unnecessary way is not "one of the big ones" as far as mistakes go is dubious in the extreme.
Posted 06/10/2008 at 04:17:47 AMMy list of mistakes is pretty long, and Boba Fett getting offed isn't very high, but granted, most of the mistakes on it are Special Edition and prequel mistakes. I thought the original trilogy was fine, Ewoks and all. But I guess if there was one thing wrong with the original trilogy, it was the slapstick death of Boba Fett. So you're right.
But the fact that he tried to bring Boba Fett back and give him a cool origin is the point of this entire article, right? How the popularity of a character ruined him? Granted, the books helped, and they actually seemed to be trying to kill his popularity in that Jedi scene, but the whole Jango Fett/Boba Fett storyline in AOTC was pretty lame.
Posted 06/10/2008 at 05:48:47 AMI guess I can agree with that.
Posted 06/10/2008 at 04:43:07 PMI think pretty much any character, setting or situation that's used by those other than the original creators should be added to this list.
All fan-fiction, fan-films, and referential rip-offs (Family Guy Star Wars episode) are poor, derivative and unnecessary. If you're creative, BE creative. Create. Come up with new characters, new settings, new situations. Don't rest on the undeserved laurels of using someone else's work... that is the antithesis of creativity.
Use the original work to inspire you to create something new. Star Wars is heavily influenced by many myths, adventure serials and Japanese films, but something entirely new and fresh came as a result. I'm glad Mr. Lucas didn't just waste his time making some Buck Rogers fan film.
Come on fans, stop being lazy. Be creative.
Posted 06/18/2008 at 07:50:18 AM"There’s a lot in the Star Wars “Expanded Universe” best ignored, but Fett’s path from efficient ne’er-do-well to adulated antihero laid bare everything wrong with hardcore Star Wars fans."
And this list lays bare everything wrong with lits like this and the jerks who write them. I don't like everything about the EU (Chewie isn't dead as far as I'm concerned), but one good thing about it has been the growth of Boba Fett as a character. Should he be leading the Mandalorians in his seventies? Probably not. I'd prefer that he retire (after "Tales of the Bounty Hunters") with a new pair of cloned legs on some tiny beach planet with a cute little Twi'lek wife, but he still remains a compelling character. Have you guys actually read any of these stories? Jeez, I can't believe I got this mad, but then again, I'm a hardcore "Star Wars" fan.
Posted 06/18/2008 at 08:05:36 AMYes, Boba Fett has turned into a joke. I have no desire to see him and Han Solo still puttering around at 60 plus years old, trying to still fight each other.
Han: "Wait, let me get my walker..then I'll kick your ass Boba?"
Boba: "WHAT?! Let me turn up my hearing aid.."
Posted 06/18/2008 at 03:00:05 PMI think just the fact that he has received more responses that any other character on the list should automatically take him off of the list. Just look at how many responses pertained to Boba, and look how many belong to someone else. It just goes to show that Boba is still in our minds after all these years.
Now personally, I like the new Boba stuff in the Legacy series. It gives the character emotions and feeling that we never got to see in the cold hearted bastard, and emotions are good in a character like that. Besides that, when you think about all the advances in medicine that exist with in the SW realm of reality, don't you think someone in their seventies would be more like someone in their late forties now? Boba and Han are two of the most compelling characters in the whole EU because of the fact that they aren't force users, and they can hold their own against force users even though they are getting old. Atleast they are getting old, and it's not like some stupid Anime shit where no one ages at all.
Posted 06/18/2008 at 03:50:03 PMThis whole list seems like an excuse for the author(s) to engage in the same indulgent self-wankery they seem to oppose. "We're so much smarter and cooler than you are. We liked these characters WAY before you did (which made us cool), but now that everybody likes them, we'll find a way to be the killjoy for your little party (which keeps us cool)."
Give me a break. Just let people enjoy what brings them a little happiness. Don't be overly judgmental snots just because you're pissed that something well-written/well-acted/compelling/interesting become popular and it wasn't just your secret little community that knew about it anymore.
Posted 06/18/2008 at 09:26:30 PM"Efficient ne’er-do-well," is an oxymoron, and this writer is a moron. This is just an attack piece criticizing fans for being fans. In this case, hardcore Star Wars fans for, "exploring the backstories of every single character." As if that surprises anyone? The writer can't even properly describe how Boba's character has been ruined.
Efficient: well functioning, capable
Posted 06/21/2008 at 01:39:09 AMNe’er-do-well: idle, good for nothing
Try to stay on topic, guys...
Anyway, what about every character in Family Guy? That show is just pandering to their fan base, who demand that Old Man Herbert or the Giant Chicken be in every episode.
Posted 07/30/2008 at 07:24:21 PMI agree about Snape. I loved Snape when I read the books and in the movies, but I loved him in the way I love Darth Vader: Because he was the bad ass with a cool back story. Unfortunately all the little fangirls had to go and mess it up and write terrible cliched slash fiction about him and every other male in the series. The same goes for Lupin and Sirius.
I still like Sonic the Hedgehog, but the new generation has sucked out all the fun of it by turning it too exclusively Japanese, which Sega and Sonic Team never intended in the first place.
The fangirls seem to ruin everything. They ruined Dr. House and Dr. Wilson, they're already having their way with Dark Knight Joker and now they're ruining literature because they seem to think Twilight is a good series of books.
Posted 08/24/2008 at 12:00:50 PMLate in the game to post, but I just wanna say fuckin' WORD about Snape, and Alan Rickman. Couldn't they have casted some genuinely ugly guy so we wouldn't have to contend with fanbrats convinced that he is morally above reproach? I don't mind the people who like his jerkass side, it's the ones who think he's some poor innocent woobie that made me want to vomit during that fucking epilogue.
Posted 12/06/2008 at 12:16:34 AMCount me in as a Lupin fangirl (though in a sane, non-psychotic sense:) and from my experiences in fandom he tended to attract a bit more level headed bunch. Or maybe I've just blocked out the really horrendous fic, I dunno.
And Draco... oh god don't get me started. He doesn't even have bad boy appeal in the books, he's a frikkin wuss-ass daddy's boy. I don't see what's so attractive about his actor in the movies, frankly.
I admit being a huge Sonic fan, was quite ravenous during the genesis days, getting the comic books even. but as I grew up I was realizing it was sucking more and more. Although I did enjoy SA and SA2 on my dreamcast..but I never beat Sonic Heroes for my PS2, and don't give a damn to.
Posted 12/11/2008 at 08:50:41 PMI think Alice and the Mad hatter should be on here. I don't think any art, save for old Disney cells, exists that isn't them in some forced romantic pose or not-very-kinky-sex
Posted 02/09/2009 at 11:10:32 AMHaha. I admit to comparing myself to the Comic Store guy at least once. lol.
Posted 02/26/2009 at 12:55:40 PMYou forgot Pyramid head, but actually.. it's ultimately the fault of the executives, the shareholders, and possibly the writers when a character is ruined. When the creator of something has control over it - like Monkey Punch's Lupin III or Herge's Tintin, you don't see this crap happening. When a corporation chooses to have a character be "owned and controlled by corporate committee" it becomes a shadow.. a ghost.. a stupid, pointless thing. I'm saying this as an artist, and a person who can't stand Disneyfication/Corporatization of art.
Posted 04/13/2009 at 09:03:59 AM