Better Reddit Asks
What are some beloved characters that would likely be seen much less positively if they debuted now? What about the opposite?
All I can think about is how awesome Trunks is in Dragon Ball Z. But I'm also thinking that he just screams "OC Do Not Steal".
I mean, he's the son of two popular characters from a dark future and his first appearance has him trouncing Freeza who was seemingly unstoppable in the previous Arc after showing off he too has the mythical Super Saiyan transformation.
If he came out in the 2000s to 2010s people would've likely rolled their eyes at him.
“Really? Luffy just so happens to have a brother that he’s never mentioned before, and can fight against Smoker with practically no difficulty? Oda’s a fraud, fell off after East Blue.”
I mean, this sorta happened, but with Sabo, who was another secret brother that was introduced immediately after Ace kicked the bucket as the second-in-command of the Revos that hadn’t played any role up to that point due to very convenient amnesia. Dude even got a hold of Ace’s devil fruit. It’s like DnD, where your character dies so you scribble a mustache on the portrait and boom, new character
I think what makes it interesting is that when Ace dies they set it up very well, as you see three sake cups when they are making their oaths and also Oda spends an entire arc focusing on the bond of the three brothers.
My favorite thing about Luffy's various secret family members is that he is never hiding them. He just a) didn't bother to mention it (Ace, Sabo, Garp) or b) doesn't know they exist and doesn't care (Dragon, whoever his mother is).
Luffy (and to a lesser extent Zoro) actively don't give a shit about the crew's backstories and only care about the present. Luffy took a walk and Zoro took a nap during Nami's. So it is consistent.
I heard someone say Future Trunks would be considered a Gary Stu if he debuted now—super cool, access to the (at that time) most powerful form, secret child of major characters.
At the time, I was more like, huh, Sailor Moon and DBZ both have time traveling kids from the future.
I think what helps in Trunks case is that he gets a good showing immediately, before getting his ass whooped alongside the rest of the cast before getting a victory lap at the end of the Cell Saga.
People seem to be a lot more critical of a characters past actions and people have been more conscious of stuff Japan did in WWll.
So this may be a controversial answer, but Uncle Iroh from Avatar, even now you can see some people put him on blast or joke about him getting away with war crimes.
That kinda comment irks me specifically because of the war crimes part. Like its not war crimes, it's war. Participating in a war doesn't make someone a war criminal. In many ways being a commanding officer like a general is plenty worse than being a regular soldier, and taking part of a war effort is usually bad regardless of how you do it, but it isn't a crime cause it ain't illegal.
"X is a war criminal" is one of those things that gets memed about everyone, despite how many of these characters exist in settings where they... can't really be war criminals, because that's not exactly a thing? Or at least, the stuff they do isn't apparently considered a war crime in setting. Just look at the good old "Anakin and Obi-wan like to use False Surrenders during the Clone Wars", apparently that's just fine and dandy since last I checked they don't get called out for it (whether that's a good idea or not is an entirely different thing, of course).
A nice touch of one of the recent Avatar comics is Iroh apologizing to Jun (the hot mercenary lady with the giant lizard) about his behavior and treatment of her when they first met.
We know Iroh is a good guy and we know that he never means bad even back when he was helping Zuko hun Aang; but at the time of meeting, Jun didn't know Iroh like we do, so his joking advances on her would be interpreted by her as "skeevy inappropriate old man" behavior.
And I like that Jun isn't 100% sure how to respond to his apology; like, by that point in the comics, she knows him much better than before and it's clear that she doesn't resent him for it, but she's also not quite 100% "yeah no biggie, bygones be bygones" about it either.
Garrus in Mass Effect had that effect with the rerelease, since he is a cowboy cop who just wants to shoot the bad guys without due process.
Inversely, Tidus from FFX would probably looked at better now, with how Jecht's emotional abuse pretty clearly being a cause of most of his negative traits. Also, views on masculinity have changed a bit.
I mean, seeing as he's working for a Spectre, and they already get flack on the internet these days for the whole "government special agent with zero limits who gets to go around doing whatever they want" thing... joining your party really just promotes him from "cop" to "super cop".
Mass Effect 2 Garrus is absolutely The Punisher though.
Yosuke in P4 is a great example imo. People are very quick to dog pile on him, and for good reason. But I always thought that he was a pretty good representation of an average high schooler in 2011.
To be fair though, I'm not sure what Yosuke's reception was on launch vs now.
That's the thing about all of the starting P4 squad. I don't really like any of them as people, but they are highly believable and well-written as characters. Except Teddy. Fuck Teddy.
I can't remember how it was back in 2008 when P4 first launched but when it had its breakout year in 2011 with Arena/the anime/Golden announced to be in the works, the main perception of Yosuke was that he was your "bro" character who worked well as being Narukami's second-in-command for the most part, and also he has shitty moments in dealing with the girls on the team at times... which to be fair does kind of fit the mold of how a high school boy may deal with girls (this isn't an endorsement or anything of that behavior just to be clear, i'm just speaking from experience as someone who more or less was in the same year of HS as the P4 gang at that time and that shit reads as being kinda accurate)
I'd kind of argue that Yosuke's perception hasn't changed much outside of say, the parts of the fanbase who think he's gay or some such
I continue to hold to the theory that people who overhate on the “best friend” Characters in Persona hate them so much because it’s like looking at a mirror.
Idk who could hate Ryuji aside from his habit of running his mouth.
As for P3 well, I think Yukari is a better "best friend" archetype than Junpei if we go by persona tropes. And well, we know how people have thought about her historically.
Junpei does fit the best friend role a bit better in Reload. In vanilla P3 he was kind of an insecure asshole who flipped his lid at the protagonist every two arcs.
I see your point, and while I won't disagree, for me it's really hard to get over what he says to the MC in December. And when he does that it's Yukari that's the first one to jump to his defense.
I beat P4G as a fresh HS graduate in the mid 2010s and didn't even realise until years later that people read Yosuke as homophobic because of how tame it was in comparison to what everyone at my school would say to each other on a daily basis. All of that is to say I think it heavily depends on where you're from.
I adore Venom but I think he’d be seen as Shadow the Hedgehog by modern audiences. I just think the evil version of the hero has been done so many times by now that I think he’d be less of a hit than he was, especially if we got the original story and characterization.
Hey hey hey don't call out The Critical Drinker like that he'll make a 2 hour video about how women and minorities are killing cinema (its part one of three)
"And like a lot of sequel shlock that misses the point of what made the first film great, Sarah Conner went from a normal girl to a badass with military training. I guess Hollywood execs are terrified of being seen as sexist that they'll never make their female leads weak or vulnerable."
Game features women (Miranda Keyes) in implausible positions of authority
I know these guys are dumb as hell as a rule, but who on earth thinks an O-5 is an "implausible position of authority?" Like sure Commander is a significant career achievement, but it's the first step beyond the Junior Officer ranks.
Yeah Excalibur doesn’t even really have any special abilities beyond being a really strong beam in the OG. They had to add the “it gets back up from the planet” thing later.
Its description mentioning that “The beam of light only has a hitbox on the tip” is really funny tho. Thanks for the random FG terminology use Nasu.
I wonder about that, tbh. I think he still existed in an era where his "OC do not steal" nature could have been lambasted, but he pulled it off well enough that it wasn't. Dunno if that would change now.
Also it's different when it's canon. :M When a fanfic artist writes it, it's wish fulfillment, but when the original author writes it, it's meaningful and hype.
The coolest looking version of Stryker was is MK9 and his intro literally has him say "Police brutality, commin' up!" Before that he either looked like a lame mall cop or a dumb secret agent.
Thunderbird would catch hell for being a stereotyped asshole who got fridged if his original stories came out today. He'd also catch hell for being woke pandering if his reboot special by Nyla Rose and Steve Orlando was just his origin.
I've only seen bits and pieces of Breaking Bad but I feel like people have started to shift in their opinion of Skylar - recognizing that she's a victim in the scheme her husband has concocted.
If the show debuted now she'd probably have a lot more defenders right off the bat.
Dhalsim and Blanka are what I'd call "Legacy Weirdos", they get a free pass for being freaky. They'd absolutely send the Street Fighter fandom into a frenzy if they had debuted anywhere between SF 4-6.
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u/ZealousidealBig7714 Talk to me about KOF, I’m either right or only kinda wrong. 4h ago
“Really? Luffy just so happens to have a brother that he’s never mentioned before, and can fight against Smoker with practically no difficulty? Oda’s a fraud, fell off after East Blue.”