In my opinion, Abby from TLOU 2. During the first part of the game, she is portrayed as the bad girl, but when she become the playable character, you understand that she isn’t:
-Her father and friends were unnecessarly killed.
-She became pariah from her clan when she saved a member of a rival clan.
-She have been harschly tortured.
-She spared Ellie despite having occasions to kill her for understandable reasons.
I don’t get why many players didn’t changed their minds at the second part of the game, it’s so obvious that the real bad people are Ellie and Joël. Theres no problem about having sympathy for bad guys, but you must keep your critical mind.
And what infuriates me is that people even harassed the voice actress because of what her character did. Come on, guys !
Jar Jar Binks was not a bad “person” in Star Wars but was a hated character. He was one of the nicest good guys.
The actor who played Jar Jar Binks, Ahmed Best, said that the widespread criticism of his character had led to him considering suicide.
I hate how the Star Wars fandom responded to Ep 1. Ahmed Best & Jake Lloyd deserved so much better. Lucas did nothing to protect them, either.
I hate how the Star Wars fans respond to PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING. I was the biggest Star Wars geek as a kid; it was THE thing I collected and played with extensively. As many characters as I could get, ships. Made my own stuff. Generally freaking appalled at everyone’s behavior since then.
people even harassed the voice actress
What the actual??? Like, WHAT!? What kind of losers that give dumbasses a bad name did that??
I think understanding that stuff like that actually happens is a good explainer for why the world is a mess these days. People like that somehow actually exist and they have access to the internet. It’s awful.
I think it’s died down some in recent years, but Tom Nook from animal crossing. They’ve done a lot to try and make him even more friendly in recent games, but even in the first he sees a guy who ended up in his town who didn’t have any plans, money, or even a place to stay. He decided to give that person a horse with a loan that had no interest and could be paid off at any time, and even gave him a few chores to pay him and help him meet the townspeople. Dude was super nice, but all everyone remembered was that you had to pay him money and so there’s this version of the character in people’s heads where he’s this super mean and greedy guy.
He decided to give that person a horse with a loan
I know it’s a typo but that sounds like an awesome start to a western video game, regardless of how it’s interpreted – either getting a horse and a loan for supplies, a horse that needs to be paid for later, or a horse that took out a loan by some kind of paperwork error and now has more money than you. I’d play any of those.
And also I’m with you, I think the funny jokes about Tom Nook took off into a smear campaign. Having no time limit, interest free, and also being in a world where money is everywhere and literally grows on trees makes it an amazing deal.
I don’t get why many players didn’t changed their minds at the second part of the game, it’s so obvious that the real bad people are Ellie and Joël. Theres no problem about having sympathy for bad guys, but you must keep your critical mind.
I think one of the points of the story was that there aren’t bad guys (or everyone is a bad guy, depends on how each person decides to see it). Joel was selfish for wanting to protect Ellie, Ellie was selfish for wanting revenge, and Abby went through with her revenge despite being begged not to. It’s miserable story with miserable characters, there are no good guys.
As for why so many players didn’t change their minds, imo it’s due to several factors but I mainly blame pacing. The cut-out at the middle of the game, at a climax moment no less, into a new story that takes around 12 hours, turned off a lot of people. I can see people not giving Abby a chance due to her story starting at an inopportune moment, after being invested in Ellie for around 10-12 hours.
I don’t think it would fix all issues, especially because communities about hating TLoU2 and/or Abby popped up before the game came out (and they still exist after 3 years (jesus christ)), but I can see Abby being less hated if her story was presented differently.
Anyway, about the actual topic of the post, mine would be Pip from South Park. His only crime was that the other characters were far more interesting than him, so he was overshadowed. But somehow, it looks like some people actually hate him, even Trey Parker. Poor kid lol
I honestly don’t trust the narrative opinions of anyone who thinks TLoU2 sucked. By proclaiming you don’t like that game’s narrative, you simply call yourself out as not understanding it. There are no good guys or bad guys in TLOU story - and that’s the whole point. TLOU2 really turns the good vs evil narrative of the first game on its head after already turning the narrative on its head with the final scene of the first game. TLOU is entirely about what it takes for someone to give in to their worst impulses and how there’s a monster in all of us; It’s a showcase of the toxic and never-ending revenge cycle. TLOU2 really tied it all together perfectly by forcing empathy and understanding on the player. It’s a game designed to consider empathy for all its characters, which some people clearly overlook because they aren’t capable of that.
