Edward Kenway from Assassin's Creed 4. The whole game actually is extremely overrated. I had a hard time finishing that game. I rather play 3 or even Unity.
Like most really early animated characters, Mickey Mouse was a lot of things over a long period of time. And as far as American animation goes, Mickey Mouse has been a staple for the childhood of literally every generation. Younger millennials and zoomers grew up on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Children in decades prior watched Mickey be a musketeer in one short and starving due to poverty in the next.
So while the rough edges of the character have been sanded down over time, he's still very much a plucky, brave, kind, and helpful protagonist in most of the media he's in.
Which to your average adult viewer means... he's a bland and uninteresting character.
That said, he's still an icon of animation as a whole, and most things with Mickey in them are doing some new and novel something (design, production pipeline, whatever) that pushes the whole industry forward in some way.
as someone who is in their mid 30s… Kingdom Hearts? And I really only played the first one where’s he’s (if I remember correctly) just kinda talked about and teased at the end. I would be really shocked if anyone had any actual feelings toward him as a character in any meaningful way other than him being a mascot. Did he even win a sportsball recently?
Rich Evans once said of Who Framed Roger Rabbit: "Bugs Bunny gave Eddie Valiant the spare tire (instead of a spare parachute) because Mickey Mouse would never do anything funny."
I really don't get the obsession with overusing the Joker when most of Barman's other rogue gallery members are much more interesting. The worst of it is during "The Batman Who Laughs", because now you have both the regular Joker and "what if Batman became Joker" running around. And then, as if it couldn't get any more ridiculous,
spoiler
The Batman who Laughs gets Dr. Manhattan's powers in a groan-worthy way which is like, not how Dr. Manhattan works at all just so they can fit more Joker into the story.
And I think most people will agree by now that Harley Quinn is a lot better of a character after she's done being Joker's sidekick.
Harry Potter. People often talk about a "golden age" of JK Rowling, and I think to myself, what golden age? Harry Potter, both the character and the books, are written like a hyperinflated Cinderella, complete with an attempt at discriminatory apologetics that would make CS Lewis say "you okay bro?"
Also, Luke Skywalker. People hate Anakin for being whiny and weak and Rey for being a Mary Sue, but Luke is both and nobody complains.
Luke had to actually train and failed when he fought his main, more experienced villain for the first time. Then he went back and did more training off screen. I think that makes him less a Mary Sue. He's definitely whiny, though.
True, true. It''s a good coming of age story in that way. You don't see him grow up physically, but in maturity, confidence, wisdom, and least importantly, ironically enough, power. I say least importantly, because it's the growing in wisdom that helps him defeat the Emperor in the end, not his cool force powers (although that does make the movies more fun to watch).
He's whiny in just barely enough lines to establish that he's still a bit naive, but I would not consider him an overall whiny character, even in the vacuum of episode 4, he is not constantly bitching and dodging his responsibility once its importance is established.
Its probably the best way they could've utilized whininess
Additionally, and probably most importantly, Luke actually isn't strong enough to defeat the emperor at the end. He losses. However, he wins over his father and that's what turns the tide.
Similarly, while Anikan has some mary sue moments, he has a far share of losses (chase for Padme's would be assassin, count doku fight, Obi-Wan fight, etc.)
I think the only time Rey "losses" a battle is in force awakens when she gets captured (but even after being captured she overpowers Ben almost immediately).
As much as I enjoy that franchise I agree with you. For years I kept hearing 'it's better in the books', I remember specifically people saying that about the organization that helps dobbie and his people. Fuggin, I read the books as an adult and it's barely expanded on it at all, they just have more scenes about the organization but it isn't ever truly relevant beyond explaining why Hermione does what she does as an adult.
It's a charming little story that matured with readers and got a decent adaptation that led it to explode. Lots of luck to get to where it's at.
I would love to see a wandering inn adaptation instead.
Not op, but i dont care much for the show myself either. I used to, when it was new and something different, but I believe I have grown past the pseudointellectual, but actual college humor. It just hits different these days
I actually agree. I started losing interest in the show during season 5 (2021). But like how GoT seasons went, I don't write the show off as a loss because the last few seasons weren't strong hitters.
I grew up watching cartoons, and still do.
I'm an avid scifi, horror, and speculative fiction reader/watcher.
There absolutely should be animations geared toward adults.
I don't like Rick and Morty. I think it's dumb, self obsessed, drivel. I think it's writing style is the literary equivalent of pumpkin spice latte. No one hurt me, I just don't like it and I don't understand why people do. I answered a question. I didn't tell people to not watch it.
We just did Snowcrash, which has parts that aged poorly, but over all was a fun read. That leads to the old movie Pontypool (Snowcrash is in a shot in that that's an obvious plant- both had similar themes). That lead to Pontypool Changes Everything a book that, try as I did, I could not get through. But the movie and BBC radio drama are both great.
We're doing Ubik by Philip K Dick right now, and I'm enjoying that a lot. I've read a fair bit of his stuff but missed this one. I tend to binge authors so I imagine I'll do a few more from him.
Late last year I did about everything from Scott Meyers. The Magic 2.0 books are deff for a younger audience but were fun in their own way.
I tried to do the Murderbot series recently, but it missed it's mark with me. I didn't not like them and I can see goung back to give them a second try maybe in the fall.
The Duck and Cover series was heavily thrown at me through ads so I gave that a go. It deff has its moments but I think there's underlying difference of opinion between me and the author. I have no proof of this, it's just kind of a feeling. Not bad books, funny and clever in spots.
John Scalzi and Dennis E. Taylor are two guys I get everything from as soon as something new drops.
And recently a buddy got me to watch Ravenous. An old cannibalistic, period piece in the Spanish American War era with a good dose of homoeroticisim thrown in. Deff highly recommend watching that.
Ross is the one that drives me insane. Literally every other person demonstrates some sort of growth over the 10 years the show takes place, but Ross is pretty much exactly the same.
For me, Rachel starts out annoying but gets more likeable through the seasons.
I was watching a few on a road trip and happened to catch them when Rachel was rejecting Joey, then demanding Ross not date and stay with her. She was just awful in every episode I saw.
Sephiroth. His look is basically the most generic bishy anime character you can make, his entire backstory can be boiled down to "mommy issues" and his motivations are the standard villain "destroy world/become god". He's just so bland.
(I firmly believe most people gush over FF7 so much only because it was their first exposure to a mainstream console RPG in non-Japanese circles. FF7 as a whole was a fairly meh entry into the series anyway, if you ask me.)
Not only did Kefka have real style, twisted though it may be, he also for all intents and purposes actually managed to win. He fractured the world, scattered the heroes, built his goddamned tower, and was lording it all over everybody with a penthouse view. He didn't have angst; he was just nuts. It was frankly a complete fluke that he got the shit whacked out of him by a little girl with a paintbrush, a 8x per round attacking Moogle with Genji gloves, a senior citizen, and a mime.
There are a few companions in Mass Effect that seem to inspire a way stronger reaction from other fans and I don't totally get it. Like, I like Thane, and I'm sad about what happens to him, but some people are SO into him and I don't get it. I also love Tali and restarted my first nearly complete playthrough when I realized I couldn't save her and Legion, but there are fans who are full on obsessed. Then again, my love for Garrus can't be contained, so I'm sure some people don't get that.
At least we can all agree that Ashley and Kaiden are the worst, right?
It's an easy movie to watch, which makes it enjoyable for me. Everything else in life takes a lot of energy, so when I want to watch a movie over doing something else, I just want something that I can zone out to.
Same reason I watch a Will Ferrell movie and like them (like the one where he voiced a dog)