[Interesting Trope] Attempts at fanservice/virality that failed not because they were hated, but because nobody noticed them or cared at all.

[u/mp3help]

1) Hoopy the Hoop, Portal (2007) When you defeat GLaDOS and her room is destroyed at the end of the game, debris rains down in the final cutscene, including a big metal hoop that bounces around a bit. Developer Erik Wolpaw said the team dubbed it "Hoopy the Hoop" and expected it to become the big meme of Portal. Of course, none of the fans paid much attention to the hoop since "The Cake is a Lie" became the biggest meme of the game, and overall one of the biggest video game memes of all time.

2) Burgh, Pokemon Black and White (2010) When designing Burgh, developer Yusuke Ohmura said Gamefreak had many of their female employees give input on his design to create their ideal handsome man. However, as someone who's been in the Pokemon fandom for almost 3 decades, in the 15+ years since Pokemon Black and White released, I have personally never seen any fans swoon over Burgh, or even mention him in general. If anything, characters like N and Colress are far more well-known within the fandom as the most handsome and beloved male characters of Pokemon Gen 5.

[u/antonimbus]

You could name any number of animal sidekick characters in Disney/Pixar movies that never really took off, but I think Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars has to be the best example of a poorly considered character meant to attract young fans. He is a character so reviled there are fan edits of the movie taking him out of it entirely!

[u/tylerjehenna → u/antonimbus]

My favorite thing about this is Jar Jar showed up in Star Tours at Disney and someone in the back yells "HIT HIM, HIT HIM!!!!"

[u/mp3help → u/antonimbus]

Good point, but this example is for characters that are ignored instead of hated, and Jar Jar is probably one of the most hated characters of all time. Alongside a lot of other Disney sidekicks that are hated like the Goat from Wish, Olaf from Frozen, Clod from Elemental, etc.

A Disney sidekick that was ignored is probably Pua the Pig from the Moana movies- he was on all the promo posters despite barely being in the movie, and even when Disney specifically promoted him to appear more in the sequel, nobody still cares about him, and everyone likes HeiHei the Rooster more.

[u/Alex3884 → u/mp3help]

I don’t know anyone in my cohort who dislikes him; loved the guy as a kid, find him endearing as an adult.

[u/mp3help → u/Alex3884]

I was never a Star Wars fan, but I grew up when the prequels were coming out- so I all I saw of the franchise was OT fans hating on Jar Jar in TV and movies like The Simpsons, Fairly OddParents, even Minecraft Let's Plays made by people who were older.

I myself don't hate Jar Jar since I barely watched the prequels, but I grew up on other people hating him.

[u/Alex3884 → u/mp3help]

Same.

Eventually I learned to drown those voices out and enjoy what I enjoy.

[u/Dorgamund → u/[deleted]]

Darth Jar Jar truthers still going strong.

[u/Nissedood → u/antonimbus]

This is a thing with a lot of old cartoons that when the interest in the series started to die down they introduced new sidekicks or characters that 99% of the time was so hated it just made the series less popular.

[u/DuelaDent52 → u/antonimbus]

I dunno, he attracted me and my friends. We loved Jar Jar.

[u/Present_Bad_2073 → u/antonimbus]

Also like Him being a kind of racial stereotype i think?

But also the response against the actor was awful and one of the instances of community hate getting out of hand They were sending the guy death threats For jar jar

[u/notTheRealSU → u/Present_Bad_2073]

That seemed to be a pretty big issue with Episode 1 in general. People didn't like it and thought the best solutions was to tell the actors to kill themselves

[u/CarmenxXxWaldo → u/antonimbus]

They could have retroactively saved the whole thing by incorporating Darth Darth Binks in the sequels.  My only request is they dont do the old tired "now that the mask is off, here is my real voice".  they need the same voice actor to just say some evil shit in the same exact goofy ass voice.

[u/NoMansSkyWasAlright → u/antonimbus]

There's also some theories that he was originally supposed to be a sith who thwarted the main characters with weaponized incompetence until his big reveal.

[u/Cocoatrice → u/antonimbus]

People hate him unironically? Like, Jar Jar Binks was meant to be annoying. That was his purpose. And people who hate him must be the most insecure people alive.

[u/Present_Bad_2073 → u/Cocoatrice]

Oh yeah they did They sent death threats to the actor