[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/Lunalatic]

Heck, more people fawned over Ingo and Emmet when BW released than Burgh, and they look like this:

I'm serious. They did a popularity poll of all the human characters in Black and White when they first came out in Japan. Ingo and Emmet got second and third place; Burgh got 14th.

[u/tenkohime → u/Lunalatic]

They underestimated the train and twin otaku. If you don't use trains, you'll never see them.

[u/Lunalatic → u/tenkohime]

BW2 fixed this by having the twins stand in a spot that's visible from the first big intersection in Nimbasa when you first get there.

It's also mandatory to fight them in a Multi Battle with the other player character in order to use the trains at all, so Game Freak really wanted people to see and remember those guys.

[u/mp3help → u/Lunalatic]

Eyy great find, thanks!! It's cool to see an actual source to back up Burgh's lack of popularity- he even got beaten by a character not even from this generation (granted the most popular character of Gen 4 aside from maybe Dawn but still)

[u/Lunalatic → u/mp3help]

Caitlin is also a Gen 4 character, but she basically did nothing in her debut generation and still managed to beat out Burgh.

[u/PlatoDrago → u/mp3help]

Honestly, I think it’s that Burgh is honestly kinda boring and annoying. He comes at, in my opinion, the worst point in the game, is a cake walk to fight, has lots of hand-holding where they keep trying to say ‘hey, this guy is a cool artist’ when he’s just kinda boring and as soon as you leave Castelia, things start happening in the plot much quicker that are more interesting.

[u/Reasonable-Youth418 → u/PlatoDrago]

Thanks for writing logical explanation, for me i just hate his hair and color scheme lol

[u/Cleansing4ThineEyes → u/Reasonable-Youth418]

I think your feelings are a more likely explanation for most people than what they wrote tbh. At the end of the day, it's Pokemon, most people are playing it for the silly creatures and their designs. The actual characters are really just set dressing and as such most of their fans like them for pretty surface level reasons (there are some exceptions like N) and vice versa. Even in BW and BW2 which are more narrative driven, that's just in comparison to other Pokemon games so the story and characters still aren't all that.

[u/MartiniPolice21 → u/Lunalatic]

and then they brought Ingo back

[u/Crab_Shark_ → u/MartiniPolice21]

and NOT Emmet, importantly

[u/icspn → u/Crab_Shark_]

tumblr loves a tragic little man

[u/AstuteSalamander → u/MartiniPolice21]

I didn't play BW, so Arceus was my first exposure to him, and I loved him immediately

[u/PoppyOGhouls → u/Lunalatic]

Yeah these two are THE thirst traps of Unova, imo. iirc they still place in popularity polls. They place in my heart, at least. 

[u/blackjackgabbiani → u/Lunalatic]

I'm amazed that Burgh was even that high

[u/Lunalatic → u/blackjackgabbiani]

There were 31 options to choose from, so he ended up in the upper middle of the pack.

[u/Achilles9609 → u/Lunalatic]

It's hard to argue. They look pretty good.:)

[u/Geeneelee → u/Lunalatic]

Japan Loves Trains

[u/SitInCorner_Yo2 → u/Lunalatic]

Kabu is very popular among Japanese fans too.

Some characters are massive hit but only in certain countries.

[u/ribs_fetishist → u/SitInCorner_Yo2]

He did in fact once occupy the same spot in yumejoshi poll that Rika later took over. Kabu was incredibly popular. His cameo in anime made him return to the poll as well.

[u/SitInCorner_Yo2 → u/ribs_fetishist]

He’s still in top 100 last year, that’s some very dedicated fans .

His design is relatively simple but his personality hit the sweet spot of many yumejoshi.

[u/Crab_Shark_ → u/Lunalatic]

SUUUUPER BRAVO!!!!!!

Verrrrrrry good!

[u/CrazyCreeps9182 → u/Lunalatic]

I keep seeing awesome art of these two (and Elesa, which is very cute) on tumblr

[u/CapClumsy → u/Lunalatic]

Now that I'm thinking about it, Burgh is pretty hot. I think the difference is that he's just not that memorable compared to all the other characters since his design in more plain. You have "guy who would be attractive if you saw him in real life" versus "sick-looking anime man" (who might look ridiculous in real life). Which one are you more likely to remember

[u/yimmit303 → u/Lunalatic]

Who? I have never seen them before in my life. I at least know who Burgh is.

[u/Lunalatic → u/yimmit303]

They run Unova's equivalent of the Battle Tower: the Battle Subway.

[u/Porygon_Flygon → u/yimmit303]

Yk that one guy that arceus time travelled back to Hisui and watches over a hisuian sneasler

ye thats one of them (Ingo) and he had an anmesia too, luckily arceus said time's up and decided to let him be reunited with his brother Emmet back in Unova

[u/Quillbolt_h → u/yimmit303]

They're train conductors who run the battle subway. They got extremely popular due to train nerds. Trainspotting is super big in Japan.

They got even more popular when Ingo appeared in Pokémon Legends Arceus, which is set in the last. He mysteriously got sent back in time and lost his memories. Which made for lots of tragic fanfic material.

[u/5am7980 → u/Lunalatic]

14th place

Burgh

Castelia City Gym Leader 67 votes

The handsome Gym Leader of Castelia City. He received an overwhelming number of votes from women.

"Overwhelming"...