[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/ElementalNinjas96]

What being Ash's Starter does to a mf

[u/mj6373 → u/ElementalNinjas96]

... Come to think, they also tried to make Jigglypuff (Edit: Clefairy) a franchise icon with one of the manga, didn't they? And then gave it a pre-evo in gen 2?

It's starting to look like getting a middle evolution as franchise mascot was a conspiracy the whole way.

[u/Autrah_Fang → u/mj6373]

I think it was Clefairy that they tried to make a franchise icon, but Jigglypuff did end up more iconic due to its recurring appearance in the anime lol

[u/ElementalNinjas96 → u/Autrah_Fang]

They initially wanted Ash's Starter to be Clefairy, but IIRC, they later found that boys like Pikachu more. Something like that.