[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/LazyMarionberry9086]

Clod from the Pixar movie Elemental

A Pixar account on Twitter posted a video of fake cheers in a theater when Cold first appears in the film. Still no one went to see this film or really cared about the comedy character Clod

[u/Reverend_Lazerface → u/LazyMarionberry9086]

I didn't see it in theaters but I have seen this movie a few times with my kid and enjoyed it. I still didn't remember Clod was a character until this picture sort of reminded me

[u/CommanderInQweef → u/Reverend_Lazerface]

strangely, i haven’t seen the movie and this is the only character i do know from the movie. felt like every ad i saw was just him

[u/LightningFerret04 → u/CommanderInQweef]

Yeah that’s why he’s mentioned in this post, Clod was a character that was an attempt at virality, being in so many trailers for the movie, which ultimately failed to maintain traction because he was barely a character in the movie

Also, I watched Elemental and thought it was a bit overhated. My hot take is that I also think they marketed the movie somewhat misleadingly. It was marketed as this big forbidden romance story between a fire girl and a water boy. And that is the main plot of the film.

But what I really liked about the movie was actually the immigrant story about Ember (fire girl) and her family. The story was based on a mix of the story of Irish immigrants and the director’s own parents’ story of being Korean immigrants.

Ember’s family struggles to adapt to the new city, people struggle to adapt to them. They don’t speak the language at first which makes communication difficult. They face discrimination and have to work hard to build their shop and earn their place in society. As a descendant of immigrants, I imagine that my family must have faced similar things. There’s one moment where Ember’s father recounts the story of what happened when they left their homeland and I genuinely got a little choked up at that part.

I think they should have marketed more of the immigration story elements. Maybe it would have been remembered as a mediocre romance and decent immigration story instead of just a mediocre romance

[u/Munchkinasaurous → u/LightningFerret04]

Haven't it in a while, but that was my daughter's favorite when she was a toddler. I didn't know much about the movie going in, but I definitely enjoyed it. The story worked well for a kids movie, but also pretty impactful from an adult perspective