User blog:Witnesstomylife/On the Topic of Overrated/Underrated Characters

One thing I do in fact have to say about the MySims series (albeit short) is that I adore all the characters, even for their flaws/how annoying they are. However, I have noticed that some characters do get over hyped while the others(underrated) are left in the dust. This is often rebutted with “Well, it’s the ‘mascot’, “They’re adorable!, or “They’re funny!”. Often, with some fans, having a different opinion about blockheaded people causes big disagreements. Now, in the fandom, I’ve noticed that many fans tend to ship themselves with the canon characters, also known as “self-inserts”. The problem with this is that these inserts rarely have flaws, seems as if they are only there for the creator’s fantasies and seem to have no development, which now falls under “Mary-Sue”. It’s actually why some people do find it odd and when given constructive criticism, the creator tends to react upset/angry from what I often see. The ones I do see most from now and back then were either Buddy or GB and I sometimes question it. Another thing I noticed is that people apparently got annoyed that certain characters were not in other games. And the ones used are the “overrated” characters (and I say overrated as they are the ones that are on the covers). I honestly did not see the problem somewhat with EA only taking certain characters as they probably found them more fitting or were trying to develop them more. Plus, as a person who loves the underrated characters and antagonists more, it annoys me more that they did not use the underrated characters more as I felt that they could have played a role more than not reusing characters for the fandom’s sake. Plus, I’ve been told that some characters are “mascots” only because they are on the cover often. I don’t understand how is this a problem, unless there was only a game centered on only one character and as you know, the only character that everything is centered mostly is this person right here. However, they are not on the cover art as it varies from player to player. The least you can do is come to an understanding. From what I see the most, a character is only liked if they are “HOT/FUNNY/RANDOM” and hated by only their obvious personalities. This bugs me the most and is probably why I came to dislike some characters. Now, you’re probably wondering, “Wutty! Who do you find overrated?” or “You shouldn’t say anything because you like x!”. However, the thing is, I mostly like characters due to their development/personality the most as it plays an important part in the story. Yes, at times, I may say that a character is “Perf” but I believe a perfect character to me is one that is evenly balanced and, heck, even acknowledges his/her flaws. I find that personally in this fandom, characters like Buddy, GB, Violet, DJ Candy, Travis, Jimmy, and Leaf were over hyped. As a pre- overly obsessed Buddy fangirl, I used to be obsessed with him as he was adorable. But, when I look at the fandom, it appears he is mostly liked because of his randomness and appearance. I can actually see why exactly Buddy may be frowned upon by some, as his randomness seems to be done often and it loses its taste at times. Then he is deemed an instant genius as he said one smart sentence and seems to know how to calculate distance, which confuses me even to this day. There is nothing wrong with comic relief, as long as it is actually, COMIC RELIEF AS IN HAHAH IDIOT RELIEVE THAT TENSION AND LAUGH FOR ONCE. When its done often and wrong at the same time, it gets tiring.

Jimmy, I had thought, was ignored and that had bugged me. I found his determination to be like his father sweet and ignored by some as he is allergic to fish. As he made a debut in MSSSH, he was immediately known mostly for his hotness(like a few others in the game) and his fans increased as everything else was tossed out the window due to his “update”. Two other sims that fall under this category, Travis and Leaf. Travis is liked mostly by anglophiles I have been told and that he is “perfect”. However, Travis’ large obsession with technology and his oblivious to certain circumstances makes him disliked by some, which is completely understandable but which also annoys others because of the “How dare you not like what I like” attitude. Leaf was liked because of the same reasons and the fact that he was a “Rock-star”. Leaf, in my opinion, was the worst out of these three as he really was in fact a jerk. How the heck do you tear down a temple what are you doing please stop. I found his “rebellious” attitude off at times, and that characters that share similar attitudes disliked only because they were antagonists and “NOT MEANT TO BE LIKED BECAUSE THEY ARE MEAN” which bugged me. Now, for GB and Violet, I do adore the both of them but I have noticed that these two were underrated as they represent the typical goth and are either laughed at/made fun of or liked only for how they appear to be. Its messed up because GB is in fact a depressive person and Violet is apparently only liked by some because she promotes the goth stereotype along with GB. DJ Candy was apparently similar to this as she was a DJ WOW PARTY FUN and her roles in stuff/development was ignored. I feel as if all three were liked for only one thing instead of how they played a role. There’s nothing wrong with liking a character! Like whoever you like, be it a good or bad character. However, when you dismiss/not acknowledge their flaws, take it to heart when others don’t like them, hate a character only because of their quirks/appearance and/or state their flaws or obsess with them often or argue with others, it may be a problem.