Misused: Creators Pet

Bringing up this examples from Fresh Meat:

• Creator's Pet: Vod gets away with a lot, attracts and hooks up with tons of attractive men (many of whom inexplicably fall for her), and even when she screws other housemates over, she's usually the one who ends up getting the apology, somehow.

That reads like complaining and doesn't explain why it actually fits the trope. Cut as written.

I removed this entry from YMMV.Komi San Wa Komyushou Desu. The example admits she's not an example, since she's still well-liked. Clear misuse.

• Creator's Pet: While she started off and still is a well-liked character (perhaps because of it), Manbagi's addition, interactions and characterization with Komi's group ended up taking more than 10 chapters, vastly overshadowing the other new 2nd second years in Komi's class who haven't been fully introduced yet.

Found these on B-Fighter Kabuto and Bartok the Magnificient Respectively

Creator's Pet: Kabuto himself. The other characters are far more interesting and played by much better actors, yet Kabuto and his annoying voice hog the spotlight. Not only that but Kabuto manages to kill almost all of the villains himselfnote . Sheesh. Hilarious in Hindsight: Read Creator's Pet entry and try to not feel like you're reading about Kamen Rider Kabuto.

Creator's Pet: The entire reason that Bartok, a minor comic relief character in Anastasia, got his own movie was because then head of Fox Chris Melindantri wanted to wring out as much as he could from the positive responses he got.

Both are eponymous main characters.

First one, name character, clear misuse.

Second one, in the original the character was liked, so clearly not an example, and in the spin-off, main character, so also not an example.

Edited by AnotherDuck on Jul 5th 2018 at 5:18:48 PM

So, Ascended Extras don't qualify?

That's a tricky trope. They could fit. Depends on the example. If they ascended because the creator likes them then maybe, if it's against the wishes of the audience. If it's because they turned out to be popular, no.

Can this trope be used to describe a ship? I removed an entry on this page, for the simple reason of a ship not really being a character, but the troper who put it up put it back, defending the entry because it concerned two characters.

Also, one of the two characters is already listed, so I think it is kinda redundant.

You mean as in a vessel, not a relationship? Oh, you do mean a 'ship. Yeah, that is absolute misuse, and sounds like disgruntled fans complaining.

Edited by Fighteer on Jul 18th 2018 at 5:30:06 AM

The trope is about the character itself, not about plots related to the character (but they can certainly contribute, just not be the target of the trope).

If a new main character was a Replacement Scrappy: is he still elligible for this trope?

Also, I've got a suggestion for you people, a "Never Again" list, which can be used for characters who fail or succeed in the individual criteria for the creator's pet trope, namely when other people on this site are getting sick of it.

Edited by MasterJoseph on Aug 16th 2018 at 11:50:41 AM

Replacement Scrappy is not mutually exclusive with Creator's Pet. If anything the former is an indicator that one of the requirements for the latter is true.

A Replacement Scrappy main character can't be a Creator's Pet for the same reason any other main character can't be.

Bringing up this example from Web Warriors:

• Creator's Pet: Spider-Gwen. Not only is the writer fairly open about his favoritism towards Gwen, it really shows in the series. As meanwhile in her own series she's a rookie who can barely put a fight against superhumans, in Web Warriors she is the character to get more focus, her character description mentions her as being the coolest member of the team◊, makes her way through the multiverse defeating armies of Electros and Doctor Octopuses, and outsmarts even the smartest Electro. Later on, Spider Man Noir mentions that she fights like no one he's seen before and that she doesn't need the team at all.

There's no mention of her being hated by fans as a result of this. That's just Creator's Favorite.

Someone added this to Darkstalkers: In stark contrast to Jon Talbain (see Americans Hate Tingle example above), Capcom seemed pretty darn determined to get Anakaris over with the fans, even shoehorning him into the crossover games. Unfortunately, nobody seems to really care about him due to other characters such as Jedah and Morrigan being way more popular, so he has since faded back into relative obscurity.

Not caring about a character is not the same as hating him. I didn't play much Darkstalkers, but I don't remember Anakaris being talked up by others character either. So that's two criteria failed.

From YMMV.My Hero Academia:

• Downplayed with Mineta. Horikoshi has stated many times that he loves Mineta, both to draw him and as a character, but he also isn't completely blind to the fact the fandom hates him. He spent the USJ and Final Exam Arcs trying to make Mineta more likable to fans, which felt like hogging screentime to many, but ultimately, he got the hint and removed him from the spotlight almost completely. However, Mineta is still a recurring Comic Relief that appears to make the very sexual jokes that made everyone hate him to begin with, fans still hate him and desperately desire for him to leave Class 1-A and be substituted by the much more beloved Shinsou, which doesn't seem to be something Horikoshi is willing to do.

He definitely fits The Scrappy bill, and he is loved by the creator, but he is not excessively focused (he's had very few big moments, and is mostly used for comic relief) and is most definitely not shilled (most of his classmates find him annoying, and he always gets what's coming to him when he acts perverted). Finally, Creator's Pet is an Audience Reaction, and therefore Not a Trope, so it can't be Played With.

Found this on YMMV Big Brother.

The editors pick their favourites from the players and decide to show them off to the audience. The problem is; they assume we'll like them too, or at least we'll Love to Hate them. Given that producers in every version have the power to slant the show and make Manipulative Editing work in their favor, their favorites become even more obvious, and sometimes even though we loved them, we begin to hate them due to overexposure.

• Brittany (US 1) was a unique example, due to being a very distinct character with signature Girlish Pigtails and dyed fiery red hair and The Fundamentalist, who was often said to be the season's most favored contestant. She was banished fourth nevertheless.
• Jessie (US 10 and 11) seems to be hated all over the Internet, yet, he has now made an appearance during five consecutive seasons, Season 19, and Celebrity Big Brother. He's been used as a punishment from Pandora's Box during the last three. And two of those weren't Actually Pretty Funny like the first.
• Brendon and Rachel because they take up 50% of the screentime and were already highly unlikable from Season 12, then returned for Season 13 having learned almost nothing. Jeff and Jordan are also this due to similar overexposure. Not to mention, the producers even fixed the entire season for them.
  • From live feeds or websites, part of it comes from the fact that the vets paid $25,000 each to participate in the show, while the newbies are paid a stipend of $750 for every week they've been on the house.
• Amanda of Season 15. She's disliked due to her controlling attitude, racist/homophobic comments, bullying behavior, and her general bitchiness to all Houseguests. Yet, the absolute worst of her comments are kept exclusive to the live feeds as to portray her in a positive light, and rumor has it, the season has been rigged for her from the start. All of these turned out to be quashed as production actually did not step in to bail out Amanda or Elissa however.
• Frankie of 16. They even delayed a challenge for a couple of hours to save him from elimination.
  • Derrick. As Frankie falls from grace, Derrick gets all the spotlight. Later challenges are even tailored to play to his strengths and the others' weaknesses.
• Paul from Season 19. Back by popular demand (due to major backlash over Nicole beating him), he quickly takes control and steals the spotlight from at least 90% meaning if your name isn't Cody, Jessica, or Paul, you're Out of Focus (with extremely poor gameplay by most the rest of the cast helping solidify his hold). He even was the first to get a temptation from the Den of Temptation, and then his right hand girl was the second to get one. Ironically, the very fact that Paul lost this season has more people abuzz about him than Josh, the actual winner (whether it be bitter viewers rejoicing or Paul's fanbase frustrated about such a bitter jury)! It's enough that the season is basically now known as "THE SUMMER OF PAUL", "BIG BROTHER PAUL", or just plain "BIG PAUL".
• Tyler counts big time from Season 20. So beloved that he even appeared on another CBS game show prior to the season, Total Knockout. He also wins competitions with ease and gained a Power App advantage and control over both sides of the house, but unlike last season, there are people in the house who are aware he's a huge threat and have the guts to go after him.
• From Big Brother Canada 3, Sarah and Brittnee were this. A competition was said to be rigged for one of them to win (it was about an ally of theirs who was just evicted) and the coup d'etat-like-twist came at a time when they were in immediate danger and only one of those two could win it. Not to mention one of them (Sarah) actually won the game by quickly getting rid of all the other potential candidates.
• Charley Uchea from UK Series 8 (2007), who the producers tried everything in their power to keep in as long as they could:
  • The first week she got nominated, they used the fact that she had an argument with Billi to delete both of their nominations out of the pool, which took Charley and her Beta Bitch Nikki off the public vote, but not Billi. To repeat, Charley was rewarded for breaking the rule about nominations. Billi ended up being evicted that week, presumably because people were annoyed that his rule break meant they couldn't get Charley out.
  • The next time she was on the block, Big Brother decided it would be a "fake eviction" where she was sent outside to a fake audience, and shown her highlights, but then sent back into the house. They announced this play on the same day she got nominated, so it can't have been coincidence. This let her stay in another 2 weeks.
  • It came out after the show that she had been warned repeatedly off screen for N-Word Privileges, including directing it at fellow black housemate Brian, though when Emily got thrown out for the same thing on Day 7 there were nearly a thousand complaints about the Double Standard that time alone.

Out of all of these, I'd say Paul, Charley, and Jessie count, the others could probably be cut. Especially Tyler as the season was not fixed for him, and while he is in the final three, he was nearly voted out so yeah. Plus Tyler is popular with the fans with the majority hoping he'll win. So I'd say cut him if anyone.

Edited by Klavice on Sep 21st 2018 at 11:40:41 AM

How many of those are shilled by the other "characters"?

Amanda is hated by the cast aside from her then Showmance.

The others for the most part are liked by the cast but only a few take up screentime and have challenges rigged for them. Derrick and Frankie come to mind. The others that I didn't mention are treated more like ordinary competitors. For one thing everyone thinks Tyler (who people say is a Paul Expy) is easily manipulated and dim so he's not really shilled, plus there were plenty of people who wanted him out.

If they're not shilled, as in the others talk them up about how great they are, they don't qualify. Just liking them isn't enough.

In that case, the only real keepers are Derrick and Rachel Reilly, since nobody else is shilled that much.

Cutting this example from The Prince of Tennis for being a main character: Echizen, but only in the manga since he's quite more sympathetic in the anime and the musicals.

Cut this from ElfQuest for not providing context: Teir and Jethel.

Found this on Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life:

• The spikey-eared Pichu, which would go on to become a Promotional Powerless Piece of Garbage in Heart Gold and Soul Silver (which even swiped Celebi's place from the original games' Ilex Forest shrine event).
• Seriously, you could remove Pichu and replace her with another small Pokémon, and everything would still turn out the same. To make matters worse, the poster of the film displays her like a main cast member, even though she has very little screen time than that of other (more notable) Pokémon.

Edited by MasterJoseph on Nov 5th 2018 at 2:46:32 AM

Bringing up these examples from Sonic the Hedgehog:

• Creator's Pet:
  • Thanks to being a huge Spotlight-Stealing Squad, Shadow the Hedgehog was seen as this in the years following his debut in Sonic Adventure 2, though it has now died down due to not only Shadow, but all of the side characters not having any playable appearances since Unleashed, until Forces's Shadow DLC.
  • Despite their poor reception, the Deadly Six (or at least Zazz and Zavok) continue to make appearances in games like Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Sonic Forces, and Team Sonic Racing, even being given preferable treatment over more popular and better established characters like Chaos, Omega, Cream, and the Chaotix.

One of the latter two has a larger entry at CreatorsPet.Video Games:

• Zavok in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. When the Deadly Six were introduced in Sonic Lost World, they quickly descended into Scrappy status for being bland, one-dimensional villains that don't fit the Sonic universe. Despite their status, Zavok started making more appearances in later games and media including a playable character in Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, a boss fight in Sonic Forces (when the more popular antagonists Shadow and Chaos didn't get one), and even an appearance as one of Sigma's minions in Worlds Unite, with nothing being done to make him more interesting as a character. It got to a point that when he was announced to be a member of Team Eggman in Team Sonic Racing, fan reaction was largely fan reaction was largely negative, leading many to believe he has become a Creator's Pet for Sega / Sonic Team.

Remove the Shadow example since he isn't a scrappy. Remove the Deadly Six and Zavok examples since they lack the Character Shilling requirement.

From YMMV.Mortal Kombat:

• Creator's Pet:
  • Stryker was this in Mortal Kombat 3, considering the creators thought he would turn into the most popular newcomer but was rejected for being overpowered and out of place in the setting with his buffs in the Updated Re-release earning him more ire. It would not be until Mortal Kombat: Armageddon he would return and it would take Mortal Kombat 9 to rescue him
  • Scorpion. Signs of this began popping up in Injustice: Gods Among Us, when Scorpion was announced as a guest character and was met with almost universal scorn, especially when he was deemed overpowered before a patch fixed his attributes. Then, when Mortal Kombat X rolled around, fans began to notice a disturbing trend in the trailers (as well as those in games before this one) - any featuring both Scorpion and Sub-Zero will almost always end in Sub-Zero being completely beaten down and finished off in a gory fashion by Scorpion. Did we mention that he's currently the mascot for NetherRealm Studios and is Ed Boon's favorite character? That being said, his status as an Ensemble Dark Horse complicates things and makes this very much an issue, as some fans liked him being in Injustice. And even those who dislike him would admit that there are some characters that are worse such as Hsu Hao.
  • Bo' Rai Cho. Ed Boon has stated that he created the Drunken Master believing that fans would find his gross-out humor funny, but, while Bo' Rai Cho is not universally despised, that sentiment has not been shared by many parts of the fanbase. While making him a racer and having a track based on a brewery he owns in Armageddon's Motor Kombat wasn't too displeasing (even though no other post-MK3 got the benefit of such treatment), but the fact that he got to be included the in the Kombat Pack 2 over the objections of fans of other characters (e.g. the story mode only characters (Rain, Baraka, and Sindel), other longtime mainstays last time in MK9's roster, and other cutscene NPCs originally introduced in MKM:SZ, MK4, and MKDA (e.g. Fujin, Sareena, Frost, Li Mei) who were far more requested than Bo' Rai Cho has left some fans bitter.

I removed the Scorpion example since he is far from The Scrappy, being one of the most iconic and popular characters in the whole franchise. I think that Bo'Rai Cho should also be removed since his entry reads more like a Base-Breaking Character than a Scrappy. I hear that Stryker WAS pretty widely hated by fans and loved by the creators, so he might be worth keeping.