The Scrappy Cleanup

Death Battle tends to be snark bait at the best of times, and people complain all the time about everything that's inaccurate. I don't think The Scrappy applies much, since most of the hate is directed towards the creators for everything they do wrong (which is a not insignificant amount), not towards the characters.

Sounds very weak if there's some evidence towards not everyone hating the character. Also sounds like he's hated for Hate Sink behaviour.

Check out my fanfiction!

I'd like to suggest God of Death from Assassination Classroom: He was built up as an infamously deadly assassin, but fell short on his hype. Everybody he "killed" on-page turned out to be alive, and the anime had to hastily retcon it so that he deliberately let them live to spread the word of his menace. He let his own Bond Villain Stupidity allow Class-E to easily outsmart him. Then, he anti-climatically gets taken out by Kurasama. The manga then retcons Korosensei to be the real God of Death while the one Class-E fought was his former apprentice. He returns in the final arc as a mindless One-Winged Angel serving Shiro, who could have easily filled his role (and he did in the live-action movie). Finally, the story tries making his death an Alas, Poor Villain moment, but it becomes hard to sympathize with him when he betrayed Korosensei just because he didn't give him attention, brainwashed Irina, remorselessly tried to slaughter Class-E, and gleefully killed Kayano under Shiro's orders. It's telling how unpopular he was when he was ranked 40th place in the popularity polls and not many objected to him being Adapted Out of the live-action movie.

Just letting you know, popularity polls are good at telling who's not a Scrappy, but horrible at telling who is. Scoring low on popularity polls usually just tell you that that character doesn't have many people who consider them their number one favorite character, but doesn't actually tell you how many people hate them.

So I have a question. Can a Scrappy have a fanbase? To use examples from MLP FIM (I know talking about that show has been done to death) both Angel Bunny and Snips/Snails have fans. A pretty big vocal minority at that. Or does having any fans despite being hated otherwise mean they are exempt from this trope?

Is this trope similar to Complete Monster in that the character must have no fans, because I see Erika being well liked outside of the anime, and Whitney, despite placing low on popularity polls, does have a fanbase.

edited 11th Jun '18 8:12:13 PM by Klavice

Scrappies can have some fans. Tastes are subjective after all. A majority of people just have to hate them.

Complete Monsters can also have fans, btw.

edited 11th Jun '18 8:39:03 PM by PhiSat

Oissu!

Nah, I knew a CM could have fans because Manga!Light exists.

My biggest issue with this trope is characters apparently becoming scrappies after they were previously Ensemble Darkhorses, like... Brian, Denzel Crocker, Cosmo etc. And if they're welcome to stay, should we add Wanda too from Fairly oddparents, since she has been increasingly nagging throughout the series and wants Timmy and/or Vicky to suffer especially through tormenting them through Timmy's wishes backfiring and humiliating Vicky in front of her crush in S5, or would we keep characters like Crocker, Mr. Turner, Cosmo, Wanda, etc to Base Breaking Character? Because Cosmo is actually pretty well liked even to this day. I've talked to people who watched the newer episodes and a lot of them say Cosmo despite being a total idiot, is still enjoyable to watch. Crocker is still a fan favourite (though more by the creators now). Or is that Bile Fascination?

edited 11th Jun '18 8:53:53 PM by Klavice

Bile Fascination is still a type of fans, and they count against The Scrappy. It's kind of like So Bad, It's Good.

A Complete Monster can easily have fans. The lack of redeeming features does not mean the audience can't like the character.

Check out my fanfiction!

I believe Trish from Devil May Cry should be cut. Among other things, her entry itself admits she's not hated. That YMMV page in general is a mess.

Removed since it admits it might have been intentional.

From YMMV.My Little Pony Equestria Girls 2013 Sunset Shimmer is listed as The Scrappy for their portrayal in the movie, They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character for having a intreating backstory and potential that she's a Scrappy for wasting, and Base-Breaking Character in part because of her backstory she listed as a Scrappy (already incompatible with BBC) for not utilizing. She got Rescued from the Scrappy Heap afterwards but is listed a BBC since some think she's too generic a nice girl now and still hasn't explored her backstory.

This is such a mess I don't know where to start. Halp.

I know nothing about the franchise and cannot help. Sorry.

Anyways, another Devil May Cry example in Vergil from the reboot. Personally, I hate Vergin, but he's also listed as a BBC, and not only that, but I'm pretty sure quite a few people like this iteration. At least one review of Vergil's Downfall called his Then Let Me Be Evil moment the moment that separates him from the rest of the cast in a good way. I've seen a good bit of fanart, too, although that generally doesn't mean much. DmC is messy but someone has to deal with this.

This was just added to YMMV.PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee:

• Replacement Scrappy: E3 footage suggests that Blue will be replaced by a new, more amiccable rival. Setting aside how the older fanbase has grown weary of "friendly" rivals and wants to have a jackass to fight again, the fact that he replaces Blue, one of the most iconic human characters in the franchise, does him no favors.

Aside from the misuse of We Want Our Jerk Back!, can characters in upcoming works be The Scrappy or a Replacement Scrappy?

The game isn't even out yet, so those reactions are kneejerk at best. Burn the entry.

I really don't think we should allow The Scrappy for works that aren't even out. Those usually haven't been out long enough to amass the number of haters required for this audience reaction.

I removed the entry and I agree that characters in upcoming works don't qualify as The Scrappy or any of its subtropes as it's too early to tell how they will be received.

This entry from the Western Animation page should either be cut or rewritten.

"It's also worth mentioning the progressiveness of Cosmo's Idiot Hero status. Think he can't get any stupider? Think his voice can't get any higher? Well guess again!"

Cosmo has plenty of fans even in the new episodes, some of which from Bile Fascination.

He's stupid yes, but given that he's not a Creator's Pet like Crocker and Timmy's Dad. Creator's Pet is often a Scrappy and is not only popular with fans but that Wanda is less popular should be enough to remove him.

As for Crocker and Timmy's Dad...

"As the series has undergone an undeniable Seasonal Rot, Flanderization has taken effect, elevating some characters into shameful caricatures of their former selves. While some people find Crocker's repetitive schemes mildly funny, there are those who see the character as a loud and annoying shell of a man instead of the Jerkass Woobie he used to be."

Flanderization should not be a reason to make a character a Scrappy. If that was the case, the Trope Namer Ned Flanders should be one. It all hinges on whether or not the character was likeable in the beginning or at the very least had more fans.

Also there's this from the Sonic Sat AM page.

"While they have a fanbase, Sally and Antoine get occasional flak for their Spotlight-Stealing Squad status and their roles tracking away from the main character (Sally always had moral superiority over Sonic and ensured a karmic downfall for him whenever he ignored her, while Antoine was The Load with similar obnoxious slapstick as Dulcy). "

Umm... I'm pretty sure both characters have sizeable fanbases. Like Sally is especially popular in the Furry Fandom. It's like calling Krystal a Scrappy because she's not Falco/Fox/Wolf.

And to address the Sunset Shimmer thing, cut it. She's listed under Base-Breaking Character as she has plenty of fans especially compared to the aforementioned Snips/Snails and Angel.

I'm all for cutting Trish btw, I know she has fans and not just a vocal minority.

edited 12th Jun '18 6:18:32 PM by Klavice

Flanderization is a perfectly acceptable reason to have a character as a Scrappy if their flanderization makes them hated to a majority of the fandom. I don't think a majority of the Simpsons fandom (is that even a thing?) hates Ned.

Sally has a very vocal Hatedom. Like, very vocal and very big. Not just a small number of people. I've only ever met one or two Sally fans and I was in the Sonic fanbase for years. I met plenty of Sally haters.

edited 12th Jun '18 8:06:35 PM by PhiSat

Oissu!

Should be noted that Sally is already listed on the YMMV page for SatAm as a Base-Breaking Character, which should dis-qualify the character for being a Scrappy.

Also as someone whose a part of the Sonic fandom, most of what I've experienced has been the opposite of PhiSat. Most of the fans I know like Sally, whilst I've only seen one fan who actively disliked her.

We must have hung out in different circles. I'm fine with putting her in Base-Breaking Character.

Oissu!

Super Smash Bros.

Does Pichu from count as a Scrappy? The best I can think about it is Tier Induced Scrappy, and even that is intentional.

Diddy Kong and Dark Pit are suspect too. Diddy is hated "by some circles." Dark Pit sounds like some personal complaint.

edited 13th Jun '18 8:58:44 AM by RAlexa21th

Where there's life, there's hope.

Diddy was more of Tier Induced Scrappy, but I believe that's died down since he received some nerfs to his moveset. He's still considered a top-tier character, but he has a few more reliable counters now.

Keep Dark Pit but remove the last bit of him being the reason some commonly requested characters didn't make it in because IIRC, Moveset Clones are the last characters to be implemented into Smash Bros.. If a certain character didn't make it in, it was decided long before a clone was implemented.

A correction: An example of Creator's Pet is always also an example of The Scrappy. If a character is not The Scrappy, the character cannot be Creator's Pet. Creator's Pet is a subtrope of The Scrappy.

Check out my fanfiction!

I'm not really active in the MLP fandom anymore, but I do seem to recall fans eventually warmed up to Sunset Shimmer a bit. With that particular fandom, shouldn't we keep in mind that the target audience is mostly little girls, and the complaints come from the Periphery Demographic? I was under the impression that a character who is mostly hated by those outside the target demographic is not a Scrappy.

There's an ATT about the Scrappy status of Trish from YMMV.Jessica Jones 2015. I removed it since 1. she's also listed as a Base-Breaking Character, which is the safer call, 2. she's called out for her actions, so it's doesn't seem unintentional.

Any objections with the cut? Anyone familiar with series care to weigh in?

So I just want to mention Vergil from the Devil May Cry reboot again? He's also a BBC and I think that's a safer bet. On the one hand, he is meant to be hated for being evil, but he's also hated for being a far cry from the original's stoic badassery. I want to go with BBC for him even though I personally hate the character.

Bringing up this example recently added to The Death of Superman:

• The Scrappy: Doomsday himself has increasingly become this, mostly from fans who find him horribly uninteresting and seriously overexposed. He's nothing more than an angry brute who overpowers Superman and beats him to death, and he receives neither an origin nor any form of characterization in the original story. (Even Nothing Is Scarier can't save him, since he got both later on and they were widely seen as unimpressive.) That'd be one thing if he wasn't mandated to appear in any Call-Back, adaptation, or homage to a story that DC just loves to go back to.

And there's also a different write-up for the same character on TheScrappy.Comic Books under Superman:

• Doomsday gets quite a bit of heat, mostly for him being the poster child for the Generic Doomsday Villain (it's in the name). The Death of Superman tends to hold a divisive position among fans, but Doomsday is almost always described as one of its weakest aspects, for being little more than a big bony brainless brick with a fairly dumb backstory, who Superman defeats by the clever method of punching him a lot until they both die, and for taking the role of "Superman's killer" away from better-established villains. Starring in an iconic story also meant that he kept showing up well past it, despite being killed off multiple times. Worse, while fellow 90s event Hero Killer Bane has managed to leverage his role in an iconic story to become more interesting, all Doomsday seems to do with his fame is keep cropping up for increasingly monotonous slugfests. His tendency to lose these slugfests have also piddled away whatever threat he once had, and made his big break look increasingly like a lucky shot. A wide chunk of the fanbase is completely sick of him, and considering that he has at least one official Expy that amounts to calling him everything wrong with modern Superman, it seems the feeling isn't unique to them. That he got to be the final villain in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice only furthered the vitriol towards him, as it made him the first Superman villain besides Zod, Zod's henchmen, or Lex to appear in a movie, rather than the dozens of better-regarded ones.