reynard61
So where the heck is Dr. Smith of the '60s TV series??? If anyone was "The Load" it was certainly him! (Especially in the third season, when he went from being a comic villain to the borderline Scrappy.)
Going where Angels fear to tread...
Can we push to have some kind of clarification that non-combatants are NOT by nature The Load? I'm pretty sick of the way Non-Action Guy and non Action Girl characters keep getting labelled as such because they're not badass fighters, even if they're skilled healers, medics, hackers, engineers, strategists, etc. Ignoring the fact that its a highly insulting viewpoint that borders on sexism in many cases, but the simple fact that they make themselves useful in other areas defeats the classification given, yet people seem to label almost any character they dislike who isn't a badass as this. Is there anything we can do to correct the way the trope is used?
Thinking of removing:
◦A much straighter example would be Orihime. She never takes part in any action and when she does, she's either healing or her attack does pretty much nothing. Her default setting is screaming for Ichigo to help her.
As it's highly subjective. Healing is extremely useful (especially the reality-warping sort that can reverse death) and, from what I remember, she's only asked for help once, and only because all her powers were failing in a stressful moment. Should this example stay or should it go? Comments?
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Take Orihime out. She's been plenty useful since then. The only time she's been The Load was in the Lust Arc, and that's highly subjective as it involved mental trauma.
It's not me, it's you.
What's the difference between "The Load" and "The Leecher"? I have been thinking that the latter can be the former's alt. title.
Edited by 222.166.54.174
Ulkomaalainen
The description says (shortened) "This is the TV/Movie equivalent of NP Cs". While I can understand including literature - wouldn't all the video game examples have to be removed?
Page needs to be easier to find for people who forget the extremely generic word "load". I tried "burden" (useless) and "clingy" and "saddled with" and "bundle" (running out of ideas). A link from Clingy MacGuffin would have brought me here pretty quick. I never did find an over-arching category of things you would rather not have, but feel duty bound to lug along. Just watched The Island of Lost Souls tonight, where in marine code there is a duty of rescue, so the captain can end up with passengers he'd rather not have. Also, the "load" has a strong alternate meaning (as in: dumped my load) which is so pejorative as an insult, he'd be used to wipe your snit-kickers not be riding your back.
Edited by IxnayBecomingHuman
Pan praescribens
Wouldn't Samwell Tarly start as this in Game of Thrones? He's very aware of it, though, so I guess that would be... subverted?
What is this I don't even
- Sailor Moon, titular heroine notwithstanding, comes off as the load a lot in the anime (not so much in the manga). Her redeeming grace is that she's almost exclusively the only one who can finish off the Big Bad of the day and she can buckle down and work hard. Despite this, she has almost no combat skill, whines incessantly, is book dumb or chooses not to try, overeats and oversleeps, and mooches off her friends and family for money and emotional support.
I really don't see how this counts as at all, since "The Load" can't be the one who kills the villian EVERY SINGLE TIME and often saves the others or solely moves the action forward. All the examples are just how Usagi acts in her everyday life, which has nothing to do with being a competent superhero, except for the "no combat skill" which is blatantly untrue, as again, she's always the one who can kill the villian. (Also "mooches off her friends and family for money and emotional support?" Since when? The only person who ever buys her things is her boyfriend, and what...you're not supposed to have friends and family give you emotional support when you also support them? I thought that was the point?)..coupled with the "whines incessantly", it pretty much seems like "Complaining About Characters You Don't Like". It's pretty impossible for the protagonist of an action series to be a load, and Sailor Moon isn't one, even if she does screw up and need saving on occasion (it is in the others job description to help her out and protect her, after all)
Does Professor Aronnax from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea count as The Load since he contributes a little to the group's welfare? It's probably the case of Tropes Are Not Bad.
Seth C Triggs
Is the MST 3 K presentation of The Mole People the Trope Namer for The Load, or at least an alternate?
Removed Charles De Gaulle from real life, because I felt he was more of a Base Breaker than a straight example and is too controversial to be a straight example.