I completely agree. Most people don't even take Karina's crush seriously to even invoke a shipping war.
Is Barnaby The Scrappy or The Base Breaker? I've been wondering about that one ever since I stumbled upon this huge Barnaby flame thread on LJ. Does everyone hate the guy? Or are there people who like him too? (I don't think the fact that I like him qualifies him as a Base Breaker if his hatedom is too big ^^) A couple of days back he was The Base Breaker, but the current YMMV page lists him as The Scrappy. What does everyone else think?
Edited by sylverfairi Hide / Show RepliesHe's easily my favorite character, and I know there are others who like him. But apparently a lot of Kotetsu fans resent his popularity in-universe, and his "mean" attitude toward Kotetsu in the first half of the series - seriously, I've seen people hating on him simply because "he gets all the respect and recognition while Kotetsu gets nothing!!!" (as if Kotetsu was supposed to be some underrated genius... way to miss the point!)
So he's definitely not a Base Breaker. He does have fans and people who genuinely like him, but he also has a sizeable hatedom and I've never seen anyone in fandom praise him the way the Base Breaker entry implied. I'd say he's The Scrappy, the poor boy.
Edited by BaranoBiglobe's character survey for the 2011 spring season has him ranked in second place (of the spring anime season, not just T&B), so I wouldn't call him an unpopular character. I think it's a case of a vocal minority more than anything.
"If there's a hole, it's a man's job to thrust into it!" — Ryoma Nagare, New Getter RoboWell, I hope that survey is accurate! Poor Barnaby needs to catch a break — and it's kind of disturbing to see that the only people who seem to like him (in forums, at least) are yaoi fangirls who view him as the "perfect tsundere uke"...or something. X_X
Edited by sylverfairiWell, I have a number of college friends that like him because they find his quirks and OCPD-ish tendencies adorable (and were a bit surprised to learn that my favorite character was someone else), and I've seen some people (such as one of the people who runs Thisissternbild.com) say that he rubbed them the wrong way at first but eventually he grew on them as on of their favorite characters. Mostly a silent majority, it seems. At least on the forums.
"If there's a hole, it's a man's job to thrust into it!" — Ryoma Nagare, New Getter RoboSo I guess Base Breaker suits Barnaby better than The Scrappy? Or should we just leave both tropes in since it's the YMMV page? Or take both of them out because it's more like he's a normal character with an unusual division in fan/hatedom?
Edited by sylverfairi>Sparkysharps - That survey was in the Japanese fandom, though, and afaik TV Tropes is concerned with English language fandoms, unless noted otherwise. I've noticed a lot more animosity toward him in the English language fandom, at least on LJ and Tumblr.
I still think he's no Base Breaker, though. Base Breaker implies a definite divide in fandom over the character, re: flamewars between fans vs haters, etc. something I haven't seen at all in T&B fandom.
Edited by BaranoOkay, got that. So I guess I'll take him off the Base Breaker trope page. (I wasn't the one who added him there, but someone did)
Is Barnaby like the T&B equivalent of Sasuke (from Naruto)? As in: Japanese fans like him, Western fans (not counting the crazy yaoi addicts) loathe him? Something to do with being hell-bent on avenging murdered family members, maybe; though imo that makes them more warranting of sympathy than hate. (Perhaps Western fans just like the idea of avenging dead lovers better? I'm not from the Western hemisphere so I wouldn't know) I did see someone on a forum sneering at Barnaby for "having both mommy and daddy issues"... <_<
Edited by sylverfairiThat would make him a case of Americans Hate Tingle.
Though, again, I'm pretty sure it's just a vocal minority over here in the West, too.
What's precedent ever done for us?Then by 3-against-1 vote we can assume for now that Barnaby is not the Scrappy. But I also acknowledge that he isn't a Base Breaker, so I guess we'll keep him as neither.
I'd completely forgotten about Tingle! (Not even remembering it when I mentioned Sasuke ~ shame on me) But yeah, I think that's a much better way of describing the Japanese vs. American (and possibly British/European?) reactions to Barnaby's personality. The Tingle trope page does mention how troubled, brooding bishounen bear the brunt of the Western world's hatred of "emo freaks" while the Japanese are fascinated by them, so...
Thanks for the heads-up, laculus!
Edited by sylverfairi
Is it just me or is the Ship-to-Ship Combat and Real Women Never Wear Dresses an example of Vocal Minority? Most people in the fandom don't seem to care about who ships what and Karina isn't really dissed as being an bad example for girls, more like she gets hate from not having any Character Development of getting over her crush and having more screentime/development then most of the heroes. Maybe I'm just avoiding looking in the right places.
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