History CreatorsPet / VideoGames

** Almost any main character created by Richard Knaak for the tie-in novels is this, and very very obviously so. Rhonin (comes out of nowhere, abruptly because the leader of the Kirin Tor and marries the unknown-until-now youngest Windrunner sister (who exists as a prize if anything, and is a colossal Faux Action Girl as well as coming off massively racist), travels through time to save the world, and so on), Krasus (a.k.a. Korialstrasz, Alextrasza's heretofore-unknown prime consort, a.k,a. Borel the irresponsible asshat mage on the execrable retcon that is the ''Sunwell trilogy'' of manga), Lucas Foxfire (a human allegedly ''born in the Emerald Dream'', Knaak's biggest lore-failure yet as the Emerald Dream is a vision of Azeroth if the planet had never been touched by sapient life)... It's ot just the heroes either. Darkhan Drathir, a mouthy, spoiled mage background character in a prior novel, became a Villain Stu in the ''Sunewell Trilogy'', going so far as to defeat Sylvanas offscreen somehow. In the woods. In the woods she's patrolled as a ranger for years. SOMEHOW. And the list goes on. Many of these characters have a palatable enough concept, but Knaak's complete lack of technical skill and talent, his lack of creativity, and his ''refusal to play any of the Warcraft franchise's games'' make for some true clunkers. His work being rife with gross sexism and Unfortunate Implications doesn't improve the experience. There are many drinking games to be found based on his work. The new tie-in novel about Varian should prove to be an exercise in alcohol poisoning.

** Varian's hijacking of Onyxia's kill was rather obnoxious in and of itself, putting him almost in MartyStu territory, and his constant whininess about how a secret sect of the Forsaken experimented on humans without Thrall's knowledge automatically makes the Horde evil and unbearable has made him almost a return to the Alliance's roots as horrible anti-orc racists. Thrall has been taking his responsibilities quite well, only making appearances for [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Crowning Moments of Awesome]], where Varian has the wonderful privilege of being a gigantic fracking tool in every cutscene he's in. The fact that he serves as the instigator for a larger Alliance Vs Horde split in the latest expansion is especially grating: Thrall was doing quite well in working the Horde and Alliance towards a solid cold-war style peace, and with one word Varian brings it crumbling around Thrall's head.

** Thankfully, [[MemeticMutation GabeN]]'s favorite class is the Spy, and the recent Australian Christmas update gave the classes with less weapons (i.e. Pyro and Engineer) unique sci-fi weapons akin to that of the Soldier's recent findings, in addition to the obvious Christmas-themed stuff.

* Soldier from ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' is getting accused heavily with this for a number of reasons, including a recent spree of highly controversial updates that give him more weapons to work with (ignoring what statistically amounts to reskinned weapons, Soldier has 20 different weapons. Demoman and Heavy only have 16 each). The fact that he's Robin Walker's favorite class does ''not'' help defend his case.

*** On the other hand, Quan Chi has definitely become a Creator's Pet due to how in MK9, he is given a greatly increased role and ends up taking most of Shang Tsung's old role.

*** Thrall does make a few appearances in patch 4.3... you have to follow him around in an EscortMission dungeon instance (Hour of Twilight) and he shows up in the final battle against Deathwing after the players fought him to near victory and KillSteal the whole fight with a [[DragonBallZ spirit bomb.]] And did we mention he gets ALL the attention from the dragon aspects in the following cinematic? Yeah, we'll be standing over there, saving the world from teh next OmnicidalManiac while you philosophize about the endless nature of war and the passing of the age.

*** Thrall does make a few appearances in patch 4.3... you have to follow him around in an EscortMission dungeon instance (Hour of Twilight) and he shows up in the final battle against Deathwing after the players fought him to near victory and KillSteal the whole fight with a [[DragonBallZ spirit bomb.]]

** Fortunately the Rabbids have now been spun off into their own series, while Rayman is getting a new game that seeks to return him to form.
* In ''[[GuildWars Guild Wars Factions]]'', the character of Mhenlo at times felt more like the hero then the player characters. In the cutscenes, he seemed to do most of the thinking and talking, and he appeared to be...acquainted...with most of the female population of Cantha. In addition, that chapter was full of [[EscortMission Escort Missions]], usually with him as the person who you had to keep alive. (It helped that Mhenlo was actually a healer who was good at keeping himself alive, though.) Fortunately, ArenaNet dialed his importance FAR back in later campaigns and didn't make that mistake again.

* Reaver from {{Fable}} 2 could be argued as one, as the writers constantly paint him as a BadAss MagnificentBastard despite the [[MoralEventHorizon numerous atrocities]] he commits throughout the game.
** However, he is voiced by none other than StephenFry. It wouldn't have mattered if they'd had him kill your dog - he'd still be everyone's favorite character. He is also rather amusing to watch (admittedly with Barnum that wasn't considered funny).
** As of the release of Fable 3, ''he's baaaaack''. And you still can't kill the man. [[SarcasmMode Joy]].
** To our comfort at least, pretty much EVERY character hates Reaver with a bloody passion, and it's hard to find someone in the game who doesn't want him dead. Doesn't help much though, considering in Fable 3, you have no choice but to rely on him as king/queen even though he tried to kill you earlier in the game. You're either forced to agree with his evil ideas or use his company to have your morally sound decisions reach fruition.
* The ''{{Mario}}'' games have two Creator's Pet characters, both of whom were introduced in ''SuperMarioSunshine'':
** FLUDD from ''SuperMarioSunshine'' seemed to have garnered a lot of hate because of the fact that you can't move on in the game without using it. Even worse, because of the controls having to be remapped to account for FLUDD's presence, Mario loses one of his most useful moves, the long jump, and this also caused many players to not be aware that the backflip was still present[[hottip:*:Press and hold R down all the way, not just with slight pressure and press A]]. The hate [[UpToEleven escalated]] when it replaced Mario's B-Down move in ''SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' as fans greatly preferred his old B-down move in ''SuperSmashBrosMelee''. The old B-Down move is still there (As his Aerial Down attack), but DamnYouMuscleMemory still means lots of accidentally pumping up FLUDD.

** The biggest Creator's Pet is Bowser Jr. In ''SuperMarioSunshine'', he was merely a ReplacementScrappy (for the [[EnsembleDarkhorse Koopalings]]) who was far from alone in being annoying and poorly voice-acted, but despite overwhelmingly negative fan reaction (particularly in the West), he has since reappeared in ''all four'' (both ''NewSuperMarioBros'' games, and both ''SuperMarioGalaxy'' games) of the subsequent installments of the main series, something not even true of beloved characters like Yoshi. He always has a very prominent role in the plot. Fans hate him, but the developers are in love with him. Since the Koopalings are back in ''NewSuperMarioBrosWii'', it seems at least one of the issues has been resolved.
*** And now he's completely absent from ''SuperMario3DLand''.

* [[TheRival Shadow]] is currently seen as this by half of [[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic's]] BrokenBase. He was once the most [[EnsembleDarkhorse popular character]] in the series with his debut in ''SonicAdventure 2'', having a deep and compelling backstory as well as being an EvilCounterpart to Sonic. After his apparent death at the end was {{Retcon}}ned into him surviving with amnesia, a huge amount of plot focus was put on him in ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes''. Later, he got his [[ShadowTheHedgehog own game]] that continued his story arc. Due to all of the focus on him, many fans have started to hate him for somehow managing to displace, if only temporarily, ''Sonic himself'' from being the focus of the series. The Sonic-displacing is proven by Sonic being nerfed in boss fights against Shadow to a truly unbelievable degree and being given a thorough backseat moveset-wise. In Sonic X, 9 times out of 10, Shadow will have Sonic on the ropes with Sonic putting up no believable resistance given his consistent attributes throughout the series.
** Shadow is also the Assist Trophy (which work like Pokeballs) from Sonic's universe in SuperSmashBrosBrawl, seemingly displacing other candidates such as Tails or Knuckles, who are relegated to running loop-de-loops in the background of the Sonic stage alongside Silver.
* This is always a risk with ExpositionFairy characters, for example the eponymous character from TheMinishCap.
* Soldier from TeamFortress2 is getting accused heavily with this for a number of reasons, including a recent spree of highly controversial updates that give him more weapons to work with (ignoring what statistically amounts to reskinned weapons, Soldier has 20 different weapons. Demoman and Heavy only have 16 each). The fact that he's Robin Walker's favorite class does ''not'' help defend his case.

* ''[[{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]'' fans got their Creator's Pet with the form of Pichu, a second-generation Pokémon promoted heavily ''two generations later''. It's known that Pichu is one of the creator's favorite Pokémon, but in the height of rumors about the fifth generation and with a new movie on the way (that would make all generation-four Pokémon featured at least once in the anime), Spiky-eared Pichu (a female Pichu with a spike/notch-ended ear) made her first appearance. Not only every fan was left with such a let down, but she was basically promoted as one of the main stars of the twelfth movie, that featured the ''God of Pokémon''. She made her way into merchandising, got an anime ending, and even got an appearance as a very special event-only Pokémon in ''[[PokemonGoldAndSilver HeartGold and SoulSilver]]''. They also got as far as featuring a Pichu ''with AN UKULELE'' as a big surprise for [[PokemonRanger an upcoming game]] (a spin-off, fortunately).

** They despise her because the only reason the fan base likes her is because she is a fairly attractive woman. In Baldur's Gate, she was a generic character (she even had one of the generic voice sets rather than a unique one) with virtually no development beyond being almost forced on you as your first party member so you had access to thief skills. The only role in the plot was to die in Baldur's Gate 2, but given the undeserved fan base love for her, they had to rewrite vast sections of the plot to accommodate that.

*** It seems that originally, Nintendo even intended to make Shadow a playable character in Brawl.
** It's worth nothing that before Shadow arrived, Sonic already had a [[TheRival rival]] in the form of Knuckles. In the years following Shadow's introduction, Knuckles became a gullible moron who will believe anything Eggman tells him and started getting treated as a joke character. These days nearly any cutscene that features him consists in humor at his expense. If you tell a gamer who started playing Sonic games in recent years that Knuckles is Sonic's equal or that he's supposed to be a pretty intelligent character (as stated in his official bios seen in the a Bonus Pack book offered with ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''), he'll probably laugh at you.

* ''[[{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]'' fans got their Creator's Pet with the form of Pichu, a second-generation Pokémon promoted heavily ''two generations later''. It's known that Pichu is one of the creator's favorite Pokémon, but in the height of rumors about the fifth generation and with a new movie on the way (that would make all generation-four Pokémon featured at least once in the anime), Spiky-eared Pichu (a female Pichu with a spike/notch-ended ear) made her first appearance. Not only every fan was left with such a let down, but she was basically promoted as the only star of the twelfth movie, that featured the ''God of Pokémon''. She made her way into merchandising, got an anime ending, and even got an appearance as a very special event-only Pokémon in ''[[PokemonGoldAndSilver HeartGold and SoulSilver]]''. Not only every single fan wanted to throw up every time "Pichu" was mentioned, but they also got as far as featuring a Pichu ''with AN UKULELE'' as a big surprise for [[PokemonRanger an upcoming game]] (a spin-off, fortunately). All this by the time everybody expected to death a Generation V Pokémon.
** Let us not forget about Plusle and Minun, who had a lot of exposure in marketing, movies and spinoffs despite lacking in stats and basically being "Pichu/Pikachu [[RecycledInSpace AS TWINS]]" designwise. Thankfully, they only had this much exposure during Generation III and the following "Pikaclones" had much less of exposure... Aside from Pichu...

** Still, he's consistently the second most popular character in the series via polls. And he hasn't been mandatory to play in a game since Sonic 2006, where he arguably had the best storyline, if not gameplay, so he's been pretty much redeemed.

* [[TheRival Shadow]] is currently seen as this by half of [[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic's]] BrokenBase. He was once the most [[EnsembleDarkhorse popular character]] in the series with his debut in ''SonicAdventure 2'', having a deep and compelling backstory as well as being an EvilCounterpart to Sonic. After his apparent death at the end was {{Retcon}}ned into him surviving with amnesia, a huge amount of plot focus was put on him in ''SonicHeroes''. Later, he got his [[ShadowTheHedgehog own game]] that continued his story arc. Due to all of the focus on him, many fans have started to hate him for somehow managing to displace, if only temporarily, ''Sonic himself'' from being the focus of the series. The Sonic-displacing is proven by Sonic being nerfed in boss fights against Shadow to a truly unbelievable degree and being given a thorough backseat moveset-wise. In Sonic X, 9 times out of 10, Shadow will have Sonic on the ropes with Sonic putting up no believable resistance given his consistent attributes throughout the series.

** Shadow is also the Assist Trophy (which work like Pokeballs) from Sonic's universe in SuperSmashBrosBrawl, seemingly displacing other candidates such as Tails or Knuckles.

* Seth from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' to an UNBELIEVABLE degree. He could well be the videogame poster boy for this trope. He's received a huge amount of flack from reviewers and the fandom in general for his lackluster design, [[ThatOneBoss massively cheap AI]] and cloned move-list. Producer Yoshinori Ono acknowledges this hatred, recently stating "Everybody hates Seth, that's why he's back as the end boss in SSF 4. I want to torture people with him!" and admits "Seth will remain a target of universal hate".

* Seth from ''StreetFighterIV'' to an UNBELIEVABLE degree. He could well be the videogame poster boy for this trope. He's received a huge amount of flack from reviewers and the fandom in general for his lackluster design, [[ThatOneBoss massively cheap AI]] and cloned move-list. Producer Yoshinori Ono acknowledges this hatred, recently stating "Everybody hates Seth, that's why he's back as the end boss in SSF 4. I want to torture people with him!" and admits "Seth will remain a target of universal hate".

** Though he loses the MartyStu elements, Garrosh Hellscream is the Horde equivalent of Varian Wrynn. In Burning Crusade he was nothing but a minor character whose story was mostly a CallBack to Warcraft 3. Lately, he's been all over the place, leading the Horde forces in Northrend and escorting Thrall to all diplomatic events, and he's a hothead who causes conflict wherever he goes. His actions are doubly insulting to players who identify with the Horde. First, he loves to criticize Thrall and tell him what a "true Warchief" would do, despite only being a member of the Horde for less than a year (this fits the trope perfectly, since it's exactly the same as Wesley acting like he was smarter than Captain Picard). Second, for years Horde players have had to deal with idiots who aren't familiar with the story assuming Alliance are the good guys and Horde are the bad guys - Garrosh's making the Horde look bad makes ''them'' look bad as people who play Horde.
*** To be honest, Garrosh never lost Marty Stu elements, he just changed them. Now his entire involvement in Cataclysm is just other characters (besides the other racial leaders), talking about how awesome and talented he is. It almost seems like a joke, since this shilling is usually followed by Garrosh destroying his own faction through sheer stupidity.
** Most of this can be summed up as the writers liberally passing around the ConflictBall. That's not being snarky; its a well-known fact that the creators want the factions to remain at war (its called World of ''War''craft, after all), and introducing two racist, overbearing and aggressive faction leaders is a great way to do that. It was either that or derail Thrall and Bolvar Foredragon, which would have resulted in riots. Regardless, their status as Creator's Pets is a little iffy--does it really count if the creators are shoehorning a character into every situation that might fit them ''specifically'' to make everyone hate them?
*** It is when the creator's themselves have constantly stated that they wanted the players of Garrosh's and Varian's respective factions to like (or at the very least understand) everything about them. So we ultimately end up with two characters that would, under normal circumstances, be genuine [[TheScrappy scrappies]] because of their arrogance, JerkAss tendencies, and general incompetence. Yet the players are constantly bombarded with their supposed "badass"-ness at every freaking opportunity and are [[DoubleStandard then expected to be ecstatic about them]] whenever the subject about them comes up. It's a DoubleStandard if there ever was one.
**** Surprisingly it works; there are a good number of Alliance fans who heavily support Varian's hard-line stance against the Horde, especially those who feel the same as Varian in that the Horde has been responsible for a number of conflicts instigated as of Vanilla [=WoW=]. Meanwhile, there are Horde fans who love Garrosh being a more aggressive force akin to the Horde of Warcraft 1 and 2, and some others who feel the forced internal conflict he brings actually makes the Horde's story more interesting. Of course, how much is genuinely liking the characters and their impact on the story, and how much is just partisan FanDumb unquestionably supporting their favorite faction is up to debate.
** While out side the game there is Knaack's personal MarySue Rhonin from the tie in novels DayOfTheDragon and War of the Ancients, who has since become a CanonImmigrant but managed to avoid any fan hate from people unfimiliar with the novels due to not really doing much, other then being extremly {{badass}} in the one cinematic he plays a major role in.

*** It's gotten to the point of stupidity. The cinematic for the latest patch (4.2, rage of the firelands) goes as follows: Thrall's at the Maelstrom keeping the world stable, when out of no where Ragnaros comes and tells thrall about how he's going to burn the world. Thrall has halucinations of the world burning to the point of collapse and Aggra runs over to see what's wrong. Thrall has almost no presence this patch (He gets a short, arguably minor, questline [[spoiler:in which he dies and you help Aggra restore him and then they get married]], that's it), as opposed to major characters for this patch like Hamuul Runetotem, Malfurion Stormrage, Fandral Staghelm or even Leyara. Yep, Metzen loves Thrall to the point of giving him {{WolverinePublicity}}.

* The ''WorldOfWarcraft'' player base is split about the leaders of their respective factions being this. The first, Thrall, has generally been accepted as Chris Metzen's pet character ever since his initial appearance, but not many have called him out on it, since the change of the Horde from bloodthirsty demonic army to a shamanic society of {{proud warrior race guy}}s under his leadership has been accepted as a good thing for the lore. Ever since the latest expansion pack, though, we've been treated to Varian Wrynn, the rightful king of Stormwind who was lost to his people until recently. The way his change in character, return and insertion into the game has been handled, however, has been heavily criticized. Not only does his character development run a clear parallel to Thrall's, but it has been done in a fraction of the time, in which his character made a complete 180 - a barbaric human to Thrall's educated Orc - it involved some major {{asspull}}s and, to give him weight, culminated in his hijacking the lore of one of the most prominent quest lines the Alliance had: [[spoiler:the exposing and subsequent slaying of Onyxia]]. This has drawn bad blood from both factions, while getting others up in arms over Thrall's status as Metzen's pet. Currently, Varian seems more deserving of Wesley status, as the developers keep pushing him in an ever more prominent role in matters even though a large part of the base hates him, while the main complaint of Thrall's detractors is that he's doing too ''little'' to oppose the inner conflicts, instead relying too much on advisers.

** Most of this can be summed up as the writers liberally passing around the ConflictBall. That's not being snarky; its a well-known fact that the creators want the factions to remain at war (its called World of ''War''craft, after all), and introducing two racist, overbearing and aggressive faction leaders is a great way to do that. It was either that or derail Thrall and Bolvar Foredragon, which would have resulted in riots. Regardless, their status as TheWesley is a little iffy--does it really count if the creators are shoehorning a character into every situation that might fit them ''specifically'' to make everyone hate them?
*** It is when the creator's themselves have constantly stated that they wanted the players of Garrosh's and Varian's respective factions to like (or at the very least understand) everything about them. So we ultimately end up with two characters that would, under normal circumstances, be genuine [[TheScrappy scrappies]] because of their arrogance, JerkAss tendencies, and general incompetence. Yet the players are [[ShillingTheWesley constantly bombarded with their supposed "badass"-ness at every freaking opportunity]] and are [[DoubleStandard then expected to be ecstatic about them]] whenever the subject about them comes up. It's a DoubleStandard if there ever was one.

** An interesting reversal in regards to the initial point; Thrall is truly starting to slip into full-blown Wesley-ism as of ''Cataclysm''. He has since gone from being a likeable leadership figure to the shaman equivalent of Superman, which many people have felt has made him ''less'' effectual than he was before. What's worse is that it's obvious Metzen has let loose the floodgates and is gushing his unadorned love of Thrall into the narrative now. He outright stated in the Cataclysm DVD commentary that Thrall is both the most important character in Warcraft, AND that he is representative of everything the franchise is about. Many fans, even long-time fans of the series and the character, have met these statements and Thrall's character development in ''Cataclysm'' with disdain.

* Aya Shameimaru of the ''{{Touhou}}'' games has long flirted with Wesley status. She made her first appearance in ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'' as a tengu reporter who was investigating the incidents going on at the time. Oh, and she also "accidentally" beat up everyone along the way because she was "holding back" and "not actually trying to fight". This would have been one thing, but she would, in some form, go on to appear in the next ''four'' Touhou games, including a GaidenGame with her as the main character. Her appearance in ''Mountain of Faith'' was particularly infuriating because most of the old cast, Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame notwithstanding, made no appearance in this game... except for Aya, who not only ended up being the level four boss, but was explicitly stated by Touhou creator ZUN himself to have lost to the heroine ''on purpose''.

** Their Wesley status only became more apparent when one of them got a playable role in, of all places, a ''TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' game.

* Joey [=MacAdoo=] in the ''BackyardSports'' series. Saying nothing other than corny jokes (you gotta MACADOO it!) in his first appearance in ''Backyard Baseball 2007'', he was destined to become TheScrappy. The writers somehow thought he and Ernie Steele (who is also corny, but actually realizes he is making bad jokes) should be the poster boys for the series, evolving into The Wesley. Even worse: In one of the few Backyard Books, Joey is the main character.

* The ''{{Mario}}'' games have two Wesley characters, both of whom were introduced in ''SuperMarioSunshine'':

** The biggest Wesley is Bowser Jr. In ''SuperMarioSunshine'', he was merely a ReplacementScrappy (for the [[EnsembleDarkhorse Koopalings]]) who was far from alone in being annoying and poorly voice-acted, but despite overwhelmingly negative fan reaction (particularly in the West), he has since reappeared in ''all four'' (both ''NewSuperMarioBros'' games, and both ''SuperMarioGalaxy'' games) of the subsequent installments of the main series, something not even true of beloved characters like Yoshi. He always has a very prominent role in the plot. Fans hate him, but the developers are in love with him. Since the Koopalings are back in ''NewSuperMarioBrosWii'', it seems at least one of the issues has been resolved.

* ''[[{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]'' fans got their Wesley with the form of Pichu, a second-generation Pokémon promoted heavily ''two generations later''. It's known that Pichu is one of the creator's favorite Pokémon, but in the height of rumors about the fifth generation and with a new movie on the way (that would make all generation-four Pokémon featured at least once in the anime), Spiky-eared Pichu (a female Pichu with a spike/notch-ended ear) made her first appearance. Not only every fan was left with such a let down, but she was basically promoted as the only star of the twelfth movie, that featured the ''God of Pokémon''. She made her way into merchandising, got an anime ending, and even got an appearance as a very special event-only Pokémon in ''[[PokemonGoldAndSilver HeartGold and SoulSilver]]''. Not only every single fan wanted to throw up every time "Pichu" was mentioned, but they also got as far as featuring a Pichu ''with AN UKULELE'' as a big surprise for [[PokemonRanger an upcoming game]] (a spin-off, fortunately). All this by the time everybody expected to death a Generation V Pokémon.