History Main / EightDeadlyWords

* ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'': Linkara cites this as one of the reasons he dislikes the works created or inspired by Creator/RobLiefeld. None of the grizzled NinetiesAntiHero[=es=] are anything more than props that fire massive guns and spew one-liners. He hardly has a clue who any of the characters are, what they like or dislike, what their hobbies are, or whether or not they like pina coladas. And they only seem capable of displaying one emotion: [[TheBerserker pissed off]]. They're all so interchangeable that Linkara makes a running joke of referring to individual early Image comics as any of the other, similar early Image comics by "mistake".

* ''Series/{{Cheers}}'': Diane tried to prove Frasier and Lilith's hateful jabs at each other were masking attraction by bringing up Wiesel's quote, "The opposite of love is not hate. It's indifference." Sam replied he didn't really care one way or another.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'' Fan and creator favorite episode "[[{{Recap/AngelS02E02AreYouNowOrHaveYourEverBeen}} Are You Now or Have You Ever Been]]" sees Angel reliving an experience in the Hyperion Hotel in the 1950s. Angel largely kept to himself, aside from befriending one resident. When her own secret is about to be laid to bare, she reveals Angel keeps blood in his room. Fearing he's a psychopath or worse, he's hanged in the hotel's lobby, with the crowd leaving in shame once they realize what they've done, but obviously not realizing Angel can't be killed in this manner. Turns out the hotel is actually host to a demon who feeds on insecurities that Angel could easily stop, but when the demon points out how long he can feed off the guilt created by his apparent death and all the souls in the hotel stopping him would save, Angel coldly responds "Take them all." and leaves.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'' Fan and creator favorite episode "Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been?" sees Angel reliving an experience in the Hyperion Hotel in the 1950s. Angel largely kept to himself, aside from befriending one resident. When her own secret is about to be laid to bare, she reveals Angel keeps blood in his room. Fearing he's a psychopath or worse, he's hanged in the hotel's lobby, with the crowd leaving in shame once they realize what they've done, but obviously not realizing Angel can't be killed in this manner. Turns out the hotel is actually host to a demon who feeds on insecurities that Angel could easily stop, but when the demon points out how long he can feed off the guilt created by his apparent death and all the souls in the hotel stopping him would save, Angel coldly responds "Take them all." and leaves.

* ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'': Linkara cites this as one of the reasons he dislikes the works created or inspired by Creator/RobLiefeld. None of the grizzled [[NinetiesAntiHero nineties antiheroes]] are anything more than props that fire massive guns and spew one-liners. He doesn't know who hardly any of the characters are, what they like or dislike, what their hobbies are, or whether or not they like pina coladas. And they only seem capable of displaying one emotion: pissed off. They're all so interchangeable that Linkara makes a running joke of referring to individual early Image comics as any of the other, similar early Image comics by "mistake".
* [[http://mightygodking.com/2011/08/31/so-flashpoint/ One reviewer about]] ''{{Comicbook/Flashpoint}}'': It's hard to care about the events of an alternate universe that wouldn't exist or matter anyway after a few months. It's harder still when the overwhelming majority of the characters are so hideously unlikeable that you get the impression the world would be better off destroyed. Add in the fact that the only character from "our" DCU is Barry Allen, widely regarded as a CreatorsPet, and you have a comic that winds up mostly being a lot of empty, unpleasant noise.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheEmojiMovie'' is ''[[SnarkBait infamous]]'' for this. With almost all of the characters being {{flat|Character}}, [[TheScrappy annoying]], and/or just plain [[{{Jerkass}} unlikable]], you can't find yourself rooting for anyone to make it through in the end, with the exception of [[EnsembleDarkhorse Akiko Glitter]], [[spoiler: who is the ''only'' character to die.]] There is also the fact that Gene has what WebVideo/{{Bobsheaux}} claimed is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja2egaTGOwE#t=11m00s "probably the most depressing character motivation I've ever heard in my life."]] Add to it that WebVideo/TheMysteriousMrEnter said that it doesn’t remind him of ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'', ''Disney/WreckItRalph'', ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie'', or even ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'', but it actually reminded him of the Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg films, which are {{Shallow Parod|y}}ies notorious for being unfunny.

** On ''The Escapist'', they make this observation of the movie ''Film/{{Monsters|2010}}'', noting that both leads are unsympathetic and {{Flat Character}}s.

* Peter Bradshaw expresses [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/sep/06/lawless-review this view]] of ''{{Film/Lawless}}'' calling it "an empty exercise in macho-sentimental violence", describing the supposed heroes of the film as flat heroes and the villain as "a pantomime baddie".

** Creator/GeorgeARomero's ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985'' received [[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19850830/REVIEWS/508300302/1023 one and a half stars]] in part because much of the movie consists of "unpleasant, violent, insane" or ridiculously noble characters shouting at each other. And while he doesn't utter the eight words out right, he does say that in Romero's [[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968 previous]] [[Film/DawnOfTheDead1978 movies]] "we cared about the characters."

** For ''Film/ErinBrockovich'' he said, "lacks focus and energy, the character development is facile and thin."

* This is a common criticism leveled against ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' by [[BrokenBase its detractors]]. Due to the game's exceptionally SlowPacedBeginning and the [[AllThereInTheManual reliance on datalogs]] in order to [[LostInMediasRes understand the events of the first several chapters]], many players simply give up on trying to follow the story, who the characters are, what they are doing, and ''why''. Add that to the [[NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom incredibly restrictive gameplay]] which many describe as being a "20-hour-tutorial", the fact that [[DesignatedHero the protagonists all seem to hate each other]] (thus [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic exacerbating their]] [[BaseBreakingCharacter respective character flaws]]), and the repetitive nature of the dialogue[[note]]"Pulse Fal'Cie are the enemies of Coccoon", "Our Focus is to destroy Coccoon", "Our Focus is to protect Coccoon", etc.[[/note]], and you end up with a huge number of players who soon become not only ''disinterested'' in the story and characters, but intuitively ''[[TheScrappy sick of them]]''. Basically, you need ''a lot'' of empathy and patience in order to enjoy the game and see it through to the end, which, obviously, not all players are going to have.

* This is a common criticism leveled against ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' by [[BrokenBase its detractors]]. Due to the game's exceptionally SlowPacedBeginning and the [[AllThereInTheManual reliance on datalogs]] in order to [[LostInMediasRes understand the events of the first several chapters]], many players simply give up on trying to follow what is going on, who the characters are, what they are doing, and ''why''. Add that to the [[NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom incredibly restrictive gameplay]] which many describe as being a "20-hour-tutorial", the fact that [[DesignatedHero the protagonists all seem to hate each other]] (thus [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic exacerbating their]] [[BaseBreakingCharacter respective character flaws]]), and the repetitive nature of the dialogue[[note]]"Pulse Fal'Cie are the enemies of Coccoon", "Our Focus is to destroy Coccoon", "Our Focus is to protect Coccoon", etc.[[/note]], and you end up with a huge number of players who soon become not only ''disinterested'' in the story and characters, but intuitively ''[[TheScrappy sick of them]]''. Basically, you need ''a lot'' of empathy and patience in order to enjoy the game and see it through to the end, which, obviously, not all players are going to have.

-->'''Spoony:''' You have to have exposition to avoid completely alienating your audience. If they don't ''know'' anything, they can't ''care'' about anything. There's nothing, not even a brief text-crawl or introductory monologue to form even the most rudimentary base of a narrative. I don't know where we ''are''! I don't know who anyone ''is''! I don't know what the rules are, and [[ShowDontTell I shouldn't have to read]] [[AllThereInTheManual a fucking novella of footnotes to have this explained]]. And when the ''footnotes'' fail to explain it's own fucking terms, I don't even know ''how'' to define what a complete failure at even the most fundamental aspects of storytelling this fucking is!

* This is a common criticism leveled against ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' by [[BrokenBase its detractors]]. Due to the game's exceptionally SlowPacedBeginning and the [[AllThereInTheManual reliance on datalogs]] in order to [[LostInMediasRes understand the events of the first several chapters]], many players simply give up on trying to follow what is going on, who the characters are, what they are doing, and ''why''. Add that to the [[NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom incredibly restrictive gameplay]] which many describe as being a "20-hour-tutorial", Hope's [[AngstDissonance excessive angsting over his mother's death]], Lightning's surliness and hostile attitude towards the other party members, Snow's [[WhatAnIdiot poor decision-making that frequently lands them in even more trouble than they started with]], [[TheScrappy Vanille]]'s childlike voice and behavior that is clearly intended for a lolicon audience, and the repetitive nature of the dialogue (i.e. "Pulse Fal'Cie are the enemies of Coccoon"), and you end up with a huge number of players who are not only disinterested in the story and characters, but actively ''loathe'' them. Basically you need ''a lot'' of patience in order to enjoy the game and see it through to the end, which, obviously, not all players are going to have.

** ''[[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]]'' expressed the exact same sentiment [[https://youtu.be/5ys9YNgBE28?t=2009 in his review]], best summarized by this line: "You have to have exposition to avoid completely alienating your audience. If they don't ''know'' anything, they can't ''care'' about anything. There's nothing, not even a brief text-crawl or introductory monologue to form even the most rudimentary base of a narrative. ''I don't know where we are! I don't know who anyone is! I don't know what the rules are, and [[ShowDontTell I shouldn't have to read]] [[AllThereInTheManual a fucking novella of footnotes to have this explained]]. And when the ''footnotes'' fail to explain it's own fucking terms, I don't even know ''how'' to define what a complete failure at even the most fundamental aspects of storytelling this fucking is!''"

** ''[[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]]'' expressed the exact same sentiment [[https://youtu.be/5ys9YNgBE28?t=2009 in his review]], best summarized by this line: "You have to have exposition to avoid completely alienating your audience. If they don't ''know'' anything, they can't ''care'' about anything. There's nothing, not even a brief text-crawl or introductory monologue to form even the most rudimentary base of a narrative. ''I don't know where we are! I don't know who anyone is! I don't know what the rules are, and [[ShowDontTell I shouldn't have to read]] [[AllThereInTheManual a fucking novella of footnotes to have this explained]]. And when the ''footnotes'' fail to explain it's own fucking terms, I don't even know how to begin to describe what a complete failure at even the most fundamental aspects of storytelling this fucking is!''"

** ''[[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]]'' expressed the exact same sentiment [[https://youtu.be/5ys9YNgBE28?t=2009 in his review]], best summarized by this line: "You have to have exposition to avoid completely alienating your audience. If they don't ''know'' anything, they can't ''care'' about anything. There's nothing, not even a brief text-crawl or introductory monologue to form even the most rudimentary base of a narrative. ''I don't know where we are! I don't know who anyone is! I don't know what the rules are, and [[ShowDontTell I shouldn't have to read]] [[AllThereInTheManual a fucking novella of footnotes to have this explained]]. And when the '''footnotes''' fail to explain it's own fucking terms, I don't even know how to begin to describe what a complete failure at even the most fundamental aspects of storytelling this fucking is!''"

** Even worse, it can leave such a bad impression that the Eight Deadly Words can carry directly over to its sequels. Case in point, ''WebVideo/JesseCox'' has stated that he doesn't really care for any of the characters in the ''Final Fantasy XIII'' games, but it wasn't until ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'' came out that he finally couldn't stand them anymore.
** ''[[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]]'' expressed the exact same sentiment [[https://youtu.be/5ys9YNgBE28?t=2009 in his review]] of ''FFXIII'', best summarized by this line:
*** '''Spoony:''' You have to have exposition to avoid completely alienating your audience. If they don't ''know'' anything, they can't ''care'' about anything. There's nothing, not even a brief text-crawl or introductory monologue to form even the most rudimentary base of a narrative. ''I don't know where we are! I don't know who anyone is! I don't know what the rules are, and [[ShowDontTell I shouldn't have to read]] [[AllThereInTheManual a fucking novella of footnotes to have this explained]]. And when the '''footnotes''' fail to explain it's own fucking terms, I don't even know how to begin to describe what a complete failure at even the most fundamental aspects of storytelling this fucking is!''

*** Spoony: You have to have exposition to avoid completely alienating your audience. If they don't '''know''' anything, they can't '''care''' about anything. There's nothing, not even a brief text-crawl or introductory monologue to form even the most rudimentary base of a narrative. '''I don't know where we are! I don't know who anyone is! I don't know what the rules are, and [[ShowDontTell I shouldn't have to read]] [[AllThereInTheManual a fucking novella of footnotes to have this explained]]. And when the ''footnotes'' fail to explain it's own fucking terms, I don't even know how to begin to describe what a complete failure at even the most fundamental aspects of storytelling this fucking is!'''

* This is a common criticism leveled against ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' [[BrokenBase by its detractors]]. Due to the game's exceptionally SlowPacedBeginning and the [[AllThereInTheManual reliance on datalogs in order to understand the events of the first several chapters]] (see LostInMediasRes below), many players simply give up on trying to follow what is going on, who the characters are, what they are doing, and ''why''. Add that to the [[NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom incredibly restrictive gameplay]] which many describe as being a "20-hour-tutorial", Hope's [[AngstDissonance excessive angsting over his mother's death]], Lightning's surliness and hostile attitude towards the other party members, Snow's [[WhatAnIdiot poor decision-making that frequently lands them in even more trouble than they started with]], [[TheScrappy Vanille]]'s childlike voice and behavior that is clearly intended for a lolicon audience, and the repetitive nature of the dialogue (i.e. "Pulse Fal'Cie are the enemies of Coccoon"), and you end up with a huge number of players who are not only disinterested in the story and characters, but actively ''loathe'' them. Basically you need ''a lot'' of patience in order to enjoy the game and see it through to the end, which, obviously, not all players are going to have.

** This is a common criticism leveled against ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' [[BrokenBase by its detractors]]. Due to the game's exceptionally SlowPacedBeginning and the [[AllThereInTheManual reliance on datalogs in order to understand the events of the first several chapters]] (see LostInMediasRes below), many players simply give up on trying to follow what is going on, who the characters are, what they are doing, and ''why''. Add that to the [[NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom incredibly restrictive gameplay]] which many describe as being a "20-hour-tutorial", Hope's [[AngstDissonance excessive angsting over his mother's death]], Lightning's surliness and hostile attitude towards the other party members, Snow's [[WhatAnIdiot poor decision-making that frequently lands them in even more trouble than they started with]], [[TheScrappy Vanille]]'s childlike voice and behavior that is clearly intended for a lolicon audience, and the repetitive nature of the dialogue (i.e. "Pulse Fal'Cie are the enemies of Coccoon"), and you end up with a huge number of players who are not only disinterested in the story and characters, but actively ''loathe'' them. Basically you need ''a lot'' of patience in order to enjoy the game and see it through to the end, which, obviously, not all players are going to have.
** Even worse, it can leave such a bad impression that the Eight Deadly Words can carry directly over to its sequels. Case in point, ''WebVideo/JesseCox'' has stated that he doesn't really care for any of the characters in the ''FinalFantasyXIII'' games, but it wasn't until ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'' came out that he finally couldn't stand them anymore.

* ''WebVideo/JesseCox'': At times he has stated that he doesn't really care for any of the characters in the ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' games, but it wasn't until ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'' came out that he finally couldn't stand it anymore.

See also DarknessInducedAudienceApathy, where an excessively dark setting renders the protagonist's struggle so futile that the audience can't bring themselves to get invested in it even if the characters have some shred of likability. Also see XPacHeat, the ProfessionalWrestling equivalent.

See also DarknessInducedAudienceApathy, where an excessively dark setting renders the protagonist's struggle so futile that the audience can't bring themselves to get invested in it even if the characters have some shred of likability.

---> Yes, a lot of epics have big talks and complicated storylines, but the story of King Arthur works because we see our flaws and strengths in the character. ''Star Wars'' works because we like these people and want to see them get through alive. Thus, we’re with them when they’re thrown in these complex and dangerous worlds. Here, you don’t care about anybody, so you don’t care about the backstories or the made-up worlds. It attempts instead to sound big instead of feel big. It tries too hard in lesser areas and not hard enough in the ones that really matter. If there is one thing that’s epic in this film, it’s what an epic disaster it gave us in the end. It really is the Valhalla of botched epic stories.

* The original version of ''{{Disney/Zootopia}}'' was a much darker story, where Zootopia was a hellish, racist dystopia that put shock collars on predators because they were "dangerous", even if that predator was a ''child''. Even beyond the collars it was still heavily discriminatory against them. The movie's director Byron Howard said that, in a positive example of ExecutiveMeddling, a Disney executive said that no one would ''want'' the city to survive the movie's conflict because it's an awful place. The creators took the advice and toned down Zootopia's racism a good deal. Thankfully the change turned out to be a positive one, and Zootopia was a critically acclaimed hit.

* ''WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows'': Todd [[http://blip.tv/todds-pop-song-reviews/cinemadonna-bloodhounds-of-broadway-7043713 had such an opinion of]] ''Bloodhounds of Broadway'', summing it up in one word: "POINTLESS". His reason is that it's a compilation movie without any unifying story; the only common thread between the multiple plotlines is that the characters all eat at the same restaurant, and the film switches from story to story so abruptly that there's no reason to get invested in any of them.

* Creator/ChrisStuckmann stated in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo5NETEV0S0 his review of]] ''[[Film/{{FantasticFour|2015}} Fant4stic]]'' that the film's poor world-building prevented him from caring about Earth as Doctor Doom began to destroy it, noting that a DownerEnding would have been more interesting than the actual outcome. Uninteresting characters and [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil a lack of spoiler-warning-worthy events]] hardly helped.

->''"You need characters that you care about, and you need emotional investment. And then the action and special effects and the slime and the aliens and the coolness is the icing on the cake. But you need 'a cake' to put icing on it. You can't just eat the frosting, or else, uh, it's too sugary and it's bad for you, and you get the diabetes."''
-->-- ''[[WebVideo/HalfInTheBag Half in the Bag]]'', ''Franchise/AlienVsPredator'' rifftrack

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Not to be confused with SevenDirtyWords.

->''"You need characters that you care about, and you need emotional investment. And then the action and special effects and the slime and the aliens and the coolness is the icing on the cake. But you need 'a cake' to put icing on it. You can't just eat the frosting, [[{{Metaphorgotten}} or else, uh, it's too sugary and it's bad for you, and you get the diabetes]]."''

->''"You need characters that you care about, and you need emotional investment. And then the action and special effects and the slime and the aliens and the coolness is the icing on the cake. But you need 'a cake' to put icing on it. You can't just eat the frosting, or else, uh, it's too sugary and it's bad for you, and you get the diabetes."''

* ''Series/Angel'' Fan and creator favorite episode "Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been?" sees Angel reliving an experience in the Hyperion Hotel in the 1950s. Angel largely kept to himself, aside from befriending one resident. When her own secret is about to be laid to bare, she reveals Angel keeps blood in his room. Fearing he's a psychopath or worse, he's hanged in the hotel's lobby, with the crowd leaving in shame once they realize what they've done, but obviously not realizing Angel can't be killed in this manner. Turns out the hotel is actually host to a demon who feeds on insecurities that Angel could easily stop, but when the demon points out how long he can feed off the guilt created by his apparent death and all the souls in the hotel stopping him would save, Angel coldly responds "Take them all." and leaves.