History MisaimedFandom / VideoGames

* Dark Sun Gwyndolin of ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' falls into two closely knit types of Misaimed Fandom. RaisedAsTheOppositeGender and forced to present as a girl against his will by his father, even being made to wear a ring that gives male characters female animations and vice versa, all because he was born with "girly" moon powers instead of "manly" sun powers. The aforementioned ring says that he hated wearing it. All of this is presented in [[AllThereInTheManual the various bits of lore found in the item descriptions]]. So on one hand you have fans who insist that Gwyndolin is a transgender woman despite evidence to the contrary, and on the other you have fans who insist the "evidence" of in-game lore should be suddenly taken at absolute face value. While there's nothing that directly contradicts Gwyndolin identifying as male, there's also no consensus on roughly 80% of the rest of the backstory. Which is what the creators intended.

* Dark Sun Gwyndolin of ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' falls into two closely knit types of Misaimed Fandom. RaisedAsTheOppositeGender and forced to present as a girl against his will by his father, even being made to wear a ring that gives male characters female animations and vice versa, all because he was born with "girly" moon powers instead of "manly" sun powers. The aforementioned ring says that he hated wearing it. All of this is presented in [[AllThereInTheManual the various bits of lore found in the item descriptions]]. So on one hand you have fans who insist that Gwyndolin is a transgender woman despite evidence to the contrary, and on the other you have fans who insist the "evidence" of in-game lore should be suddenly taken at absolute face value. While there's nothing that directly contradicts Gwyndolin identifying as male, there's also no consensus on roughly 80% of the rest of the backstory so declaring it to be absolute canon is misguided.

* Dark Sun Gwyndolin of ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' was RaisedAsTheOppositeGender and outright ''forced'' to present as a girl against his will by his father, even being made to wear a ring that gives male characters female animations and vice versa, all because he was born with "girly" moon powers instead of "manly" sun powers. At no point do any of the games refer to him as anything but male, the description of the aforementioned ring says that he hated wearing it, and yet he still has people insisting he's a trans woman instead of a child abuse victim.

** Fans who base support on a Sora and Namine romance due to the events of ''Chain of Memories'', which ignores that all of the memories Sora had of Namine were fake, and the feelings he had toward her were actually his feelings for Kairi increased to obsessive levels by the FakeMemories so that he would become Namine's - and thus, Marluxia's - slave. It wasn't supposed to be a good, loving thing; it was deception.
** A lot of people hate Xion because she hits a lot of WishFulfillment triggers, which was intentional with Xion's introduction in ''358 Days''. Xion was meant as a ParodySue specific to the ''Kingdom Hearts'' fandom, showing just how terrible things would be if such a character were placed into the setting. She's presented as just making an already bad situation worse, her backstory reveals that she was created to serve the plans of Organization XIII and little else, and [[spoiler:she's even the final boss when she can't fight her way out of Organization XIII's plans. Her death leaves her RetGone, and it's played as tragically as possible, since not even her closest friends remember Xion so much as existed]]. Xion's role in the story and ultimate fate is adamantly ''not'' meant to be WishFulfillment.

* Canderous Ordo and the Mandalorians from ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' are frequently beloved by fans for their [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy warrior race]] culture and mentality... overlooking the fact that Canderous speaks casually and candidly of wrecking whole worlds during the Mandalorian Wars, and that the reason Revan took up his famous mask was due to the [[spoiler: Mandalorians' xenocide of the Cathar.]][[note]] You find much of the fandom for Mandalorians coming from Star Wars fans who view the Republic and Empire as StupidGood and StupidEvil. Top it off with Chris Avellone's analysis in the second game that the factions are proxies for a group of overpowered wizards dragging everyone into their ceaseless religious war. Karen Traviss had this view of Star Wars and tried with varying degrees of success as presenting the ''Mando'ade'' as TakeAThirdOption, a group of [[MugglePower non-Force Sensitives]] who were capable of going toe to toe with Jedi or Sith, and who weren't beholden to either. Oh, and Boba Fett sure helped. [[/note]]

** [[spoiler:Tohru Adachi]], a serial-killing, [[StrawMisogynist misogynistic]], [[ItsAllAboutMe egocentric]] "[[spoiler:police dick]]" ([[VideoGame/Persona4ArenaUltimax no, seriously, that's a canon title]]) whose attitude towards women is basically summed up in his fandom-popular phrase from ''Persona 4'' ([[BeamMeUpScotty which he never actually said in that game]]), "bitches and whores". For some reason though, there's a vast majority of the fanbase who actually considers him "not that bad". Never mind the fact that he's completely sexist, he's also a complete psychopath, who cannot be described in any other way than "fucked in the head". Of course, this isn't helped by the fact there's an ending in the game where [[spoiler:the player character can pick to act as Adachi's accomplice]]. Again, this ending wasn't supposed to feel rewarding though. It's specially designed to be a "you're a screwed up person" ending. The writers explicitly stated numerous times that the entire idea of [[spoiler:Adachi]] was to [[HateSink design someone the player would end up loathing]], who could be considered without any real question or debate as being a "bad guy", who everyone and their dog wouldn't like by the end of the game, especially to be in contrast with Persona 3, where some of the real villains have some arguably good intentions. [[spoiler:Adachi]], however, was designed to be completely evil, with next to no real redeeming factors left by the end of the game. ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena Ultimax'', however, softens up on him a bit, [[spoiler:making him willing to go out of his way to make sure he actually faces justice for his crimes and that the case isn't just thrown out because of some completely unrelated supernatural shenanigans, and ending with him beginning to come around to the Investigation Team's way of thinking]].

*** Shadow Kanji takes the form of a CampGay man (and before that, there are a few moments that portray Kanji as AmbiguouslyGay). Because of this, the fandom has a tendency to fixate on Kanji's ambiguous sexuality as the be-all, end-all of his problems, when the game makes it clear that, as much as his sexuality is a ''part'' of his problems with himself, his real problem is with acceptance of his whole personality -- especially his [[RealMenWearPink "unmanly" hobbies and interests]] -- both from himself and from other people. Essentially, the fans [[{{Flanderization}} flanderize]] him into "the token Gay Guy", when his actual story is how he simply isn't sure how to view himself in relation to Japan's strict viewpoints on gender roles. His Shadow is also touted as if it's absolute truth that he's gay - except that again, Kanji's arc is about how arbitrary gender and sexuality expectations are forced upon someone.... and thus [[UnfortunateImplications the fandom doing it is]] ''exactly'' what caused his problem to begin with.
*** Kanji, along with the existence of the YaoiGenre or the presence of the YaoiFangirl trope, are also touted as proof that Japan is perfectly accepting of homosexuality... Except that many instances of yaoi is seen as niche at best in Japan, the genre itself is aimed at straight people - and Japan is actually not nearly as LGBT-friendly as many people believe it to be. In fact, a lot of Kanji's issues stem from how Japanese society rejects him for being AmbiguouslyGay, Yosuke's teasing him about it is a BerserkButton for Kanji, and in addition to having a crush on Naoto, also shows interest in Yukiko early on.
*** ''WebAnimation/ExtraCredits'' gets on on this - in their sexual diversity episode, they praise Atlus for writing a gay character and praise Kanji because a tough guy with a feminine side who is gay (And comes to terms about it) makes him different than the other tough guys with feminine sides in their eyes. The bit about the acceptance of his personality is rarely mentioned at all, and they even bring up Naoto as an example in this episode but don't go in because they feel it would be too spoilerific.
** Some players complain about Yukiko's decision to give up on a chance to pursue an interior decorating career outside Inaba and instead inherit her family's inn, viewing it as a betrayal of her character arc, in which she becomes more independent. This is missing the point of Yukiko's CharacterDevelopment- before, she resigned herself to inheriting the inn because she felt as though she had to do it, but by the end of her Social Link, she decides to inherit the inn because she ''wants'' to do it to help her family, the inn's employees and the town. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfBSSYfIvyg This video]] analyzes Yukiko's character and explains why her decision to stay in Inaba makes sense for her.
* ''VideoGame/Persona5''

*** After the release of the game, the Enclave went from being the most generally hated faction in the wasteland, as they were in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'', to having a ''huge'' fandom, who [[RootingForTheEmpire consider them the best bet to lead the Capital Wasteland out of the darkness]]. This is partially explainable by the fact that Fallout 3 doesn't directly reference their origins as the insane and inbred descendants of the corrupt military and governmental elites who caused the great war, and tones down their genocidal inclinations from "standard operating procedure" to "providence of the somewhat crazed AI that's supposedly running the show". But, even then, the Enclave are still a bunch of brutal would-be tyrants and warlords who want to rule everything with an iron fist. It's just that the portrayal of the Capital Wasteland as, well, a wasteland full of raiders and super mutants makes some fans argue that their dominance would be a step ''up'' - [[SarcasmMode a wasteland full of raiders in power armor is much more welcoming, after all.]]

*** Similar to the case for Fallout 3 [[UpToEleven taken to the extreme]], even more frightening are the people who claim that the Brotherhood is the best choice for the Commonwealth in ''Fallout 4''. They're pretty much a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything fanatic, isolationist, autocratic cult of personality]] with access to the most raw firepower of any faction. Despite their position in the Capital Wasteland only 10 years earlier, Maxson's Brotherhood of Steel seems to be more interested in killing all Ghouls, Super Mutants, and Synths over helping the people of the Commonwealth. Granted, neither the Railroad nor the Institute helps the Commonwealth as a whole, but they don't really claim to.

** Some fans of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' prefer Cecil as a Dark Knight and wish he stayed that way instead of becoming a Paladin. Statistically, Dark Knight Cecil is [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130308050921/http://www.dawezy.com/LevelComparison.htm generally]] inferior to Paladin Cecil. Second, Cecil can be seen as no more badass as a Dark Knight -- it's when he becomes a Paladin that he begins to gain confidence and retaliate against the enemy. Third, EvilIsCool and DracoInLeatherPants don't even apply here since Cecil was never evil in the first place, just misguided by one of Golbez's Four Archfiends. Finally, him staying as a Dark Knight is missing the point of the game; Cecil is TheAtoner. ''The whole point'' is for him to change from what he was in his past and become a better person. This is not helped by ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' where Cecil wields both classes cheerfully, without much regard to the fact that in ''Final Fantasy IV'', Cecil hated being a Dark Knight with it being portrayed as a self-destructive path that led to misery and pain.

*** While not a popular reaction when the game first came out, it's common in recent years for people reviewing the game to say they like Cloud's ex-SOLDIER persona better than the real personality he adopts after he sorts out his delusions and decides to [[BeYourself Be Himself]]. The original game tries to keep both persona charming through relatable flaws and Cloud's sense of humour (DeadpanSnarker or SelfDeprecation respectively), but a lot of Cloud's appeal is that he's darker than your average IdealHero JRPG protagonist; his prickly ex-SOLDIER personality is still a fairly unusual approach in the genre, while his earnest and dorky real personality is quite similar to previous and succeeding ''FF'' protagonists like Bartz, Locke and Tidus. Sequels, spinoffs and cameos which made the post-delusion Cloud [[{{wangst}} incredibly depressed]] help to emphasize the sense of fun that the theatrically cool jerk had by comparison. So much for the entire moral of his character arc! (It should be noted that even in-universe, Cid finds the 'new' Cloud wimpy and prefers the older version.)

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''
*** Those who dislike the game's voice acting will always point to a [[SignatureScene particular scene]] where Tidus is laughing obnoxiously, to the point where it's become [[MemeticMutation emblematic]] of the game's problems in general. There exists a GameMod which replaces all of Tidus's dialogue with the laughing, and the music with autotuned Tidus laughs. However, in the scene itself, it's clearly supposed to be [[BadBadActing in-character bad acting]], with the other characters finding it embarrassing and complaining about it ("maybe you [[AnnoyingLaugh shouldn't laugh any more]]"). It got to the point that Creator/JamesArnoldTaylor, Tidus' English voice actor, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRWab0q9aw4 had to make a YouTube video about to explain it in context]].
*** Jecht is beloved by the fandom and seen as a RatedMForManly character, to the point where many fans of him often criticize Tidus for being "whiny". There are some who also argue that while Jecht was flawed, the fact Tidus turned out okay means he wasn't ''that'' bad of a father. The game very clearly paints Jecht as a shitty father, and he later realizes how much of a mistake he was, as he wanted to invoke ToughLove but his flaws made him instead an abusive person. Several of his Sphere's left behind show that over his journey with Braska, he sobers up and wants to make amends but the fact he can't return home to do so makes him feel even worse about it, and in the finale when he gets to see Tidus again, he accepts Tidus' anger towards him and owns up to his mistakes. The fact Tidus turned out as well as he did doesn't prove Jecht was a good father either, instead it was in-spite of Jecht that Tidus grew up as a good person, as Jecht was gone for a good amount of his life. Despite this, many of Jecht's fans often ignore that and focus on how "cool" he is, which isn't helped by games like ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' making him out to be a badass and doesn't really show him having the same development as he did back in ''X''.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'''s [[BigBad Ardyn]] is [[LoveToHate beloved]] by most Western fans for being a total MagnificentBastard with {{Troll}}ish tendencies who also has a [[TragicVillain backstory]] that makes him more than a CompleteMonster, and he is widely seen as much [[EvilIsCool cooler]] and overall a better character than the protagonists. Some take this to the point of recasting him as a HeroAntagonist who is justified in wanting revenge for [[spoiler: Somnus attempting to kill him, inadvertently killing his love Aera, and usurping the throne to become the founder of Lucis]]. Although what [[spoiler: Somnus]] did is cruel (and kicking his ass in Episode Ardyn is [[KickTheSonOfABitch very satisfying]]), it hardly justifies Ardyn [[spoiler: turning the entire planet into a DeathWorld to avenge himself on Somnus' distant descendant who has no idea about what his ancestor did, Ardyn was unfit to be king due to his corruption, even if Somnus' opposition to him was partially motivated by [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]], and Somnus does seem regretful at the end of Episode Ardyn]].
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'':

*** A lot of fans see Tharja's {{Yandere}} attitute towards [[PlayerCharacter the Avatar]] as fetish material and it's a major reason why [[EnsembleDarkhorse she's so popular]]. Her ending up as an [[AbusiveParents abusive mother]] to her daughter Noire [[spoiler: in the BadFuture]] was most likely intended as a PlayerPunch for players who didn't realise this, as well as a {{Deconstruction}} of what marrying a {{Yandere}} might eventually lead to. And yet there are a ton of fans who see the Avatar, Tharja and their children as a perfect happy family, despite Noire herself calling her mother out on her behavior and Tharja herself realizing that this isn't the way to go. There's no denying she ''does'' have a HiddenHeartOfGold, but that still doesn't mean her negative traits were meant to be appealing.

*** The game has two realms with very different sets of morals and very different world-buildings associated to them. Both are supposed to be seen as possessing pros and flaws which are incarnated in their Royal Families: despite their differences they all love the Avatar, [[ChildOfTwoWorlds who belongs to both groups]], with all their hearts and will '''not''' react well to him or her choosing one over another [[spoiler: or, in ''Revelation'', '''not''' choosing a side.]] However, the fans have decided to latch on one Royal Family/Kingdom [[RonTheDeathEater and bash the fuck out of the other]], portraying their chosen "family" as poor dumb innocents whose flaws must be ignored or swept away to fetishize their suffering, while the other one is downgraded to Evil Incarnate and has its pros handwaved. The most rabid Nohr fans creepily reduce the genuinely tragic Nohrian Royal Family into helpless and fetishized victims who should never be called out for their own mistakes, while at the same time whining about the "horrible and privileged" Hoshidan Royal Family and deliberately ignoring how their supports [[spoiler: and Takumi's fate in ''Conquest'']] show that they're more dysfunctional than they seem; the most rabid Hoshido fans paint Nohrians as nothing more than {{card carrying villain}}s blindly following an Avatar who is little more than a deluded fool so they can have some sort-of petty revenge at these privileged Hoshidans (at worst) or as complete idiots who also blindly follow an Avatar who is little more than a deluded fool so they can appease King Garon (at best).
*** Leo's son Forrest is a WholesomeCrossdresser and ActionFashionista who explicitly says he's a guy despite his girlish tastes in clothing '''and openly states that he's uncomfortable whenever he's mistaken as a girl. In supports, he reveals that because he was lonely in the Deeprealm, he took up fashion as a way to find some kind of happiness, so his love of fashion is a coping mechanism as well. Despite this, and the game even discussing this notion not being the case, part of the fandom insists that Forrest is a trans girl.

*** All of the story routes run on GrayAndGrayMorality, with various plotlines being exclusive to one or more detailed in another, and many revelations are exclusive to one route. Due to this, and the habit of most players to default to one route as being "their GoldenEnding", many fans will take their route's storyline as being the one that explains all of the games story as fact, even when other routes throw suggestions that it is not the case. A person playing the Crimson Flower route for example might see [[spoiler:Rhea as hating all of humanity, behind every single problem in Fodlan and evil, due to Edelgard's biased assertions about her]], missing the nuance of the Silver Snow route and the revelations of the Verdant Wind route, while someone on the other routes will see [[spoiler:Edelgard as an EvilOverlord and the BigBad, causing them to miss her DarkAndTroubledPast and reasons for her actions]]. The routes most guilty of this are the Crimson Flower and the Azure Moon route because they are the ones most opposite with each other, and present many views and revelations that are true, but only FromACertainPointOfView.
*** There are parts of the fandom that insist the Church of Seiros is homophobic, for no other reason than it's vague inspiration to the Catholic Church, which is through the eyes of a [[ValuesDissonance Japanese game developer]]. Not only is there nothing to suggest this in-universe, the ''archbishop'' [[spoiler:and ''founder'' of the church itself]] is a [[GayOption bi option]]. Compounding it further, Mercedes, one of the most devout characters in the game is also a bi option. Marianne comes at a close second when it comes to piety, and though she’s not a bi option, she ''does'' have a bit of [[ShipTease subtext]] with her friend Hilda. Even [[TheTease Yuri]] is shown to have some faith and he's flirting with a [[PlayerCharacter Byleth]] of either gender right out of the gate. Hell, the [[spoiler:''Goddess herself'']] is a bi option. In each of these cases the issues of two women or two men getting together in a romantic relationship isn't even considered an issue, just two people coming together. Yet there's a troubling percentage of the fandom insisting the Church is homophobic.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'' gives us the WhamLine that Saturos and Menardi from [[VideoGame/GoldenSun1 the first game]] [[spoiler: were actually [[AntiVillain doing what was right]] for their hometown and the world]] after all. While indeed, the cast of the first game [[spoiler: actually take over their footsteps in going to light the rest of the lighthouses]], it's very hard to blame them for thinking that Saturos and Menardi were pure evil and wanted to unseal alchemy for their own selfish purposes. Saturos and Menardi [[HeKnowsTooMuch beat up Isaac and Garet when they were fourteen for simply overhearing them]], regularly beat up (and sometimes kill) people who got in their way, go out of their way to KickTheDog for [[ForTheEvulz a cheap giggle]] like shoving a tree they knew [[AndIMustScream was a cursed woman]] into the river (it's implied it killed her if you [[VideoGameCaringPotential don't rescue her]]), engaged in kidnapping, and attempted to kill them ''multiple'' times. PoorCommunicationKills, yes - given the information that Isaac and Garet (As well as the players!) were given in the first game, it's hard to blame the first four for thinking Saturos and Menardi were evil when they're at absolute best [[SociopathicHero Sociopathic]] {{Nominal Hero}}es. This is even acknowledged when the party gets to their hometown in ''The Lost Age'', with the town mayor and elder coming to understand and not fault Isaac's party [[spoiler:for killing Saturos and Menardi]] once they explain why.
* Dr. Breen in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' has his fans who think he did the right thing by assuring the survival of humanity by surrendering, except there are hints that he staged the entire Resonance Cascade for personal gain, and he is the one who insisted on the highly specific test requirements. Some of his comments as you [[spoiler: climb up the Citadel]] are [[HannibalLecture actually quite reasonable]], so it is easy to see how this gets started. [[spoiler: Of course, this is discounting how he's a borderline CardCarryingVillain who mind controls the populace with tainted water and by all accounts is still playing the fate of humanity for his own personal stake in the Combine empire]].

* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'', villain Raul Menendez has more than his fair share of fans. In-game, he's billed as the "hero of the 99%", and has inspired millions to follow his ideals. His exploits throughout the game (including rampaging through a burning homestead to save his sister, being able to shoot whomever he wants during the "Cordis Die" mission, and having a soft spot for David in 2025) has made at least one part of the fanbase believe Menendez is a cross between CrazyIsCool and a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds. Yet, he's still responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people prior to the events of the game (including, and up to, [[spoiler:Hudson and Alex Mason]]), and is more than willing to destroy the United States just to avenge the deaths of two people. Menendez is engaging in DisproportionateRetribution at its finest, and yet there are some people who consider him a hero.

* While [[{{Goth}} Goth Boy]] for the ''VideoGame/MySims'' series has [[EnsembleDarkhorse many fans]], a few fans believe the creators [[CriticalResearchFailure got the goth subculture wrong]]. Except, if anything, Goth Boy is supposed to be an AffectionateParody. The game has many Spooky Sims, each having their own unique personalities, so saying they got it wrong with just one character isn't fair. Plus the subculture is pretty chill and doesn't have too many requirements, [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting so the games actually got it]] ''[[AccidentallyCorrectWriting right]]''. Also, a lot of the same people gave us [[VideoGame/TheSims the Goth Family]]

*** Even more frightening are the people who claim that the Brotherhood is the best choice for the Commonwealth. They're pretty much a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything fanatic, isolationist, autocratic cult of personality]] with access to the most raw firepower of any faction, besides maybe the NCR who, despite their position in the Capitol Wasteland only 10 years earlier, seems to be more interested in killing all Ghouls, Super Mutants, and Synths over helping the people of the Commonwealth. Granted, neither the Railroad nor the Institute helps the Commonwealth as a whole, but they don't really claim to.

* Chihiro Fujisaki of ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' is a boy who was relentlessly bullied for his physical weakness and feminine appearance and resorted to crossdressing and pretending to be a girl in order to escape it. He hates it, and his sole motivation in life is to be strong so that he can go back to living as a boy without getting bullied again. In the bonus School Mode, he says outright that he's a guy. However, a subset of fans insist he's actually a trans girl and will jump down the throat of anyone who "misgenders" him by calling him a boy; the exact opposite of what he would want. The irony of it all is that one could take Chihiro's story and apply it to a trans ''boy'' with a reasonable degree of accuracy, but they don't seem to care about that for some reason.

** Another portion of the Western fandom was very disappointed in there not being a GayOption for Joker to have as his romantic partner, citing this to be a horribly overlooked aspect of 'going against society's norm'. The problem here lies in the fact that the game's social commentary was ''not'' about subverting society's views in that aspect. The plot was always about the apathy and lethargy of society, and society as a whole deciding that those in power [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney can get away]] [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections with anything]] for no reason other than their connections and status, and overall conforming more to what has already been established (bad as it may be), than to try to shake things up and attempt to improve. Part of this could be ValuesDissonance, as Japanese society is a lot more focused on bowing to those in higher positions than the western countries do.

** When Almeidrea crosses the MoralEventHorizon in ''VideoGame/TalesOfArise'', a lot of people saw Law trying to stop Rinwell from getting her revenge (at that particular point) was ''very'' stupid. Even going to consider Law playing devil's advocate for no apparent reason, or saying he is a hypocrite because he got his revenge on Ganabelt earlier. This misses that once Law had got his revenge against Ganabelt, it [[VengeanceFeelsEmpty left him with an empty feeling]] because he felt like he had no purpose, thus he [[AndThenWhat had no idea what to do with his life]]. This fits into one of the game's themes of continuing a cycle of revenge - especially since Niez [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized had apparently deposed Almeidrea earlier]] but had done so [[PyrrhicVictory leaving Niez trashed and killing an unknown amount of their own people]].

** For ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' there's quite a sizable amount of people that got turned away from the game for having an unlikable protagonist in Luke. The problem here is that [[IntendedAudienceReaction you're not supposed to like him]] at first. He's a brat, and the game spares no expense in letting you know it, and also showing how much he irks the other characters. He goes through character development at a turning point where almost nobody in the game has any sort of sympathy left for him and resolves to become a better person, losing basically every one of his traits that many players found bothersome. Of course, it's hard to know if a certain character is static or dynamic at first glance, so many players end up missing out on this, and even if you did know, you still have to put up with an intolerable character for some hours.\\\

* ''VideoGame/NickelodeonAllStarsBrawl'' was basically Nickelodeon making a PlatformFighter crossover in the veins similar to ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''. They wanted specifically to acknowledge Nickelodeon throughout history - However many people have complained that the game was including characters like [[WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse Lincoln Loud]] or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Which weren't associated with Nickelodeon by many of the PeripheryDemographic of [[TheNineties 90s kids]]) and somehow [[MisBlamed saying they were responsible]] for characters like [[WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife Rocko]] or [[WesternAnimation/{{Doug}} Doug Funnie]] not being there. Nickelodeon actually ''does'' in fact have a modern audience, despite what many people would claim, and thus including references to other shows that are either currently running or more recent is a good way to appeal to them - it wasn't specifically done as a game catering to [[TheNineties 90s nostalgia]].

* Dark Sun Gwyndolin of ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' was RaisedAsTheOppositeGender and outright ''forced'' to present as a girl against his will by his father, even being made to wear a ring that gives male characters female animations and vice versa, all because he was born with girly moon powers instead of manly sun powers. At no point do any of the games refer to him as anything but male, the description of the aforementioned ring says that he hated wearing it, and yet he still has people insisting he's a trans woman instead of a child abuse victim.
** By all accounts, it would be more accurate to refer to him as a trans man, as he was rather literally assigned female (presumably shortly after) birth due to his powers, despite actually identifying as male best as we can tell.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'' gives us the WhamLine that Saturos and Menardi from [[VideoGame/GoldenSun1 the first game]] [[spoiler: were actually [[AntiVillain doing what was right]] for their hometown and the world]] after all. While indeed, the cast of the first game [[spoiler: actually take over their footsteps in going to light the rest of the lighthouses]], it's very hard to blame them for thinking that Saturos and Menardi were pure evil and wanted to unseal alchemy for their own selfish purposes. Saturos and Menardi [[HeKnowsTooMuch beat up Isaac and Garet when they were fourteen for simply overhearing them]], regularly beat up (and sometimes kill) people who got in their way, go out of their way to KickTheDog for [[ForTheEvulz a cheap giggle]] like shoving a tree they knew [[AndIMustScream was a cursed woman]] into the river (it's implied it killed her if you [[VideoGameCaringPotential don't rescue her]), engaged in kidnapping, and attempted to kill them ''multiple'' times. PoorCommunicationKills, yes - given the information that Isaac and Garet (As well as the players!) were given in the first game, it's hard to blame the first four for thinking Saturos and Menardi were evil when they're at absolute best [[SociopathicHero Sociopathic]] {{Nominal Hero}}es. This is even acknowledged when the party gets to their hometown in ''The Lost Age'', with the town mayor and elder coming to understand and not fault Isaac's party [[spoiler:for killing Saturos and Menardi]] once they explain why.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'' gives us the WhamLine that Saturos and Menardi from [[VideoGame/GoldenSun1 the first game]] [[spoiler: were actually [[AntiVillain doing what was right]] for their hometown and the world]], and that they were right. While indeed, the cast of the first game [[spoiler: actually take over their footsteps in going to light the rest of the lighthouses]], it's very hard to blame them for thinking that Saturos and Menardi were pure evil and wanted to unseal alchemy for their own selfish purposes. Saturos and Menardi [[HeKnowsTooMuch beat up Isaac and Garet when they were fourteen for simply overhearing them]], regularly beat up (and sometimes kill) people who got in their way, go out of their way to KickTheDog for [[ForTheEvulz a cheap giggle]] like shoving a tree they knew [[AndIMustScream was a cursed woman]] into the river (it's implied it killed her), engaged in kidnapping, and attempted to kill them ''multiple'' times. PoorCommunicationKills, yes - given the information that Isaac and Garet (As well as the players!) were given in the first game, it's hard to blame the first four for thinking Saturos and Menardi were evil when they're at absolute best [[SociopathicHero Sociopathic]] {{Nominal Hero}}es. This is even acknowledged when the party gets to their hometown in ''The Lost Age'', with the town mayor and elder coming to understand and not fault Isaac's party [[spoiler:for killing Saturos and Menardi]] once they explain why.

* Dark Sun Gwyndolin of ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' was RaisedAsTheOppositeGender and outright ''forced'' to present as a girl against his will by his father, even being made to wear a ring that gives male characters female animations and vice versa, all because he was born with girly moon powers instead of manly sun powers. At no point do any of the games refer to him as anything but male, the description of the aforementioned ring says that he hated wearing it, and yet he still has people insisting he's a trans woman instead of a child abuse victim. Apparently this is just the inevitable fate of any Japanese game character who crossdresses for literally any reason when their game comes to the West.

** [[spoiler:Tohru Adachi]], a serial-killing, [[StrawMisogynist misogynistic]], [[ItsAllAboutMe egocentric]] "[[spoiler:police dick]]" ([[VideoGame/Persona4ArenaUltimax no, seriously, that's a canon title]]) whose attitude towards women is basically summed up in his fandom-popular phrase from ''Persona 4'' ([[BeamMeUpScotty which he never actually said in that game]]), "bitches and whores". For some reason though, there's a vast majority of the fanbase who actually considers him "not that bad". Never mind the fact that he's completely sexist, he's also a complete psychopath, who cannot be described in any other way than "fucked in the head". Of course, this isn't helped by the fact there's an ending in the game where [[spoiler:the player character can pick to act as Adachi's accomplice]]. Again, this ending wasn't supposed to feel rewarding though. It's specially designed to be a "you're a screwed up person" ending. The writers explicitly stated numerous times that the entire idea of [[spoiler:Adachi]] was to design someone the player would end up loathing, who could be considered without any real question or debate as being a "bad guy", who everyone and their dog wouldn't like by the end of the game, especially to be in contrast with Persona 3, where some of the real villains have some arguably good intentions. [[spoiler:Adachi]], however, was designed to be completely evil, with next to no real redeeming factors left by the end of the game. ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena Ultimax'', however, softens up on him a bit, [[spoiler:making him willing to go out of his way to make sure he actually faces justice for his crimes and that the case isn't just thrown out because of some completely unrelated supernatural shenanigans, and ending with him beginning to come around to the Investigation Team's way of thinking]].

** [[TheEmpire The Garlean Empire]] in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' are hellbent on conquering all of Eorzea and are one of the antagonists the player faces. The empire had conquered several territories by the time 2.0 begins and are on a campaign to "save" Eorzea by slaughtering all beastmen so that they can't summon primals and have said primals suck out the planet's life force to sustain themselves. There are many fans that are RootingForTheEmpire simply because they feel said empire is doing the right thing by getting rid of beastmen tribes and preventing internal conflict within the city states by having them join the Garleans. That being said, what most people seem to conveniently ignore is the Garlean Empire is known for killing anyone that refuses to join them in the war, turning people into slaves (and eventually force them to join their military ranks) if they do surrender, and are trying to use advanced technology to conquer the world, which is something the Allagan Empire tried in the past and failed at accomplishing. On top of this, the main story reveals that not all beastmen are mindless primal praying savages and they're even willing to help the spoken races at times.\\
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On a similar note, there's a BrokenBase over whether or not healers should either stick to their role of healing or if they should heal and dish out damage while in battle. People who are for the latter love to point out the one scene in the Conjurer quest line where a young girl refuses to use other forms of conjury (namely attack spells like Stone and Areo) because she feels she's better off just healing rather than using other spells. While the Conjurer quests does encourage the player to learn how to use their offensive spells to aid others in battle, the context is lost on many people; the girl in the quests is told that she has to learn to accept the elementals' blessing in order to further her abilities as a conjurer because if she keeps trying to heal without said blessings, she would kill herself using her own life force to heal others (for [[GameplayAndStorySegregation gameplay purposes]], actual healers in the game cannot suffer this).

** If you know anything about elves in the later Witcher books (sadly not translated into English), the treatment of elves does become a bit more of a moral grey area. It is also worth noting that not choosing Yorveth in the second game prevents Flotsam from turning into a giant bloodbath.

** A lot of people hate Xion because she hits a lot of WishFulfillment triggers, to the point that many refer to her as a MarySue. This was intentional with Xion's introduction in ''358 Days''; Xion was meant to deconstruct common Mary Sue tropes, including ones specific to the ''Kingdom Hearts'' fandom, by showing just how terrible things would be if such a character were placed into the setting. She's presented as just making an already bad situation worse, her backstory reveals that she was created to serve the plans of Organization XIII and little else, and [[spoiler:she's even the final boss when she can't fight her way out of Organization XIII's plans. Her death leaves her RetGone, and it's played as tragically as possible, since not even her closest friends remember Xion so much as existed]]. For a supposed "Mary Sue", Xion's role in the story and ultimate fate is certainly not meant to be wish fulfillment.

** Andrew Ryan of ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' is seen by some fans as an Objectivist visionary who could do no wrong. No matter what your politicsare , you'd still have to ignore the fact that he [[CorruptCorporateExecutive went off]] [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans the deep end]] and started murdering anyone who looked at him funny out of paranoia. Just ten seconds in Rapture during the game of the first game will show that Ryan's philosophy didn't work; even then, he backed off of his ideals and became a massive {{hypocrite}} in the name of clinging onto power.

** When Almeidrea crosses the MoralEventHorizon in ''VideoGame/TalesOfArise'', a lot of people saw Law trying to stop Rinwell from getting her revenge (at that particular point) was ''very'' stupid. Even going to consider Law playing devil's advocate for no apparent reason, or saying he is a hypocrite because he got his revenge on Ganabelt earlier. This misses that once Law had got his revenge against Ganabelt, it [[VengeanceIsEmpty left him with an empty feeling]] because he felt like he had no purpose, thus he [[AndThenWhat had no idea what to do with his life]]. This fits into one of the game's themes of continuing a cycle of revenge - especially since Niez [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized had apparently deposed Almeidrea earlier]] but had done so [[PyrrhicVictory leaving Niez trashed and killing an unknown amount of their own people]].

** All of the story routes run on GrayAndGrayMorality, with various plotlines being exclusive to one or more detailed in another, and many revelations are exclusive to one route. Due to this, and the habit of most players to default to one route as being "their GoldenEnding", many fans will take their route's storyline as being the one that explains all of the games story as fact, even when other routes throw suggestions that it is not the case. A person playing the Crimson Flower route for example might see [[spoiler:Rhea as hating all of humanity, behind every single problem in Fodlan and evil, due to Edelgard's biased assertions about her]], missing the nuance of the Silver Snow route and the revelations of the Verdant Wind route, while someone on the other routes will see [[spoiler:Edelgard as an EvilOverlord and the BigBad, causing them to miss her DarkAndTroubledPast and reasons for her actions]]. The routes most guilty of this are the Crimson Flower and the Azure Moon route because they are the ones most opposite with each other, and present many views and revelations that are true, but only FromACertainPointOfView.
** There are parts of the fandom that insist the Church of Seiros is homophobic, for no other reason than it's vague inspiration to the Catholic Church, which is through the eyes of a [[ValuesDissonance Japanese game developer]]. Not only is there nothing to suggest this in-universe, the ''archbishop'' [[spoiler:and ''founder'' of the church itself]] is a [[GayOption bi option]]. Compounding it further, Mercedes, one of the most devout characters in the game is also a bi option. Marianne comes at a close second when it comes to piety, and though she’s not a bi option, she ''does'' have a bit of [[ShipTease subtext]] with her friend Hilda. Even [[TheTease Yuri]] is shown to have some faith and he's flirting with a [[PlayerCharacter Byleth]] of either gender right out of the gate. Hell, the [[spoiler:''Goddess herself'']] is a bi option. In each of these cases the issues of two women or two men getting together in a romantic relationship isn't even considered an issue, just two people coming together. Yet there's a troubling percentage of the fandom insisting the Church is homophobic.

* Tom Nook in ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' is a kind raccoon who, despite charging the player a ton of money to buy and upgrade their house, lets them take as much time as they need to pay the loan back with zero interest. This somehow got translated in the fandom as Tom Nook being an evil and greedy LoanShark that acts not better than a MorallyBankruptBanker or a mobster that will kill you if you don't pay up. While fans have made the evil comparisons mostly as a joke, some have taken it at true face value and others [[DiscreditedMeme ran the joke into the ground.]] It got to the point where despite Tom Nook being shown raising his two kids that are not his, wanting to reward people for their hard work, and having a history with Sable, and having a troubled past that destroyed his idealism, fans still saw him as someone who is out to make the player character miserable with debts instead of cutting them a break. It also didn't help that in ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingHappyHomeDesigner'', the developers knew of the jokes and fan interpretations where they basically had Tom Nook say "[[ThenLetMeBeEvil Let people paint me as the boogeyman]] as long as people learn that debts must be paid!" It wasn't until ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons'' where Tom Nook became more kind and optimistic, which caused most people who held the "Tom Nook is evil" stance to finally back down.

** Nominally-Objectivist dictator Andrew Ryan of ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' is seen by some fans as a visionary who could do no wrong. No matter what your politics, you'd still have to ignore the fact that he [[CorruptCorporateExecutive went off]] [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans the deep end]] and started murdering anyone who looked at him funny.

* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'', villain Raul Menendez has more than his fair share of fans. In-game, he's billed as the "hero of the 99%", and has inspired millions to follow his ideals. His exploits throughout the game (including rampaging through a burning homestead to save his sister, being able to shoot whomever he wants during the "Cordis Die" mission, and having a soft spot for David in 2025) has made at least one part of the fanbase believe Menendez is a cross between CrazyIsCool and a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds. Yet, he's still responsible for the deaths of millions of innocents prior to the events of the game (including, and up to, [[spoiler:Hudson and Alex Mason]]), and is more than willing to destroy the U.S. just to avenge the deaths of two people. Menendez is engaging in DisproportionateRetribution at its finest, and yet there are some people who consider him a hero.