The Scrappies Of Animation

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Eelco

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheScrappy

Sometimes, a character isnt as well received as the other members of his or her cast. Maybe the character doesnt mesh well with the others, or maybe he had the misfortune of replacing a fan favorite. He might even just be annoying. Whatever the case is, they all share one similarity: Scrappies are often hated by fans of the show/movie/series/what have you.

This is their topic. Here, we can discuss various Scrappies from animations past and present. Just which characters are Scrappies? How have they affected their series'? Do you feel that a character is unfairly considered a Scrappy?

Allow me to start. Hanna-Barbera seems to have a special ability to add pointless characters to shows that serve no purpose but to annoy. However, they seemingly avoided this with The Flintstones. The addition of Dino, Pebbles, Bamm-Bamm, and to lesser degree, Hoppy were all warmly recieved and added to the show. But honestly, what was the point of the Great Gazoo? The whole idea behind him just seemed to clash with the idea of the show, and I cant really say I enjoyed anything he did. Of course, its all just my own opinion.
 
I?d have to go with Goo from ?Foster?s Home For Imaginary Friends?. I seem to be in the minority, as most of the fans that I?ve seen think she was a good addition to the series, but I found her to be an annoyance who wasn?t really needed. However, Lauren Faust apparently liked the character, based on some of her usernames, so the character appeared in several episodes. Perhaps she wasn?t used enough to warrant being mentioned in this thread, but I just couldn?t stand her. I?d rather watch an episode with Cheese, whom I also despise, than an episode with her.
 
Not really. I myself have an odd relationship with the character: I dont have a real problem with him, but I hate all the changes that were introduced with him. I think thats how it is for most people, really.
 
Wasnt she meant to be annoying, though? I mean, her first apparence was basically Mac having to put up with her. Personally, I felt that Goo was one of those characters you have to take in small doses and at the right time. As long as she didnt steal the spotlight, she was okay. At least in my opinion. Was there any instance of the character that you liked, or did you find her completely pointless?
 
I don’t recall liking anything about her, aside from the fact that she added some diversity to the series. However, diversity, in and of itself, doesn’t do that much for me. She was loud and she talked too much; if she had any deeper personality traits, I likely overlooked them because I was too busy cringing. I suppose that Cheese would have been a better character to use in this thread, since he was quite popular with the little ones despite the fact that most people hate him with a passion, but I guess it doesn’t really matter.
 
For me:
Fred Fredburger (Billy & Mandy): this guy was totally unfunny, pointless, and annoying from the start.

Bubba (Ducktales): I recently rewatched a bunch of episodes and totally forgot how pointless this character was. He might be alright as a one shot character, but in multiple episodes, no way.
 
Dont worry about it, man. If everyone just mentioned the "popular" Scrappies, this would be a boring topic. This topic was really to see how the memebers of this board felt. Thanks for the reply, bro, and you're welcomed to stay and discuss if you want.
 
Clay (sp?) from Xiaolin Showdown comes to mind... I don't thank anyone "hated" him but he had the misfortune of being one of those characters no one gave a crap about.

I'll edit this when I can think of some more....

Gazoo from the flinstones: god was this guy annoying!
 
Yes, but Clay was there from the very beginning.

I think the topic is referring to pointless and/or annoying characters that get added in after at least the first season.
 
A lot of Rugrats fans felt that the series jumped the shark after Baby Dil was introduced, although I myself felt somewhat differently; I never liked Dil, but I felt that Rugrats had become stale and tired a season or 2 before Dil's. arrival. First, his role on the original Rugrats made no sense--how could Tommy, a baby, suddenly be burdened with a baby brother? Second, before All Grown Up, Dil was basically a non-character. Dil had no job on the show other than to be as disgusting as possible. At least AGU Dil had a personality.

It's worth mentioning, however, that IMHO, the most annoying character on Rugrats was Angelica, who was around since episode 1 and became more annoying the more regularly she appeared. It was the character's overexposure that made her unbearable, for me at least.

Dishonorable mention must also go to Bubba from Ducktales. Bubba just never clicked with the cast or the fans. I think that much of it had to do with the fact that Ducktales already had 4 ducklings in the main cast counting Webigail, and so they really didn't need a 5th who also had an annoying mascot of his own, a triceratops named Tootsie. Ducktales needed another kid character like Tommy Lee needs another tatoo. I also think that even the most loyal DuckTales fans just couldn't deal with that musical number made for Bubba's debut where the kids at Huey, Dewey and Louie's school were (literally) singing Bubba's praises. What was up with that anyway?
 
I wouldn't call Clay a Scrappy; he was there from the start and wasn't hated by a majority of fans. Clay falls more sharply into the category of 'The Cyborg', after Cyborg from Teen Titans. Like Cy, Clay was the least appreciated member of the team, received the least amount of time in the spotlight and got next to no love in fan fiction.

Some characters who can be classified as Scrappies, however, are:

Godzooky (H-B's Godzilla series): Another pointless add-on mascot character whose 'comic relief' served more as grating annoyance. Let's take Godzilla, one of moviedom's most awesome monsters, and saddle him with a lunkhead nephew with a really stupid name. What a great idea!

Orko (He-Man and the Masters of Universe): Another annoying diminutive dweeb of a character who also largely failed to amuse. As my own father once put it, "He's a little thing with a zero on his chest. It's like they had one team of artists who drew everyone else on the show, and another guy who just did Orko!" I'll say this in defense of the character, however: Orko at least was a wizard, so he could magically assist He-Man from time to time, plus he was one of the few individuals on Eternia who knew Prince Adam's secret identity (though in all honesty, you'd have to be thunderously stupid not to make that connection).

Corporal Capeman (Inspector Gadget): In a desperate attempt to breathe new life into IG, the producers saddled Gadget with an idiot sidekick who somehow managed to be even more inept and out-to-lunch than the good Inspector: a weirdo in tights who imagined he was a superhero. Capeman was simply not needed; Gadget is his own comic relief.

Flim Flam (The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo): As if one Scrappy on Scooby-Doo weren't enough, someone decided to toss this annoying Dondi-wannabe into the mix. Flim-Flam was about as necessary to the show as an appendix, and about as useful as a burst one. Thankfully, Flim-Flam was never seen beyond 13 Ghosts.
 
Its called "Shilling The Wesley".
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShillingTheWesley


You know, there is something I have to get off my chest: Why is Lucky from King of the Hill considered a Scrappy? I get that he's dumb as sin, but he seems like an okay guy that really only factors in when the episodes about Luanne, a character thats not too bright herself. I hear it has something to do with him destroying Luanne's development but...what development? Besides wanting to become a hairdresser, shes really only gotten slightly more mature at best. Lucky isnt my favorite character or nothing, but I just dont get it.
 
Danielle from Danny Phantom. I just never saw the point of her character. After seeing countless fan-made, half-ghost Mary-Sues online, when I saw her, I thought "Oh, great, they made a canon one". She has no personal qualities besides being a female, younger version of the main character (and my inner science geek keeps screaming "you can't make a female clone from male DNA!").

The hero of the show is Danny, we don't need a mini-photocopy of him. Good thing she only appeared in two episodes.
 
Well, if Clay doesn't count because he was from the start and didn't get much hate then Orko shouldn't count either, because he was also from the start and didn't get much hate either. He was indeed the comedy relief character and his episodes were vastly different in tone than from the rest of the series. However, I think the point of Orko is to add a different layer of comedy to the series, so it wouldn't be actionactionaction all the time, and I believe Orko fills that spot rather well. He was (and still is) my favorite character on the show.

If anyone on He-Man deserves to be called a Scrappy, it would be Ram-Man. He appeared quite a lot for being an incidental character, had a stupid power, an annoying voice, and nobody really cared about him.
 
Jar Jar Binks, although the Clone Wars series has made attempts to make him more serious, actiony, and less of a Scrappy than he was in Episode I.
 
...Including being treated like and regarded by the other characters as a child, ex: the episode "Baby Spookums" in which Slimer acted out the role of the jealous older sibling when a baby ghost shows up at the gang's door. At the beginning of the series, Slimer was more like a pet.

The final nail on the coffin came in 1988, when the shows' producers put Slimer up front and the series was re-christened Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters. This didn't help endear the character to any of his anti-fans.
 
I'm going to go with everyone that said Cheese.

Yes you like cereal, I DON'T CARE! NOW SHUT UP! Seriously I thought that he was mentally challenged the first time I saw him.

Fred Fredburger, wouldn't be surprised if he was based off of Fred on You Tube.
 
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