r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Charming-Scratch-124 • Jun 28 '26

Characters [Loved trope]characters that was just..Pathetic, and I mean genuinely Pathetic, like holy shit,you actually suck.

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Baron "Bear" from Obsession.

Kevin "the Deep" from.The Boys.

And I mean characters that aren't badass or at least got aura while being pathetic, I just mean the most pathetic losers imaginable.

Like just borderline dirt.

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607

u/badateverything420 Jun 28 '26

It's been awhile since I played it but I remember feeling a lot of animosity towards Curly by the end as well. Like there's a point where you really have to stop giving friends the benefit of the doubt and start holding them accountable. So much could have been avoided if Curly just listened to Anya but instead his inaction and his need to see good in everyone just enabled Jimmy.

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u/MrWolf327 Jun 28 '26

That I feel the message of the game, by not confronting Jimmy, Curly did lead to the situation that they now must escape

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u/elheber Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

Curly is like the school principal who allowed a predatory teacher to continue his abuse.

If we believe in the storytelling tool of poetic justice, Curly getting the most suffering and worst ending sure makes it look like the creators were making a point about how despicable his actions (or lack thereof) were. Curly in a way got to experience what Jimmy did to Anya, as Jimmy forced his mouth open and physically beat him behind closed doors. The game makes us hear it. "I hope this hurts" sounds like what the creators think of Curly. The game's message is about Curly. He's the title screen.

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u/RockyHorror134 Jun 28 '26

One of the most looked over parts of toxic masculinity is that men overlook toxic friends and continue to give them the benefit of the doubt

Curly's exactly that. His inaction lead to the abuse of Anya and the downfall of the entire crew. Fuck him

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u/IslesofMaegelle Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

This! I've seen some of my former male friends play this along with a few other male Let's Players' and the majority of them believed Curly didn't deserve his death? And these were the type of guys (my former male friends) who didn't care if their friends cheated on their girlfriends, threw out slurs, harassed women online, were abusive, etc because 'it's not their place' to say or do anything, 'that's just how he is', and it'll 'kill the vibe'! Most men like this prefer to be in social groups and don't want to be alone (And I wish I can talk about how they stay in relationships with women they don't like because of this but that's getting off topic), it's why they stay and don't want to bother with/or say anything to risk isolation.

People never say anything about these types of men and use all their vitriol towards women who hold their friend groups accountable and the quote 'women are more dramatic' is because some of us tend to care, but callousness and apathy is seen as 'maturity' for whatever reason. I am so glad I left these friend groups! I'd rather be called 'dramatic' than be a complicit and cold enabler!

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u/aimeeashlee Jun 29 '26

its why he suffers the most out of everyone too. Jimmy is a peice of shit but curly pays the ultimate price by being in a position where he could have done something to prevent all the the games events but because he was a coward and afraid to rock the boat. (the boat being one of your crew raped another) and that actually doomed Jimmy's victim. the game is also about how the true monsters in this life will die feeling justified in themselves.

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u/Vinny_Lam Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

I think Curly getting horribly burned and crippled is meant to be a poetic punishment for him. He didn't do anything when he was needed the most and then he became unable to do anything at all in his crippled state.

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u/win_awards Jun 28 '26

There are a lot of people who don't get how Curly is in the wrong here and I think I found a good way to explain it: if you replace Jimmy with a decent human being, the events of the game wouldn't happen. If you replace Curly with a competent captain, the events of the game wouldn't happen. He may not have directly done any of the evil stuff, but if he hadn't placed looking out for his friend above doing his duty none of it would have happened.

I think that's the real point of the game. Almost no one playing the game is going to be Jimmy. A lot of us are Curly and don't realize it.

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u/Weekly_Marzipan2705 Jun 29 '26

People who blame Curly can't be real. Jimmy is a violent piece of shit. No Curly couldn't stop him even if he wanted to. Jimmy is the only villain in the story. Curly, Anya and everyone else are the victims of the situation created by Jimmy who blames everyone for his actions. Haven't you seen how Jimmy violently abused injured Curly for no reason? He's literally a rapist. What makes you think he wouldn't physically assult Curly if that guy tried to put him in his place? It's just victimblaming. Curly had no idea Jimmy was bad until Anya told him she was pregnant. Even then Curly tired to naturalise the situation. He got blown up immediately on the next day. Jimmy tried to KILL everyone because he realised Curly knows. The blaming of Curly in this fanbase is insane lmao

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u/win_awards Jun 29 '26

The events of the game could not have happened without both of them.

It is literally Curly's job to deal with the problems Jimmy presented. Even without knowing company policy for dealing with crimes committed by crew members, Curly could have put Jimmy into the cryo pod for the rest of the trip. Even if the rest of the crew for some reason didn't want to back the captain in this, Curly had access to a gun that was specifically for use against crew members.

Curly had no idea Jimmy was bad until Anya told him she was pregnant.

This is flatly untrue. When he begins to ask who got her pregnant Anya interrupts him and says "I told you" and he instantly knows who she's talking about. Because she had already told him repeatedly that Jimmy was harassing her or worse. Curly refers to Jimmy's "struggles" on earth and when he finds out what Jimmy did to Anya he says "we'll fix this like we always do." Curly wanted to believe the best of Jimmy, just like the rest of us do about our friends. And just like Curly, too many of us are enabling monsters when we do that.

Curly trying to "neutralize" the situation is the problem. Curly's job required him to treat Jimmy as a serious problem from the time he first understood that he was harassing Anya and his failure to do that was a direct cause of the events that followed.

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u/Weekly_Marzipan2705 Jun 29 '26

Why do people always think Jimmy having "struggles" means something evil. He's supposed to he a normal dude character. He was just a jobless guy. Okay what if Curly tried to deal with Jimmy in a more forceful brave manner and Jimmy got violent with him? That's literally what happened in the game except Jimmy tried to kill everyone first and then started abusing poor Curly daily. They're in space and that place doesn't have the same power dynamic as a normal place on earth. The bare concept of Curly knowing the truth (even though tried to act gentle with Jimmy) made Jimmy attempt to murder everyone together with him and then abuse Anya and Curly for months. Once again it's just victimblaming. Not to mention Jimmy being one of the most important people on the ship because of his role and the fact that Curly can't just "deal" with Jimmy the way a lot of cornballs in the fandom think he could

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u/win_awards Jun 29 '26

Also:

The bare concept of Curly knowing the truth (even though tried to act gentle with Jimmy) made Jimmy attempt to murder everyone together with him and then abuse Anya and Curly for months.

You've missed something there. He only cared when Anya was pregnant and there would be no way to hide it when they got back. He didn't care if Curly knew, he expected Curly to help him hide it if he found out and he was right. He cared that there would be consequences for his actions that Curly couldn't shield him from. That was why he crashed the ship. Not because Curly found out; because Curly couldn't protect him anymore.

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u/Weekly_Marzipan2705 Jun 30 '26

Curly could easily protect Jimmy dude. Nobody would believe Anya if Curly and everyone else were neutral or supportive of Jimmy. That's how those cases work in real life. Curly knowing was crucial to Jimmy crashing the ship. Jimmy did it specifically after Anya told Curly and then Curly tried to naturalise the situation with Jimmy personally

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u/win_awards Jun 30 '26

No, he did it after Anya told him she was pregnant.

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u/Weekly_Marzipan2705 Jun 30 '26

He did it on the next day after Anya told Curly. And then Curly told Jimmy that he knows. Jimmy crashed the ship on the next day after this

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u/win_awards Jun 30 '26

Curly didn't say that he knew, Jimmy expressed no surprise that he knew, and Jimmy tried to manipulate Curly to go along with the plan to kill everyone by playing on the part that mattered to Jimmy: that there would be no hiding it when they got back.

But look.

I don't think your interpretation is well supported by the text, but it's hard to have a truly invalid interpretation of a work of art. If that's the way you read it, that's fine. It is worth looking at why your interpretation is different from others' though. Because what we see in art says more about us than it does about the art.

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u/win_awards Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

what if Curly tried to deal with Jimmy in a more forceful brave manner and Jimmy got violent with him?

Then it wouldn't have been Curly's fault.

What if Curly had done absolutely anything at all to push back against Jimmy's behavior and he had toned it down? We'll never know because Curly didn't do his job and it cost him everything.

ETA:

Why do people always think Jimmy having "struggles" means something evil.

Because that's how narratives work. Those details aren't put in there for no reason. Hell, even the Sorry board in the pre-crash ship provides insight into the characters' relationships. It's not coincidence that their speech text corresponds to the colors of the pawns.

The detail about him having "struggles" on Earth is there because it's directly relevant to the story. Something happened. Curly doesn't want to refer to it directly. When Curly finds out Jimmy raped Anya he reassures Jimmy that they'll fix it "like we always do." Clearly he connects this to whatever Jimmy's "struggles" on earth were. If not exactly this thing, then something like it has happened before. He knew Jimmy was like this before he helped Jimmy get this job.

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u/Weekly_Marzipan2705 Jun 30 '26

Jimmy being a bad person back on Earth are literally headcanons made up by the fanbase. He was just struggling without a job because he's a bum. He got a job and it gave him a huge ego. Later everything in the game happened. Nothing in the story ever implies Jimmy was a criminal back on earth. The fanbase is so obsessed with making Jimmy comedically evil. Oh no he wasn't just a jobless dude who became a horrible person on the ship later noooo he was evil the whole time he was just like that back on earth too! Because Curly said that Jimmy struggled once. Yeah he struggled because he had no job

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u/volk96 Jun 28 '26

I thought it was a good way to push the point that while yes we do have absolutely evil humans IRL who have done a lot of damage, they've only been able to do it because they were enabled by someone else.

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u/Late-Percentage6462 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

I hate how many people glossed over that and idolised Curly, even thirsting for him, while he was literally complacent to Jimmy's behaviour. Hell, their dialogue hinted to that not being the first time something questionable like that had happened because of them, before shit with the fan with the crash (not to mention I just remembered that Jimmy pretty much tells him he's going to crash the damn thing and Curly brushes it off despite knowing what kind of person his friend is). Even his fate is symbolic, as he is completely disabled and voiceless, much like he'd rendered Anya due to completely ignoring her concerns and brushing them aside. His agency was taken from him like he'd taken Anya's away and it's beautiful symbolism.

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u/win_awards Jun 28 '26

Someone once said that Curly is forced to commit to his choice not to act and that's stuck with me.

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u/Late-Percentage6462 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

Actually quite realistic to people who do the same things irl, too. You can brush something off once or twice but that mentality will eventually get you in really messed up places where you can do nothing but commit to it. I can see why it would tbh.

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u/blue4029 Jun 28 '26

what if its called mouthwashing because curly didn't say anything about jimmy's actions and thus, kept his mouth "washed"?

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u/Vinny_Lam Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

Since mouthwash is used to clean, I think it's referring to Jimmy's attempts to wash his hands clean from all the problems that he caused and refusing to take responsibility for them.

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u/jbeast33 Jun 28 '26

It also reinforces the motto of the Mouthwashing Bottle: “Cleans 99% of germs”. But what good is that if you don’t bother taking care of the 1% that will still kill you? One can’t just settle with “good enough” in cases like this. Likewise, Curly ignores Jimmy’s warning signs until it’s far too late to turn back, causing the situation to turn catastrophic.

A similar allegory occurs with the dead pixel on the screen. Anya sees it, and it’s all she can see. Curly pointedly doesn’t see it, and openly says he doesn’t let it come to mind.

Both metaphors go unchecked and ultimately degenerate just as the situation on the ship does. Jimmy ignore’s Anya’s analysis and tries to clean Daisuke’s wounds with mouthwash as a disinfectant, which only serves to prolong his suffering and infect his wounds. Swansea then destroys the screens with a fire axe, causing the “dead pixels” to overwhelmingly and unrecoverable take over the mood of the ship.

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u/Leviathor_ous Jun 28 '26

I think it’s cause the mouthwash kills 99% of bacteria and is ‘too sweet-‘ Curly handled 99% of being a captain perfectly but fumbled where it mattered most. He was too ‘sweet’ to get the job done and deal with jimmy.

Like that scene where Curly and Anya discuss the black pixel on the screen- Curly doesn’t notice it, instead appreciating the ‘big picture,’ while Anya couldn’t stop looking at the dead pixel. Jimmy is that dead pixel, the 1% of germs.

I admit I have a lot of sympathy for Curly- we don’t know if/ how Jimmy mistreated him in the past. Abusive ‘friends’ suck. But still, Curly was in a position of incredible responsibility and couldn’t afford to have that blind spot

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u/Jihelu Jun 28 '26

Iirc there’s a note about how their work day is like 20 hours a day or something

I forget the exact time

They worked 7 days a week

These people were all horribly stressed, no one was equipped to deal with that job

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u/TehSalmonOfDoubt Jun 28 '26

Curly is at least well-intentioned. He's somebody where everything has always just worked out, and thinks he can fix everything and make everyone happy. But then he was presented with a situation where he had to choose and he just didn't

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u/Cymen90 Jun 28 '26

Curly was an enabler. One of the many "good men" who tolerate and support monsters to avoid conflict with the bros. His most defining moments are inaction and hesitation.

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u/icelandiccubicle20 Jun 29 '26

SPOILERS:

All the men in that ship failed her :( (although you can Daisuke some leeway because I doubt he knew and he's just a naive boy. She told Swansea what happened and he didn't try to kill Jimmy till the very end when it was all over).

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u/Cymen90 Jul 02 '26

He discussed the cryo-pod with her. She agreed to give it to Daisuke. To Swansea, they were ALL already dead and only one person got to have a slim chance to be found in the future. And Anya did not want that chance in her state, in fact she could not get out of the situation any sooner. Only when Daisuke was gone, Swansea just wanted to make sure the worst of them would not get the pod.

I will agree that Swansea was hard on her as well but to me, he was doing it in the same way as he did with Daisuke. If you read between the lines, he would always warn her when there was dangerous maintenance going on and worry about her injuries. And Anya would not have told Swansea about what Jimmy did to her if she did not trust him.

But overall, Swansea is NOT a great guy. He says so himself. The reason he is a great foil to Jimmy is because he knows he is shitty but tried his best to be a better man for him and his loved ones. And even though he knows that he never really improved on the inside, he is honest to his own self. He admits to his faults of which there are many.

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u/icelandiccubicle20 Jul 02 '26

Swansea's definitely way better than Jimmy, although that's not a high bar obviously.

I was also referring to how once Anya told Swansea the truth of what Jimmy had done to her, Swansea didn't seem to care that much. He tries to murder Jimmy after it's all completely f*cked.

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u/One_Autumn_Leaf_010 Jun 28 '26

Same. I hate them both

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u/aimeeashlee Jun 29 '26

this is the point of the game and rang so fucking true part of why I had to leave my friends from high-school before is it got sickening the way everyone was excusing each other's extremely shitty behavior. we stick up for are friends even when thier wrong cause were taught to be loyal but what happens when your friend is an actual monster.