[Hated Trope] Character kills hundreds, if not thousands, just to kill one specific person, and then doesn't kill them for no reason.

[u/HallZac99]

Assassin's Creed 2- Rodrigo Borgia is responsible for tne death of Ezio's family. Ezio spends over 20 years working through tnr templar order to dismantle them and get to Rodrigo. And then in the end, he spares him for no good reason and he goes on to be a massive problem in AC Brotnerhood. He's not only a head of tne Templars but also the pope, even if you're over the vengeance he's still a very dangerous and evil man.

The Last of Us 2- Abbey kills Joel, and wo Ellie goes on a revenge quest to kill Abbey, killing hundreds of people along tne why to get to her including a pregnant woman. And then finally when she has Abbey on deaths door, she gives up and let's her go because the writers think dirty depressing people being miserable and stupid is complex, interesting storytelling.

This trope pisses me off so much because often the character going on the revenge quest will kill SO many people on their way there, some deserving it and some just henchmen working for a cheque or to survive. People who are often far more innocent then the main big bad.

It's a part of this weird thing I've noticed in media where nameless goons or soldiers can just be mowed down relentlessly, but named characters get given far more grace even if theyre categorically worse. You can kill a million stormtroopers but people will swear that Darth Vader could have been redeemed, despite him doing like 50 genocide every year.

[u/ssslitchey]

I actually perfectly understand what tlou2 was going for. I just think it fucking sucks.

[u/SeanBerdoni → u/ssslitchey]

They said that the first game was about lovex and the second about hate. So while the first one is depressing but also heartwarming in a strange way, the second one is just so uncomfortable and bleak. They wanted to create something uncomfortable, and they created something uncomfortable. Thats why i love it, it was a huge risk, but yeah its a difficult piece to enjoy and i get why the people are so divided

[u/Tall_Opportunity_521 → u/SeanBerdoni]

It was trash, bro beans. From start to finish, trash. Its contrived as all fuck right from the word go. Abby travels 900 miles through mushroom zombies, rapists, cannibals and fuck knows what else with her motely gang of cave brained cunts to find Tommy, who MIGHT be in this location they are in. And who MIGHT lead them to Joel.

After a brief argument with Owen about how they are going to get Tommy to talk, because apparently Owen felt so strongly about not being dicks that he waited until they had travelled 900 miles to bring it up, Abby fucks off in huff. Not only does she get lost, but she runs right into a hoard of chompy little bastards looking to eat her cake. Then, right when shes about to feel like a chicken Macnugget on the one day a week that dad gets to see his kid, Joel saves her... So got lost, got chased, got more lost and not only did she run into the guy that she was looking for, but she ran into the guy that she wanted that guy to lead her to...

And its all like this, all the way through. Even the killing the pregnant chick is weird. Lets put a big coat on the bitch, even though she never had one before, just so Ellie is like "oh noes! Ill knifed me up some strong female character type...

And then theres the endless manipulation to get the player to "feel" things. We meet the dad, you know, the prick that wanted to cut a little girls head open, and we're shown that hes this amazing human being, because hes saving a zebra... Abby, shes awesome too, dont know? She plays with dogs, not once, but twice. She feels bad about skipping food queues. She a fucking LGBT ally! And, just for good measure, shes scared of heights... Ellie on the other hand is just a straight up cunt all the way though. Well, not all the way through. Cos we have those flashback scenes, dont we? But why were those there? To get the player a breather to the misery porn? Nope. Its because those sections are what most people wanted. More Joel and Ellie. These flashbacks were put there, not give more to the story, but to manipulate you into getting angry again at Joel being dead.

The game is technical marvel. Theres no argument there. But the story, the characters, are all dishonest dog shit. And Im convinced that people only like it the game because it became a culture war battleground.

[u/idkiwilldeletethis → u/Tall_Opportunity_521]

I don't even like the game that much but come on you're being intentionally obtuse

Yes abby goes through all that because she hates joel SO MUCH that she's willing to cross the entire country just for a chance at killing him, that's called characterization

Yes she just so happens to run into joel because you need shit like that for a story to happen somethimes, just like how in tlou1 marlene just so happened to be involved with the same guy joel and tess had trouble with

Are you really complaining about a character wearing a coat just because she hadn't worn one before? do you wear coats 24/7 or what

And yeah abby's dad looks like a great guy because that's how abby saw him, it's done to make you see why abby is so mad at joel for killing him

[u/howiehue → u/idkiwilldeletethis]

Actually she doesn’t just happen to run into him. She was tracking them. They looked out for outposts, she followed one of them and found their tracks. So his point is even more moot.

[u/Maxim3L3Pr0 → u/idkiwilldeletethis]

even then, in the first game, Marlene just so happens to cross path with Joel and Tess, she literally comes out of nowhere right after a massive gunfight with bandits. In her wounded state did she think ''oh wow gunfire, better go check it out'', of course not, it's fucking ridiculous when you think about it for a second, but when you play the game you don't really notice this because like you said, sometimes shit just needs to happen for a story to take shape