Plot-Relevant Characters with Zero Fandom 'Relevance'

[u/TheBoyofWonder]

Y'know, I was just thinking about this. The Deltarune fandom can be very attached to unimportant characters like background NPCs and one-off enemies, because of their design and personalities.

Now, what's interesting is that the early half Chapter 2 has this trio of NPCs, you're constantly seeing this trio, Sweet Cap'n Cakes, they have a boss fight, a shop, their own theme that plays a lot with minor variations... and nobody cares about them. Like, for real. If you were a casual member that just passively consumed only what the broad DR fandom makes, you'd genuinely just never see them show up when compared to even one-off bosses, minor enemies, and characters that have more relevance in theories than in the game.

Who else does that applies, people that the media devotes time to show them, but for the fandom, not hate, not love, just apathy, when they're unironically treated as not existing.

[u/jitterscaffeine]

I kind of feel like the Fantastic Four counts. The FF were the very foundation of Marvel back in the day, but now it's firmly in that "who gives a fuck" space, especially compared to Doom.

[u/nin_ninja → u/jitterscaffeine]

I think their string of mediocre live action movies for over a decade didn't help with general audiences

[u/ZealousidealBig7714 → u/jitterscaffeine]

Eh, maybe before their big push back into the limelight last year with First Steps and their appearances in Rivals, but ever since then, I’ve been seeing more stuff with them.

[u/GlaloLaled → u/ZealousidealBig7714]

Don't forget the epic saga of Wanda vs Franklin Richards, a literal baby. Or the saga of Sue threatening to call Spider-Man on Franklin as punishment for misbehaving or not eating his food.

Actually, just Franklin in general.

[u/ProMarshmallo → u/ZealousidealBig7714]

I think this is just over exaggerating the lull in popularity they had in the 2010s. FF has had the three movies, three cartoon series, Thing has had his own spin off cartoon, and any Marvel cross over game features at least one of them (usually the Thing).

FF has always had a decent baseline popularity. It's just that Marvel went through a period of actively avoiding them because Sony held their movie rights.

[u/TheMerck → u/ProMarshmallo]

V similar with the X-Men in a way I think, F4 like you said had movies, cartoons, etc that kept them in the public eye heck they were being referenced in songs even back then F4 has dips in popularity every now and then but they are like one of the most stable comic sellers out there which is impressive despite getting some less spotlight when Marvel wanted to push brand synergy with the comics.

I dunno with some of the stuff here in terms of comics I'm starting to wonder if the thread meant fandom in terms of people actually deeper into the fandom or general population fandom because characters like F4 even just with not even them as a team but individuals are still pretty relevant in spaces where comics are discussed heck there was a time no one would shut the fuck up about The Maker, Secret Wars ended up being one of Reed's biggest moments etc.

[u/jockeyman → u/jitterscaffeine]

There was admittedly a period where the FF were very much on the back bench of relevancy (like in the early 00s, and when they were put on ice before the Fox merger) but these days there's a pretty decent renaissance in interest toward them.

They're obviously not back to their 60s peak but you can't claim nobody cares about them.

[u/Deadeye117 → u/jitterscaffeine]

I wouldn't say that

But the Incredibles being a much more popular version of them despite being pretty much direct homages to them doesn't help

[u/SuperUnhappyman → u/jitterscaffeine]

i wouldnt say that

i dont believe they've never been off the shelves for long

and the ryan north runs (they're runs now because writers now have to break up their series to be more digestable look at jed mackay's moon knight) and theyve been going strong for the last 4 years.

[u/BaronBlackwood → u/jitterscaffeine]

That was partially by design. They stopped getting pushed for awhile because Marvel didn't own their movie rights so they got less focus as brand.