Butt Monkey/Video Games: Difference between revisions

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* Beat from ''[[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|The World Ends With You]]''. He has a trail of failures behind him.

* Eugene from ''Whacked!'' Pushed to the point of fulfilling the [[~~Whos~~ Laughing Now]]? trope. (This was actually a fantasy.)

* Eugene from ''Whacked!'' Pushed to the point of fulfilling the [[Who's Laughing Now?]]? trope. (This was actually a fantasy.)

** [[Killer Rabbit|Lucky]] is teased just as much as Eugene. Probably more as, unlike Eugene, Lucky threatens them for real, which only serves to feed the [[Troll]].

* The ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series may as well be renamed ''[[Butt Monkey|Turnabout Butt Monkeys]]'':

** Protagonist status almost guarantees a character will be this. To wit:

*** Phoenix Wright himself. After all, everyone in the game seems to go out of their way to make his life a living hell. It's certainly more subtle, however... It's easy to not realize how far it extended until the third game came, and with it the chance to play as Edgeworth: suddenly witnesses are much more forthcoming, investigators more respectful, judges less sarcastic, and [[Bread Eggs Milk Squick|prosecutors never whip you]]. Phoenix notes he has some enough bad karma as a reason he won't steal something. ([[Kleptomaniac Hero|At least when not preparing for a trial.]])

*** Phoenix Wright himself. After all, everyone in the game seems to go out of their way to make his life a living hell. It's certainly more subtle, however... It's easy to not realize how far it extended until the third game came, and with it the chance to play as Edgeworth: suddenly witnesses are much more forthcoming, investigators more respectful, judges less sarcastic, and [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|prosecutors never whip you]]. Phoenix notes he has some enough bad karma as a reason he won't steal something. ([[Kleptomaniac Hero|At least when not preparing for a trial.]])

*** Maya, who gets arrested, trapped, or kidnapped ''at least once'' per game. Not to mention accused of murder ''at least once per game''.

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** Let's not forget Raiden in ''MGS2'' and ''MGS4''. He's double-crossed by his colonel ({{spoiler|actually an AI designed to control the world}}), beaten up by Snake and {{spoiler|Olga}} to use as bait for Ocelot and {{spoiler|Solidus}}, groped by the President of the United States (who is then shocked to discover he is a man), subjected to torture and having to run around nude until Snake brings him his gear, and {{spoiler|subjected to an experiment by the Patriots where they cut his head off and attach it to a robotic body}}. He's frequently mocked in MGS3, despite the game taking place years before he was born, with a Russian officer named Raikov who looks like Raiden, is gay for [[The Dragon|Colonel Volgin]], and gets his clothes stolen by Naked Snake (later to be known as Big Boss) to use as a disguise, revealing that he wears a ''thong''. Colonel Volgin himself later gropes Naked Snake, who is disguised as Raikov -- and he is caught because, unlike Raikov, he doesn't get an erection from it! The fact that American and European audiences were not very receptive to the idea of an effete [[Bishonen]] protagonist is probably the root of much of Raiden's (and his Russian body double's) suffering.

*** And then there's the short comedy series in ''MGS3'' where Raiden tried to take the spot of Main Character from Snake by killing Big Boss... only to continuously fail so ''horribly'', from beating up by Volgin (mistaking him for Raikov), raping by Volgin, slapping by The Boss, and getting a slight respect to Big Boss, only to be run over by Russian soldiers and the Metal Gear-like machine.

** Don't forget Hal "Otacon" Emmerich. While he becomes much less of a butt monkey as the series progresses, he had to put up with a lot of crap in the original MGS, from pissing himself in fear of the Cyborg Ninja to having Sniper Wolf die. All that on top of the fact that his father commited suicide after his stepmom seduced him, causing his sister (with whom he was [[Brother Sister Incest|close with]]) to bear a grudge against him for a long time...

** Don't forget Hal "Otacon" Emmerich. While he becomes much less of a butt monkey as the series progresses, he had to put up with a lot of crap in the original MGS, from pissing himself in fear of the Cyborg Ninja to having Sniper Wolf die. All that on top of the fact that his father commited suicide after his stepmom seduced him, causing his sister (with whom he was [[Brother-Sister Incest|close with]]) to bear a grudge against him for a long time...

* The Prinnies are a ''species'' of Butt Monkey penguins in ''[[Disgaea]]''. They get forced to do every last bit of the gruntwork for their masters, they ''explode'' if you throw them (and this is often a valid combat tactic), and their masters often torment them for amusement; the opening of ''Disgaea 2'' shows a character ''throwing a knife at one''. And no matter how much damage they take, they're valued so poorly that healing (or ''resurrecting'') them only costs one Hell.

** Somewhat [[Justified Trope|justified]], seeing as Prinnies are the souls of murderers, thieves, etc.; doing the grunt work is how they atone for their sins. The Celestia Prinnies seem to have it a bit easier, as well. But still, Etna and company ''could'' go a little easier...

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** They also gave us Gobi the Camel, whom you first meet in his [[Shifting Sand Land|eponymous level.]] You have to [[Ground Pound]] his back several times, forcing him to cough up his precious water. After several rounds of this abuse, he runs away to another level... where you have to seek him out and do the exact same thing. After suffering much abuse at the hands of Kazooie's beak, he gets annoyed and vows to go to the "lava world." There's no lava world in ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]].'' But he shows up in the sequel, trapped in a cage. You have to set him free, for once helping him. After he ''finally'' makes it to [[Hailfire Peaks]], his "lava world," you get to abuse him with the [[Ground Pound|Bill Drill]] again. Fun times!

** Also arguably Clanker, a mechanical whale (who looks more like a giant shark with a blowhole). In the first game, he appears in his level, "Clanker's Cavern," a sewer where he serves as a garbage grinder for the villain, Gruntilda. He also has a terrible toothache. Later, in ''Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts'', he appears in the nostalgic wonderland, Banjoland. Now torn to pieces, his torso, head, and jaw are all located in different places...but he's still alive. His eyes also end up the target of some baddies in one of the missions in Banjoland.

* In the ''Compilation of [[Final Fantasy VII]]'', main character Cloud fits this to a T. Wanted to join [[Badass Army|SOLDIER]]? Nope, stuck in the [[Redshirt Army|Shin-Ra regulars]]. Captured and tortured by [[Mad Scientist|Hojo]] for years ''after'' his [[Doomed Hometown|hometown]] is destroyed by his former idol and his mother burns to death in front of him. Upon escaping, witnesses his best friend [[The Ace|Zack]] getting set upon and killed by the aforementioned Shin-Ra regulars. All of them. His mind then ''[[Heroic BSOD|shatters]]'' and he constructs a persona based on Zack and other SOLDIER members to cope. Is convinced to dress up like a woman to infiltrate the home of a pimp to save his childhood crush, and ''is the one picked to entertain the pimp for the night''. Oh, not to mention the fact that the [[Innocent Flower Girl|potential]] [[Barrier Maiden|love interest]] gets skewered like a mini hot dog on a toothpick in front of our hapless hero by the former idol, the original [[One Winged Angel|One-Winged-Angel himself]]. Once he recovers from ''that'', he tries to stop Sephiroth, but insteads gets totally Mind-Raped by Sephiroth into handing over the Black Materia, the key to the destruction of the world, then gets chucked into the Lifestream. Once he recovers from ''that'', he does okay... until ''[[Advent Children]]'', where it's revealed that he's contracted the lethal disease Geostigma, is suffering from a combination of depression and PTSD, and one of the children he's taking care of with the aforementioned childhood crush has the disease as well, causing him to question his ability to get ''anything'' right and leave to, well, in all probability to die alone somewhere. At this point he just can't fathom ''anything'' going his way. You can see it in the relieved look he has in the movie's happy ending that he's really, really amazed that everything turned out okay. In short, the poor bastard is a walking [[Diabolus Ex Machina]] magnet. If something can go wrong, ''it will go wrong for Cloud.''

* In the ''Compilation of [[Final Fantasy VII]]'', main character Cloud fits this to a T. Wanted to join [[Badass Army|SOLDIER]]? Nope, stuck in the [[Redshirt Army|Shin-Ra regulars]]. Captured and tortured by [[Mad Scientist|Hojo]] for years ''after'' his [[Doomed Hometown|hometown]] is destroyed by his former idol and his mother burns to death in front of him. Upon escaping, witnesses his best friend [[The Ace|Zack]] getting set upon and killed by the aforementioned Shin-Ra regulars. All of them. His mind then ''[[Heroic BSOD|shatters]]'' and he constructs a persona based on Zack and other SOLDIER members to cope. Is convinced to dress up like a woman to infiltrate the home of a pimp to save his childhood crush, and ''is the one picked to entertain the pimp for the night''. Oh, not to mention the fact that the [[Innocent Flower Girl|potential]] [[Barrier Maiden|love interest]] gets skewered like a mini hot dog on a toothpick in front of our hapless hero by the former idol, the original [[One-Winged Angel|One-Winged-Angel himself]]. Once he recovers from ''that'', he tries to stop Sephiroth, but insteads gets totally Mind-Raped by Sephiroth into handing over the Black Materia, the key to the destruction of the world, then gets chucked into the Lifestream. Once he recovers from ''that'', he does okay... until ''[[Advent Children]]'', where it's revealed that he's contracted the lethal disease Geostigma, is suffering from a combination of depression and PTSD, and one of the children he's taking care of with the aforementioned childhood crush has the disease as well, causing him to question his ability to get ''anything'' right and leave to, well, in all probability to die alone somewhere. At this point he just can't fathom ''anything'' going his way. You can see it in the relieved look he has in the movie's happy ending that he's really, really amazed that everything turned out okay. In short, the poor bastard is a walking [[Diabolus Ex Machina]] magnet. If something can go wrong, ''it will go wrong for Cloud.''

* Roman Bellic of ''[[Grand Theft Auto|Grand Theft Auto 4]]'', protagonist Niko Bellic's hapless cousin. A loser through and through, at one point he gets kidnapped, shot in the stomach when he can't stop screaming, healed in a filthy basement, and has to ask Niko to buy him some adult diapers.

** Also Lazlo from the radio. All the time, he'll reminisce about his (not so glorious, in fact, really crappy) [[Glory Days]].

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* One of the selling points of ''[[You Don't Know Jack]]: The Ride'' was the return of all five hosts from the series so far. They get competitive about it. In particular, everyone repeatedly screws Buzz (the host of YDKJ2) out of his hosting duties. By the time you've played every round of the game, he has only asked one trivia question.

* Pierce in ''[[Saints Row]] 2'', in the first instance you see him, he involves a plan to break in to a casino down to the second. Cue Gat, "Hey, I really like the dream house ya built here, but why don't we just walk into the casino and shoot all the motherfuckers between us and the money?" After the mission cue News Reporter, "The leader of the 3rd Street Saints, Notorious criminal Johnny Gat, and an unknown accomplice (Pierce)" Butt Monkey thru and thru.

* The Black Baron (stop starin') of ''[[Mad World]]''. He introduces the various [[Bloody Hilarious|violent]] [[Mini Game|Minigames]], and the introduction inevitably ends in his death, only for him to come back unscathed to introduce the next one. {{spoiler|Although [[~~Whos~~ Laughing Now|he is the]] [[Final Boss]], so it could just be he's [[Made of Iron|a lot tougher than he looks]].}}

* The Black Baron (stop starin') of ''[[Mad World]]''. He introduces the various [[Bloody Hilarious|violent]] [[Mini Game|Minigames]], and the introduction inevitably ends in his death, only for him to come back unscathed to introduce the next one. {{spoiler|Although [[Who's Laughing Now?|he is the]] [[Final Boss]], so it could just be he's [[Made of Iron|a lot tougher than he looks]].}}

* ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'' turns the BLU team into this through the Meet The Team videos. Every single episode revolves around the exploits of a single class on the RED team, and always ends with the BLU team receiving horrible beatdowns from the starring character. In particular is the [[The Worf Effect|BLU Heavy]], who is always the one who gets the most pathetic or humiliating deaths (usually). To date, BLU Heavy has been headshot, gibbed by a single rocket (twice in the same video), splattered by running blindly into over a dozen sticky bombs, killed with two shots by a level 1 Sentry, stabbed to death, and batted [[Groin Attack|in the balls]] by the Scout in a fight over a sandwich.

** Less obvious is the BLU Soldier, who has usually been right next to BLU Heavy in all his worst deaths. BLU Soldier has died in every single video. He was ventilated by RED Heavy, headshot by Sniper, blown down by a Level 2 Sentry, decapitated by the RED Soldier, gibbed by the aforementioned sticky trap, stabbed by RED Spy, and flattened by a train while chasing RED Scout. In fact, BLU Soldier's deaths are sometimes more spectacular (but not always as funny) than BLU Heavy's. Apparently they're being set up as a Butt Monkey tag team.

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** In a game play example, we have the Pyro and Engineer, more specifically the players of said classes. The Pyro gets next to no screen time in any of the "meet the X" vids or even the trailer, is constantly whacked with the nerf bat whenever the class starts to become something better than mediocre, suffers from its after burn mechanic being on other classes but better (bleed does more damage AND is harder to treat), and is labeled with a W+M1 label that is very untrue (the class is ambush based) yet no one calls out classes in which W+M1 is more accurate (Heavy, Soldier). The Engineer suffers from being [[The Unfavourite]] from a development standpoint, and thus is grossly neglected when it comes to class updates. To date, Engineer is the only class to only have one Class Set update, while other classes like Soldier have three.

* Rufus the Gargoyle in ''[[A Vampyre Story]]''. A significant amount of progress is made just by ruining his day. Over the course of the game you threaten him with a mace, get a bird to crap over his head, reduce him to a disembodied head (mocking him once you've reached this point is optional but entertaining), plug his nose, and {{spoiler|turn him into a golem. This last one annoys him on multiple levels, because he's forced to do your bidding, and the body you use is rather portly.}} It's not as though he wasn't asking for it, though-he's kind of a jerk and refuses to help out voluntarily. He doesn't make the greatest impression on Mona and Froderick, so the constant torment starts out as "if he won't help willingly we'll take what we need by force", but by the time you're finished with him it's become "Hey, we have another problem. Let's see if we can solve it by pissing off Rufus."

* Reese Worthington of ''[[Backyard Sports]]''. He is constantly insulted by the other kids (like [[The Smart Guy|Dmitri]], [[Fiery Redhead|Kimmy]], [[Bratty Half Pint|Ronny]], and [[Small Name Big Ego|Barry Bonds]]) because they think he is a big nerd. This never changes throughout the series.

* Reese Worthington of ''[[Backyard Sports]]''. He is constantly insulted by the other kids (like [[The Smart Guy|Dmitri]], [[Fiery Redhead|Kimmy]], [[Bratty Half Pint|Ronny]], and [[Small Name, Big Ego|Barry Bonds]]) because they think he is a big nerd. This never changes throughout the series.

* Quaver of the ''[[Overlord]]'' series. It gets particularly blatant in the early levels ''[[Overlord II]],'' when he manages to [[Eye Scream|lose an eye]] merely by inspecting the block of ice the [[Creepy Child|Overlad]] arrived in. Also in the early levels, he gets knocked down a chasm when he tries to sing a ballad in the newly-crowned Overlord's honour.

* Link from ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' is a Butt Monkey to Midna for the first half of ''[[Twilight Princess]]'', a Butt Monkey to Linebeck and Oshus (and occasionally Tetra) in the first half of ''[[Phantom Hourglass]]'' and a Butt Monkey to ''everyone'' in the first half of ''[[The Wind Waker]]''. After that, he always gets so [[Badass]], that nobody even ''dares'' anymore to put him down in the slightest possible way.

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* Raven of [[Tales of Vesperia (Video Game)|Tales of Vesperia]] throws "respect your elders" out the window, and gets the blunt end of many jokes, although many of the jokes are either made by, or played along with, himself.

* Gary from [[Modnation Racers]] is usually heard/seen being picked on by his co-worker Biff, and let's not even start on his butterfly-sticker collection!

* After being [[~~Spot Light~~ Stealing Squad|shoved out of the spotlight]] for two games by the [[Raving Rabbids (Video Game)|Rabbids]], [[Rayman]] became a good example in ''Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party''. No matter what he did, he couldn't get rid of his bunny-infested television, and his change into a sniveling wimp didn't help a thing. He was eventually {{spoiler|run out of his own home by the Rabbids after suffering a [[Heroic BSOD]]}}.

* After being [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|shoved out of the spotlight]] for two games by the [[Raving Rabbids (Video Game)|Rabbids]], [[Rayman]] became a good example in ''Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party''. No matter what he did, he couldn't get rid of his bunny-infested television, and his change into a sniveling wimp didn't help a thing. He was eventually {{spoiler|run out of his own home by the Rabbids after suffering a [[Heroic BSOD]]}}.

* "Glasses Guy" in most of [[Live Powerful Pro Baseball]] (MLB Power Pro) games gets this treatment from everyone, including the player. The player himself is also a [[Butt Monkey]], sometimes so much that it's played to [[Nonstandard Game Over|death.]]

* Guybrush Threepwood is always a bit of a Butt Monkey, but in [[The Secret of Monkey Island|Secret]] and [[The Curse of Monkey Island (Video Game)|Curse]] this is overshadowed by his good nature and occasional heroism. In [[Escape From Monkey Island|Escape]], on the other hand, he is constant running joke, either with his efforts falling flat and being made fun of for it, or being mocked by every other character in the game (a great deal of which seems to go over his head). And let's not even get started on his treatment in LeChuck's Revenge, which seemed determined to make him an unlikeable [[Jerkass]] as well as an ([[Iron Butt Monkey|Iron]]) [[Butt Monkey]].

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* Vincent and Toby in ''[[Catherine (Video Game)|Catherine]]''.

* Yosuke Hanamaru from ''[[Persona 4 (Video Game)|Persona 4]]''. First he found out his love interest didn't love him, but he found this out {{spoiler|AFTER she died!}} Also, if you follow his Social Link, he gets complains at his job from bitchy girls. And don't remind him of the countless times Chie kicked him in the groin, and the hot springs incident as well. Though its justified to some people.

* Steven Heck's "friend" Wen Shu in ''[[Alpha Protocol]]''. When you first meet the two of them, Heck is subjecting Wen to [[Cold Blooded Torture]] to force him to reveal the location of Heck's car keys. Later, if Heck likes you, he will {{spoiler|frame Wen as the one who tried to assassinate Taiwanese President Ronald Sung}} in order to cover your escape. The end credits reveal that {{spoiler|the Taiwanese government eventually executed Wen for his role in the attack}}.

* Steven Heck's "friend" Wen Shu in ''[[Alpha Protocol]]''. When you first meet the two of them, Heck is subjecting Wen to [[Cold-Blooded Torture]] to force him to reveal the location of Heck's car keys. Later, if Heck likes you, he will {{spoiler|frame Wen as the one who tried to assassinate Taiwanese President Ronald Sung}} in order to cover your escape. The end credits reveal that {{spoiler|the Taiwanese government eventually executed Wen for his role in the attack}}.