Waoh! Three articles in a row? After a long hiatus?! No, I promise I haven’t been kidnapped, although that would be pretty funny. In any case, welcome to another issue of “Talking Point”, our magazine-style series of articles! We’re really itching the double digits, so today I’d like to discuss one of my favorite topics!
Has your favorite characters been portrayed oddly in external media? I don’t mean things like their helmet looking a bit off, or their voice sounding a bit weird, I mean their entire persona is practically an entirely new entity! This is quite common in video games, especially the older you go. These days it still happens, such as with Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher series getting increasingly handsome with each passing game, or Nathan Drake basically looking like a babyface in the Uncharted movie. But those are rather tame compared to Mega Man being green, or Simon Belmont getting a chin implant surgery, or Kid Icarus looking like a creepy ugly gremlin.
Those were all in the same cartoon, by the by.
No, today we’re focusing on the truly bizarre. Best part? We don’t even need to broaden our horizons, we’re going through a theme today, a very blue and rocky theme, if you will.
1- Ruby Spears
While the alternative version of the Ruby cartoon with all the chibi designs did look promising, it’s challenging to tell purely based on that what the cartoon was gonna be like, so we’re only left with the hilariously proportionate, ultra buff Megaman. It takes a little getting used to but it’s less jarring when the DLNs/DWNs are on-screen. I still prefer the cute and cuddly aspect of Rockman however, so the look of the show remains a turn-off for me even today.
But, you’ve seen the memes. You’ve seen the useless Cutman memes, Gutsman’s large behind, the Mega Derp, Pharoahman’s punch, Hardman being hard (yes, really), it’s like an endless well of memery, so it’s a fun entry to start out with.
2- Captain N
Now I’d like to start out by saying that I actually really like the Captain N cartoon. Mostly ironically though. It’s not really a show known for its… stellar writing, nor particularly appealing designs, but there’s a great reason why that weird, bizarre Simon Belmont smile became such a meme. Also, I’m not a Metroid fan, but Mother’s portrayal tickles my funny bone quite well too. No lost love for Icarus though.
Seriously, I love this guy to bits. He’s hilarious.
3- Bad Box Art Megaman
You have no idea how badly I wanted to talk about Bad Box Art Megaman, a joke born to parody the horrendous yet oddly charming North American boxarts of Megaman.
Initially, It may seem that our poor little Blue Bomber can’t catch a break (Well in this one he isn’t really “little” but he’s probably still poor. Especially judging by that costume), but I’d like to argue that this was not made in poor taste, despite the less than fortunate timing.
Really, had this been made when Capcom cared more about Megaman, then BBMM would’ve had a better legacy. There’s so much to love about him in hindsight. The moveset, his “weapon”, slightly misshapen helmet to him being Roll’s errand boy, the hilarity doesn’t stop. I love that he’s just some loser, I find it even more hilarious he’s not even a robot. He’s just… some guy.
BBMM thankfully left a pretty fun legacy behind him, as evident by the fantastic Tumblr fan-comic I used to read back in the day. It had its own lore and everything, it even occasionally made BBMM-adjacent versions of characters like Tron! It had a lot of love and care put into it! Do give it a read if you stumble across it, here’s a cute snippet.
These are so incredibly charming. I was really addicted to them back in 2012.
Got any ridiculous media portrayals of your favorite characters? Leave a comment below! Also, you can suggest topics as well. I’m always all ears! Thanks for reading!
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