I don’t think “This Loser Is You” is the right trope for that. Actually, I don’t think TV Tropes has the right trope for that; as best I can tell, harem protagonists are the way they are not because they’re supposed to stand for the audience in a representative sort of way but because they’re designed as a receptacle for the audience to pour their various insecurities into. They can display negative traits, because that’s assumed to make them more sympathetic to viewers that share them. But they can’t display negative traits strong enough to be grounds for actual condemnation, or to define their characters unambiguously; you’ll never see Homer Simpson as a harem lead. And they can’t show positive traits except for a vague agreeableness and whatever supernatural powers the plot requires, because that breaks the pathos. Yes, Tenchi Muyo, that’s you I’m looking at.
More succinctly, we’re all familiar with sex objects, right? Harem anime protagonists are sympathy objects.
I agree that This Loser Is You isn’t quite the right trope. There’s a more recent launch, Loser Protagonist, which doesn’t quite describe it either, but uses the same name as I did when I tried to put the trope which I thought accurately described it through the YKTTW ages ago.
If I understand what you mean by “sympathy objects,” I think we have the same idea in mind. I tend to think of them as Lowest Common Denominator Protagonists, because they lack any sort of virtue or achievement that would alienate them from the most insecure or insipid audience members.
I don’t think “This Loser Is You” is the right trope for that. Actually, I don’t think TV Tropes has the right trope for that; as best I can tell, harem protagonists are the way they are not because they’re supposed to stand for the audience in a representative sort of way but because they’re designed as a receptacle for the audience to pour their various insecurities into. They can display negative traits, because that’s assumed to make them more sympathetic to viewers that share them. But they can’t display negative traits strong enough to be grounds for actual condemnation, or to define their characters unambiguously; you’ll never see Homer Simpson as a harem lead. And they can’t show positive traits except for a vague agreeableness and whatever supernatural powers the plot requires, because that breaks the pathos. Yes, Tenchi Muyo, that’s you I’m looking at.
More succinctly, we’re all familiar with sex objects, right? Harem anime protagonists are sympathy objects.
I agree that This Loser Is You isn’t quite the right trope. There’s a more recent launch, Loser Protagonist, which doesn’t quite describe it either, but uses the same name as I did when I tried to put the trope which I thought accurately described it through the YKTTW ages ago.
If I understand what you mean by “sympathy objects,” I think we have the same idea in mind. I tend to think of them as Lowest Common Denominator Protagonists, because they lack any sort of virtue or achievement that would alienate them from the most insecure or insipid audience members.