People tend to bring up the same examples when it comes to videogame characters who have gotten worse overtime (such as Cloud being a sad sack from Advent Children and onward or Samus "The Baby The Baby The Baby" Samuson).
But I think Tekken's Jin Kazama beats everyone else to the punch (hur hur):
For much of his Tekken career, Jin has fought against his Mishima bloodline: he unlearned the fighting style Heihachi taught him, he gained friends who supported him (Xiaoyu, who is also a potential love interest, and Hwoarang, who started as a rival but also showed signs of respect, re his Tekken 4 ending), and in a pivotal moment he managed to repress his Devil gene thanks to his memories of his mother Jun (Tekken 4's ending, which even showed a brief image of an angel feather, hinting at Jin's cleansing of the evil within).
The message had been clear: Jin was the hero who fought against his own cursed bloodline. He was the one Mishima who wouldn't become a world-conquering asshole.
Then in Tekken 6, he became a world-conquering asshole:
Overnight, he becomes head of the Mishima Zaibatsu and proceeds to cause World War III times a million, killing countless people everywhere and shutting off all ties with his former allies, as well as gaining a ton of new enemies.
Only (Tekken 6 spoilers) it turned out he was only "pretending" to be evil, because he had to do all the bad stuff to awaken the stupid-looking ancient evil we all already forgot about so that he could kill it while he was weak.
It was a dumb twist everyone already saw coming, and it pretty much permanently ruined the character. There's really no sensible way anyone could say he's absolved of his actions considering all the devastation he was responsible for (plus there are still characters who still want to super-kill him, and they are entirely justified to do so).
And, much like post-AC Cloud, all the spinoffs and games following Tekken 6 still portray Jin as an evil businessman. I was hoping Tekken 7 would give them the chance to roll things back so that we could get Jin back to how he used to be, but so far it looks like his role will be minimal at best, as his asshole father and even bigger asshole grandfather look to be the main focus of that game's story mode.
Some people think that Jin didn't get interesting until he went the (semi) heel route, but I disagree: the Tekken series already had a bunch of morally dubious characters, including the aforementioned Mishimas. Jin balanced things out by being one of the few purely good fighters, and his continued backstory of fighting against fate and family made him one of the few fighting game characters whose backstory I felt invested in. They basically took the Evil Ryu concept and made it much more interesting, in my opinion.
Maybe I'm wrong and it turns out my boy will get better representation, as I'm very behind on what they're actually doing with Tekken 7, but so far it isn't looking that way. Don't even get me started on how they seem more commited to focusing on Lars, aka "We really didn't need another Mishima, especially one designed by the fucking Naruto creator".
At least have him hook up with Xiaoyu already. The two are adorable together. Give my boy some happiness.
But I think Tekken's Jin Kazama beats everyone else to the punch (hur hur):
For much of his Tekken career, Jin has fought against his Mishima bloodline: he unlearned the fighting style Heihachi taught him, he gained friends who supported him (Xiaoyu, who is also a potential love interest, and Hwoarang, who started as a rival but also showed signs of respect, re his Tekken 4 ending), and in a pivotal moment he managed to repress his Devil gene thanks to his memories of his mother Jun (Tekken 4's ending, which even showed a brief image of an angel feather, hinting at Jin's cleansing of the evil within).
The message had been clear: Jin was the hero who fought against his own cursed bloodline. He was the one Mishima who wouldn't become a world-conquering asshole.
Then in Tekken 6, he became a world-conquering asshole:
Overnight, he becomes head of the Mishima Zaibatsu and proceeds to cause World War III times a million, killing countless people everywhere and shutting off all ties with his former allies, as well as gaining a ton of new enemies.
Only (Tekken 6 spoilers) it turned out he was only "pretending" to be evil, because he had to do all the bad stuff to awaken the stupid-looking ancient evil we all already forgot about so that he could kill it while he was weak.
It was a dumb twist everyone already saw coming, and it pretty much permanently ruined the character. There's really no sensible way anyone could say he's absolved of his actions considering all the devastation he was responsible for (plus there are still characters who still want to super-kill him, and they are entirely justified to do so).
And, much like post-AC Cloud, all the spinoffs and games following Tekken 6 still portray Jin as an evil businessman. I was hoping Tekken 7 would give them the chance to roll things back so that we could get Jin back to how he used to be, but so far it looks like his role will be minimal at best, as his asshole father and even bigger asshole grandfather look to be the main focus of that game's story mode.
Some people think that Jin didn't get interesting until he went the (semi) heel route, but I disagree: the Tekken series already had a bunch of morally dubious characters, including the aforementioned Mishimas. Jin balanced things out by being one of the few purely good fighters, and his continued backstory of fighting against fate and family made him one of the few fighting game characters whose backstory I felt invested in. They basically took the Evil Ryu concept and made it much more interesting, in my opinion.
Maybe I'm wrong and it turns out my boy will get better representation, as I'm very behind on what they're actually doing with Tekken 7, but so far it isn't looking that way. Don't even get me started on how they seem more commited to focusing on Lars, aka "We really didn't need another Mishima, especially one designed by the fucking Naruto creator".
At least have him hook up with Xiaoyu already. The two are adorable together. Give my boy some happiness.
