Why do some people hate Gambit?

Jarvind
Jarvind Posts: 1,684 Chairperson of the Boards
in MPQ General Discussion
I've noticed in discussions of Gambit that he seems to be really polarizing; people either love him or hate his guts, with seemingly no middle ground.

I assume the pro-Gambit folks are mostly 90's kids like me that grew up on the animated series (theme song plays aggressively) and were just like "yeah man exploding cards and a cool accent, this guy is super duper rad" and now it's just nostalgia factor.

I assume the people that don't like him think he's too gimmicky or something? I'm not really sure. He doesn't seem any more contrived than any other X-Man to me, but maybe I'm missing something.

Thoughts? Judgment-free zone here dudes, everyone has their characters they don't like and that's cool - I don't really care one way or the other about Nightcrawler, even though he seems to be really popular-  I'm just curious about the reasoning.

Also here's that theme song. (air guitars aggressively)



«134

Comments

  • carrion_pigeons
    carrion_pigeons Posts: 942 Critical Contributor
    edited October 2017
    If you mean cool as in, "that guy's awesomely cool," I'm not sure you can really a design a character to have that and it ever be a bad thing.  If you mean cool as in "that guy's aloof, and doesn't have a temper to speak of" then I don't think you're talking about Wolverine at all, since the dude is literally defined by his temper.  It might be true that Gambit was written to be cool (in the second sense), but if so, that has little to do with playing off Wolverine's success.

    <blockquote class="Quote">I also think his classic costume is awful. </blockquote>

    Not enough yellow with blue stripes for you?
  • vinsensual
    vinsensual Posts: 458 Mover and Shaker
    I remember in the 90s cartoon that he tried to sneak a kiss on Rogue while she was sleeping in her room.  Seemed non consensual.  I have his 90s action figure with the kicking action and plastic coat, and that's pretty awesome.

    Comics wise, he doesn't really have arcs.  The last thing I remember was that he was the main perspective character in X Factor.  And they had him save the day by making out with a robot. :(
  • Tony_Foot
    Tony_Foot Posts: 1,816 Chairperson of the Boards
    Don't care about the character or the xmen in the marvel universe to be honest, but there are plenty asking for him and I'm glad they have their wishes. 

    But if his power set is fun to use or excellent than I will be happy.
  • D4Ni13
    D4Ni13 Posts: 745 Critical Contributor
    edited October 2017
    STOPTHIS said:
    Well, first off of course there's a middle ground. They just don't say anything.

    But as a leader of the local chapter of Gambit Haters, I hate Gambit because he's largely a nothing character and an attempt to recreate Wolverine's cool guy with a mysterious past, but more contrived. One of things that made Wolverine work was that he could play off Cyclops' boy scout personality. It gave them both an interesting dynamic. Gambit was just there to try and be cool or as you said, "yeah man exploding cards and a cool accent, this guy is super duper rad" and little else. And before someone says it, I do know a number of people liked his and Rogue's romantic plots, but those always rang overly simple and redundant after a while. I can only take so much "i love you but can't be with you" nonsense. I also think his classic costume is awful.

    Also, one time Gambit became Death for Apocalypse and had deadly farting powers, because he stinks.
    Not trying to prove anything. It's your right to hate Gambit, and as a declared leader, you did a pretty good job :D

    But I think you're wrong about Wolverine & all. Gambit was a thief & an orphan. And his relationship with Rogue was even so more beloved, because they we're similar, had the same type. Rogue was a villain before joining the X-Men (of course, this was not stated in the cartoons we all know), so their relationship had a lot of potential, and everyone was interested to see how they would overcome the inability to touch each other. 

    Gambit has nothing to do with Logan. They're miles apart. Gambit was flashy, had charm, while Logan was snapy and didn't like being around people too much. Gambit was a lady man, while Logan didn't let anyone aproach him (except Jean). He was more aggresive towards Cyclops because of Jean, but even if it weren't for her, he would still reject most of the X-Men. Gambit has the skills of a thief (he is silent, precise, doesn't attract attention when it is not needed, but love to be in the center of all things - because those are the traits of a thief). Wolverine is a berserker - a warrior - he has nothing to do with silence and caution. He goes all in and shreddes everything in it's path. He doesn't care if the enemy knows he is coming, he just goes with the flow. Completely different types of personas. 

    So all this being said, Gambit was introduced because the team needed one persona of his type. Because diversity is a requirement for any tv show, and Marvel knew that. 

    Now if you hate this kind of personas in general, then it's normal to despise Gambit too, but that only shows that he is a well made character, and not a lousy copycat. 

    Jarvind said:
    I assume the pro-Gambit folks are mostly 90's kids like me that grew up on the animated series (theme song plays aggressively) and were just like "yeah man exploding cards and a cool accent, this guy is super duper rad" and now it's just nostalgia factor.

    I do like Gambit because of the animated series, and I do like his relationship with Rogue. I guess that was a keypoint, because I love both characters so much. 

    I always despised Cyclops, and that's maybe because I like Wolverine and I was on his side (that Morph supposed death got directly in the feels). I agree that Cyclops was in a tough position mostly all the time being a leader and all, and I think he did a good job as a leader, but I just don't like him as a person.  

    As for other team members I am just content (Jean, Beast, Jubilee, Prof X, etc). 

    I guess everybody likes some types of personas, and like I said, X-Men had a very good diversity. I like Rogue, Gambit & Wolverine, and a reason may be that turmoiled characters intrique me. 


  • csista
    csista Posts: 17 Just Dropped In
    I think a part of it might be related to who kept reading the comics. I started in the 90s, right after he was introduced and the next big thing. He was awesome, and I remember saving up to buy his first appearance. But like a lot of things that were cool in 90s comics, they didn't age well. You get older, cool becomes less important, and you realize the character never had a ton of substance. His continuity became messy, but to be fair that's status quo in the x-men. And in the comics he slowly became b-list, only relevant for his relationship with Rogue. It also never felt true to the character that he would become a permanent fixture with the X-Men. He would work better as the mysterious loner who helps out when needed, and then leaves the next day to do his own thing. 

    For the the people who have an enduring fondness for him, I think you nailed it. The cartoon. If you were really into the cartoon, but not necessarily the comics, he was this badass character that never wore out his welcome. Even if you collected the comics back then, which a lot of kids did, but stopped as you got older, he remains a fond memory. Which is totally understandable.
  • mega ghost
    mega ghost Posts: 1,156 Chairperson of the Boards
    Kishida said:
    To me, he's basically the Poochie of the X-Men. 
    Oh that is quotable! And accurate!

    RE: "but for some inexplicable reason, Gambit got kind of grandfathered in to iconic status."
    It was 100% on account of the cartoon. 
  • thisone
    thisone Posts: 655 Critical Contributor
    edited October 2017
    I always thought Gambit was well defined by his weapon of choice. His personality is about as thin as a playing card. 

    I don't hate Gambit. He is very meh to me.
  • D4Ni13
    D4Ni13 Posts: 745 Critical Contributor
    edited October 2017
    mega ghost said:
    I loved Gambit when I was a child. As I got older I grew to dislike him quite a bit. He is such an obnoxious, dated product of the times — "Ok, he's gotta be cool. Let's give him some headgear, that's in right now. A trench coat... with a popped collar! And a bo staff! BRO, let's make him a charming thief with a mysterious past! OH! And he plays cards, and he can do cool card tricks, and they EXPLODE. And of course he's great with the ladies. Of course, bro. Bro, oh my God. Bro, and give him an accent. Bro oh my bro, a CAJUN accent. MON AMI, BRO!!!"
    Well, I guess he is a product of those times, but I think that most people who doesn't like him, are blocked by this surface of arrogant cool bro with accent. I like him because of what he represented for the other X-Men. He was Rogue's lover, and while Rogue was turmoiled & confused most of the time, she didn't have bad taste. As a person, Gambit was kind, helpful and always there for the loved ones. He acted as a parental figure for Jubilee numerous times in the cartoon, and he got very well with Storm. Even Wolverine liked him most of times. 

    So what I'm saying is that underneath that flashy look is actually a good guy. Maybe that's the reason you loved him when you were a kid... you didn't know what that surface means... now as a grown up you do, and you hate it.. so you hate him too. 
  • csista
    csista Posts: 17 Just Dropped In
    edited October 2017
    I definitely think a large part of the animosity is resentment towards his fans. When someone says Gambit is their favorite character, you get the feeling they haven't read a single comic in the last 20 years while you stuck around and they're kind of posing as a fan. Like if you asked them how they felt when Gambit was a horseman of Apocalypse, they would say, "No way! He was a horseman of Apocalypse? Cool!" Kind of makes you want to ignore any opinion they have about the character.
  • White_Deth
    White_Deth Posts: 63 Match Maker
    Kishida said:
    I think everybody else has mostly covered it, but... awkward 90s-style contrived "cool guy," skeezy as all hell, cartoonish accent as shorthand for character development (one of Claremont's worst, laziest tendencies), ridiculous costume, goofy powers (seriously, playing cards?!?). To me, he's basically the Poochie of the X-Men. Granted, there were worse characters to follow, but for some inexplicable reason, Gambit got kind of grandfathered in to iconic status.
    His power is the ability to charge anything with energy. He peraonally uses playing cards as his go to because, well he likes gambling. He can even charge himself making him able to sustain large impacts and charge his staff. He doea it to much he does need to rest. I mean id love the fact i could prwtty much make a deadly exploaive decice out of a piece of paper lol
  • STOPTHIS
    STOPTHIS Posts: 781 Critical Contributor
    carrion pigeons said:
    If you mean cool as in, "that guy's awesomely cool," I'm not sure you can really a design a character to have that and it ever be a bad thing.  If you mean cool as in "that guy's aloof, and doesn't have a temper to speak of" then I don't think you're talking about Wolverine at all, since the dude is literally defined by his temper.  It might be true that Gambit was written to be cool (in the second sense), but if so, that has little to do with playing off Wolverine's success.
    I'm talking about the former and cool for the sake of cool is exactly what the problem was in 90's comics. It was all style over substance and that style hasn't held up too well.
    carrion pigeons said:
    yellow with blue stripes for you?
    You can mock the yellow and blue stripes, but let's not pretend fingerless gloves, pink and blue body armor, pointless head covering, what could only be described as fancy catcher shin guards, all hidden by a trenchcoat is the height of costume designs. But on a different level, it did bug me that they redesigned the X-Men outfits to give them some cohesion, except Gambit. He stuck out like a sore thumb.

    D4Ni13 said:
    Not trying to prove anything. It's your right to hate Gambit, and as a declared leader, you did a pretty good job :D

    But I think you're wrong about Wolverine & all. Gambit was a thief & an orphan. And his relationship with Rogue was even so more beloved, because they we're similar, had the same type. Rogue was a villain before joining the X-Men (of course, this was not stated in the cartoons we all know), so their relationship had a lot of potential, and everyone was interested to see how they would overcome the inability to touch each other. 

    Gambit has nothing to do with Logan. They're miles apart. Gambit was flashy, had charm, while Logan was snapy and didn't like being around people too much. Gambit was a lady man, while Logan didn't let anyone aproach him (except Jean). He was more aggresive towards Cyclops because of Jean, but even if it weren't for her, he would still reject most of the X-Men. Gambit has the skills of a thief (he is silent, precise, doesn't attract attention when it is not needed, but love to be in the center of all things - because those are the traits of a thief). Wolverine is a berserker - a warrior - he has nothing to do with silence and caution. He goes all in and shreddes everything in it's path. He doesn't care if the enemy knows he is coming, he just goes with the flow. Completely different types of personas. 

    So all this being said, Gambit was introduced because the team needed one persona of his type. Because diversity is a requirement for any tv show, and Marvel knew that. 

    Now if you hate this kind of personas in general, then it's normal to despise Gambit too, but that only shows that he is a well made character, and not a lousy copycat.
    I'm not talking about a literal clone of Wolverine, I know they're different characters. But they do share some similarities like a troubled and mysterious past, both had loves that weren't meant to be, you may not think of Logan as a ladies man but that dude has really gotten around, and while not established at the time of Gambit's creation, Logan was an orphan too.

    But I'm talking about trying to recapture the kind of stuff that made Wolverine so popular, not his personality per se. As someone else put it, he's Poochie. Gambit feels like a character designed by committee to be sure to appeal to the right groups, but ultimately is soulless.

    All this said, if you dig Gambit for whatever reason, I'm glad you can have him in the game. As Stan Lee would say "every character is someone's favorite character".
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,291 Chairperson of the Boards

    When Gambit first showed up, it was kind of obvious that X-men writer Chris Claremont had found his new favourite. First it had been Cyclops, then Wolverine, then Storm and now it was Gambit. The problem was though that Gambit was sort of much more annoying than those other characters with the “too cool for school” vibe and he was nearly invincible in some of those early appearances. He couldn’t be hit and he used a pack of charged cards to take down Gladiator, who is basically Superman! It didn’t help that they used Wolverine who at the time had failing powers and health as Gambit’s whipping boy and that Gambit said things like “Bang you dead!”.  He just seemed ridiculous, to the point where in X-Men issue 3 when he finally gets nailed in a fight with Iceman had me cheering!

    However, I have to admit that he kind of grew on me.  The cartoon helped and they fleshed him out a bit so that he wasn’t completely shallow and he was even maybe a lot more flawed and haunted by his past.  These days he seems to have been relegated to B level status, probably because he has only had one cameo on screen in what was a terrible movie.





  • Kishida
    Kishida Posts: 310 Mover and Shaker
    White_Deth said:
    Kishida said:
    I think everybody else has mostly covered it, but... awkward 90s-style contrived "cool guy," skeezy as all hell, cartoonish accent as shorthand for character development (one of Claremont's worst, laziest tendencies), ridiculous costume, goofy powers (seriously, playing cards?!?). To me, he's basically the Poochie of the X-Men. Granted, there were worse characters to follow, but for some inexplicable reason, Gambit got kind of grandfathered in to iconic status.
    His power is the ability to charge anything with energy. He peraonally uses playing cards as his go to because, well he likes gambling. He can even charge himself making him able to sustain large impacts and charge his staff. He doea it to much he does need to rest. I mean id love the fact i could prwtty much make a deadly exploaive decice out of a piece of paper lol
    I understand that he can charge anything with energy. The fact that out of all potential options, they went with playing cards, that's what strikes me as goofy. Talking about the Distinguished Competition here, but that always felt like the huge failing of Green Lantern: dude can create anything he can think of, and it turns out he's not much of a thinker.
  • Dormammu
    Dormammu Posts: 3,531 Chairperson of the Boards
    He's the Poochie of the X-Men.
  • Beer40
    Beer40 Posts: 826 Critical Contributor
    Gambit was awesome, still is awesome. The 90's were awesome and will always be remembered as awesome. I'm sure the MCU crowd would disagree because if its not Avengers/GotG/Inhumans its not "real" Marvel. Oh, if you only knew...

    **** out of here with the Gambit hate.

Categories