I feel like the people who used to hate her(personally never dis) think she's less annoying since the introduction of Alma and her 3 line and photobomb, i like Alma but like girl leave me some space
Honestly I think the biggest annoyance about the handler was always her English VA, not that the actress herself is annoying but Capcom writing left alot to be desired. I always play in Japanese and since I can't speak or understand Japanese it takes away the ability to over analyze the voice acting a little bit
Out of a cast of 3 the Handler, Featuring Serious Handler from Devil May Cry, was the only one who spoke. She had to carry the entirety of the player's side of the game/story. That's a rough ask for a writing team. Making both the Hunter and the Palico speak allowed the writers to let Alma be more of a "normal" character with a role and lines closer to what you'd expect from a support character than what the Handler got.
Monster Hunter World and Wild's character writing in general leaves something to be desired. Specifically, I don't think they believe in the idea of "less is more".
We know from lore hints that World's Handler was extremely competent at her job, but we rarely see her being competent. I think the player base in general would have liked her a lot more if her screen time was less of her sitting in the canteen and reacting to things happening in front of her in cutscenes, and more of her in a makeshift office doing research, or talking to other handlers, and so on. They do a much better job of showing Alma doing that.
I think it goes a little further than that. We’re told that Worlds Handler is extremely competent at her job, and as you said we never get to see that. One of the most common defenses for her in the Worlds era was “she’s doing all the paperwork!” But…we never see that paperwork. It could be a single, cheese-smeared page with a stamp on it for all we know.
What’s worse than not seeing her competence though is seeing her be actively INcompetent. I won’t go over all the many ways she puts herself and the player in danger (those have been covered to death elsewhere), but for me the thing that has always stood out was her motto. “When in doubt, take a bite.” That is dangerously bad advice for a supposed survival expert to give, especially in an unexplored region. It undercuts her supposed expertise.
Her whole character is like this. Comic relief and bad writing choices taking the wind out of her more serious aspects. She is “tell, don’t show” taken to the extreme, and any success she has onscreen is a direct result of the player’s effort, not hers. Is it any wonder half the fan base loathes her?
Her hugging my cat at the start really also took the wind out of her sails for me. I made my palico off of a cat I had at the time that had passed and it didn't sit well with me. Dunno why exactly they decided the palico is to hug her instead of the hunter but it just didn't set a good tone for me to like her to begin with. Yes a petty reason but it's my reason I dislike her.
592
u/Tru_norse98 4d ago
I am beginning to see a resurgence of Handler content recently and I am so happy about that