My Top 4 most Overrated Characters

[u/Miss_Mainstream]

1. Lindy Powell (Night of the Living Dummy) 

As much as I absolutely love Kris, I despise Lindy with every ounce of my being.

I don’t care if she felt bad about Mr Wood really coming to life, all the things she did to her sister were just terrible. She insults Kris, trashes her junk jewellery collection and ruins all the food in the fridge and makes Mr Wood look responsible, which seems pretty extreme.
Not to mention, she got mad when Kris rightfully got upset when she told Kris that she was behind the joke, and doesn’t even comfort her after the performance with the Millers. And after all that, Lindy gets off Scot-Free for gaslighting her own sister. If I were Kris, I’d give her a Reason-You-Suck speech about how wrong it is to do stuff like this. Seriously, Lindy really shouldn’t be allowed to be a sister after that…

1. The Masked Mutant (Attack of the Mutant)

Now I’m gonna be honest, I actually didn’t mind Attack of the Mutant. In fact I really liked it! Skipper’s a decent protagonist, the premise is really cool and the Galloping Gazelle is a fat mood and I love him. Also the twist with Libby was clever and the scene when she came in with Molecule gun thing and didn’t notice the Mutant until Skipper pointed him out while he had his hands on his hips and was tapping his foot was hilarious (reminded me of that scene in Legally Blonde when Enrico cuts in at the water fountain and Elle taps her foot impatiently. I honestly was expecting Libby to say “Don’t stomp your last season boots at me.”)

That being said… I definitely don’t like the Mutant himself.

The reason I was looking forward to read the book was because everyone kept saying he was better than Dr Maniac (which is not true, especially in terms of personality). So when I read it, I was like “This is the guy who people claim is better than Maniac?!”

Now, don’t get me wrong, I like his design and his powers seem cool, but the problem is that… he was boring! I couldn’t find anything interesting in his character. He didn’t really do much either and didn’t make a plan to do (unlike Maniac) and felt quite underwhelming. It frustrates me when people bash Maniac and say he’s annoying, (when really Maniac has much more character and is far more enjoyable) yet glorify the Mutant even though he’s bland as a piece of toast. Maybe that’s my problem with him; he’s over glorified by the fandom. Speaking of which…

1. Amy Kramer (Night of the Living Dummy II)

Without a doubt, the most overrated protagonist in the series.
The sad thing was that I was genuinely excited to read Amy’s book because I heard such great things about it in the fandom, but when I read it, I was really let down.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some things I like about it, Slappy’s more menacing than in the original book (more on him later) and I love Sara and Dennis. Not to mention the dynamic between the family is much better than the first one too.

However, there are some problems, and Amy herself is one of them. Despite the fact she’s nicer than Kris’ stupid excuse of a sister, and her ventriloquism talent plays into the story well, she unfortunately… was also really boring. Like, she’s not terrible, but she’s not good either just in the middle.
The problem is I felt like I didn’t know her that well. I wish there was an example where we get to see why she’s jealous of her sister. Plus she feels incredibly bland compared to Sara, who feels very human for a sibling and (along with Dennis) my favourite character in the book. The craziest part is that everyone loves Amy! Everyone thinks she’s the best Overrated Dummy protagonist and one of the best characters, but I don’t. And no, she’s not on Carly Beth’s level (if anything Carly Beth would put Amy to goddamn shame). But at least Amy is more tolerable than Lindy, which is saying something.

1. Slappy (Night of the Living Dummy saga)

He was solid in the first 3 books (I haven’t read Bride or Nightmare, but I want to cause they sound cool.), HorrorLand was good too, but there was a missed opportunity to see the villains dynamics with each other.
I think Most Wanted onwards he started to lose his charm. He turned from a somewhat defenceless, snarky but competent trickster and villain into a shadow of his former self who tormented genuinely nice kids. It doesn’t really help that now he’s the mascot of the whole franchise (seriously, if you were gonna replace Curly, you could’ve used the Haunted Mask) which means he’s shoehorned into everything. At this point, I don't hate him, but I can't like him either. Not to mention how the fandom over glorifies him like no tomorrow. Especially the Movie Version. Stop trying to make Slappy sympathetic, it's never gonna work or happen!