Disgaea. Great story, great characters, except for one.
Flonne has almost NO characterization throughout the game. And also has no flaws. Everything that's supposed to be a flaw is really just a cutesy little quirk designed to make everyone like her. Kind of like the girl in all the hollywood movies whose "ugly" because she wears a turtleneck and a ponytail but really actually isn't.
also, when you first track her down, she repels a fire attack with ease, and then summons a dragon. Can she do either of those in battle? no.
Like it or not, flonne is a mary-sue in truest form. and was she necessary? maybe as a minor character. they had a perfectly good female lead with etna, and a whole scene written where she and laharl flirted with each other, and then suddenly flonne appears and etna is pushed to the side to make room for the new female lead. why? i don't know. maybe someone lost a bet, or got drunk. but that really is the main thing that almost ruined disgaea for me. i'm just glad i didn't have to actually hear her much, especially since she's useless in battle unless you get her enough mana to make an apprentice. and since she only learns moves from her apprentice, she can't learn terra attacks till they're level 100. and if your going to level a mage to 100, you no doubt will be using it a lot, and if your going to be using it a lot you probably want to give it the highest iq possible. not only does that take a lot of mana, but if your going to create it anyways you may as well just cut the middle man and just use the mage/cleric you made. And if you're going to do that, well then what's the point of flonne. Also, her special has been specially made to heal both you and any nearby enemies, so that's no good either, which means she really has no redeeming qualities to her.
before you go on about how she's tragic and dark, let me point out that her character doesn't change over the course of the game. She's bubbly and happy, except for one scene where she gets slightly angry with laharl. then she's happy again for another 2 chapters then SUDDENLY she becomes all dark and angsty and willing to die. that is not characterization. That is my 13 year old sibling in a forum rp, mary-sue to the core.
Etna was far FAR better in battle and in character, and if you ask me they wrote the characters so well you can actually see the chemistry between her and laharl. Flonne just doesn't make ANY sense to me at all other than a background character like Hoggmeiser.
/rant
I don't think i'll ever be able to get over it. Usually things like that make me run to fanfiction, but there is no etna/laharl fanfiction anywhere on the net it seems.