Scratched record ahoy

[taotrooper]

You Are a Pear

You are independent, intelligent, and a free thinker. You can accomplish great things, especially when you do them on your own. You are direct, honest, and sometimes even a bit brutal. There's not much that gets in the way of you and your ambition. While you are hard nosed, you do have a much sweeter side to you. It takes times for you to soften toward someone, but once you do, you'll be their friend for life.

What Type of Fruit Are You?

Same story as usual. I feel like throwing a hissy fit whenever I see icons, youtube/niconico comments, whatever stating than one of my favorite characters is teh ebol or that they should return to [insert place of origin here], regardless of the fact they're essential to the fucking plot and they help the main character like whoa.

Let's take the following kind of character, shall we? Let's say it's a he for simplification, but could also be a female or asexual. From practically his first appearance, it's not a secret he's shady with an agenda yet to be revealed. The sidekick or the love interest might distrust him, giving the audience a reason to hate him: such a good friend of the main character can't be wrong! He might have a creepy smile or secret face when the regular cast isn't looking. And he actually happens to be an antagonist force for either a short time or most of the canon. He even challenges main character to fight him without holding back, once or twice, and may even tease the main character's abilities on their face to push them further.

Now, let's take some subcategories of this archetype. Okay, there are the ones who ARE evil and are either opposing the main character or using them (Xelloss from Slayers comes to mind, I guess). Then we have the neutral ones who aren't good or evil, but just there to watch and see what side to root for. And then the redeeming type, who after fighting the protagonist he realizes he was wrong, or he actually grew fond of one of the main characters (Tao Ren from Shaman King, Ken from Digimon 2, in some degree Ishida from Bleach).

But see, there's another subcategory, the one I love the most. It's the kind of pseudo-antagonist who turns out he was supporting the main character from the beginning. He's actually either a nice guy, or at least considers himself one of the good guys. His actions look extremely jerky and contrasting, but he has justified reasons to be so rude and crude to the naive main character. As a matter of fact, his whole raison d'être is helping the main character from the shadows, pushing them to their fate/the right direction, even risking to be hated by them. So in reality, he loves and admires and trusts the main character so much; he believes the character will win and have their happy ending, and his own happy ending depends on that by extension. Probably the reason he smirks that way when they fight him is because it makes him feel alive, or it's surprising to him, or he can see they're improving so much. But truly, his love -platonic, romantic, whatever- is just amazing. He's not a saint -hell, he even might be a complete asshole sometimes- but he's far from being the devil. And if the main character gets to acknowledge that, why can't the fandom?

This message is sponsored by my two main RP/fanfic muses. If I got a dollar every time I see an Eriol icon with the word evil on it, or a niconico comment saying "月へ帰れ" when Ushiwaka pops in a video... Siiiiiiigh.

Comments

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

And if the main character gets to acknowledge that, why can't the fandom?

Because there is a really, really large part of the fandom that doesn't see the difference between "characters I don't like" and "characters who are evil". (It's never just "mean" or "nasty"; it's EEEVIL.) You don't even have to go for the secretive type to find this kind of bashing. Look at all the people who think James Potter was the devil's spawn... *sigh*

What bothers me about this kind of people is that when you try to explain that a certain character is not evil, they think you're trying to convince them to like that character. Which goes to prove that they're not paying attention to the objective vs. subjective thing.

The funny thing is, Snape could fit the category of "looks like an antagonist but is actually helping", and most of the fandom had the opposite reaction: he wasn't just working for the good side, he was a saint!

In short: I feel your pain.

And I've just realized that Mr bennett might fit the last subcategory. :O

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

No, Snape would be more of the redeeming character. He just helps Harry because he has no choice, not because he admires him in any way -mind you, I doubt he admires *anything* about Harry but the pwetty emerald orb eyes of Lily. But eh, Snapefen. The lack of Earth logic in that subfandom is low, almost just like the Sephiroth from Final Fantasy fangirls (pffffft, Sephiroth is teh woobie while Eriol is evil?! dhgfdsgjsdhfsf whatthefuckwhat).

I know this is the same old problem with any stereotype of characters, but I needed to vent. Funny enough, when a character truly IS an evil bastard of the puppy-kicking variety in some fandoms, people ADORE him for being such; meanwhile my poor kids who are just ambiguous throughout the canon and don't eat babies, are repulsed for being "bad".

I think this calls for a reread of the magnificent bastard (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagnificentBastard) article.

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

He just helps Harry because he has no choice, not because he admires him in any way
... yeah, I got your subcategories mixed up. He's helping the good side but not Harry specifically.

Funny enough, when a character truly IS an evil bastard of the puppy-kicking variety in some fandoms, people ADORE him for being such; meanwhile my poor kids who are just ambiguous throughout the canon and don't eat babies, are repulsed for being "bad".
Ugh, yes. That's one of the things that bothers me most about HP fandom. Of course the good guys are deeply flawed, but that doesn't make them worse than the Death Eaters, people.

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

That is, what I'm trying to say is that he's helping Harry to help the good side in general, not because he likes Harry. Oh Snape, you break my brain so much.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

But eh, Snapefen
Hey, I resent that!

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Ah, but I call Snapefen the crazy ones (like the astral plane wives and Alan Rickman fanbrats and the sort). You and the others are just sane Snape fans.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I know ^_^ but I find it hilarious to see bashing by overgeneralisation in a post which is about complaining against bashing characters ^^

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

It's more bad wording than anything. But yeah, I see the irony XP

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

You know, I often do love this type of character as well. (actually any time a character as their Eyes Always Shut and a Cheshire Cat Grin, and has a double or triple agenda and is hiding things, I'm pretty much garanteed to adore them ^^ (and I don't much care if they were neutral, evil, or good)

And the cranky, Rival/Antagonist turned Lancer type is usually of among my favourite as well (even if I usually like to mock them ^_^)

I've no idea why such character gets hatred, but character bashing in general puzzles me. Usually it comes from idiots and very young people in my experience, but I understand it being wearisome and annoying especially when you keep seeing it again and again :( that's why sane_insertfandomname_fan communities are made for. One should have more of those types of comms.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

I do like the good ones a bit better, because I appreciate the twist. They're rare, particularly the ones who do stuff for the main characters' sake like Eriol. Maybe it's because the first character of this kind I met was one of the evil ones -but I still like Xelloss quite a bit :3

Usually it comes from idiots and very young people in my experience.
I've seen people older than me bashing characters like they're thirteen ;_; And not precisely two or three. I'm more lenient to the younger ones because I also bashed when I didn't know better, but if they're adults and have been in fandom for ages and still behave like that? Damn.

[shirasakura.livejournal.com]

The problem I have with the word "evil" is that I have a double standard. Sometimes I use it for the EVIL EVIL characters (like Voldemort, for example), and other times I use it in a mock evil tone, which I ususally reserve for Eriol or when Character A teases Character B and Character B calls Character A evil because they're teasing.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

But you mean it in jokes or in fanfic or in characters joking in fanfic, right? I mean people who mean it wholeheartedly, and not necessarily in bashing -like loving/hating a character for being so evil in fanon and they're not bad in canon.

[shirasakura.livejournal.com]

My second definition is for fanfic, character introspection who Are Being Teased and Are Upset, and meta for discussing plot where the Evil Actions of a character are just pranks and stuff like that because it's Not Fun Getting Pranked.

My first definition are for the undeniably evil ones, even with shit pasts, and that's for everything. I have a hard time outright bashing, unless the character is so one-sided with no canon explanation to account for his actions other than him just being an evil shit.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Ah, the prankster characters are a different kind. Although half of the times it's more cruel-childish than really "evil", but on the other hand if I was pranked and teased enough, I'd probably mutter that word as well.

I wonder if stating the obvious about an evil character (like Sephiroth, Kefka, Muraki, Voldy, Fei Wang) would be considered bashing by the delusional fangirls of them. With CLAMP antagonists it's always risky because for every Seishirou or Fuuma there are 100 girls screaming "he surely has reasons!" just because Zagato or Taishakuten had them. I don't know, you'd think people would like them, especially Sei, for being "evil" or at least psychopaths/cruel. I mean, you could argue Fuuma does have one (Kamui choosing the other band), but Seishirou was just nuts from the beginning. But really, labeling Eriol in these guys' category is ridiculous.

[ayasugi-san.livejournal.com]

You know what the most bizarre version of this is? When the fanbrats take Eriol, make him far more "evil" and amoral than he ever was in canon, and portray him as cool for being that way. And imply that the relationship he's coercing from Tomoyo while in this state is better, sweeter, and purer than anything relating to Kaho... but that's a different issue.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

I HATE fanon!evil!Eriol with a passion, or any rendition of him being an insensitive jerk of some variety. Don't you know girls crave for bad boys to shape them up to woobies?

[ayasugi-san.livejournal.com]

Fanon!Casanove!Eriol is almost as bad. C'mon, the guy's idea of a romantic conversation starts with talking about how much he loves his kids! But how does that work, when the girl only reinforces the bad-boy image by weakly submitting to the sexual harrassment?