Reduced to an obstacle to Jayvik. Her character background and nuances are ignored in favor of making her an evil Jezebel who seduced Jayce to turn him against Viktor/the undercity; she’s always getting put in the cuck chair, and even positive depictions of her in fic have her playing Jayvik therapist or yaoi fangirl instead of developing her as a character in her own right. Often excluded from group official art & fan art.
As a character, she has so much interesting canon material to work with that people just ignore. She was raised to inherit a war-loving empire but believed she was discarded as a child for being too soft. She overcame a cold and traumatic childhood to be a champion for peace. There are still traces of this upbringing in her - she’s a strategist who wants the best for the whole, which sometimes means making decisions that come across as ruthless for the individual, but she’s always been just as willing to sacrifice herself for the cause. She’s flawed and has her own blind spots but always tries to operate in good faith. Criminally underutilized in canon and in fan works lol
Because of her interactions with Jay, much of the fandom only saw her as a malignant and hostile obstacle to the Jay/Viktor pairing, using words like 'temptress' and implying a romantic relationship between Jay and Mel is automatically inferior to one between Jay and Viktor. Definitely misogynoir, because the fandom would not have been this hostile to her if she wasn't black.
Mel is a complicated, morally gray character. Initially characterized as a ruthless and cunning politician, but who is torn between being merciful and stopping at nothing to prevent more suffering. Her emotional arc involved getting out of her parent's constricting grasp and living according to her own desires.
Where do I start. Constantly villainized for actions that fully make sense for her character. Ignored in her main relationship in order to ship her boyfriend with a skinny white guy. Sooooo much unchecked fandom misogynoir. The WRITERS don't even know what to do with her, they like never fully nailed down her motivations and just let her Happen. Like. It's YOUR show!! WRITE your characters!!
Smartest woman in the room. Powerful mage. INCREDIBLY tragic figure forced to continue the cycle of conquering and bloodshed. Knows what she wants and how she's going to get it, and sees that plan through. Figures out how to deal with an entire mage cult on her own, outsmarting the leader. I love her. She didn't do half the shit the fandom is mad at her for doing but she would have been fully within her right to do so.
Mel is hated by racist fujoshis for daring to "get in the way" of a non canon gay ship. One of the animators mentioned something about how he pictured the sex scene between Mel and her boyfriend being unimportant compared to Mel's boyfriend's concern for his white bestie. Fujoshis rejoiced, only going to show that they view her as a disposable Black girlfriend character/thats what they want for her. They write fanfiction where she's been killed, too.
Mel is the most interesting character in the show by far. She has a nuanced and complicated relationship with her mother, and its already rare to see this with a mother/daughter relationship let alone between 2 Black women, and its the most heartfelt relationship in the whole show. Mel was abandoned by her mother for being "too soft" and made her own way in the world of politics. She is manipulative, to a degree, but she always means well and its easy to see that she has so much heartfelt emotion in her that she holds back. She stands up for her lame ass boyfriend despite him not deserving her, and she gets cool magic powers in the second season that she uses to save everyone. She is also always dressed impeccably and is inarguably the most beautiful character in the whole show.
Oh, boy. Hoo. There's a lot of fandom misogyny but it is mostly from JayVik fans. I am a fan of the ship myself, but to insinuate that Mel is in the way, and is no good, and that she should leave Jayce alone, or that she manipulated him? Sigh… I am Viktor himself (an IRL/DA. That's not important, I just have to mention incase I get some weird looks). She wasn't in the way at all. You can ship what you wish without constantly finding ways to hate on Mel and insist that she was being a user and a manipulator.
She is a goddess of the Arcane. She's made of pure magic and she looks it. She's golden, glowing and gorgeous. She is politically strong, and got away from her mother's bad influence to make a name and a life for herself. She commands the attention of a room and makes sure not only to be powerful but to be nurturing. She's kind, and whilst she might have been raised as a wolf, she knows when a good leader must be soft, too.
Many people have this idea in their head that she was manipulating Jayce & Viktor and just using them for her own selfish gain. She wasn't. I don't think so in the slightest. She was genuinely intrigued by the research Jayce had done and was nurturing that. Sure, a few of her words may have come across as manipulative, but perhaps it's because she is a flawed character. She isn't perfect, and that's okay!
Someone who genuinely wants the best for everyone and is trying so hard to be a good person, hampered by the fact that she doesn't entirely "get" people and didn't exactly grow up in the best environment for that. While she tries to be different from the rest of her family - being a Pacifist and more of a thinker than a fighter - throughout the series it kind of feels like she's "doomed" to become one of them. She literally gets tortured into awakening her powers and becoming a fighter (and playable character in League of Legends) like the rest of the cast, like she was being forced into a role she didn't want. Despite this, she still tries to use her powers mostly defensively. Her relationship with her mother (Ambessa) is also really interesting - her mother loves her despite treating her poorly, but they just have incompatible worldviews and never really come to an understanding. This is only one interpretation of this scene, but I love Ambessa's line after Mel kills her, "you are the wolf." From Ambessa's perspective, it was probably praise and reassurance to her daughter that she still loved her. From Mel's perspective it was probably one of the cruelest things seh could say. I love her sm and there are so many parts of her character that are under-discussed.
Rose Tyler:
People really hate her idk why so im assuming misogyny
Shes a normal poor shop girl from uk and shes adventurous and beautiful and kind and falls in love and saves the world and whats not to love about her shes just a human girl and shes also the most special girl in the entire universe
During the first season of the revival for Doctor Who it can very much be argued that the main character is Rose. The name of the first episode is Rose and the very first shot once its panned in from outer space is of her. We spend 90% of the time just following Rose, the Doctor just so happens to be there. If you look at any episode they tend to focus more on Rose.
Without her as a character the Doctor Who we know today would not exist.
And as an aside, when she first meets Martha she is impressed by her- she quite literally thinks that Martha is brilliant! However so many people ignore this and try to blame the Doctor's actions and how he acted towards Martha on Rose. For that- I say free my girl!
Rose is actually currently the most hated female character in the fandom according to one poll here on Tumblr. Reasons for not liking her usually include adjectives such as “bitchy” “whiny” and “catty”. Which are all adjectives used almost exclusively for women. Rose is in many ways stereotypically feminine. She’s soft and sensitive and enjoys girly things. But that seems to cause the fanbase to see her as too ordinary to be considered worthy of being loved by the main character in the way that she is. One huge example is people choosing to completely deny that the main character really meant it when he said that if he believed in one thing, just one thing, it was her.
Rose Tyler fandom sexism example
For as long as DW has been a fandom on tumblr, we've gotten fans saying the same thing with different wording:
"I really liked Rose - until season 3. I hated her in season 3."The problem is that Rose ISN'T IN season 3. They are literally getting mad at the 10th Doctor (at that point a white guy) and blaming Rose for it.
Rose Tyler is often hated just becuase she’s treated well by the Doctor (her love interest and the show’s protagonist). People frequently complain that they don’t understand why he loves her or why he tolerates her. And they don’t like how much she impacts him. Or how much value he places on her. Or how much he pines for her when she’s gone. These aren’t one off complains. They’re frequent patterns. She arguably the woman that is the most well treated by the protagonist and the fandom hates her for it. It’s misogynistic because the parts of the fandom are actively disgusted by an average realistic woman being treated well by a male presenting character.
Rose fans always praise her as some saint that can never do no wrong, therefore her character should be free of criticism, while Rose haters always ridicule her for literally existing as a person who naturally has flaws, which makes her somehow annoying.
But both have a habit of using her as some example as to why she's better or worse for certain people (especially the Doctor) when Rose's narrative and purpose, along with the other companions during RTD1, is that these companions are regular women that are loved for their normalcy AND uniqueness.
Rose is 19-20 years old, it's normal for her to be inconsistent, and it's normal to be inconsistent at any age. People (fans and haters) aren't able to separate her character from the writer who has made multiple questionable choices, and from conflated fandom perception.
Let Rose be Rose.
the backlash against Rose is very much highly misogynistic in most regards. There are some people who hate her for non misogynistic reasons, and that’s irrelevant here, but often the hate towards her is specifically towards her and not really in defense of any other character. Shes the most realistic woman who is written as a love interest for the Doctor. And she’s also the one he’s happiest around. But people get mad at her just for being a normal girl who is also so beloved. And that really just needs to be said because the misogyny towards her reflects misogyny in real life because she is meant to be so realistic in both her strengths and flaws. There is this expectation that women need to be a male gaze fantasy and Rose subverts that. Which then invites the misogyny. Most hate posts about her aren’t in an attempt to lift up another character. They’re just annoyed that a normal woman dare to be so important.
A lot of Doctor Who fans who dislike Rose will try and say that she wasn't smart and that she's just a poor love interest for the Doctor. This is false!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rose's biggest crime is being selfish, lest you forget that she's a 19 year old girl.
In the two seasons where Rose is actually a companion she is consistently compassionate to others and is willing to put herself in danger if it means being able to save someone. In the very first episode she quite literally grabs an axe, cuts some chain free and swings from it to save the Doctor!! Which is why she's invited to go with him in the first place. And over the two seasons she continues to display that same behavior, and sure at times she is most definitely selfish but she always learns from that.
SHE BECAME A GOD TO SAVE THE PEOPLE SHE LOVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And then after she gets stranded in another universe she works with that universe's Torchwood to get back to her universe, not to be back with the Doctor but to warn them that the stars are going out! Season 4 Rose is shown to be more like the Doctor, at one point we legit see her taking on his role in "Turn Left" when he's dead. She also fully carries around a gun with her during the start of the season 4 finale.
Rose Tyler is so much more than just a stupid shop girl and that is the main point of her character! That despite what someone might first assume when seeing her she is an incredibly competent and compassionate person who is working her ass off to get back on her feet.
She places the safety of the many above her own, as seen in S01E4/5 when she comes up with the idea to nuke 10 Downing St which she and the Doctor are currently inside of because it would mean getting rid of the Slitheen. And he is against the idea but she persists because she wants to save others and ALSO she has an idea of how to survive it. Rose Tyler is over-hated by so many within the fandom.
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