one thing iām kind of fascinated by how is how often people will hate a character in a ship and when analyzing tha ship, treat that character like The Only peoblem in it. and donāt get me wrong - in some cases thatās probably very true! but i do think people underestimate how much personal experience and what you value in a narrative contribute to the conversation. and neither of those things are not of value, but they are very subjective and lead to a lot of dissonance in whatās even being talked about in certain fandom conversations.
and (bc iāve watched an ungodly amount of glee video essays this week, donāt worry about it) itās something i have a particular interest in with klaine.
i think thereās a core meta resentment shared between people who are anti-klaine (or at least who have issues with it) on opposite ends is how the relationship defines their narrative positioning from their conception. i think (and this may be doubly true for people who watched while it was airing since the beginning) people who are particular fans of kurt have frustration with how often he originally got the short end of the stick in-narrative and in a metatextual context (like his innocuous treatment of sam being framed as predatory in a way iām not sure the narrative wholeheartedly disagrees with?). so when blaine becomes part of the narrative and suddenly so much of his story is defined by their relationship, it can feel a little suffocating for a character you want more for, and have more attachment to as an og, even if you like dynamic and especially if you start to have issues with it. wanting kurt to get a chance to explore, havemore if his own storylines, and not have this foregone conclusion be that he would be with blaine.
but on the other hand (and this is where my personal bias starts to come in) if youāre someone who has a lot of attachment to/empathy for characters who were specifically created to serve another characterās story (like a character who was very obviously designed to be a love interest for a main character originally) then you start to develop a similar frustration in the opposite direction. you want this character to become more independent and get their own storylines and be treated as a person with their own internality and complexity, both in the writing and in the way theyāre talked about in fandom discussion.
and i think in some ways, depending on what story and role in the narrative youāre more likely to get attached to, the relationship being treated as endgame somewhat necessitates (at least by the nature of what glee is and the kind of storytelling it engages with) that both of the characters sort of get screwed over in the story department.
and again, i think some of it also comes down to what you relate to most (which is certainly not the only way to engage with fandom or the only reason someone might have a favorite, but itās a contributing factor.) i, personally, find blaineās need to seem more put-together and confident than he really is, his struggle with loneliness and feeling left behind as he figures out who he is when the person who he (and the narrator) previously defined himself by isnāt there, his struggle to hold onto idealism and his hopeless romantic nature as Real Life keeps happening, and his inability to remain the āperfectā (spoiler: he never was) idealized version of himself kurt initially sees, to name a few things, very compelling bc, while itās not a 1:1 contrast, those are things can personally relate to more. by contrast, while i like kurt and would never deny his importance to not just the narrative, but to queer representation in media, there are simply less things i relate to with him.
and i do think sometimes that bleeds into the way people talk about these characters at times, because combine personal preference, inclinations, and biases with writing that got really weird and iām not sure ultimately served either character very well, and itās really easy doe the conversation turning into taking what one of them says or does in the worst faith possible while not necessarily holding the other to the same standard.
i donāt know that i have an overall point with this - iām talking about klaine bc iāve been thinking about glee a lot, but i think it also serves as a pretty good microcosm of what happens in a lot of fandom discourse.
