Seeing your post about the fandom shitstorm around Vaggi's flashback - how do you feel about people saying they didn't like it because they don't like how everything paints her in a positive light? Saying they should have shown her being a bad person and not having some 'heart of gold' all along, because she doesn't get any growth that way.
Personally I don't see it.. though it's just merch at the moment, her exorcist card already shows her looking pretty intimidating. (And I also think some of the accounts saying this are ones that will also demonize her if anything remotely negative is shown, but that's beside the point.) You're way better at articulating Vaggi's story than me.
See, I didnāt know people were saying that they ādidnāt like how everything paints her in a positive lightā and that the story should āgive her some growth by being a bad person and not having a heart of gold all along,ā but Iām not surprised. You already know my thoughts and feelings about how the fandom and hatedom treat Vaggi, heh.
This kind of goes with how people hate Charlieās optimism and pacifism since they canāt stand that a protagonist doesnāt want to use violence to solve things. These two women canāt possibly just be shown as good people who are trying, but also happen to mess up. Nah, they NEED to have some evil bone in their bodies to āmake them interestingā and ābetter-/well-written.ā Honestly, itās tired at this point. It adds to the complexity of a character, in my opinion, and if they canāt handle that, then thatās on them. If they werenāt complex and imperfect characters, then people would be calling them a Mary Sāoh wait. š
Like I said in an older last ask about how one of the complaints people have about Vaggi is that she "never faces consequences," the narrative doesn't always play in her favor: e.g., we saw how she was treated in the pilot by Charlie (ignoring her, really), Angel Dust (insulting her for his own enjoyment), and alastor (shoving her, smacking her behindāwhich people, to this day, say was justifiedāand just being an overall butthead to her); season one had her outed as being an ex-Exorcist and the fallout with that; and season two, as weāve seen, sheās not being listened to by her girlfriend, she goes behind said girlfriendās back with girlfriendās father (because she wasnāt being listened to, mind you. And would Charlie even listen if Vaggi came to her, anyway?) and that doesnāt necessarily work in eitherās favor, she is at odds with her girlfriend for the first half of the next episode, then BAM! Thatās when we get The Flashback that the media illiterate seem to have a problem with.
Anywhoodles, Iāve been thinking about Vaggiās past myself, and whoās to say she was always good and always doing the right thing while in Heaven? Whoās to say she didnāt have a mean streak of her own while fighting and training alongside the other Exorcists? Maybe she was a little like lute as a soldier (yuck) and wasnāt as caring and compassionate as she was before she witnessed the Unnamed Exorcist get hit and dragged off? We. Donāt. Know yet. Telling people to be patient would just be a waste of time, because Iāve been doing it ad nauseam at this point, but critical thinking and actually analyzing a scene and characters can really pay off in the long run.
And youāre right, anon: even if a negative aspect of Vaggi is shown, these people would use it as actual justification to add on to the villainization of her that theyāre already doing. I donāt think theyāre interested in her at all and just want to dogpile on her for reasons.
Going off of her Exorcist card and the Vaggie T-shirt that has her Exorcist design, Vaggi may have been a ruthless one, but a ruthless one that gradually had a change of heart as she participated in the yearly Exterminations. She didn't just, out of the blue, feel compassion for a random sinner (no matter what naysayers out there think), since that would be a disservice and insult to her character. No, I believe that compassion was sowed by the treatment she was getting and witnessed in Heaven from her superiors, coupled with some of the souls she was striking down in Hell. This isn't me saying that every sinner in Hell was innocent or something, since no one can know anyoneās sin just by looking at themāit's me offering my own view into Vaggi and why I think her journey is going the way it is. Her merch gives us a brief idea of what she could have been like and/or what she could have done as an Exorcist as we wait for more of her story and arc. I'm perfectly fine with that.
It'd be a lie to say that I only watch the show for Vaggi, since I'd be missing out on crucial details for the episode plots and overall story if I did that (and if someone out there does do this, more power to you). However, she is the character I'm paying the closest attention to in terms of writing, dialogue, and action. I do hope we get more of her, and I'm sure we will; the people who love to scream that she's getting nothing are the ones who aren't paying close attention to her. I may make posts about how people are obtuse (intentionally or not) about Vaggi, but it is ultimately not my responsibility to make them understand or see the potential of her. If they have a refusal to engage with the information we have been given of her thus far, that's fine; if they don't understand her purpose as a character, okay; if they don't care about her, nothing I can do about it. I just need them to stop stating their opinions as objective fact(s).
And thank you for the compliment, anon. I hope I did Vags justice with this post, and I hope I made sense for you. If you'd like to talk about her in my messages, feel free to! :) I'm not always on here because real life is real life, but I can always make time to talk about her.
