"it's ok to show (x) in fiction as long as the bad guy gets punished!" the bad guy doesn't have to get punished. in fact the bad guy can win altogether. the bad guy can entirely get away with it. hope this helps
and this part might make some people's head explode but: characters can be written to forgive things you personally wouldn't ever forgive. not everything is written as what you'd perceive to be the right choice. not everything is a self-insert & protagonists don't have to be relatable.
I want to build off this a little.
"it's ok to show (x) in fiction as long as the bad guy gets punished!"
The reasoning behind this logic is likely this: they want to be sure that (x) isn't being glamorized/fetishized/justified... Unfortunely, in this growing age of media illicercy, it's obvious most people are having issues in both articulating this need- and successfully reconizing what is and isn't problematic media.
Wanting to avoid a content creator who wholeheartedly wants to lower the legal age, or be openly and unashamedly racist, is normal, and it's normal to not want to endorse any works they might make that could be trying to draw their audience into their world view.
So we get: "As long as (X) is denouced/defeated in the show, that means the content creator isn't trying to endorse (X)!"
Unfortunately, that leads people to hate the media for simply showcasing (X) and not actively centering how bad (X) is in their narrative.
For example- and this is a light example- the story Cyberpunk 2077 tells is how you, the protagonist, are trying to survive in a world destroyed by unchecked capitalism and corporate greed.
But unlike, say, Hunger Games, you never actually consciously "Fight the Man" - the entire plot is centered on you and your survival. The government is never successfully "Taken Down". There is no lasting positive change.
Because of this, there are people who played the game who genuinely believe that Cyberpunk is in no way actually critical of capitalism, because you, the protagonist, actively participate in it (and, depending on how you play, thrive on it).
The logic is also broken backward.
There's plenty of media that presents (X), and the bad guy loses... however, 95% of the plot is nothing but (X). There isn't even a conversation about (X). (X) Is the point of the story, and you excuse it for 60 seconds worth of "Whoops, that was super bad, wasn't it? Oh well. Justice!"
People need to pay attention to what the author is trying to say- and fucking accept that sometimes, curtains actually HAVE a reason to be blue.
