Thinking about loving characters for their flaws:
Something that’s been on my mind recently is how there’s an odd group of fans across all fandoms who think that to enjoy a character, you have to think they’re flawless. That all their traits must be positive and that they can’t ever have done anything wrong, and if you do, you hate them and that’s bad.
But sometimes it’s fun, or even the point, to understand that an entertainingly evil character is evil. Or that a good character who makes mistakes or gets a little overexcited can still be good.
To stop vagueing, I’ll use Nemona from Pokemon as an example. I love how she’s this battle-obsessed girl who’s surpassed all her other peers to the point where they’re afraid of her even though she just wants a friend to battle for fun. And that’s why she expresses such possessive and obsessive tendencies over the protagonist when they prove to be a worthy rival to her. But I’ve noticed some fans get really defensive whenever someone playfully jokes about Nemona being crazy or Yandere-like, saying “How dare you joke about her being a stalker and a yandere!! She’s just a nice normal girl, and she doesn’t deserve your HATE like this!!”
But I love Nemona as a character BECAUSE she’s so passionate for battles and friendship that it can come across as being a little crazy in comedic ways. The story has many instances where yeah, her eagerness and addictive tendencies are supposed to come across as overwhelming to the other characters. Her dialogue in some scenes is deliberately creepy and a little forceful at times for the sake of comedy, and there are multiple instances where they lampshade how she as an NPC literally cannot take no for an answer from the player. But when people point this out, does it mean they hate her or think she’s bad? No! It's because they did a great job writing a unique and memorable character with a strong set of personality traits and beliefs!
And honestly? I like how obsessive Nemona is because I relate to her a lot! I’m also obsessed with Pokemon battling and teambuilding and finding friends with a shared interest and equal competitive spirit, and I know I can be very single-minded and tunnel-visioned in how much I hyperfixate over this stuff. I can empathize with Nemona's plight and lonliness while also having a laugh about how she can express it a bit inappropriately at times.
Another example- I’m currently writing a webtoon based on Greek mythology and I’ve been avidly reading through all kinds of old myths for research and inspiration. And since Eris is the protagonist of this series, it also portrays Zeus and Hera in a more antagonistic light, mainly since Eris is more of a villainous figure in mythology, and naturally they would be against her.
But when I mentioned that Zeus and Hera have done some pretty bad stuff to children in mythology (both their kids and others’ kids), I got a few really angry comments, like “How dare you!! Zeus and Hera are actually really nice!! It’s because of the evil Roman agenda trying to slander them! They actually aren’t bad at all!” Even though I’ve been using Greek sources like Plato, Homer’s Iliad and recounts of the Cypria for research. Or “This guy doesn’t know ANYTHING about Greek mythology! Most stories about Zeus and Hera show them as really nice, and there’s only like 8 or 9 of them that mention them doing evil things!” Even though those stories are also valid, and someone doing evil things once let alone 8 or 9 times is still pretty awful. And again, I don’t hate Zeus and Hera. I find them to be extremely complex and interesting characters who give us an amazing insight into the views of the culture that wrote about them.
I don’t know, it just seems like a really weird stance to say the Olympians of all people were always nice and flawless, when I swear a big point of their stories were made to contextualize how the cruelties of life must have been perpetrated by actively malicious or uncaring beings. As if the embodiment of a storm or a flood or a famine or war itself could ever be a truly kind and friendly person. But at the same time, it doesn't mean they were all pure evil either. Personifying concepts literally means making them more like people, and all people can do both good and bad things.
Like, it’s fine to enjoy characters who have done bad things or have bad beliefs as long as you don’t let it affect your own beliefs. It doesn’t make you a bad person for liking evil characters for what they add to their stories. And if someone mentions that a character has flaws, it doesn’t mean they hate the character, and it certainly doesn’t mean they hate the story that character comes from, or the people who wrote them.
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