Whenever I see people complaining that a character is popular in fan art or fan fiction instead of their favourite, it always makes me a little sad.
I've had moments where I've thought, "Man, I wish there was more stuff for this character I like."
But where people lose me is when that frustration turns into resentment towards other fans who are making and sharing things about the character they love.
Nobody is receiving orders from the Ministry of Popular Characters. These are just people spending their free time drawing, writing, editing, creating, and sharing things because they care about them.
They're making art because they love something.
And I don't know. It feels strange to respond to that by trying to make them feel bad for it, or suggesting they should be spending their creative energy on a different character more "deserving" of attention.
Art isn't a public utility.
People draw or write the characters that are fun for them to draw or write.
The ones that make them happy.
Fandom isn’t a finite resource where attention has to be rationed out evenly like a budgeting exercise. It’s just people being excited about different things at different intensities at different times.
It seems a shame to look at someone else's joy and treat it like it's taking something away from yours, when it could just be another person loving the same hobby in a different direction.
