REGARDING THE PATRICK GIBSON NIKOLAI SITUATION
what he said in the past is absolutely not okay and im not trying to “justify” his behavior, only trying to offer some other viewpoints. first, we’ve only had this casting for a day and you’re already trying to find reasons to cancel him just because he wasn’t what you envisioned nikolai to be and i think that’s disgusting. it’s something i expected given the fandoms behavior in the past, harassing random actors & models comment sections with “NIKOLAI” and his quotes. that behavior was completely embarrassing and uncalled for especially given @/robert1wilde’s sad response to those messages in his comments.
second, we’ve only had this casting for a day. we don’t KNOW this man and we have no clue what his views are currently and how he feels about his tweets. he could have changed or he could have not, WE DON’T KNOW. i know S&B has had some dicey moments (brownface, not plus size nina, jesper having lighter skin) but i wholeheartedly believe that the casting directors, leigh bardugo, and the rest of our diverse cast members would not be fine with this pick if they knew he was a bad person. we don’t know anything about him, but THEY DO! they’ve gotten to know him and know more about his personality/views than we do based on tweets from 10+ years ago.
it’s not okay what he said, but he was also 15 when he said those things and that leaves the possibility of more than a decade for him to grow for the person he was back then. personally, im disappointed in the person i was several years ago as well but I’ve grown from my mistakes and tried to improve myself as best as possible. we don’t know him, his situation, his environment, his friends, his family background, etc. we don’t know this guy at all so how are we basing our entire perception on him from a few HORRIBLE tweets he said 10+ years ago. I knew cancel culture was toxic, but this is honestly ridiculous given we hardly have any other information on him and haven’t gotten to know him yet. it takes time, maybe he will acknowledge his mistakes once everyone stops hating on his looks and casting. once again, WE DONT KNOW.
in regards to accountability, think about it: if you were put in this situation of being casted as an extreme fan favorite character and people were angry because you didn’t look good enough, you would probably also be trying to not get involved in the drama to spare your own feelings and trying to avoid toxicity. this guy is pretty unknown so far and while his behavior in the past (approximately 11 years ago) isn’t admirable, it’s understandable why he would delete it and not get involved in Twitter drama because being part of a project with this big of a fanbase is probably pretty new to him. im not trying to say what he did was correct in deleting the tweets, just that it makes sense given the context of the situation. i hope that he does acknowledge it in the future or show that his views have changed, but until then WE DONT KNOW enough about him and shouldn’t immediately cancel him.
also, I’ve been seeing way too much heat about his looks and the #/notmynikolai trending and im disgusted at the fandoms behavior. granted, im not surprised bc everyone had such high hopes for nikolai (remember harassing other actors???) especially because the rest of the cast are so incredible, but this toxicity really needs to stop. from what I’ve heard, his performance in his other projects has been phenomenal and we’re truly lucky to get someone with his talent. i myself didn’t picture nikolai as patrick but the more i opened my mind to it and saw his other photos + his energy in videos, im convinced he’s gonna do an amazing job just like the rest of the cast have. there’s a reason he was picked out of all the hopefuls who auditioned and there’s a reason leigh + the casting directors approved him. we just need to wait and see.
i remember people used to (some still do tbh) hate on freddy and archie a lot as well, based on looks and now most people love them. GIVE IT TIME! OPEN YOUR MIND! sorry that the casting directors couldn’t read your mind and pick based on who you wanted </3, i personally would want someone with great looks and AMAZING acting skills rather than someone with amazing looks and mediocre acting skills.
also, this isn’t even a bad casting like skinnywashing nina & lightskinned jesper. y’all are doing so much to cancel this man yet most of y’all were silent on darkskinned rep, plus size rep, and the brownface thing (i say this as a south asian). those were all bad things that happened as well !!! at least we got someone who has the physical characteristics and FITS THE DESCRIPTION of nikolai.
also im convinced that y’all would not have dug up this much dirt and wanted to cancel the actor so bad if he happened to fit your image of nikolai. just admit it! you want to get him cancelled so they cast someone who looks like a “better” nikolai.
