Bear with me cause I'm gonna go on a rant that will probably be a bit incoherent but I'm brainrotting rn
so this concerns the webtoon community(although it's probably a widespread phenomenon in fandom) but
Y'all love complex and morally gray female characters(or even just characters of every gender) until they are complex and morally gray
I've seen a lot about this especially for Annabel Lee from Nevermore so I won't touch upon her case in this rant but the point still stands for her go read analysises.
so today i'm gonna be discussing Rastha, also known as Trashta:
I haven't read up to much after the remarrying of Navier but I feel like my point still stands. Also spoilers
Imo, Rashta is a complex and sympathetic villain. She grew up as a slave and believed her child was dead (child who was a also later used as leverage to blackmail her.) It's logical she tries to up the ranks to never live as miserably like this. She's a product of unfortunate circumstances. I do not think she's in the right, but that's kind of the whole point of her character to be the antagonist.
Also, she didn't want to be Navier's ennemy at first??? She wanted to live in a world where she was happy and that's valid. (Navier's reaction was also valid mind you.) She acted like she was indifferent to her first baby's fate yet she let herself be blackmailed because she DID care for it. She goes throught emotions and layers and that makes her complex.
Yet despite being sympathetic and half of the bad things in the webtoon happening not being her fault, she's the most hated character.
I hate Sovieshit and her blackmailer much more. Sovieshit was really using double standard against Navier like "oh yeah i'm allowed to have a mistress and divorce you just cause I feel like it and i'm using you for my own benefit but don't you go remarrying yourself or having a lover you're mine >:((((". Sovieshit is borderline a mysogynist (he only wants a delicate woman he can control to do as he pleases) but no Rashta is the real horrible villain we must demonize her.
Now her blackmailer(i forgot his name but if you read the webtoon you know who he is). Most of it his fault. He is using and ataking advantage of Rastha who wnats nothing else than to be free. Sovieshit is painted as a bit sympathetic(wrongly might i add) but this guy is just plain evil. But he's not more hated than Rastha????
I'm not defending her actions I just want people to see further than their noses and realize that characters can be good without being good people.
Now even if i see it more for female characters this is real for male characters too but kinda in the opposite route? Like in twisted wonderland, the characters are MADE to be villains yet people smooth them over as poor little meows meows and babygirls. It's funny as a joke but it erases their entire personnality and complexity, while morally gray female characters get demonized for having the same grayness.(Also i'd like to add that Vil schoenheit, a feminine male characters gets also demonized like female characters so i'm starting to see a pattern here.) So double standard much?
in short, don't say you like complex and morally grey characters if you can't handle them correctly. They deserve better than you
