Big fandom pet peeve
You know what I realized my biggest beef is with people who think abusive characters can be morally grey? They let how the abusive character feels about their actions decide how they feel about the character for them. Now that’s not inherently a bad thing but it is when they insist said character is 100% right. All because they love the character too much to admit that they’re messed up. In a desperate attempt to justify their view on the character they’ll take entire scenes and character arcs horribly out of context. Then self project their opinions on those scenes that possibly weren’t hinting at that at all. And even if the writers were hinting that abusive actions can be morally grey that’s wrong. There’s no such thing as abusive actions or abusive characters that can be morally grey. Because in order to suggest that you’d have to look at the people they abused and say that the abuser’s actions COULD’VE been good for them. You literally can’t say that an abusive character is morally grey without victim blaming their victims and supporting ableism. I know that’s a hard pill for stans to swallow but that’s what the situation is objectively. And yes I even apply this to characters I love that I know are problematic. Take Flowey from Undertale for instance. I love Flowey. I’m attached to him because I think he’s a cool villain and I relate to his problems of struggling to process empathy due to trauma. BUT despite that I don’t try to justify his actions just because he’s one of my favorite bosses in the game. I recognize that Flowey was intentionally abusive and was literally planning for the mass genocide of monsters and humans. Even in Genocide Route this is true. There’s no trying to downplay that or ignore that without rewriting the main plot for the sake of stanning your fav. Or in some odd cases demonizing your least fav. Other people might not think this is a big deal but I do. I use the argument a lot but it applies here too. Fandom doesn’t exist in a bubble. How you interact with stories in communities for said stories always effects real people. It can sometimes even effect how the author/authors adds to said story in the future. That’s why i think its important to realize things like this. We need to understand that just because WE feel a way about a character that doesn’t mean we’re right. That that also doesn’t mean that anyone who disagrees with us is wrong or hateful or bigoted. Moral greyness just means that a character has a questionable approach to a problematic decision. If a character’s decision involves slavery, colonization, emotional abuse, physical abuse, etc? Then moral greyness doesn’t apply. It’s as simple as that. That’s why characters like the Diamond Authority aren’t morally grey. To suggest otherwise implies that you don’t understand the full impact of their behavior. It also implies that you shouldn’t be tackling stories that portray topics like abuse. Or if you do anyways don’t pretend you’re an expert on the subject and label anyone who doesn’t think so as a bully trying to ruin your fun. That’s not the kind of attitude that a professional artist/writer should have. That’s not up for debate either. At least not on my blog.
