the fuckin double standard in the date everything fandom is driving me up a wall
gonna be complaining for a bit about fanonization between hector and fantina
apparently when a black girl is a canonical obsessed stalker and collects the player's hair and nail clippings and builds a shrine to them and is the singular member of the player's fan club, nobody give a fuck and they reduce her to being an uwu fangirl and she gets 28 fics on ao3.
but when a hispanic man is the yearner final boss and goes on and on about how his only purpose is to please the player by controlling the heat and cold in the house and GENUINELY loves them with his heart and soul so much that he makes irl fanfic, he gets given the hot obsessed stalker label and 467 fics on ao3 and everyone cheers
and look i get it, hector writing self ship erotica with the player character the size of a college textbook is weird in its own right, but the people in the fandom who are quick to fanonize him as this stalker sexpest and write tons and TONS of fanfic about him better do the exact same with fantina instead of woobifying her. in fact, she should have just as many fics as hector! but the fuckin double standard between these two screams misogynoir to me (which, yes, you can still have an instance of misogynoir even if both characters in question are apart of marginalized racial groups).
FANTINA'S WHOLE STORYLINE INCLUDES HER GIVING TRICKLES OF ALL THE WAY SHE STALKS YOU. SHE LITERALLY FOLLOWS YOU OUT OF THE HOUSE AND HAS A SHRINE TO YOU AND PUSHED HER FRIEND AWAY BECAUSE SHE WAS RIGHTFULLY BEING WEIRD ABOUT THE PLAYER IN A WAY THAT WAS ABNORMAL AND CROSSING MULTIPLE BOUNDARIES. SKYLER LITERALLY POPS OUT WITH THE CONTENT WARNING BEFORE THE PLAYER INTERACTS WITH FANTINA
meanwhile hector DOESNT get content warned for stalker behavior and sure while he's super worshippy of the player and goes on and on about how his purpose to the player is pleasure via controlling the house ac unit and teases/flirts from afar with the house temp, at least hector isnt LITERALLY STALKING YOU. he's just a major MAJOR yearner and huge secret admirer. he's not """"yandere"""" he just feels his feelings super hard and loves everything about the player in a way that is much less invasive compared to fantina.
if you want a cute stalker, FANTINA IS RIGHT THERE!! but again, the fact that hector content can get away with applying the same kind of characterization the game gives to fantina but doesnt celebrate her as much feels very misogynistic and racist. "but its all just preference!" you say and yes there is an aspect of that when it comes to character popularity. but also, out of all the fantina fics on ao3, there's only four fics tagged for stalking. compare that to hector's tag, which has 63 fics tagged for stalking!! preference is one thing but fandom trends are a completely other thing.
"well why dont you write fantina fics!!" admittedly, i didnt take as much of a shine to fantina than i did hector. she's cute on the surface, sure, but i prefer how pathetic hector is. even so, that doesn't automatically mean i cant critically engage with how the fandom treats her and hector. you can point out community behavior and fanon while still sticking by personal preference. use your brain please.