Tumblr crosspost (13 September 2020)

[anghraine]

I feel quite strongly that villain fans should not and do not have an obligation to ritually acknowledge their faves’ wrongdoings whenever they talk about them (or ever).

I also feel quite strongly that that’s a longggg way from denying that the villains’ actions were wrong and insisting that their victims are the real bad guys here.

(I do think the latter is less dominant in villain stanning circles than it’s generally represented as being, but it does happen and is all kinds of yikes.)

Tagged: #not flagellating yourself every time you talk about your fave =/= justifying your fave

Comments

[dragoness_e]

I feel quite strongly that villain fans should not and do not have an obligation to ritually acknowledge their faves’ wrongdoings whenever they talk about them (or ever).

'Tis a silly concept. We shan't engage in it.

I assume that my readers or fellow conversationalists know which characters are villains and which are not, so there's no need to remind them.

[anghraine]

Honestly, I often have to clarify things that are extremely obvious to me to forestall a bunch of tangents on some tangential thing I wasn't actually saying. So it's often like, I'm not saying that I agree with X [because otherwise people might well assume I did!] but I do have an issue with C.

(This didn't used to be nearly so much of an issue, though I don't know if it's more a matter of changing dynamics in online culture, or particularly on Tumblr, or simply the result of my follower count going up enough to attract that kind of thing if I'm not exceptionally clear.)