A bunch of discussion topics

[sarajayechan]

Meta on fandom's fetish for "calling out" characters. Written ages ago but thoughts are appreciated.

Comments

[kankurette]

This is one of many reasons why I'm beginning to hate the term 'calling out'. Thanks, Tumblr.

I see this 'X should have been punished' a lot with Sakura over the Kage arc in Naruto fandom. I've seen people say she deserved to be demoted, even executed, for gassing her team mates and that Kakashi was too lenient. Because nearly being killed by Sasuke wasn't punishment enough. I'm not condoning what she did, it was stupid and dangerous, but Kakashi isn't stupid and probably thought she'd been punished enough by the consequences of her actions. He did tell her off and make her apologise, so it's not like he didn't acknowledge it, but that isn't enough apparently.

[sarajayechan]

I might be lucky because I rarely see Callout Culture on Tumblr. >.>

Ah, Sakura, another poor shounen heroine who gets the creepiest amounts of hate.

[kankurette]

Oh, do not get me started. I've seen at least EIGHT anti-Sakura clubs on Deviantart, including one dedicated to various characters who actually like Sakura in canon giving her wedgies, and one called Sakura's Slaughterhouse that features her being gruesomely murdered. Her anti-FC is the most updated one on Narutoforums. I don't understand it. She's hardly in the bloody manga at the moment because it's going through another flashback, plus the story is focused on Sasuke and will be for a long time.

I know I always go on about her, but the hate that girl gets is borderline creepy. Some people are just obsessed with hating her AND her fans, and I can't understand why. She's not Integra Hellsing, but she's not a horrible monster either.

I try and stay away from all the social justice stuff, but occasionally I get linked to it. I mainly stick to Naruto and Space fandom stuff and pictures of cute animals.

[sarajayechan]

Stories do not need to be Chick tracts. Stories do not need to honour the Hayes Code. Stories can be subtle. Stories can be realistic in that in real life people can and often have to put poor treatment behind them--not that the world should be that way, but stories are allowed to depict imperfect worlds. Sometimes the consequences of the characters' actions are enough to fall on them without the point having to be driven home by other characters giving repeated sermons.

THANK YOU. I know we can't stop people from disagreeing but sometimes I just feel like shaking people and telling them just this. :/ It just gets so annoying to see TVTropes and Tumblr and other places bitching that Aang or Eirika or someone else is two steps away from Karma Hoduini because no one pulls their pants down and spanks them in public for their mistakes. These aren't morality tales for naughty little children in the 1800s, they're venues of entertainment.

Sometimes it's more in character for someone's friends to be more concerned with helping them after

[kankurette]

Ugh, projection. See what I said about Sakura above. Just because fans hate her does not mean Lee, Naruto or Hinata - all of whom get on with her in canon - hate her. Just because fans hate Orihime does not mean Rukia does and if Rukia was real, she'd be pissed off. Same with Aerith and Tifa. I hate seeing characters turned OOC and used to bash a hated character - if you can't be arsed writing them as they are, why even bother? Maybe bashers don't want to accept that their hated character may be quite liked in canon. Look at how some Naruto fans reacted when Chouza Akimichi praised Tsunade, a character they despised. How dare a man whose son would be fucking dead if it wasn't for the Hokage praise her and indirectly bash the more popular Jiraiya. He should have his tongue up Jiraiya's arse instead. Bastard.

(No, I don't hate Jiraiya, he's my favourite of the Sannin, but I hate how some of his fans treat poor Tsunade. Jiraiya himself always liked her, if not more.)

[kankurette]

To be honest, I think it's good that there are characters who come from non-fucked up backgrounds. It balances the story out somewhat. Like how on the one hand, you have poor old lonely Setsuna, Ami and her divorced parents, Makoto and Mamoru and their dead parents and Rei and Hotaru with their dead mums and arsehole dads, and on the other, you've got Usagi and Minako, who come from ordinary middle-class backgrounds with living parents and no issues, and Haruka and Michiru, who are loaded and famous. For every Gaara who hated his father, you have a Chouji who loves his; for every orphaned Kakashi and Sasuke, you have a Shikamaru from an ordinary family. Not everyone should be ANGST ANGST ANGST. If anything, the fact that Usagi is a very ordinary girl thrown into an extraordinary situation is what makes her grow as a character.

[ext_396781]

I think the problem when it comes down to it is that people hate seeing someone who's more successful than they are, let alone continuously. And fictional characters are no different in that respect

[beata_malfoy]

The last paragraph (before "Thoughts?", obviously XD) reminds me of a forum discussion on Anime News Network in response to a review for Puella Magi Madoka Magica (a show that's pretty dark but also has strong substance to it

[sarajayechan]

...wow. PMMM was as dark as it was and people STILL bitched that it wasn't dark enough? D: What the hell, people.

[aeanagwen]

What the actual fuck. The ending of Madoka is basically flawless and I will internet fight anybody who says otherwise. I wonder if the people who wanted the darker endings are just fans of the same sort of fetishization of the suffering of young girls that the show is, in the end, condemning.