People are actively encouraging hate towards Moses Ingram under the guise of "fair criticism."

People are insulting how she chose to wear her hair natural, they're calling her "a diversity hire." They're all ranting about how she's "stealing the show from Obi Wan," when Obi Wan is still the focus of the show. People are hating on her for her natural hair. I've seen them insulting her for her "nappy hair."

Let's be real, if Reva was a white man, she'd be universally loved. People hating her for "being angry," would call Reva badass if she was a white man. Her ambition would be praised, and so would her attitude. But no, Reva is a black woman, and these so-called "fans" hate her for it.

Moses Ingram opened up about how she was apprehensive because she knew Star Wars fans might harass her because of her race and gender (and, if you look at the fan response to her character, she was literally right), and y'know how these fans reacted?

The lack of self-awareness is so depressing.

People were racist and sexist towards her before the show even came out, and it's only gotten worse since then.

My sympathies to Moses Ingram, she really risked it all for this role, only to be met with such disgusting behavior. I really hope she's okay, and I hope that you'll all show her support, because she doesn't deserve this.

seriously 😭 

Fandom really needs to remember this more jfc

is this character toxic or are they a realistically written teenager who was annoying once

once again stating my opinion that the reason why dude bro™ star wars fans have such an issue with Temuera's performance of Boba is that in their minds, they're boba fett. Since during his introduction he was an absolute blank slate (and note how they threw fits over young boba in aotc and tcw) he was there to project their action hero fantasies on. and now that he's being portrayed with nuance and subtlety, and not raining space bullets down on anyone who breathes in direction while also having a bunch of bond girls hanging around him, he's "lame". idk. watching other guys egos crumble at bobas interactions with the tuskens is fascinating.

you don't have to accept an entire fandom to enjoy it. fandom can be your 3 friends and a corn chip and honestly that's gonna make you much happier in the long run.

Has this been done already or

You know whats fun? Enjoying things.

I wish more people enjoyed things. Maybe they would be happier if they did.

idk. i think fandom could use a lot less of “every person’s interpretation of a text is valid and true!” and more of “reading a text means taking all parts of it into account, including the bits you don’t like or the pairings you don’t ship, to consider what the full picture is and what the larger themes are.”

projecting your fantasies onto a text, hyperfocusing on the characters you think are hot/shippable and building entire theories based on micro interactions that don’t take other competing dynamics and plotlines into account isn’t “analysis” it’s projection and fantasy. which is fine, but take responsibility for your desires and your fantasies instead of making fandom inhospitable for everyone. some readings of a text are plain wrong, others miss or willfully erase vital context just to rationalize romantic pairings. these are not accurate readings of the text. doesn’t mean they should be attacked or shamed, but neither can you expect people to validate every single headcanon and shipper fantasy as a legitimate “reading” of the text either.

#fandom #as somebody who does legit literary analysis as a literary scholar and who also just makes up largely baseless headcanons for fun #I concur with all of this

Some rando: This character should not have the chance to become a better person

Me: Why

Same person: Because they are a bad person!

Me: But what if that character was allowed to become a better person so that they are no longer a bad person?

Same person: You’re an abuse apologist

I would love for every bad person to become a good person. I’d think most humans think that it’d be a cool and great thing if all bad people became good. 

A cool and great thing, which we can play pretend with in fiction, knowing it’s not realistic, just to feel a little better about the shitty real world we live in.

tbh, I think the problem is that people confuse “getting a redemption arc” with “being rewarded with what comes after a redemption arc”

like, redeemed villains are generally friends with the heroes. they get to experience love and The Power of Friendship for the first time, if they haven’t already. they generally get to experience forgiveness. if their motives are based off of some kind of trauma or pain (like a lot of redeemed villains) then they will probably have that resolved and get some sense of closure or inner peace from whatever is hurting them.

so when they say that “this character doesn’t deserve a redemption arc” what they mean is “this character doesn’t deserve to be loved. they don’t deserve happiness, peace, or companionship”. the alternatives I have seen are:

“I hope that this character realizes how awful they are and they kill themselves”

“I hope this character is redeemed by a heroic sacrifice” (meaning they would be redeemed but wouldn’t be alive to experience the “reward” afterwards)

“I hope this character begs and pleads for forgiveness over and over again, but is never forgiven”

it’s pretty disturbing tbh, to treat basic things that every human needs (like being loved) as a “reward” that you get for good behavior. or more accurately: never being bad in the first place. that once you fall from grace you’re damned for eternity.

I think this post exposes a really gross underbelly to purity culture bullshit that I don’t think I examined quite this way before.

If redemption is unacceptable, if bad behavior can never be forgiven, what is the alternative?

Because it sure seems like the alternative is “Indefinate suffering = justice.”

Idk how to say this bc I thought its pretty obvious but: You're allowed to love a media and hate parts of it. You can enjoy characters and hate the plot. You can be critical of what media you consume AND enjoy it. There's never gonna be and there never has been a perfect unproblematic piece of media.

There comes a time when fandom becomes less of an escape from anxiety to being the source of anxiety. Sometimes I need to remind myself what’s important to focus on, and I made this chart to help me with that. 

(Posting this at the request of a few people. The design/concept was inspired by an instagram post about covid-19 located here). 

*parts a bead curtain as i enter the room, carrying a glass of lemonade* 

hey….

nothing you ever read, watch, or participate in will be ideologically pure and without its problems. your quest to consume the most unproblematic material will be, in the end, fruitless. your enjoyment of anything will be sapped away, leaving you a husk starved for media.

 it is okay to enjoy things that have problems to them, so long as you do it critically and with an open mind, and take care to consider others.

*leaves the way i came*

This is possibly the healthiest post I’ve seen on this site

When you're angry at the characters, the story is well-written. When you're angry at the writers, it is not.

the presumption here is that audiences can tell the difference.

presuming they’re not children, the audience can usually tell. ex: when a character does something you don’t like - but it feels like something the character would do - you get mad at the character. when a character does something you don’t like - and the history of that character makes it unbelievable that the character would do that thing - you get mad at the writers.

^^^^^^^^^^^THIS

hey hey! don’t do this!

i’ve seen a lot of people in the notes say like “well i just enjoy it even though other people don’t like it,” but that’s not what i mean, i mean like when they flat out say that what i like is stupid.

i much prefer if they said “that’s not really my thing, but glad it makes you happy!” because what happens is this

then slowly like you start to think “maybe it is stupid” and it takes away all the fun of just enjoying something that makes you happy and it’s not a good feeling