the possibility that maybe, just maybe something in a villain might speak to people who've been marginalized or hurt
The person I was speaking with made this exact same observation. What he said is that, as an immigrant to the United States from Afghanistan, he spent most of his teen years in the late 1990s and early 2000s being very angry at the way he and his family were treated. He said he had trouble identifying with characters who were all good and all light and all friendship all the time, especially when they were assumed to be on the side of "justice." For him, there was an appeal to seeing "the bad guy" in video games and anime being actually very cool and badass, so he ended up clicking with characters like Sephiroth and Big Boss from Metal Gear Solid.
This guy is 100% straight and had never so much as heard about fanfic; but, speaking personally as someone who does write fanfic about villains, I think that being able to care for these "broken" characters is like being able to care about what’s "broken" in yourself and even learning to embrace it, figuratively or literally.
In other words: You are so, so right about this. Thank you for bringing it up!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2023-02-03 08:45 pm (UTC)The person I was speaking with made this exact same observation. What he said is that, as an immigrant to the United States from Afghanistan, he spent most of his teen years in the late 1990s and early 2000s being very angry at the way he and his family were treated. He said he had trouble identifying with characters who were all good and all light and all friendship all the time, especially when they were assumed to be on the side of "justice." For him, there was an appeal to seeing "the bad guy" in video games and anime being actually very cool and badass, so he ended up clicking with characters like Sephiroth and Big Boss from Metal Gear Solid.
This guy is 100% straight and had never so much as heard about fanfic; but, speaking personally as someone who does write fanfic about villains, I think that being able to care for these "broken" characters is like being able to care about what’s "broken" in yourself and even learning to embrace it, figuratively or literally.
In other words: You are so, so right about this. Thank you for bringing it up!