Anatole vs Natasha
I was asked to Explain Myself about why I dislike Natasha and like Anatole despite how alike they are. I do kind of struggle to articulate this properly and have to constantly question myself on it. I don't want to fall into some kind of internalized sexism trap but here's some of my feelings/reasoning on this...
First, a lot of my affection for Anatole is probably mostly defensiveness/protectiveness. Tolstoy hates him, and for dumb reasons at that. Mainstream readers and large swathes of fandom hate him - and often for things he hasn’t done or traits he doesn’t have. And Tolstoy hates him for the things I find relateable and attractive - mainly that he just wants to enjoy life without constantly emo-angsting over the meaning of life or whatever. (Of course, same with Natasha, but Tolstoy loves her because, you know, women are allowed to be emotional and carefree and men must be serious and engage in copious amounts of soul searching- Whatever.) So I’m a bit bitter there. And then everyone else often tries to shoehorn him into some stereotype he doesn’t even fit. Like people really want him to be a Wickham or a stupider Pechorin or Valmont and he’s not. So…yea…I’m kinda used to emphasizing things about Anatole that I like because I get frustrated.
More in substance, I think the devil is in the details and having more of Natasha as a character works against her here. You know like in RL when you meet someone and at first they seem really cool or while you’re just casual friends hanging out sometimes you just think of that person as lots of fun and stuff but then once you get closer to them or spend more time with them you find out things you don’t like or their quirks start to get on your nerves? It’s kind of like that. Natasha has more chances to irritate me or to do things that piss me off.
Like, she does these incredibly stupid and self-involved things like when she burns her arm with a ruler to show her “loyalty” to Sonya (Sonya didn’t ask her to, there was no reason for it - she just did it and said it’s “for” Sonya - like, no girl, that’s not how that works) or when she’s like “hmm what meaningless tasks can I order my servants to do just for the fun of it.” Anatole does thoughtless things but nothing that I can think of with this level of petty, self-involved foolishness that’s just obnoxious. Maybe he would if we saw more of him, but the fact is that he doesn’t. Also Natasha gets the chance to do crap like shit talk about Sonya with Marya, which in those circumstances was horribly cruel, insensitive, disloyal and just wtf. It’s not unthinkable that Anatole wouldn’t be the most loyal friend ever, but it would be speculation. We can speculate but canon doesn’t really give us proof one way or another.
Also, seemingly minor differences that make a difference to me. For example, both Natasha and Anatole are pretty entitled and believe the world should love them. But Natasha comes off as vain (and somewhat preoccupied with what people think of her and whether or not they do in fact like her) and Anatole doesn’t - in fact he pretty explicitly isn’t. They are both emotional and flighty and clearly have commitment problems, but Natasha’s emotionality is overwhelming sometimes. She’s not just impulsive and a generally optimistic person, she’s hyper-excitable and just kind of over-the-top sometimes in a way that makes me roll my eyes. Like, girl, chill.
Again, this isn’t a comprehensive list, but i need to go to bed. And, you know, yea I recognize that some of it is emotional. Like maybe the differences between them aren’t proportional large enough tor the difference in my feelings toward these two characters, but that’s just how it is sometimes. And while I’m not saying this is that scenario, there’s a reason why Bitch Eating Crackers is a thing, too.
First, a lot of my affection for Anatole is probably mostly defensiveness/protectiveness. Tolstoy hates him, and for dumb reasons at that. Mainstream readers and large swathes of fandom hate him - and often for things he hasn’t done or traits he doesn’t have. And Tolstoy hates him for the things I find relateable and attractive - mainly that he just wants to enjoy life without constantly emo-angsting over the meaning of life or whatever. (Of course, same with Natasha, but Tolstoy loves her because, you know, women are allowed to be emotional and carefree and men must be serious and engage in copious amounts of soul searching- Whatever.) So I’m a bit bitter there. And then everyone else often tries to shoehorn him into some stereotype he doesn’t even fit. Like people really want him to be a Wickham or a stupider Pechorin or Valmont and he’s not. So…yea…I’m kinda used to emphasizing things about Anatole that I like because I get frustrated.
More in substance, I think the devil is in the details and having more of Natasha as a character works against her here. You know like in RL when you meet someone and at first they seem really cool or while you’re just casual friends hanging out sometimes you just think of that person as lots of fun and stuff but then once you get closer to them or spend more time with them you find out things you don’t like or their quirks start to get on your nerves? It’s kind of like that. Natasha has more chances to irritate me or to do things that piss me off.
Like, she does these incredibly stupid and self-involved things like when she burns her arm with a ruler to show her “loyalty” to Sonya (Sonya didn’t ask her to, there was no reason for it - she just did it and said it’s “for” Sonya - like, no girl, that’s not how that works) or when she’s like “hmm what meaningless tasks can I order my servants to do just for the fun of it.” Anatole does thoughtless things but nothing that I can think of with this level of petty, self-involved foolishness that’s just obnoxious. Maybe he would if we saw more of him, but the fact is that he doesn’t. Also Natasha gets the chance to do crap like shit talk about Sonya with Marya, which in those circumstances was horribly cruel, insensitive, disloyal and just wtf. It’s not unthinkable that Anatole wouldn’t be the most loyal friend ever, but it would be speculation. We can speculate but canon doesn’t really give us proof one way or another.
Also, seemingly minor differences that make a difference to me. For example, both Natasha and Anatole are pretty entitled and believe the world should love them. But Natasha comes off as vain (and somewhat preoccupied with what people think of her and whether or not they do in fact like her) and Anatole doesn’t - in fact he pretty explicitly isn’t. They are both emotional and flighty and clearly have commitment problems, but Natasha’s emotionality is overwhelming sometimes. She’s not just impulsive and a generally optimistic person, she’s hyper-excitable and just kind of over-the-top sometimes in a way that makes me roll my eyes. Like, girl, chill.
Again, this isn’t a comprehensive list, but i need to go to bed. And, you know, yea I recognize that some of it is emotional. Like maybe the differences between them aren’t proportional large enough tor the difference in my feelings toward these two characters, but that’s just how it is sometimes. And while I’m not saying this is that scenario, there’s a reason why Bitch Eating Crackers is a thing, too.