I feel like something big is that people cannot understand how characters could act differently than they (the bashers) project that they would act in that situation. It's simply an inability to put themselves into that character's shoes and judge, if all of these things were happening, in real time, how they would realistically react. People have this idealized feeling of how one "should" act in those situations (which is most certainly how they themselves would act, right?), and when there's a deviation from that, there's a reason to bash. Circumstances? How the character was brought up (Hey, Yuna and Colette, why didn't you just say "screw the world, I'm going to live my own life!" Weak characters, huh?)? The fact that they might be under massive, massive stress that's affecting their ability to make decisions? The culture of their world?
A lot, I see all of this completely ignored to make the character look "weak" or "stupid," just because it's not what the basher thinks that they would have done in that situation. I try to stay away from ad hominem attacks and the like, but a lot, I just want to say "Would you really have done it so differently?"
In a way, it's like the people who read Death Note and think that they could have played Light's part so much better. That would be very unlikely to be the case, actually, since we have his example to work off of already. He had no precedent set. He didn't have a "failure" to look at for "what not to do."
Or people who bash Sakura Haruno for crying and calling out for Naruto when her village was blown up by Akatsuki. Because I'm sure no-one cries when their home is destroyed. I've seen this far too many times for real life stuff, like people criticising the victims of the VTech massacre for not beating up the gunman or whatever, even calling them 'pussies'. It's easy to say that when you're behind a keyboard and not in front of a gun, and I'm sure many of these brave armchair warriors would be running away if they were in that situation.
Yes, very much that. A lot of these people are young and have no life experience. Therefore, they obviously think that if put in such a situation, they would perform A and B the C of D and so on. It comes of being young and thinking you're A) smarter than everyone else, and B) invincible. What bothers me much more is when 20 and 30-somethings act that way.
The fact is that when you've got a gun in your face... some people will act heroically. You know which people are likely to do that? Soldiers. Police. People who have been trained to do so. You know who's not likely to do that? Teenagers who have no combat experience beyond wrestling with their sibling. There's a reason "Courageous teen saves school from gunman" would be a headline.
This can then be applied to other things, like "breaking down in tears when your home is destroyed."
Now if can post this in the right place.tasogare_n_himeAugust 24 2010, 21:07:31 UTC
This exactly! I even do it toward characters. (See my post concerning Mimori, from Scryed below.)
Also to add: I'd like to think I would do something different in the same situations she was in, I'm a very different person from Mimori, I'm far more cynical, and less likely to think better of people than her. But put in her situation, with the same knowledge she had, I really don't know what I would do. I still think some of the things she did were stupid.
A lot, I see all of this completely ignored to make the character look "weak" or "stupid," just because it's not what the basher thinks that they would have done in that situation. I try to stay away from ad hominem attacks and the like, but a lot, I just want to say "Would you really have done it so differently?"
In a way, it's like the people who read Death Note and think that they could have played Light's part so much better. That would be very unlikely to be the case, actually, since we have his example to work off of already. He had no precedent set. He didn't have a "failure" to look at for "what not to do."
/writes a book aughh
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I've seen this far too many times for real life stuff, like people criticising the victims of the VTech massacre for not beating up the gunman or whatever, even calling them 'pussies'. It's easy to say that when you're behind a keyboard and not in front of a gun, and I'm sure many of these brave armchair warriors would be running away if they were in that situation.
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The fact is that when you've got a gun in your face... some people will act heroically. You know which people are likely to do that? Soldiers. Police. People who have been trained to do so. You know who's not likely to do that? Teenagers who have no combat experience beyond wrestling with their sibling. There's a reason "Courageous teen saves school from gunman" would be a headline.
This can then be applied to other things, like "breaking down in tears when your home is destroyed."
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Also to add: I'd like to think I would do something different in the same situations she was in, I'm a very different person from Mimori, I'm far more cynical, and less likely to think better of people than her. But put in her situation, with the same knowledge she had, I really don't know what I would do. I still think some of the things she did were stupid.
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