There are times when fandom frightens me
So I've been trawling through the vastness that is Mag7 fanfic lately in an effort to get my fic fix on (and also silently bemoaning the fact that due to some unfathomable reason I just can't get behind the Chris-slash unless he's being slashed with Buck and even then I have very specific slash parameters that are almost never met, which leaves me out of, like, 75% of what this fandom writes) and it seems like every other story I read features Nathan as a puffed up, self-righteous bastard whose only purpose in life is to be mean to poor widdle Ezra. And after reading so many fics of this type, I'm left wondering if I actually watched the same show as the majority of Mag7 fen. I mean, come on! This is a show about found families fer chrissake* -- how does making one of the seven an unredeemable ass to another one of the seven serve that mission statement?
Look, I get it. Nathan can be morally superior towards Ezra, and he can come across as kind of judge-y. And I love Ezra a lot. Like a lot a lot. To the point where I will read really crappy stories because of him. But Ezra's a morally bankrupt weasel who's struggling to be a Real Boy (and also a truly terrible con man. No, seriously, he's awful at his job). He's manipulative, and exploitive, and consistently opts for the hard path for redemption. He's the only main character we've seen who's consistently shown to be a little bit racist (Ghosts, Manhunt), he has one moment of altruism in China Town (which is kind of ruined by the fact that he subsequently slept with Li Pong) in the entire series (as far as I can remember) and if he ever does anything it's always with the understanding that this is a quid pro quo arrangement. Ezra, for all his charm, good looks, and snappy wardrobe, is not a nice guy.
And Nathan calls him on his bullshit. Nathan expects him to be a better man.
And this apparently pisses off the Ezra fen like nobodies business.
Of course, the part that I really can't wrap my head around is how everybody seems to be on Ezra's side during the church confrontation in Working Girls. The justification I read (which sparked the urge to write this post) for all the Nathan bashing is that in this scene, Nathan just attacks Ezra out of nowhere, with no reason. Which. Dude. Have you watched that scene? Have you put these women's lives in the context of (a) the time period and (b) the entire rest of the episode? Ezra is exploiting these women. He is treating them like things. He's planning to auction them off to the highest bidder -- doesn't matter if the men he sells these girls to are going to beat them or rape them or kill them. Ezra's conning the women to make himself rich (because as the episode has already established, it's not like they can really fight back against an abusive man if there isn't one of the Seven around to whip out his gun on their behalf) and his entire scheme is basically an Old West version of modern day sex trafficking. What Ezra's doing is morally questionable at best, human trafficking at worst. And Nathan, who probably saw his sisters exploited, who saw powerless women (and make no mistake, the working girls are powerless) robbed of everything, including their own agency, is completely justified to go off the rails at Ezra.
Ok, yes, the WG scheme and actual slavery are different, in that the girls theoretically have the ability to walk away at any time (and they do, in fact, walk away at the end of the ep), but Ezra's entire scheme still leaves me deeply uncomfortable. I know that Mag7 is a totally romanticized Hollywood view of the Wild West, but that doesn't change the fact that the first thing Ezra does when he sees these women is find a way to exploit them sexually. He's as much a pimp as Wickes is, he's just not as good at the job.
Anyway, the point of all this is that I really wish fandom would stop bashing Nathan. Yes he and Ezra clash a lot, but that's because Ezra's default reaction to people is "how can I best exploit them to my advantage" and Nathan's a man who's been exploited his entire life. Nathan's reactions to Ezra are (at least in my mind) usually justifiable -- and vitally important for Ezra to hear on his whole journey to Real Boyhood, because I think they show that Nathan expects Ezra to be a better man and that's not something a lot of people have expected out of Ezra. They certainly aren't cause to treat Nathan as badly as he's treated in fandom.
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*Ok, ok, so it's actually a show about the Hollywood-ified Wild West, but I like my synopsis better.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth where there are
comments
Look, I get it. Nathan can be morally superior towards Ezra, and he can come across as kind of judge-y. And I love Ezra a lot. Like a lot a lot. To the point where I will read really crappy stories because of him. But Ezra's a morally bankrupt weasel who's struggling to be a Real Boy (and also a truly terrible con man. No, seriously, he's awful at his job). He's manipulative, and exploitive, and consistently opts for the hard path for redemption. He's the only main character we've seen who's consistently shown to be a little bit racist (Ghosts, Manhunt), he has one moment of altruism in China Town (which is kind of ruined by the fact that he subsequently slept with Li Pong) in the entire series (as far as I can remember) and if he ever does anything it's always with the understanding that this is a quid pro quo arrangement. Ezra, for all his charm, good looks, and snappy wardrobe, is not a nice guy.
And Nathan calls him on his bullshit. Nathan expects him to be a better man.
And this apparently pisses off the Ezra fen like nobodies business.
Of course, the part that I really can't wrap my head around is how everybody seems to be on Ezra's side during the church confrontation in Working Girls. The justification I read (which sparked the urge to write this post) for all the Nathan bashing is that in this scene, Nathan just attacks Ezra out of nowhere, with no reason. Which. Dude. Have you watched that scene? Have you put these women's lives in the context of (a) the time period and (b) the entire rest of the episode? Ezra is exploiting these women. He is treating them like things. He's planning to auction them off to the highest bidder -- doesn't matter if the men he sells these girls to are going to beat them or rape them or kill them. Ezra's conning the women to make himself rich (because as the episode has already established, it's not like they can really fight back against an abusive man if there isn't one of the Seven around to whip out his gun on their behalf) and his entire scheme is basically an Old West version of modern day sex trafficking. What Ezra's doing is morally questionable at best, human trafficking at worst. And Nathan, who probably saw his sisters exploited, who saw powerless women (and make no mistake, the working girls are powerless) robbed of everything, including their own agency, is completely justified to go off the rails at Ezra.
Ok, yes, the WG scheme and actual slavery are different, in that the girls theoretically have the ability to walk away at any time (and they do, in fact, walk away at the end of the ep), but Ezra's entire scheme still leaves me deeply uncomfortable. I know that Mag7 is a totally romanticized Hollywood view of the Wild West, but that doesn't change the fact that the first thing Ezra does when he sees these women is find a way to exploit them sexually. He's as much a pimp as Wickes is, he's just not as good at the job.
Anyway, the point of all this is that I really wish fandom would stop bashing Nathan. Yes he and Ezra clash a lot, but that's because Ezra's default reaction to people is "how can I best exploit them to my advantage" and Nathan's a man who's been exploited his entire life. Nathan's reactions to Ezra are (at least in my mind) usually justifiable -- and vitally important for Ezra to hear on his whole journey to Real Boyhood, because I think they show that Nathan expects Ezra to be a better man and that's not something a lot of people have expected out of Ezra. They certainly aren't cause to treat Nathan as badly as he's treated in fandom.
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*Ok, ok, so it's actually a show about the Hollywood-ified Wild West, but I like my synopsis better.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth where there are
comments