(no subject)
No, it's not an update. But don't fret, that's on its way. Unfortunately a new job, school starting back up, and a severe sinus cold put me on hiatus for awhile.
This entry is dedicated to one of my promised rants, about my favorite character.
Draco Malfoy.
I've been in various fandoms for many years, but by far the two I've become the most heavily involved in are Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harry Potter. Recently I've been observing a striking similarity in the opinions regarding our own Draco, and Spike from BtVS.
Anyone who was involved in the Buffy fandom during its glory days remembers the flame wars between the Buffy/Xander shippers, and the Buffy/Spike shippers. Hell, some of you might even remember me, as I was on the front line of the Spuffy side. Now, the arguments went a little something like this:
Bander: "Spike is evil!"
Spuffy: "He'll be redeemed!"
Sound familiar? Now, for the longest time the Bander side toted about the argument that Spike didn't have a soul, therefore he was evil, and thus couldn't possibly love Buffy. Then... *gasp* Spike got a soul! And the Bander side floundered in the waves, sputtering half-assed defenses to maintain his evil status in their eyes.
I've noticed that this same mentality being applied to Draco with HP fans. I call it the Spike Syndrome.
H/Hrers, H/Gers, Harry fans in general: "Draco is evil!"
H/Ders, Draco fans in general: "He's not like his father!"
Then... *gasp!* Draco cannot kill. It's established canon fact; he couldn't do it. Furthermore, we learn that the only reason he IS doing it is because Voldemort threatened to kill him and his family. And watching the Draco haters flounder now is almost as amusing as watching the Spike haters then. I actually saw someone say, "The little shit couldn't even do it. Coward! Weakling!"
My reaction was pretty much, "I'm sorry, did I read that right?" Are there people actually critisizing Draco for being unable to take a human life? After all of their proclamations of his evilness, they're going to bring him down as too cowardly to kill?
So I suppose the Spike Syndrome will repeat itself, over and over again, in various fandoms everywhere. People will just hate a character regardless of whether or not their reasons are valid, and even if canon itself proves them wrong, they'll find some way to justify their hatred. Even if that means outright hypocrisy.
This entry is dedicated to one of my promised rants, about my favorite character.
Draco Malfoy.
I've been in various fandoms for many years, but by far the two I've become the most heavily involved in are Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harry Potter. Recently I've been observing a striking similarity in the opinions regarding our own Draco, and Spike from BtVS.
Anyone who was involved in the Buffy fandom during its glory days remembers the flame wars between the Buffy/Xander shippers, and the Buffy/Spike shippers. Hell, some of you might even remember me, as I was on the front line of the Spuffy side. Now, the arguments went a little something like this:
Bander: "Spike is evil!"
Spuffy: "He'll be redeemed!"
Sound familiar? Now, for the longest time the Bander side toted about the argument that Spike didn't have a soul, therefore he was evil, and thus couldn't possibly love Buffy. Then... *gasp* Spike got a soul! And the Bander side floundered in the waves, sputtering half-assed defenses to maintain his evil status in their eyes.
I've noticed that this same mentality being applied to Draco with HP fans. I call it the Spike Syndrome.
H/Hrers, H/Gers, Harry fans in general: "Draco is evil!"
H/Ders, Draco fans in general: "He's not like his father!"
Then... *gasp!* Draco cannot kill. It's established canon fact; he couldn't do it. Furthermore, we learn that the only reason he IS doing it is because Voldemort threatened to kill him and his family. And watching the Draco haters flounder now is almost as amusing as watching the Spike haters then. I actually saw someone say, "The little shit couldn't even do it. Coward! Weakling!"
My reaction was pretty much, "I'm sorry, did I read that right?" Are there people actually critisizing Draco for being unable to take a human life? After all of their proclamations of his evilness, they're going to bring him down as too cowardly to kill?
So I suppose the Spike Syndrome will repeat itself, over and over again, in various fandoms everywhere. People will just hate a character regardless of whether or not their reasons are valid, and even if canon itself proves them wrong, they'll find some way to justify their hatred. Even if that means outright hypocrisy.