fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3079 ]

[ SECRET POST #3079 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3079 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 049 secrets from Secret Submission Post #440.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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17. http://i.imgur.com/m4IkdtL.png

Most of your favorite characters are the main character.

Most main characters are white dudes.

Thus most of your favorite characters are inevitably white dudes.

Trust me, OP. You're fine.

As long as it's not every single one of them, and as long as OP isn't going out of their way to like the white male side character when the lead is a woman or COC, I agree.

Thanks.

I mean, I tried to think of a single character that is my favorite that isn't the main character.

The only one I came up with is Zuko, who I like a lot more than Aang. That said, I still like Aang, but not to the same degree as Zuko. I think it helped, in that case, that Zuko really had his own separate plotline and only occasionally interacted with Aang until the end.

I've just never been able to get super-excited about best friends, sidekicks, girlfriends/boyfriends, and secondary characters the way other people seem to because I tend to always view everything through the lens of the main character.

See, I wish I was this way because then I could actually probably find some amazing fic for my favs/ships most the time.

I think the only time my preferences have lined up with fandom/canon has been with Doctor/Rose and Clarke/Bellamy. And then those ended up being such fic goldmines that my head kind of exploded.

Don't fall in love with the side characters who only ever get one episode to shine if that. It only ends in tears.

Do you specifically seek out works in which the main characters are white and male? When you read works in which the main characters are non-white and/or non-male, do you still sympathize with the main characters over the others?

If you answered "no" and "yes" to these questions respectively, you're probs fine

I don't particularly go out of my way to look for main characters that are white and male but I don't really do the converse either -- I just kind of browse around and if the main character is a woman or a POC then they'll just be my favorite character (like the Hunger Games for instance where Katniss is by far my favorite character).

What's with all the WORDS today? I've got to go to bed and these secrets take too long to decipher.

worms, Roxanne.

I laughed.

(no subject)

fingalsanteater - 2015-06-10 00:05 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2015-06-10 16:58 (UTC) - Expand

I think that's fair, but if you're genuinely becoming uncomfortable with it, seek out more diverse media.

Wait, what? EVERY SINGLE main character?

I dunno, but straight-white-maleness aside, I think there'd be at least SOME major variation in worldviews between main characters.

Unless you read within a very narrow genre or set of authors?

I do have lots of characters that are my favorites that are nonwhite and/or women.

I guess the thing is that I noticed that a HUGE proportion of my favorites are white men. Especially those in fandom because they tend to be more popular works.

I think you misunderstood me. I'm not even talking about diversity in media (though that is an issue to be discussed, and it's not surprising a huge proportion of your favourites would be white dudes when that's mostly what gets written and marketed - in terms of sheer numbers.)

I mean, I don't think that necessarily makes you Racist, it's more an unfortunate byproduct of living in a society that is more a subtle-lower-case-r brand of racist. We just sorta swim around in all these ideas we take for granted, and it's good that you're questioning some of those ideas...

ANYWAY, all that aside...

What I meant was - how can you agree with every single worldview or philosophy or idea that main characters present? Surely there are some you disagree with?

I mean, I get that we tend to empathize more with main characters by default (we see more of their reasoning, their life, we get a chance to sympathise with them more, if they're the narrator we're literally inside their heads.) But I didn't think they were all identical?

Re: OP

(Anonymous) - 2015-06-10 00:15 (UTC) - Expand

Re: OP

(Anonymous) - 2015-06-10 02:47 (UTC) - Expand

Re: OP

(Anonymous) - 2015-06-10 16:16 (UTC) - Expand

Re: OP

(Anonymous) - 2015-06-10 16:35 (UTC) - Expand

DA

I think this feeds back into secret 1 a little bit: just as a reader can enjoy a work without agreeing with its philosophical underpinnings, someone can like a character without necessarily agreeing with their worldview.

I'm kinda sad it has to be said in a secret that you can enjoy characters you don't approve of or who have a completely different worldview to your own.

For me, that's one of the most valuable things about fiction, that it gives you a view onto other worlds.

OP are you me? I've always had a preference for main characters, and for a long time my list of favorite characters was pretty much all white men plus Olivia Dunham, even though I am an Asian-American woman. However, I have noticed that, as I grow older, my favorite characters are diversifying.

Honestly, I would say you shouldn't worry about it too much. As long as your most hated character list isn't filled with women and people of color, I think you're fine. Like what you like.

Glad to know I'm not alone!

I noticed that one big issue I run into is that a lot of my favorite POC or women-led works are books which, unless they're massively popular (like The Hunger Games or Harry Potter) don't really have a very big fandom.

I will admit that I tend to dislike characters that are only present for a shoehorned in romance, though. Like Arwen in the Lord of the Rings films - I liked her initially but as the trilogy went on she just got on my nerves. I came to like Eowyn a lot better.

I find that really weird. Not the white male thing, but the predominantly favouring main characters thing. I tend to end up with favourite characters based on their personality and/or reactions in certain situations, so I've a few types of characters I tend to consistently favour (tricksters, tragic honourable types, absentminded scientists, etc), and sometimes I just randomly like a particular character for no well-defined reason. Liking a character consistently just because they're the main one, regardless of their personality or nature, seems weird to me.

And, okay, I get the whole 'in depth portrayal of their motives' thing with a POV character, but even that ... Sometimes I find that the main character's motives get belaboured to the point of annoyance, and other times it doesn't matter how clearly their motives are shown, I just don't like/care enough about them for it to matter. Not always, I've liked several main characters and a couple have been my favourites, but just knowing/seeing/feeling their struggles most clearly doesn't necessarily mean I'll like them. Understand them, sure, but that's not the same thing.

Not that any of this is your problem, of course. I just ... find your way of doing things a little weird.

See, it's weird but...I've never understood how people can get invested in periphery characters.

Like in Harry Potter, people who say Remus or Sirius are their favorites, I just don't get it at all.

Not that it's bad or anything, just that there's no way they could ever be my favorite characters.

Maybe it's worth mentioning that I can't enjoy a work unless I find the main character interesting. They don't have to be a nice person (example:Light Yagami from Death Note) but I have to be invested in them or I'll just end up dropping the work.

Secondary characters alone can't make up for that. For me at least.

AYRT

Maybe it's worth mentioning that I can't enjoy a work unless I find the main character interesting.

I agree with that to a large extent, though there have been a couple of things I kept up primarily for a secondary character. The main character is getting the most screen time, and if that screen time is dull and/or actively annoying, it's difficult to keep up with the work. But at the same time, even if I find the main character likable and/or interesting enough to be going on with, that still doesn't guarantee that they'll be my favourite. Maybe they will be, or maybe I'll just like them enough to be happy with the plot while my true loves will be other characters. The latter happens more than the former with me.

I couldn't have read the Harry Potter books just for the main character. I didn't like him that much.

If I had to like the main character in everything I read or watched I honestly can't think of a single book or movie or game or TV series I'd get through. Honestly, not one. The main character usually has to be pig-headed and a bit stupid, or at least naive, just to drive the action (Harry Potter, Thor, Vaan from FFXII, that girl from Beetlejuice, Phoenix Wright etc.) and that's the type I like the least.

I'm the opposite: the main character is never my favourite!

I think there's only one exception to this, which really shocked me when I realised, lol.

I'm like that, especially when there's a pair of mains or a circle of secondaries. And with shipping most of the time: damn near never in the main camp or loving the main ship.

The main character tends to be my favorite, too, or else I stop watching the show. I rarely watch anything for the "side" characters.

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