[ SECRET POST #3079 ]

[case]

⌈ 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.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

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?

OP

[(Anonymous)]

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.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

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)]

"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?"

Absolutely, but they still tend to be my favorite characters.

Like, take Death Note for instance. I am against the death penalty and am against retributive justice (I think we should focus on rehabilitation). And yet, my favorite character is Light Yagami who wants to kill all criminals to create his "utopia" that he will rule as the God of the New World.

What makes him my favorite character is that I feel he is the most compelling. I can tell why he thinks what he does -- because his father is a police officer, because he's a bored genius, because it's a defense mechanism against the fact that he killed and must reconcile that with his black and white worldview.

And so he's my favorite because I feel like I know him best and he's the most fleshed out. Much more so than Misa or even L (who is a more popular character with most of the fandom).

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

So it's more that all the characters you find most compelling/interesting all happen to be straight white dudes, not that you agree with every single character's morality and worldview?

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT but why on earth would you ever equate "favorite character" with "character I completely agree with?"

...I'm not even sure how you got from A to Q...

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

Japanese people are white - good to know!

[(Anonymous)]

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.

[(Anonymous)]

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.