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[stardust-flames]

I certainly get where the Anon is coming from, but I think they need to take a step back.  RPF is a focal point for some of these issues, but it certainly isn’t the only place it can be found.  Fiction and art in general have always had problematic (I hate this term, but for this conversation it seems appropriate) tropes and stereotypes.  How do you think tropes and stereotypes were created?  RPF isn’t new either, I just think that it is so popular for musicians because of how their public persona differs from say an actors.  Actors get to step into fictional worlds and explicitly tell fictional (and non-fiction) stories, it is clear they are not portraying themselves.  Musicians, and K-Pop in particular, invite the audience into a world full of fiction and persona.  Everything from how they present themselves in MVs, to lyrics, to their stage is inviting the audience into their world. (Stage Names are a blatant example persona) And like the world you may see on primetime television, it is very realistic but it is not the full truth.  The whole concept of the K-Pop media strategy is designed around the imagination of the fans, Idols don’t publicly date because it would hinder the fictional thought that their fans could potentially date them (even though I think this mentality is incredibly insulting to the young females they assume this about).  Like @kookie-min-monster​ said previously, they started it.

I have noticed a trend of people attacking actors for the actions of the characters they portray, which is just as ridiculous as attacking an artist for the fictional portrayal of their public persona.  Fanfiction has long had the norm of disclaimers, i.e. informing the reader that the story is fictional and not for profit.  I believe that at some point you have to step back and hope that the collective intelligence of our moronic species catches up to common sense.  These stories are given with the expectation of the understanding of fiction.  I have never met somebody who read fanfiction and thought they were biographical.

Also, respectfully engaging with the creators of the story about their problematic motifs is fine and should be encouraged. But, if we expect our art to only contain “good” or morally superior themes and characters, the world would be a very boring place.

It’s all fine and well that fan fiction is for fans etc. but what sort of message are we to take from it when writers impose some pretty awful stereotypes into their stories, which inevitably leads to hate being spewed towards certain members because readers aren’t capable of separating fact from fiction? Shouldn’t it be on the fans to call this type of work out, instead of just letting it slip by because oh it’s just harmless fiction anyway? Is it really fair to the artist to be portrayed that way just because they are an artist? Slander is still a thing and some fic writers get very close to crossing that line. I understand what’s on ao3 should stay on ao3 but that’s not always the case. So, how can we as consumers of this work ensure that there’s still some measure of respect being given to who the work is based on? I don’t expect you to have all the answers btw. This is just something I struggle with because I want to enjoy people’s work but then I stumble on some horrific stuff and turning a blind eye feels irresponsible, I guess, especially when comments make it seem like the work is more fact than fiction. Saying anything, though, just gets you labeled an anti. And idk it’s disheartening that, as it is, members are hated on for what they do in rl. To then see it spill into the fictional world where writers egg this sort of hate on and continue the toxic narratives is just sad, even more so that we’re supposed to just be okay with it because it’s not real. Am I just fighting a losing battle?

Turning a blind eye isn’t the answer. And I don’t think attacking the creator on Ao3 is the answer, either.

I’ve already spoken out about harmful, heteronormative stereotypes that are common with KM, but having these conversations is what makes the difference. It’s about the conversations we have with the people reading these things that matter the most. That’s my belief. Conversations are more effective than arguments or vitriol.

[stardust-flames]

Possible Unpopular Opinion - But Mostly Just My Observations

I have only really watched the first 4 episodes of season 2 and the rest through clips, gifs, and rundowns on here. But...

Why is Michael such an outsider to Team Alien?  Why is he not shown training other abilities?  Why isn’t he making light bulbs glow (or explode) in the desert with Rosa?  Why has there been no conversation with his siblings about the trauma of finding and connecting with his mother and then losing her in an explosion? Why does his help (he is an acknowledged genius) always seem to come from the outside?  And only asked for as a last measure.  Why did it seem his only use in the lab this season was moving furniture around with his mind? Until he came up with the pacemaker, by himself.

Why does he seem like a peripheral character to so much of the story lines?  He has huge parts and stories of his own, but they never appear to really connect with the other main story lines.  He gets cameos from the other mains in his arcs (like Isabel’s search for her mother), but when they show up it always turns into something about them.  And he of course makes cameos in their stories, but when he does it the story doesn’t turn into his. It’s like Max, Liz, and Isabel have these big interconnecting plots, and then Michael has his.  And they only talk or merge at the end, or after half of them are over.

[stardust-flames]

So some of my favorite Malex fanfic stories right now are the ones where Michael is jealous of Forrest, but not because he is with Alex (I like to think Michael is perfectly aware he doesn’t really have the right to that) but because Alex is with him openly. When Michael and Alex were being all epic and cosmic together it was all happening behind closed doors, nobody knew about them because Alex wasn’t willing or ready to be open about his relationship.

I would be thrilled to have recommendations for more stories like this.

[stardust-flames]

Because complexity in a character you have decided to write off means you can’t be reasonable. They could have just let them be friends like I thought they were gearing towards in s1. Michael needs a friend and s1 Maria would have been good for him, just as snarky as he is and doesn’t take his shit, but also able to be comforted and give comfort. There was no reason for the sex to have gone past the drunken romp in Texas.

People always assume that saying 'M*luca isn't going to last' means that Maria isn't good enough or that Michael doesn't care about her which is nonsense. He clearly does. But this season also showed us that Liz loves Kyle (saying she would do anything to bring him back from the dead, that he's family) and Max cares about Cam (immediately being concerned she's not texting him back when he woke up and searching for her). Somehow no one's arguing that makes them equal to Echo. Why is that? 🤔

Gee...I wonder. 🧐

Might need a member of Mensa to figure that one out. It’s a real puzzle.

[stardust-flames]

Exactly! You just said in a short and clear manner what I just word vomited about. The parallels between s1 Alex and s2 Michael are astonishingly on track, but because Michael is “with” Maria he is trash. I hate that kind of thinking that takes the nuances and complexities of these characters away just because they aren’t with the “favored” one.

You didn’t agree with many anons who said, and I agree, that Guerin has been treating Alex like shit! Could you explain your opinion?

It’s not that I don’t agree that Michael has been acting like a jerk, but I think it’s too simplistic to write him off as just being an asshole. he is going through things too. There were a lot of people who are heavily critical with Alex in season one, but a lot of us knew that his walking away stemmed from trauma. This season we actually have been shown that Michael pushes people away as well, that this isn’t one-sided, that both of them are flawed people who have made mistakes. I’m not going to write Michael off, the same way I didn’t write Alex off in season 1.

And let’s be honest. A lot of this “Michael is treating Alex terribly” stems from him dating Maria. If Michael’s behavior was the same, but he wasn’t with her, I don’t think people would be as upset as they are. 

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Ok. So I feel the need to get something out there and I don’t really care if anybody reads this or agrees with me.

Let me preface this all with: I love Alex Manes. I think he is a great character that has an interesting story to tell and he is a great foil to all the alien tomfoolery. And I fully appreciate wanting to see more of his story, I also want to see more of it (I could use less of some of the Echo stuff). But I am an adult who can understand that as one of the aliens on the show about aliens, Michael’s stories (and Max & Isabel’s) are likely to have more screen time.

Now , with that out of the way. I don’t get the extreme bias against Michael that a large portion of the fandom seems to have. It’s like everybody forgot that Alex strung him along all of season 1. Alex certainly had reasons to do as he did then (many of them valid) but Michael has his reasons for not being with Alex now. I happen to think that Michael’s reasoning makes more sense. At the end of season 1 Michael had just had a couple of extremely traumatic events happen to him. Michael deciding that he needs to walk away from that complex and historically painful relationship, for now, is more than reasonable, it’s down right healthy. (I have opinions about Miluca that mostly revolve around her being a fairly bad friend to Alex and not a great partner to Michael, but that’s a different post I may or may not write).

From my interpretation of things we can assume Malex was an on/off thing for the last 10 years, with a history of Alex finding reasons to walk away and Michael sometimes working to push him away (you don’t steal the sheriff’s kid’s hubcaps with out expecting consequences). The very 1st morning after scene in S1 would highly suggest Michael was expecting to wake up with Alex having already left, as if that is what normally happens. All of that leads to Michael having become RNM’s “the boy who waited”. Just maybe not patiently or gracefully. And at the end of S1 Alex looks like he’s finally ready to make a real go of it, which is great. But Michael has now become the one who needs time and space. (Some of the negative attitude on this timeline I will put squarely on the writers and their ever present time skips.) But unlike what I saw in the 1st half of S1, Michael actually communicates this with Alex, whereas Alex, Mr. “Sometimes it ends with a whimper”, appears to have previously gone the route of ghosting.

So these two emotionally challenged guys have the classic tropes of mistiming and practically nonexistent communication. The are both trauma and abuse survivors (this is another bug I have with the fandom currently, so many people seem to brush off Michael’s abusive childhood, is it because his abusers don’t get screen time?) with individual and shared trauma. And nobody should be expected to respond or recover from that in any one defined way. They BOTH have a tendency to turn their pain on each other (all those verbal swipes that land below the belt wouldn’t hurt as much coming from someone you don’t love.) But what I have seen in the fandom, particularly recently, is people claiming Michael is being a “dick” to Alex. Now Michael is naturally sarcastic and acerbic (remember that childhood i just mentioned.), but I don’t see him acting like a dick. It is ok for him to “move on”, no one is obligated to return anyone’s feelings. (Of course, I think he hasn’t moved on and he is just trying to convince himself Maria is what he wants/needs.) And Alex is the one who keeps insisting they be friends and “get to know each other”. You can’t be friends if you are expected to never talk about you SO.

Now, completely discounting the 2x06 clusterfuck, I think Michael & Alex are genuinely trying and mostly succeeding at the whole friends w/o benefits thing. Alex is learning how to be himself again (i have thoughts on Forrest too, but for the purpose of this post I’ll just say, i think one of the reasons Alex is drawn to him is because Forrest represents who he wanted to be when he was younger), I hope Michael is learning he is more than the “town drunk” (i hate that they took what was becoming a cool friendship with Maria and turned it into the boring and problematic Miluca, also GIVE MICHAEL GUERIN A FRIEND). I think they are absolutely endgame (or at least should be, but I’ve been around long enough to know showrunners are fucking morons) but I also firmly believe this time apart is necessary and healthy for both of them.

TD;LR - I just wish people would stop shitting on Michael just because he’s not waiting around for scraps anymore. This will be better for them, when they reunite they will know it is what both parties want and they will both be willing to fight to keep it.

Sorry for the long post. I have no idea how to do “Read More”.

[stardust-flames]

This is a side blog. I have officially made a side blog.

This is not likely to have any rhyme or reason to it. Sorry.