#Heathcliff

[arealtrashact]

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.

[heathcliffbot]

04/16/2025

[self-declared-feminist-icon]

[stromuprisahat]

*crying, upset*

Idk... maybe British Gypsies are totally white-looking?

*trying not to judge since I've never been to Britain and I only know ours*

i saw the casting announcement for wuthering heights (2026) before reading the book, and assumed that heathcliff's miscasting was because the character was subtly not white, or it was mentioned here and there without much relevance to the plot beyond subtext, etc. (which still wouldn't have made it ok btw). but now i'm reading it and every single scene with him in it reads like:

'then appeared heathcliff, who was not white. he not-white-ly entered the room, where everyone else was white, unlike him. "aah! a not white!" they all shouted. he cried. "i wish i were white," he said. "don't worry, maybe your non-white parents were rich in non-white countries," said nelly. he was then called ten slurs, because he was not white, and left.'

like emily bronte literally beats us over the head with it every five seconds. what do you MEAN they cast jacob fucking elordi

[rugwurm]

[the-nibrahim-project]

Making Heathcliff white is one thing, but making Heathcliff white while making the maid Nelly Asian is something completely else. You can be “not white” in Emerald Fennell’s work as long as you are not one of the main romantic leads. And it is a fucking theme in the book that Heathcliff is the most marginal figure and Nelly is an upholder of status quo (“Milton’s cook”). This is so so gross.

This movie is genuinely deeply racist. It is the most racist Wuthering Heights adaptation so far, I am not joking. I am genuinely calling for a boycott.

[al-norton]

Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad!

[deus-sema]

"It's okay to stan problematic characters as long as you do it the right way."

But what is the "right way" to do it?

I think the first and obvious step would be to accept that they're.......surprise...... not ideal folks. Alright, it's not a big deal. The name gives it away. They are called problematic because they've all done bad deeds at different levels. Some are moderately bad. Some are worse than others. Some are fucked up. Some are toxic trash. All of them are flawed and, by flaws, we don't mean the endearing and palpable flaws. The bottomline is that they have all done unlikeable stuff.

That should be it right? Everyone should move on and mind their own business now.

Wait, that's not enough? What's next? Ah yes. Accountability.

It's only natural to want a character that did wrong to be held accountable for their actions and face the heat. But here's another fact: the story may not always go the way we want it to. It's the creator's will and they'll do whatever they wish to with their fake characters in their make believe worlds. You can have villains getting vanquished in the end like Sauron or doing one good deed in the end and still making it to Force Ghostism like Anakin did or starting off as murderous maniacs only to end up redeemed and pals with the protagonist like good old Piccolo and Vegeta. There is no perfect and absolute justice to be found here because different worlds, different rules. Bad people can be punished lightly. Bad people can be punished severely. Bad people can change. Bad people can be forgiven. Bad people can get happy endings. The creator does what the creator wants. For that, their work can be duly criticized and, if you have the time and energy for it, go ahead.

As far as personal satisfaction is concerned, this is why fanfiction exists. Fanfiction is our sandbox. We can do whatever we wish to here. We can turn humans into cats, pamper the characters we like and torture those we don't any way we wish to. But the burden of accountability doesn't automatically rest on the shoulders of those who like these characters. They are not obliged to punish whatever problematic character they enjoy in their stories if they don't want to. Guess who can do it though? You can. I promise you that if you write a 10k word fic subjecting my favourite characters to the worst kind of torture and humiliation, I won't mind. I will simply scroll down.

This brings us to the elephant in the room: fan made content about so and so problematic character. This includes different interpretations, edits, art, fanfics, everything which are the most basic ways for people to participate in fandoms. Attempting to understand their actions and motivations further, to study their personalities, to imagine them in different scenarios, to use them as a medium to channel one's creativity in form of stories and art is all an integral part of the fandom experience. What people are responsible for, however, is to tag their content accordingly so that it reaches the desired audience. There is nothing more they can or ought to do.

All said and done, many a times, "It's okay to stan so and so as long as you do or don't do so and so" translates to "I don't mind you liking this stuff but I just don't want you going around expressing your liking for it the way you want to" which doesn't paint a nice picture.

If the existence of the content and the character's popularity itself is bothersome to you then it's you who must make the effort to filter, disengage, ignore or rant about it elsewhere away from the person who has made it. That is your responsibility.

[dykensteinery]

sorry im going half mad as a desi but like. the fact that heathcliff is Not Fucking White is very important to the story actually! he's treated as subhuman for having brown skin and its the main if not only reason he was immeidtaley abused by his stepfamily! hes DESCRIBED differently from the white characters too! what the fuck! he's so obviously like romani or indian or just. NOT WHITE YOU CANT JUST DO THAT. ITS 2024. THE RACISM HE SUFFERS IS NOT EVEN SUBTEXT

[monarch-aip]

Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!

[adobongsiopao]

Charlotte Riley (Cathy) and Tom Hardy (Heathcliff) in "Wuthering Heights" 2009 version.

[heathcliffbot]

04/17/2025

[popauuu]

[ereyies]

i love my gothic literature menaces and they love me

+bonus

he’s not gonna pretend he’s on the phone because he meant every word and wants him to hear it