#bashing a character to woobify your fav is so..I can’t do it anymore

[cross-d-a]

I am….SO tired of “Qui-Gon is the uncaring selfish master” fic trend like……come up with something original. Make it nuanced. Stop with the black and white shit I am BEGGING. Not like I don’t adore the Jedi apprentice series bc I very VERY much do but jfc the Qui-gon bashing train is So Old. Pick something else. Just leaves a sour taste in my mouth at this point *BIG SIGH like if you’re gonna go that route make him actually LEARN from his mistakes. Miscommunication doesn’t make a villain, either. No one’s perfect and it’s absolutely uninteresting if you stick him in this solely negative role like Damn.

[whyihatetonystark]

The thing I'm genuinely worried for with the autistic!T/ny thing is that they'll only do it so they can bash another character for being bigoted. It's often the only way those things are introduced in fanfic. "Look at [character] being neurodivergent!" They say, and then they only show the bare minimum or grossly misinformed version, make someone else be insensitive and then voilá, a woobie bash fic that makes the condition look ridiculous or like a prop.

Is it too much to ask for either a positive fic or at least something that isn't a prop for woobification? Something that isn't used to literally angle for oppression? That's what bothers me the most, they act like facing bigotry is somehow a perk. Idk how to explain it but it's that thing where people get off on the idea of being oppressed because it let's them play victim and get attention, and it's gross

I'm sorry I only got to answer this now, I was waiting until I had the time to do this properly and didn't realise how much time had passed.

Writers using oppression to woobify their characters is a serious problem. Especially since it's clear that those writers have either never faced actual oppression or they wouldn't be so insensitive about it. There's a certain mentality many privileged people in the "developed" countries fall for, which is victim mentality. Some feel like they are ignored because marginalised people get more room in the spotlight than they did 20 years ago. Some can't see past their own problems. Some just want to feel like a hero by rebelling against a cause they find "unjust" or get off on being part of a wave of outrage. Some use it to shut everyone up who criticises them.

I feel like fandom in general, and the tony fandom especially, attracts particularly the last two kinds. They defend their fav on the internet and to frame it as activism, they have to give him traits that identify him with a marginalised group, whether that's neurodivergence or his race (remember when they tried to convince us that he's half-italian and therefore a poc? Smh). And when people criticise their actions or their invented portrayal of him, they pull out their knockout arguments of "you're ableist!" Or "you're racist!"

And they do all that refusing to listen to actual marginalised people. They transpose their need to be pitied and coddled onto a character and basically write a self-insert. Which wouldn't be so bad, if only they wouldn't pretend that theirs is the only version of him that's acceptable. And these stereotype riddled versions of neurodivergent, disabled, marginalised people spread and spread until they have infected every corner of the internet and actual marginalised people have little to no place to feel safe in anymore.

Don't use oppression to prop up a fictional character. Don't belittle neurodivergent and disabled people by infantalising them. And for fuck's sake, don't use the pain of POC to act out your white saviour fantasies. If you want to be an activist, then donate money, spread information, help organising a march or a protest, make your voice heard in petitions and elections. And don't treat fandom like it's real life, because it's not.