#because i know it’s almost guaranteed they only did it/phrased it like that to clickbait people

[leggy-is-sick-of-your-shit]

you just KNOW they wrote that headline the way they did for outrage clicks.

[mrsbsmooth]

The Suresh Problem.

If you’re here from that reddit petition, please be aware that this post was used without my consent.

Okay, I've received yet another four or five asks in my inbox about Suresh, so I'm just going to discuss this properly, once. I'm going to put the majority of this under the cut, because it specifically addresses very triggering topics for a lot of people.

TW: SA, DV.

TL:DR; you're all getting played by Fusebox, and they wrote Suresh to be an asshole on purpose.

I really appreciate that y'all are sending me these asks. Particularly as so many of them have mentioned that they feel that my blog is a safe space for POC. I cannot express how much that means to me. Thank you. I'm doing my best.

After this post, I will not answer, acknowledge, or in any way interact with any asks that compare Suresh to Harvey Weinstein, Andrew Tate, or any of the other real-life sexual predators & abusers he's been compared to, even if it's to defend him. While I appreciate y'all bringing it to my attention, it's just exacerbating it, and I'm not giving it a platform after this post.

I am not an expert in talking about race, nor am I an expert in writing POC. I'm not a POC, nor have I ever claimed to be. I just don't believe in putting discussions like this in the too-hard basket, and pretending they doesn't exist because it's a hard conversation to have. My willingness to have these discussions is not 'bandwagoning', or at least, it's not intended to be. I don't have the world's largest platform, but I have a small soapbox and I'm going to use it properly.

I'm also going to put a disclaimer here and say that this is only an opinion, and an uninformed one at that. I don't work for Fusebox, I don't have a degree in marketing or digital engagement, but I have done some work in User Experience and my degree's partly in Cultural Anthropology, so I know a little bit about human behaviour and the way we engage with online media.

Again, not an expert. Just cynical and sick of the debate.

So here's the sitch.

They wrote Suresh to be a toxic, pushy asshole on purpose.

His behaviour, in some areas, is not great. The gaslighting, the manipulation, implying he used to trick her into sleeping with him. Many people, including myself, have been in emotionally abusive relationships with people who are like this. It's not nice. It's certainly not entertainment.

But you cannot sit there and tell me that this script did not go through multiple rounds of revisions. You think this wasn't brought up at Fusebox HQ? I can absolutely guarantee you that it was.

So why on earth would writers write him this way?

Because it gets you talking about the game.

Ever heard of the phrase 'Any publicity is good publicity'?

There are 1000+ LITG Fanfictions on Ao3. Guess which season has the fewest fanfics? Season 3. Often casually referred to as 'The Disney Season'. The only drama during that season was Ciaran/Tai/Yasmin picking MC, and/or Rafi/Lily flirting heavily with MC. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong, but overwhelmingly, it was a very sweet season with generally likeable and unique characters.

Season 2 had so, so many characters with different backstories, interests, motivations, etc. that it was hard to find someone who didn't like one of them at least a little. And people engaged so much with that content. Just based off the fanfiction numbers (because I don't have any official stats) at least 75% of the LITG FF content is for Season 2.

But here's the thing: It's far easier to make people angry than it is to make them fall in love.

What is the one thing almost everyone spent gems on during Bombshell? Telling off Juliet. It's basic engagement principle that people are going to be more engaged when they're emotionally invested in a piece of media. It's why clickbait exists. It's why internet trolls exist, for fuck's sake.

So why on earth would they bother spending the extra time in developing complex, multifaceted characters, when as a fandom, we've made it perfectly clear that we'll spend more money, more time, and more brain space into tearing apart characters we hate, rather than doing the same for characters we love?

Fusebox are a business. They do not care if the game offends you. What they do care about are those sweet, sweet advertising dollars. And if they can show a reddit sub with thousands upon thousands of eyes on it, all ranting and raving about Suresh, they can absolutely turn to an advertiser and say "Yo, look at our engagement levels!"

This is just capitalism. It's business. If they take it too far on a TV show, advertisers will start pulling out. But advertisers only pull out when there's an actual, honest-to-god backlash. And most of the advertising (in my LITG2 app at least) isn't for products or companies with a reputation. It's for other games. Meaning that, realistically, if you did want to complain to an advertiser about the game being racist, sexist, misogynistic who are you going to complain to? Apple? The fuck do they care? They haven't broken any laws?

It's specifically designed to be controversial and problematic. That is the entire point. If this kind of thing triggers you, DNI.

Fusebox do not care about individuals' experiences.

A few people will be so triggered or turned off by the content that they'll leave. But enough of us stayed, engaged, and participated in the game to make it worth their while. So Fusebox just continues to exist in this sweet space, where they just insert more and more problematic characters, leading to higher and higher engagement. As long as they don't cross any hard lines, they can do it forever.

The inherent problem with this, is that a lot of people don't know when to stop.

And this is when it starts getting really fucking sad.

Y'all are taking a guy that's specifically designed to piss you off, and deciding he's an abuser, gaslighter, manipulator, etc. There are already so many stereotypes about South Asian men being pushy, or demanding, or that they don't respect women.

I've seen so, so many instances in the reddit sub, on facebook, and even in the official Discord server of language that tars all South Asian men as being this way. People saying, and I fucking quote, "I wouldn't mind it so much if it was Eddie". (Thanks, Reddit).

Firstly, there's a good reason that it's not Eddie. And that's because, as demonstrated by the quote above, a lot of people would be far more willing to excuse this behaviour if it was coming from a pretty white boy.

So why is this?

Why do you think they made the manipulative, 'won't take no for an answer' man be from Southern Asia?

Why do you think they made Hope a sassy, determined black woman?

Why do you think they made Miki a quirky, shy, but nosy East Asian girl?

Even Lottie, who's a whiny little shit isn't from the UK.

This game is most popular in the UK. It's also popular elsewhere, but its main target audience is the UK. It's why most of the characters are from there, the script contains UK slang, etc.

It's so much easier to hate someone when they're not 'from here'.

Check out any American superhero movie. The villain is foreign. In Hollywood movies, they're British, French, Russian, Chinese, South American, Arabic, whatever. They're just foreign. Or different.

They're others.

Because it sells.

It's easier for you to team up with your mates on reddit and condemn Suresh for his behaviour than it is to do it to someone who looks like you.

But guess what?

There are people who play this game who are People of Colour.

(Shocking, I know. They enjoy playing games too!)

And whenever you buy into this bullshit that Fusebox is feeding you, whenever you pile on a character like Suresh, you are making them feel like they're not welcome here.

People of Colour are being used as a means to an end.

Instead of writing complex, multi-dimensional villains with real motivations, Fusebox are using basic clickbait to get you to engage.

And that's super fucking unfair.

I'm not telling you to do anything. I'm not telling you not to play. I'm not going to stop spending money on it. I'm certainly not going to stop.

I just want people to be aware of what they're doing.

Be aware of the fact that they're playing into your preconceived ideas of race, culture, and ethnicity.

Be aware of the fact that they are trying to you to engage at at all costs.

Be aware that your rabid fan-ness can actually spur others into a mob mentality.

Be aware of the fact that you're allowed to criticise characters. But criticise the writing. Criticise the business tactic.

Don't fall into the quicksand!

Don't let yourself make it about race. Stop letting others make it about race.

Stop engaging with it when it becomes about race.

Stop engaging when your friends compare him to Harvey Weinstein, Andrew Tate, Prince Andrew, etc. He's a character from a mobile game. They are real people who have hurt real women.

Show Fusebox you'll engage with the stuff you do like, as opposed to only engaging when it's piling on to a character.

Get rabid about the drama, not about the character.

And look, I'm writing this out in a long, one-shot rant, so I might've completely rambled, contradicted myself, or said something completely wrong, so please forgive me if I have.

I just hope this helped someone see it for what it is.

MARKETING.

So in conclusion:

Do: Make memes about Suresh not apologising.

Do: Hate him for cheating.

Do: Push him in the pool.

Do not: Compare him to a real life sex offender

Do not: Make it about race

Do not: Think for a second that Fusebox don't know exactly what they're doing.