objective quality of a media (show/game/anime/etc) has almost zero meaning compared to: what you go in expecting, what you need emotionally in that period of your life, and how you see it through the lens of resonant thematic elements specific to you as an individual.
Modernist manuals of writing often conflate story with conflict. This reductionism reflects a culture that inflates aggression and competition while cultivating ignorance of other behavioral options. No narrative of any complexity can be built on or reduced to a single element. Conflict is one kind of behavior. There are others, equally important in any human life, such as relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, parting, changing.Change is the universal aspect of all these sources of story. Story is something moving, something happening, something or somebody changing.
I think it’s really important to talk about how different people have different power fantasies.
For example:
For some people, the idea of someone redeeming a villain is a power fantasy.
For other people, the idea of a villain being defeated is a power fantasy.
And for other people, the idea of a character owning their villainy is a power fantasy.
I would argue a lot of fandom conflicts re: villains come from people being unable to see that their fantasies, which put them in control of a narrative (and all three of these are designed to give the author or reader control of the narrative in different ways) are someone else’s horror stories.
I think this is a really interesting look at power fantasies and I personally have experienced all three, regarding different characters.
I would argue, however, that most of these fandom conflicts actually come from the reverse situation. That is, it’s not people looking at their own fantasies and being unable to see that these fantasies are horrifying for others (though that does, of course, happen).
I see, more often, people looking at other people’s fantasies and declaring them to be horrifying. That they are objectively bad and harmful and representative of whatever it is people find to be dangerous. And that, in fact, their fantasies or empowering at all, but rather symptoms of societal sickness.
So rather than saying a lot of fandom conflicts re: villains come from people being unable to see that their fantasies are someone else’s horror stories, I would say that a lot of fandom conflicts re: villains come from people being unable to see that different people have different fantasies in the first place. That it’s not that they’re thinking of their own fantasies at all. But that they’re seeing only their own horrors in the fantasies of others.
Good meta, but I wanna add:
For some people, the power fantasy is not necessarily “someone redeeming a villain” but “a villain being redeemed”; that is, they identify more with the villain going through the redemption, rather than the hero offering redemption, or the villain who owns their villainy.
Idk if you could really call it a power fantasy exactly, but it serves a similar purpose. It can be really cathartic to see a character who is in the dark and alone be reached out to, to see a hero extend a hand and good faith and help them back into the light. To see someone believe in them, to see them better themselves and heal.
It’s okay to identify with vulnerability instead of (or in addition to) power, is what I’m saying.
*parts a bead curtain as i enter the room, carrying a glass of lemonade*
hey….
nothing you ever read, watch, or participate in will be ideologically pure and without its problems. your quest to consume the most unproblematic material will be, in the end, fruitless. your enjoyment of anything will be sapped away, leaving you a husk starved for media.
it is okay to enjoy things that have problems to them, so long as you do it critically and with an open mind, and take care to consider others.
*leaves the way i came*
This is possibly the healthiest post I’ve seen on this site
Not to be controversial, but if your feminism relies on the same rhetoric as “women shouldn’t read novels; their tiny brains will be corrupted,” it’s probably not actually that progressive.
I too love the same things about Daniel as you, his unflinching persistence to get what he want is originally what first attracted me to him especially since I was very weak willed when I was younger. But now, though it may have seemed different in the ask, I feel a more maternal instinct towards him rather than a romantic interest, I’d rather see him safe than as my sweetheart. It’s very interesting to watch opinions and feeling towards characters change, like for example how you feel about Claudia. Sorry if this isn’t making sense I tend to ramble
One of the great things about fiction is that we can revisit how we feel about characters at different points in our lives. I know I felt differently about Claudia as I got older. I think I had an idea of what she felt when I first read IWTV, but as an adult I can better understand how devastating it must have been for her, and how frustrating for her ‘parents’ who were unable to help guide her in any significant way re: the fact that she would never physically age ;A;
With Daniel, I admit he’s not one of the characters I engaged with as much as others, so I can’t really speak specifically to your comments about him. You may change your opinion again as you get older, too. I always liked that he seemed to fly by the seat of his pants, and was ballsy enough to just keep asking for what he wanted, knowing Armand wouldn’t give it to him. That even in his darkest moments, he demonstrated an inquisitive nature, and was obviously capable of giving/receiving love. That’s inspiring, at least to me.
He’s one of the first VC characters (Jesse is another one) who we get to spend significant time with in canon as a mortal, and get an idea about what it’s like to get involved with vampires; it can’t be easy to just sit down and be quiet when you have one of these supernatural beings fixated on you!
I feel a more maternal instinct towards him rather than a romantic interest, I’d rather see him safe than as my sweetheart.
^Awww, this is lovely! With fictional characters, we can have it both ways, at different times in our lives, in different parts of canon or in fanfic, we can feel more protective, and in others, we might feel more of a romantic attraction, and sometimes there’s an overlap, it’s fluid.
I think this is why real ppl call their lovers/partners/significant others/etc. the endearing “baby,” or variations of that, it might come from a need to protect someone they see as precious as a family member. Marriage brings ppl together into being chosen family ❤ And of course the vampires maker/fledgling relationships bind them physiologically like family.
First off, darkfic as an umbrella term encompasses a lot of subjects and ‘dark’ topics, abuse being only one of many. It may be therapeutic for people who’ve endured abuse, but it can also be helpful for people who’ve struggled with other forms of trauma, or with mental illness, or other negative things. Depictions of intense, dark experiences can serve as a catharsis by being a direct analog for one’s own experiences, but they can also function more indirectly as a parallel, or a metaphor. Someone who has not been assaulted, but who has struggled with mental illness, may find a story about an assault victim resonating with them as they can identify with the fear and lack of control. And someone who has never been through a specific traumatic experience, but has a lot of fear of it and cultural anxiety around it, may feel bolstered by stories of characters surviving and recovering from that experience.
So for many people, with many different experiences, there can be a direct, therapeutic/comforting benefit to darkfic.
But darkfic doesn’t need to be therapeutic.
There are, of course, other kinds of benefits. Someone who has never been abused might read a story featuring abuse (and clearly tagged for it) and because of it, identify potential warning signs in a real life relationship down the road and know to get out early before things get worse. Or, they might develop a better understanding of what abuse victims go through and as a result, have more empathy for real-life survivors they encounter.
But it’s also 100% ok to like darkfic purely for entertainment value! It is, after all, fiction.
Dark stories challenge us – and we can really enjoy that challenge. They take us to extremes of emotion and the human experience. They plumb the depths of the human id. Even someone with the most charmed life still lives in a world where bad things happen, and even the sweetest, naive person has the capacity for darkness in them. Darkfic lets all of us explore those in relative safety. It makes us feel, and can thrill and horrify us as much as any thriller or horror movie. It can make us consider our own darkness, and be more aware of it. And it can take us to a place so much worse than our reality, that when we resurface into our mundane lives, there’s a sense of relief; we’ve escaped from our escapism, and our hum-drum lives seem so much better and more manageable by comparison.
Plenty of people create dark content who aren’t abuse survivors. There are books with very dark themes that are written by, edited by, published by, and consumed and made popular by people who have not been abused, but which may prove a lifeline for a survivor – one that might not have existed if the entire genre was limited to only people with lived experience. And by accepting that anyone can produce or consume dark content, we allow survivors the protection of anonymity, by not forcing anyone to disclose and reveal their trauma in order to justify liking a work without being harassed and shamed for it. Creating an exclusive club of heavily-scrutinized creators and readers who have to be ‘this traumatized to ride’ helps no one. Hell, trying to pass moral judgement on anyone by scrutinizing the potential reasons they may have for enjoying certain kinds of fictional reading material, rather than looking at their actions toward real breathing human beings, is utterly inane. Especially when fiction – including, and sometimes especially dark fiction – can be used to expand our horizons beyond our own lived experiences make us more thoughtful, empathetic people on the whole.
That’s good then! Be angry. Fiction is not always out there to make you feel good. Sometimes it’s meant to push buttons, and in this case, it may have been smtg AR intended to explore, that some ppl really think/thought that Akasha’s idea could be a good path to peace.
Side note, this is so relevant right now bc in the Real World:
Unfortunately we are again faced with ppl who are consumed by their own ideology, with this new political regime and those that voted it in.
How are we going to deal with it? Are we going to let them steamroll everyone who opposes? How active can/should we be? We all have to ask that of ourselves bc fiction has very much become reality. And it’s nowhere near as pretty as Akasha.
So anyway, back to Akasha… Not all characters introduced by an author are ENDORSED by the author, the author is telling a story, maybe suggesting what might happen if we/the readers assumed, for example, that “all wars are started by men and therefore they should be removed from the equation for peace on earth.” AR shows us the narrow-mindedness of such an idea and that YES, Akasha is “herself is an example that women can do terrible things too.” Akasha probably knows that but bc it doesn’t fit with her own ideology, she is most likely ignoring it. If she doesn’t know that, she is refusing to learn it, which is just as bad, if not worse.
(Now we have a US President-Elect who’s saying that “it’s X, Y, Z group of ppl who start all the wars and have to be stopped.” SOUND FAMILIAR?)
[^X Lestat and his awesome girlfriend Akasha by @devmin-art]
BTW tho, did Akasha really believe in this or did she just want to be righteous and have a place in the world? When this initially happened, the Twins told her there was no way to undo it, and that she should kill herself to rid the world of the accident that she was, but like many living (unliving?) things, she didn’t want to die. She wanted to find a way to be righteous and have a purpose, and don’t we all? She constructed a religion around herself back when she was first turned, and she felt that it worked out really well for her. Of course, it was easier to manipulate ppl back when religion seemed to have more of the answers to all of our questions than science did.
and I feel like the others characters don’t try enough to make her understand this when they’re trying to convice her to stop.
^Keep in mind that the coven were all pretty frustrated at their failed attempts to reason with her, most of their arguments were met with personal attacks or just slippery gaslighting… and they were just on the edge of freaking out bc she can explode most of them with her mind ;A;
Lestat:
Dazed, she looked at me. I could feel death breathing on my face, death close as it had been years and
years ago when the wolves tracked me into the frozen forest, and I couldn’t reach up high enough for the
limbs of the barren trees.
The other characters did try to make her understand, but when someone is consumed by their own ideology, sometimes the only tactic that will work is backing off the issue itself and asking them to take more time to consider their chosen course of action, which may have given the coven more time to educate her or find some common ground on which to build some dialogue… which is what they were all doing.
Maharet says:
“Time,” Maharet said. “Maybe that is what we are asking for. Time. And that is what you have to give.”
…“You have meditated in silence for centuries upon your solutions. What is another hundred years? Surely
you will not dispute that the last century on this earth was beyond all prediction or imagining-and that the
technological advances of that century can conceivably bring food and shelter and health to all the peoples
of the earth.“
I-want-my-IWTV 