AnimeJune's Obsessions

Reblogged from couldbeyourlife

Pirate Anon here. Regarding the “you were so proud” = victim blaming argument for the scene in Heart, I have to disagree. I thought Dave was saying the opposite - he mentioned the reasons he took it out on Kurt were due to Dave’s OWN problems (“I hated who I was”) with the very general things that Kurt could in no way have changed (being “there” and being “proud”). I thought he was saying, “It wasn’t anything you could have done, it was me.” Again, fascinatingly different interpretations.
this got stupidly TLDR and potentially way too fucking academic/therapeutic in nature and may have strayed but I tried to give the best most in depth answer I could?!!! my life so hard

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(I’m the Pirate Anon, BTW. S’up). Ah. Okay. Yes. I can definitely see it from that point - I was looking at it from a small-picture, character viewpoint (Karofsky wasn’t blaming Kurt) and you were looking at it from a big-picture, narrative viewpoint (the way Karofsky’s explanation was framed in the story placed the blame on Kurt). And I agree - if he’d said, “You were so beautiful” it would have made it way more obviously skeevy.

I think there is a difficult and thin line between explaining one’s actions and excusing them, because the two very often (but not always) go hand in hand. I think that’s one of the main differences between the people who empathize with Dave and those who don’t. There is the belief (not entirely unwarranted, because I’m 100% on the Writers Fucked the Dog with Dave’s Storyline front) that understanding and empathizing with Dave because we’ve been given an explanation for his behaviour excuses his actions. Which isn’t the case for me and a lot of Pirates. I like Dave - but I also like Magneto as a character and Thomas from Downton Abbey as a character, but I’m not a fan of mass murder or framing crippled valets for theft.

And it is interesting how often stories want to go into the backstory of villains and abusers and exploiters of victims - why they do the things they do. What is their motivation. I think part of it is just good storytelling because characters with moral grey areas and inner struggles are frankly more interesting and suspenseful than those who are JUST EEEEEVIL or just PURE AND GOOD.

I mean, I am personally interested (read: I don’t condone, but hell they make good TV) in Bad Characters who Have Something Else Going On. Thomas from Downton Abbey. Sheriff Lamb from Veronica Mars (“Nobody Puts Baby In a Corner” is his “Never Been Kissed” and although I never personally shipped with him anyone he was always interesting to watch). Magneto is a particularly interesting choice because he’s a pretty beloved villain even though he tried to mass murder a bunch of people. And I don’t think the people who are fans of Magneto condone his actions - they find his story interesting and his layered character allows people to become emotionally invested - and therefore become more involved in what ultimately happens in the story.

BUT I don’t doubt that a part of it is a protective cultural mechanism - people want an explanation for evil. They want there to be a reason behind people doing evil shitful things because admitting that sometimes evil, appalling things happen for absolutely no good reason, it’s all a random fucksauce of fate that can’t be fully understood (and thus defended against) is fucking terrifying. And while I don’t think people intentionally do that to blame victims - it HAS come up in rape culture.

Female jurors are apparently a huge liability in rape trials because THEY tend to victim blame more than male jurors - they blame the victim’s clothing, her sexual history, how she went out alone at night, and without even realizing it they do it because they want to tell themselves, “It can’t be a random awful thing that had nothing to do with the victim. Because if it’s random, it could happen to me. But if it’s because she dressed like a whore/was stupid/slept around, it won’t happen to me, because I’m decent/monogamous/somehow superior. I am safe.”

And I think that’s one aspect of the cultural fascination with villains and their backstories (the reason that isn’t just Well It Makes for an Interesting Story or He’s a Character and Thus Needs Development). It’s trying to find the recipe for evil so that people can escape from it. Oh, the serial killer became one because his daddy flushed his Power Rangers down the toilet or something.

So while I don’t think villains or sinners or otherwise shitful people shouldn’t be explored in fiction, I think authors and readers should both be thoughtful about where the line between explaining and excusing ends.

AnimeJune's Obsessions

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