but it is interesting how fans will call a character a favourite, and yet whitewash so many of their character traits.
Yeah, fandom's tolerance threshold for what it will accept as a "flaw" in a favorite character is BIZARRE, LMAO. Even rather commonplace traits or behavior that you see all the time IRL from average people--fandom ~recoils from the idea that their faves could have those traits or display such behavior… even when it's nothing particularly terrible at all. So weird. xD
The bitchier characters with the quick one-liners do seem to be the fan favs today, I guess they make for the more memorable tv characters, and I've unashamedly loved a few of them myself like Blair Waldorf (and Cordelia of course, in spite of what I'm saying here I did very much enjoy her character on Ats up until the mid season 3 changes). I just don't get why fandom seems to feel the need to justify their love for those characters by whitewashing them and painting them as secretly being better and more deserving than the characters around them.
I think, in all probability, people don't realize they have a slanted view of these characters, it's an automatic consequence of stanning for them. And in the case of Blair and Cordelia in particular, I think it's the combination of them not just being bitchy/snarky, but also being entitled (in fandom's minds) to be so, by their elevated social status in-verse. Like, I don't think it's a coincidence that their nicknames are "Queen B" and "Queen C." I very much doubt that fandom would've responded to them in the same way if they'd started out being poor or from a lower social stratum (and IMO this effect came into play even after Cordelia's family lost their money, b/c early canon bias is enormously impactful.) Fandom has different unconscious standards for what it will accept from a higher-ranking character vs. a lower-ranking character and it regularly instinctively conflates status with moral worth.
Cordelia as a character did develop hugely on Ats, but I'd argue that I don't think that she ever did lose her sense of entitlement, she still had that attitude of them being special Champions and having a special status […] The retcon of how they were really playing her is actually pretty brilliant when you watch the season 3 finale in retrospect
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Yeah, fandom's tolerance threshold for what it will accept as a "flaw" in a favorite character is BIZARRE, LMAO. Even rather commonplace traits or behavior that you see all the time IRL from average people--fandom ~recoils from the idea that their faves could have those traits or display such behavior… even when it's nothing particularly terrible at all. So weird. xD
The bitchier characters with the quick one-liners do seem to be the fan favs today, I guess they make for the more memorable tv characters, and I've unashamedly loved a few of them myself like Blair Waldorf (and Cordelia of course, in spite of what I'm saying here I did very much enjoy her character on Ats up until the mid season 3 changes). I just don't get why fandom seems to feel the need to justify their love for those characters by whitewashing them and painting them as secretly being better and more deserving than the characters around them.
I think, in all probability, people don't realize they have a slanted view of these characters, it's an automatic consequence of stanning for them. And in the case of Blair and Cordelia in particular, I think it's the combination of them not just being bitchy/snarky, but also being entitled (in fandom's minds) to be so, by their elevated social status in-verse. Like, I don't think it's a coincidence that their nicknames are "Queen B" and "Queen C." I very much doubt that fandom would've responded to them in the same way if they'd started out being poor or from a lower social stratum (and IMO this effect came into play even after Cordelia's family lost their money, b/c early canon bias is enormously impactful.) Fandom has different unconscious standards for what it will accept from a higher-ranking character vs. a lower-ranking character and it regularly instinctively conflates status with moral worth.
Cordelia as a character did develop hugely on Ats, but I'd argue that I don't think that she ever did lose her sense of entitlement, she still had that attitude of them being special Champions and having a special status […] The retcon of how they were really playing her is actually pretty brilliant when you watch the season 3 finale in retrospect
ITA.