Mild gripe: Not every villain is the hero of their own story.

[guardians_song]

I know people love to say this. But it's not true. It fundamentally projects a worldview of believing that one's actions are justified and that the morality of one's actions and intentions is the most important thing, which... um... Hello? This is an age in which we know about sociopaths, right?

Sociopaths know their actions are wrong. That's why they go to such extents to cover them up. They just don't give a damn. They lack that sense of moral concern that so troubles most people. Yes, they think that most people are suckers. That doesn't mean they don't understand what a 'good' person is, they just choose not to be one. Yes, they're the "heroes" of their own stories, in that they have pathetically exaggerated delusions of their own exalted status, but not in the sense that most of us think of as 'heroes'. Designated Protagonists might be a better phrase.

Likewise, yes, some people do know - or think - they're doing wrong and choose to continue on anyway. The drug addict who wants to stop, yet can't resist taking another hit - that's one. The person on a diet who can't resist 'indulging' a few dozen times too often - that's another. The person who wants access to restricted material, and isn't adverse to fudging details of their age to get it - that's yet another. On the side of thinking there's wrongdoing, there's also the closeted fundamentalist who struggles with his or her "deviant urges", the severely depressed person eaten alive by guilt for 'wasting others' time and resources' (*sigh* Can't say I'm over that so much as I'm managing to be less of a waste...), the rebel convinced that he or she must be a horrible person for going against what is supposed to be The Moral Way To Think, yet persisting anyway...

It's ridiculously oversimplifying to say everyone is the hero of their own story. And it has no place in 'enlightened' discussions of literature and characterization. *climbs off of soapbox*

Comments

[harp]

Of course, "when mocking their least-favorite characters" works, too. (Twilight Anti-Fandom...)

You just made me realize something truly weird- when it comes to Twilight, no matter what side you're on, you're arm-in-arm with your fellows on that side.

I've brought this up once or twice and had Potterheads try to tell me "Noooo, Team Dead-weird and Team Pedowolf h8 each other 4lyfe!" but that never went as far or as hateful as it did in the Potterfandom, and they never had the million factions that Potter did (Snapestans, Maurauder-stans, Slytherinfen, Potter Haters, Critics who still loved, and oh-so-many-shippers-Shippers-Shipping) all throwing their hatred at each other.

With Twatlight, the fans of it stuck together absolutely and the haters are in 100% agreement that there is nothing good about it. And everyone stays in their own camp (the fans sticking to their own, knowing they will never penetrate the iron-clad hatred fortress, the haters staying in their mansions, knowing they will never be able to reverse the brain damage of the fans). And we're content to mock and our mocking makes them stick together and love and cherish one-another.

As someone on my LJ said, that's the only thing I will ever admire about that fandom. They ruly love each other. Which is the height of irony, considering there has never been a more piss-poor, messed up, ass-backwards, doing-it-wrong representation of love since Jim Jones poured a cup of flavor-aid and said "I made this for you because I love you".

[guardians_song]

The thing is that the Teams are bizarrely civil about believing that their opponents are Interrogating The Text From The Wrong Perspective. The Jacobers DID go feral after Breaking Dawn, to tell from their official comm, but they were very mellow about the other FANS - sure, they believed that Edward shippers had a shallow reading of the text, were young and inexperienced, or were just incomprehensible, but they didn't jump to deeming those shippers PERSONALLY shallow, immature, and stupid. And the Edwarders seemed just to wave the Jacobers aside and not even think about them unless they accidentally came into contact.

It wasn't that they were buddies, but they had a civilized ceasefire. And the Jacob fans, even though they became pseudo-antis after BD, always reserved their vitriol for the AUTHOR and the TEXT while not starting fights with their fellow fans.

I don't have much of an idea why, either. Maybe the sheer force of hatred from the true-antis made the majority of the fans all band together in 'Even if we can't defend this seriously, we're having fun, and that's the important thing, right?'. I've also noticed that the Twifans really don't revere the Venom Cock Holy Canon as Potterfen do (or, heck, even as the ANTIS do), so that drains away a lot of the Potterwank. 'You don't like Carlisle in canon? Okay, but what about in my All-Human AU where he's domming Edward while Jacob has a threesome with Emmett and Rosalie?'

Either way, it's interesting to watch.

[redwoodalchan]

Wow. It amazes me that the Twilight fandom might actually be LESS nutty than the Harry Potter fandom.

[guardians_song]

Mind, I only track the Bella/Jacob comm*, so the Edward-fangirl section is undoubtedly nuttier. But even that section is sure to be less wanky, since they're at least all on the same side.

*Incidentally, if you want to see genuine fan reactions to Breaking Dawn:
http://sortofbeautiful.livejournal.com/595145.html (The reaction to THE IMPRINT)

http://sortofbeautiful.livejournal.com/702820.html
http://sortofbeautiful.livejournal.com/1704362.html#comments

TL;DR:
THE SPOILERS ARE 100% TRUE!

Cry with me please!