( !! Spoilers for the Percy Jackson Series, The Owl House, The Walking Dead, Avatar: The Last Airbender… honestly, just proceed with caution. !!)
When I think of Fandom spaces one of the first things I think of is how certain characters (. As complex or as single-faceted as they may be) may be handled. I’ve seen genuine strong, complex, and dangerous female leads be reduced to a forced romantic subplot or over explained to the point she’s just some 13-year old’s new oc. I’ve seen simple, nearly background, male characters be forced into spotlight, and for what? He’s got no flavor! Nothing exciting! He’s just a random white guy with brown hair, there’s no substance! Why is he everyone’s favorite!?
Now, don’t get me wrong. Mischaracterization can be displayed in a lot of ways, not only complex characters being reduced or boring characters being elevated (for what? He’s hot??). Sometimes it can be something as small as, say, people latching onto the fact a character cries a lot and reducing them to something weak, unworthy, or annoying. Or an annoying character being bad. A lot of the time, I’ve seen, it’s just someone taking a character so far away from their original plot that It’s not even the same guy anymore!
What is mischaracterization?
Mischaracterization is the incorrect portrayal or description of something. When a character is thought of in a way that is not intended by the original author. See, this is different from the instance of Misperception, which I find may directly lead to and be caused by Mischaracterization. Do I have to explain the correlation between the two? No. Do I want to? Also no. I still want to, so you guys are getting a link.
I’m SOOO good at explaining things, I know. A whole external link explaining my argument, and I’m continuing to use the term Mischaracterization when it’s clearly misperception that I’m thinking about.
Is Mischaracterization/Misperception the end of the world? In most cases, No. Not at all. Get over it. Except I can’t get over things, and it is the end of the world! Yay!!
What are you even talking about right now, dude?
Good question! I’ve no clue! Joking, joking. This blog is basically the types of mischaracterizations that I see a lot in FANDOM spaces. Heavvyy emphasis on FANDOM spaces.
The first, worst type: He’s bisexual I didn’t know that
I do think this one is the end of the world, yeah. I can get all into how we treat queer men in media as if they’re lesser, and how we portray them as extremely feminine in fandom spaces and how that draws back to societies perception of men and masculinity; however, I’m not going to do that. I prefer keeping this brief (I say at 564 words), so I’ll yell about it some other time.
(Flip this coin: How queer women are treated in media, and how fandom spaces deal with that like it doesn’t matter as much or they force one party into a masculine role, because women can’t possibly be taken seriously.)
The first character that comes to mind is Nico di Angelo. He’s so badly misperceived by fans that I honestly don’t even know how to characterize him myself. Thanks for that one, Rick.
Sorry i just wanted to put a picture of him. Anyways.
He has this incredibly complex character with so many ties to literal fascist Italy (???) with complex storylines and arcs!! Oh and by the way, He just so happens to be queer. “So this means he can be reduced to a blushing hyper-feminine queer teenager?” Uh??????? No????? Can we touch on the terrible, terrible religious guilt he feels?? ??? ?????? (A few more question marks for emphasis, ??????????)
Honorable mention of Jack Twist, the most criminal instance of a character being reduced to their queerness and stripped of all other sort of personality. He’s so much more than what people claim. ILY Jack Nasty. <33
Second, Tragically: OH EM GOSH, ROMANCE!!!
Powerful Women with forced romantic subplots.
KATARA, BABY! RUN GIRL!! RUNN!!
I will always be a hater of their entire romance thing. Sorry not sorry (extra not sorry). This isn’t even from he fandom, since the WRITERS THEMSELVES did it and it just does not make sense for her character. Not saying powerful women can’t have romance in their lives, but the entire subplot was so forced. It was just an excuse for the “Beats the bad guy, gets the girl” trope. Horrible. 0/10. to the chopping block with you.
Okay, okay. I can’t do much about what the writers did, because in the end that’s what happened. I can however complain. And I’m choosing to complain about how the fans, somehow, reduce her ENTIRELY to a motherly friend and Aang’s girlfriend. free her. free her from her prison.
Another few characters worth nothing are Maggie Rhee from The Walking Dead, Mary Linton from Red Dead Redemption 2, and Katniss everdeen.
(Honorable mention of Geralt from Netflix’ Witcher series. don’t know much about that guy but allegedly he’s a powerful woman reduced to a romantic subplot. love that for him.)
Three: I’m a horrible person but I’m also hot!!! So its okay!!!
The most often that i’ve seen this is in men. No comments. Just complaints.
I lied. There are c0mments. so many comments.
I’ve been so angry about Shane (TWD, not SDV) and his existence that I’ve genuinely been unable to sleep.
Also from The Walking Dead. I haven’t met him yet but apparently Negan Smith is a horrible person. I wouldn’t know.
This is just criticizing the lengths people will go to in attempt of excusing.. certain actions within media.
The Last, the WORST mischaracterization: WHERES MY MELANIN@?!!??!?!?!?!
Guys. Guys. Whitewashing is bad. Seriously trying to find a picture of Damian Wayne where he looks how he’s supposed to is incredibly difficult. Also one where he doesn’t look like someone just pulled him out of a lint trap.
For reference, He is described to be Arab and of Chinese descent on his moms side, and pretty pasty on his Dad’s, who is, uh, Bruce Wayne. Ignoring that. He’s BROWN. He’s supposed to be BROWN. WHAT HAPPENED YALL?????
(They just wanted him to look like his dad)
She can’t catch a break. free her.
I don’t think i even WANT to talk about how bad some of her fanarts are. because actually what???
Connie WHYYYYY Do they take your melanin babe you need thatt it makes me sick
A lot of what i’ve seen about her is, and i’m QUOTING here, “Her being brown doesn’t fit my image of her character.” Great! Because she’s not your character!! You’re really weird!
Also him
Okay!!!! I had to cut down like more than half of this because it was getting to be like 1.5k words and I think this one is at a similar length again (??) So!!! I didn’t yell as much as I wanted to but here’s like.. the worst instances of what I STRONGLY dislike in fandom spaces.
They Honestly did Katara so dirty with her romance plot, They should’ve never set her up like Aang’s mom at first if they were ever going to try a romance plot there. It was SO awkward honestly wanted to curl up in a ball every time they brought it up.
Katara will always be my favorite character and I enjoyed Aang’s crush on her because it’s in character for him, but their relationship was.. no thank you!! Her entire arc is about grief and growing as a person and then they throw that in, when she’s expressly uncomfortable?? No thank you !!
i understand the connie one i thought it was because of stevens and hers fusion at first that’s why so many people wanted her lighter complexion but honestly if gems can alter their selves why not make stevonnie a darker complexion.
Exactly!! They kept Connie’s complexion in Stevonnie and that’s just so important for stevonnie as a character!! People always whitewash Connie because her being brown “doesn’t fit” their idea of her as a character and it makes me so sad