Analysing negative feelings at their root must have some value

[yvannairie]

So I know hating characters because they come "in the way" of your ship is bad, but I wish that was something we could at least talk about, you know? :/

I have certain characters that I'd probably like if they had zero contact with certain other characters and I've never seen conversations about why this happens, even though I've read a lot of smart people write a lot of smart words about why the opposite (i.e. starting to like a character based on their interactions with other characters) is such a common occurence.

The dynamics of liking things are discussed a lot more, which is pretty fascinating on its own. And I guess it might be asking a bit much because a) nobody really likes talking about things that make them feel bad and b) culture is so overwhelmingly negative at the moment anyway that reinforcing their happiness is preferrable to most people.

It just feels unbalanced because lately the "you can like ANYTHING for ANY REASON" message has been growing in volume, but it still feels like if you dislike something you're supposed to accept that you're Doing The Thing Wrong And Shut Up.

And that's unsatisfying.

(But then again at the moment we probably can't have sensible conversations about why things are Bad without it turning into a fight or posturing of some kind.)

Comments

[silveradept]

thisweekmeta linked here, and here I am.

There are plenty of really good reasons not to like something. Certain ships of fandom yore never pinged with me because the characters canonically are pure sodium and water and those do not make the good sparks when they mix, assuming they remain mostly their canonical selves.

Or they violate my personal rule that requires ships to make sense for their setting.

Others get to enjoy those ships, but if they want to give me Discourse that my opinion is categorically wrong because I'm hating on their ships, well, if I remember it at the moment, they get one of the Four Disclaimers. (Borrowed from the radio program Whad'Ya Know? (Not much! You?))

All opinions expressed by this user are well-reasoned and insightful. Needless to say, they are not the opinions of the International House of Fandom, its member stations, or lackeys.

I get to not like things. I get to think their execution was sloppy, or their characterization was awful, or they don't actually have an excuse in these modern, well-connected times to mess up Japanese honorifics by making a character's name contain one as if it were part of the name.

Which is a dislike, but not something that makes the program inherently problematic and any of the people who still enjoy it terrible.

I do think there's a higher bar set for dislike posts than like posts, though, because there is value in examining the why you don't like something, because it's often insightful, either in that you've discovered a preference, or you may have discovered some detritus that you thought you had all cleaned up. One of the things I really like about dislike posts is that when someone who takes the time and is willing to show the audience the reasons why they dislike, it helps me figure out where my own ideas are about it. Like posts don't always do that kind of depth work. Nor should like or dislike posts have to.

I think I'm getting long and wordy, but I agree with the post - there needs to be space for people to talk about what they don't like and want to see better in both canons and in fanworks.

[yvannairie]

👍