Fucking. I Keep Getting Comments Like ‘How Would You Know His Character Better Than The Author?’

Fucking. I keep getting comments like ‘How would you know his character better than the author?’ And ‘Just cause you don’t have the kink doesn’t make it heteronormative:/‘ and I don’t vibe with it. I realise y’all couldn’t utilise reading comprehension enough to get through the original post, so this might not help cause you’re still illiterate, but maybe it’ll send you in the right direction.

(Yeah it was only two people and three comments, but I’m nipping this in the bud because I would rather rip my own eyes out of my head and bury them in my garden than actually try and debate barely-literate heterosexuals.)

Firstly, I don’t claim to know MXTX’s characters better than they do. What I do claim to know, however, is how character writing works. I fucking hate the claim of ‘But how would you know it’s ooc better than the AUTHOR?’ like. An author is fully capable of writing their own characters in a way that doesn’t line up with their established personality traits. While Hua Cheng is MXTX’s character and I can’t tell them what to write, I am well within my rights to point out how little sense it makes with Hua Cheng’s established character to be some rough dom sex bully. He’s literally the most caring, devoted, protective person on the planet toward Xie Lian. Not to mention, MXTX didn’t even write him like that even in the uncensored version. There’s a way more concise explanation (with a screenshot) of this in the reblogs, but I’ll explain briefly. While there is one scene in the uncensored version where Hua Cheng is acting rough and handsy, it’s also a scene where he’s blatantly acting outside of his own control. With his normal personality, he would never even touch Xie Lian without assured consent, let along make out with him like that. Also, he was handsy. No mention of bullying, cruelty or weird dom vibes. I was misinformed when I made my original post, because of everyone’s immediate gushing about him being a borderline sexual batterer, and that’s my bad. Also see the screenshot in the aforementioned reblog, where Xie Lian recalls Hua Cheng’s voice as being gentle and without coercion. Rough dom bully top abuser Hua Cheng is not and was never confirmed- but back to the original point, yes. An audience has full rights to point out inconsistent character writing where it exist. What, do I need to flash my media literacy license. Let me on the crime scene, I work for the FBI (Fans of Book Investigation).

Secondly, what kinks I have is irrelevant to my interpretation of media. I’m actually pretty fucking kinky, and I’m super into the whole rough sex, dom top, bullying thing. I think it’s hot as shit. That being said, I was still uncomfortable with this characterisation. Why? Because the idea of the designated ‘guy’ of the relationship (to explain that, while MXTX didn’t write either of them as the ‘guy’ or ‘girl’ in the relationship -thank god- fandoms often latch onto the idea that one character, usually the one who’s taller and less meek or polite, is the guy in the relationship. That’s why the shorter and nicer one gets feminised so violently) being sexually violent and insatiable is neither new, nor a foreign idea in heteronormativity. It happens a lot; the designated ‘man’ in the relationship is constantly horny and super sexually brutish, because tHe bOyFrIeNd wAnTs sEx bUt tHe gIrLfRiEnD sAyS nO cAuSe gIrLs dOn’T gEt hOrNy oR kInKy. It’s bullshit, and y’all need to stop pretending not to notice so your faves can stay unproblematic UwU.

I don’t care what the new, uncensored versions say. Hua Cheng being a rough bully dom top in bed is too heteronormative for me to ignore how it makes no sense for his character, sorry.