Fandom Discourse Analysis

Mentions of aging up, enjoying villian characters, and disliking popular characters.

Something I have noticed about anime becoming more popular and mainstream and also the rise in minors in certain spaces is a constant level of discourse over certain topics. I truly believe it’s a good thing anime has become more popular. However, as it brings in more viewers, I think it’s important too open up the conversation surrounding the necessity of distinguishing fiction from reality. There is a lot of posts I see while browsing tags and although I don’t post often I think something needs to be said about three very specific topics that, for me, mean a lot and seem to have a lot of discourse surrounding them.

One of the things I see happening a lot lately within the community is the hatred against people for liking fictional characters who happen to be minors in their respective animes. The aging up dilemma. First off, let me start by saying that a fictional pixel on a screen does not = minor. It can not be a minor because it is a drawing that was made up whenever the author wrote it. And in a lot of these instances, these characters are crafted by the authors with traits that appeal broadly to audiences, transcending their canon ages. This is particularly evident in shonen anime, where characters are often depicted with maturity, wisdom, or exaggerated physical features that align more closely with adult aesthetics rather than with children. This stylistic choice by many authors is done purposely to cater to a wide demographic, enabling viewers to form connections with characters regardless of age.

It's important to recognize that a great majority of the time it is NOT the age that attracts viewers to the character which differentiates them with people in real life who are attracted to minors. Having a crush on, or writing about a fictional character that, like I said previously more closely align with adult aesthetics, does not make someone a pedophile. I think when it comes to loli and shota, then yes maybe we can open up this conversation as those characters are made to look like children. But that’s another topic. Acknowledging the fictional nature of these characters and their resemblance to adult fictional characters should be taken into consideration and not be misconstrued as indicative of real-life inclinations towards minors. Not to mention many of these authors don’t want them to be minors which is why they write about them as adults. Again, these are NOT minors. They are drawings and their ages can be changed depending on who’s writing them. An author could come out tomorrow and say the character has always been an adult and that would make it canon. It is not the same as pedophilia. Most people like characters like Sukuna that doesn’t reflect their real life tastes. Which brings me to my next point.

Liking a villainous character does not correspond to endorsing those actions in real life. Anime often portrays "evil" characters with a depth that makes them appealing through usually through some form of tragic backstory, a charismatic or confident personality, or having extremely complex motivations. I think this makes people often misunderstand that liking them is a reflection of one's real-world values. That is not the case.

Some people even like these characters just for being attractive and due to the fact they are fictional, and again an authors way of getting people to appeal to said characters, it can not be misconstrued of saying that those actions would be okay in real life scenarios. These characters allow viewers to explore themes of conflict, redemption, and moral ambiguity that can be explored in safety because it’s fiction. I think one of the main reasons people find themselves drawn to them is that villian characters are often created with flaws and authors give them depth to explore said flaws. This is why anti-hero characters are also often seen as more relatable and engaging. Anti-heroes, like villains, aren't bound by the usual moral constraints and often make decisions that are more realistic than heroes would. They can express doubts, conflicts, and vulnerabilities that mirror real human experiences. This makes them intriguing and allows audiences to connect with them on a deeper level.

All that said I think the attraction to villainous or morally grey characters often stems from their complexity and the opportunity they provide for viewers to engage with difficult ideas and emotions in a safe, controlled setting. These characters challenge our perceptions of good and evil by navigating a blurred line between the two which is appealing for most people.

The last thing I want to bring up which kind of ties in with liking villainous characters is that disliking certain characters beloved by others is not necessarily a negative stance. Anime characters are crafted with diverse backgrounds, personalities, and motives, which naturally produce varied reactions among viewers. Understanding a character's motives yet still disliking them is completely valid and should stop being treated as inherently wrong or a negative reflection of someone.

People are allowed personal preference and I think that encourages a a better discussion within anime communities whereby differing opinions can coexist. It is through these discussions that fans can dig into character analysis and conversations revolving around characters. Recognizing that disagreement over characters is totally normal and that people can be cool with each other, or be friends and disagree is important in both real life and fiction.

At the end of the day there is also the block button which I will admit I use when needed, if you disagree with someone’s take. Instead of sending them hate and being a horrible person on the internet.

Tags

fandom discourse aging up

More Posts from Tiredofeverythingandmyself and Others

tiredofeverythingandmyself

11 months ago

If you care about us in Gaza,

my family and I need your help. We lost our home and now live in a tent.

Sharing our GoFundMe link or donating could give us hope and a chance to rebuild.

Our campaign is still under $10000.

Please follow my account if you care.

🕊️🕊️❤️❤️🙏🙏🙏🇵🇸🇵🇸

Wishing you well, I pray you reach your goal soon. I'll try to reblog your posts when I notice activity getting high to get as much traction on it as I can.

For anyone seeing this; I've seen people saying the campaign is vetted / verified by nabulsi and, whilst 10k has been raised so far, there's still a long way to go. Anything you can spare is amazing!

gofundme.com

Donate to Helping Ahmed's Family: Escaping War to a New Life, organized by Abdallah Alanqar

Hello,, I'm Abdallah Alanqar, originally from Palestine but cu… Abdallah Alanqar needs your support for Helping Ahmed's Family: Escaping

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signal boost

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tiredofeverythingandmyself

1 year ago

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fuck ai art fuck ai everything fuck ai all my homies hate ai

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tiredofeverythingandmyself

1 year ago

If you buy e-sims for Gaza and or donate to other charities and fundraisers to aid the Palestinian people, especially fundraisers to get Palestinian families to safety, I will doodle you a beetle or moth of your choice! They'll look something like this only digital:

And if you donate any amount of $50+ I'll draw you a linework portrait, be it favorite characters, oc's, celebs, etc. My portrait work looks like this:

Just send e-sim receipts and proof of donation to @/izzy.nero11@gmail.com

Heres a guide on how to purchase e-sims

Here's a fundraiser to get a 5 year old girl out of Gaza to reunite with her mother

Heres a fundraiser for a Palestinian family in need as well as it being a direct link to Ahmed's blog where you can find links to help him and his family as well

And heres a short list of smaller charities and resources to find more families donate to

I do want to let it be known that any piece you get from me are for personal use only. It's cool if you want to use them for your personal social media accounts as avatars or headers though, just have the usual courtesy to credit.

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tiredofeverythingandmyself

5 months ago

#𝐇𝐔𝐒𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃!𝐆𝐎𝐉𝐎

thank you all so much for 400 followers. i really didn't think that i would reach so many people, so i made a special for you. also i can't reply to my comments on my posts or any but i appreciate them. enjoy!

husband!gojo who can't stand being away from you for so long. he's on his day off and he makes sure to spend every single second close to you just so he can admire you and whisper praises in your ear.

husband!gojo who takes you out on dessert dates. whether it be ice-cream, cake, milkshakes, whatever mood the both of you seems to be in. he stares at you with loving eyes while you enjoy the dessert you got and wipes any smudge on your lips or cheek.

husband!gojo who doesn't let you pay for anything. he was not gonna let you send the money that you worked so hard for to buy something that you can get with his money. he shares his personal info with you but does not wanna hear about yours. and he always insists you use his card otherwise, you'll be arguing infront of the cashier for more than ten minutes until you finally give in.

husband!gojo who caresses the ring on your finger everytime you hold hands with him. he does it unconsciously too as you talk about your interests.

husband!gojo who sometimes just can't believe that he's married to the most beautiful woman in the world. he can't help but kiss you out the blue when you're together because you're lips were just so tempting.

husband!gojo who's known to be someone who never shuts the fuck up and interrupts people when they're talking but not when it comes to you. he could just listen to you talk for hours on end because he just lives your voice and is genuinely interested with what you're saying. he also hates it when someone else interrupts you and so speaks up for you.

husband!gojo who loves posting pictures of you on the daily. be it pictures he took of you or selfies you sent with captions like "isn't my wife just so beautiful", and it could be a picture of you drooling in your sleep. but when he reads the comments and finds some creepy guys saying inappropriate things, he's gonna let them know just who they're dealing with.

husband!gojo who comes up with the dumbest nicknames to give because he thought they were cute when he's literally calling you "his cute little drooler" and "his sweet scumdilly yumyum cupcake" but he often times calls you "baby" or "princess" if he's not in a very silly mood.

husband!gojo who showers you with gifts when he returns from long work trips because he believes that you deserve the best. but when you tell him, that the greatest gift he has ever given you was coming back to you without fail, he has tears in his eyes as his heart swells and pulls you into a big hug and says, " i'll always come back to you love... always"

#comments and reblogs are appreciated

Tags

gojo satoru gojo x reader jjk fluff satoru gojo x reader

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tiredofeverythingandmyself

1 year ago

Reminder to boycott Stranger Things Season Five!!

Multiple people in the cast and crew have shown support for Israel whilst they commit genocide against the Palestinians living under their military occupation. It does not matter if the support is born of ignorance or Israeli propaganda; they are still supporting genocide.

Thousands of Palestinians have been murdered by Israel. They are being starved to death, bombed... and that's barely scratching the surface. The situation in Gaza is worse than you are imagining.

Do what you can to support Palestine! Boycotting season five is something so small and easy! Please, do not forget about Gaza!

Free Palestine!

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free palestine stranger things

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tiredofeverythingandmyself

1 year ago

award-winning palestinian children's illustrator baraa awoor writes:

"what use is it to be an illustrator of children's books when the world has sentenced the children of your country to the death penalty, to vanish, to genocide?"

some of baraa's illustrations:

this is an illustration for youssef, whose mother is remembered running desperately into the hospital asking if anyone had seen a "small white boy with beautiful curly hair, his name is youssef," a description which was remembered by millions when she finally identified his body:

this illustration is for young omar, who was hugging his little brother and teaching him how to repeat the shahada after him (a prayer spoken by muslims before their death) as he lay on his hospital bed:

"we want a new year that doesn't kill us or our children, we want it a year without blood, without screaming, without pain, we want a new attempt to get our lives back, or something that resembled our life, even if life is a lie we still cling to it, return life to us—a new year's card unlike any other year:"

Tags

free palestine gaza donations

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tiredofeverythingandmyself

5 months ago

stop normalizing ai use in fandom 👎

Tags

fuck ai all my homies hate ai

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tiredofeverythingandmyself

10 months ago

Urgent appeal, please support🙏🍉

Donate, donate and participate to perform a bone graft operation in my hand💪, please

This is the donation link.

gofundme.com

Donate to Bone Grafting Operation for Muhammad & House Reconstruction, organized by Haruka Aoki

Hello kind friends and dear community, My name is Haruka A… Haruka Aoki needs your support for Bone Grafting Operation for Muhammad & Ho

Thank you, artist Haruka, for your support and backing us up.

Don't pass by without contributing by donating, reblogging and sharing.🙏🍉

@90-ghost @el-shab-hussein @ibtisams @acepumpkinpatrick @just-browsing1222 @gaza @palestine @13ag21k @the-bastard-king @boyvandal-blog @apsswan @youdontknowwhotfiamm @mangocheesecakes @fallahifag @sealuai @palipunk @malcriaada @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @acepumpkinpatrick @nabulsi @fairuzfan

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free palestine signal boost

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tiredofeverythingandmyself

4 months ago

reblog if youre an idiot. reblog if youre just a fucking fool.

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tiredofeverythingandmyself

9 months ago

im making this post to help support the fundraiser of @falestine-yousef, a 36 year old woman from gaza who is trying to save her family.

falestine's home was destroyed by the idf and her and her family have been made homeless. she recently gave birth to her son yousef during the war and had to immediately move into a tent where there is no access to clean water, food, sanitation, or really anything that a newborn child or mother need. so many women in gaza have had to give birth in the absolute worst conditions that are extremely dangerous, so it is urgent to raise money for this family. prices for everyday items like food and clean water are exorbitantly high and every donation can make a difference. her elderly parents are both suffering from health issues and need treatment that is simply unavailable in gaza right now. its so horrific that so many people have lost everything, so please donate and help this family.

this is a verified fundraiser. falestine is the sister of a few other people who have been fundraising on here for their families, and that is why they have photos of some of the same people in their posts. ive seen some confusion about her campaign so i want to make it clear this is a legit campaign and you should not hesitate to contribute. more information here on her family members campaigns, which you should donate to also