god okay iâve been thinking abt this for a While but i read a fic recently that bothered me so much i just have to yell into the void for a bit. Iâm struggling with articulating my thoughts so this is gonna be Very rambly.
so in so many modern day AUs, characters that are non-human but still FULLY SENTIENT often get turned into like. pets and stuff. a robot buddy becomes a cat, an alien becomes a dog, a talking animal becomes just a normal version of whatever animal they were. and itâs like. those are PEOPLE. thatâs a fully sentient goddamn person. like, I get it, itâs cute, and a lot of the fanart, fanfic etc I see of this stuff is genuinely super well made and interesting and I donât wanna like, cast aspersions on anyone who does this. but it bothers me. this invisible threshold of âhuman lookingâ you have to pass to be considered a person. you wouldnât write a modern AU where spock is kirks normal non-sentient pet cat, not without it being a weird crack-fic, but Iâve seen so much art and fic of Chewbacca being Han Solos dog like heâs not a full guy. the man is forklift certified goddamnit. but he looks inhuman and speaks a different language and so he canât pass the Threshold. and the same thing goes doubly for droids/robots of different kinds. the more inhuman a robot looks, the more likely they become a pet in a modern au, regardless of level of sentience. and especially if a character is a talking animal, they get the âanimal treatmentâ in AUs and idk. it feels. Bad. especially bc so much fanfic is about a ragtag team of outcasts coming together to find home and family in each other. but I guess their robot friend struggling against the dehumanizing treatment they get from the society around them doesnât count haha. like, hereâs these sad outcasts becoming family, and also their fucking??? dog?? who I guess isnât a person anymore and never was bc theyâre just a pet to be owned now. and GOD I just want to cry I guess bc especially when you relate a lot to non-human characters and their struggles with being seen as a person, which is often a serious and core part of their character arc, seeing them then get fully erased from the narrative and turned into just a cute lil kitty hurts. and idk, I just think thereâs a lot to be examined here abt fandoms treatment of non-human characters in general and the idea of personhood and I think itâs something that should be talked about I guess. idk
bringing this back actually bc now that dungeon meshi is The Big Thing, i am seeing people do this to izutsumi. Thats a whole teenage girl. Why is she just. a regular cat in so many modern AUs. hello. what.
