coinoperatedboy

their entire purpose for the film is to be bait, essentially. Bobby gets dragged down by pirate clark, kat goes after him and supposedly dies by Clark’s hand after he has a mental breakdown from being stuck in the backrooms for what must feel like weeks, which are probably a few days max.

As much as I think their roles were interesting, they’re one dimensional for a reason. They fuel Clark’s desperation and his aim to figure out what the backrooms is, and it’s disheartening seeing people write fanfic specifically geared toward Bobby.

He was a one off character.

People writing things about him being an entity, or a life form, or this “better bobby”, it really irks me because why can’t we get fanfiction in that same vain with clark, or even about mary and an encounter between her still life of some sort? We should be expanding on the fully fleshed out main characters. Why does it have to be the white stoner boy who’s already established to have a girlfriend that dies within 10 minutes of being on screen in the second half of the movie?

Oh, oh it’s because he’s hot? It’s because he’s vaguely twinkish? His actor has other medias he’s in. Go see him in those medias instead. Focus on the fleshed out characters rather than the one off, one dimensional, bait characters for once. The Backrooms movie is one of the best horror movies I’ve personally seen, and its exploration in trauma and the inability to move on even long after events happened is something that should be praised and discussed.

and i can't speak for black fans as to how they feel about the movies portrayal of a black character (I am aware there is some nuance since the casting was blind and race wasn't taken into consideration) but the least we can do as fans is to go out of our way and be more intentional about what kind of underlying stereotypes and racist views could seep into the material we write and publish. what you write and publish is a reflection of who you are no matter how much you try to deny it.

if you're gonna write for the backrooms and find yourself immediately wanting to write about bobby (a white man who was only there for 3 minutes and for mild comedy relief) over clark (an incredibly nuanced and complicated black character who i personally think is more attractive than bobby no diss) (and again, ONE OF THE TWO MAIN CHARACTERS) then I think some introspection might be needed.