hello, it is me, the problematic 2000

Betty Cooper:

Fandoms acts like her flaws make her a bitch that the show never examines her flaws when her flaws are a core part of why her character rocks.

She had her gay awakening at the serial killer convention. Need I say more? Betty forever.

Sera:

The classic example of "if she was a man you wouldn't be so mean to her". She's loud and it's a flaw. She's crass and it's a flaw. She's not kissing your main character's butt and that's an affront to the player personally (even tho a male character like, say, Fenris is beloved for his snark). She has internalized racism written into her story and isn't shy about expressing the effects of it, and that pisses people off so bad they kick her out. Mind you, male characters like Varric, Solas or, again, Fenris, who express just as much disdainful opinions towards their own race and the city elves/the Dalish in particular, are largely beloved again. (Yes, Solas is more complicated due to his plot, but nobody knew that for sure until Trespasser came out, so don't give me that excuse). On top of that, of course, people are classist about her (claiming it's impossible to understand the way she speaks when even someone with English as their second language can do it. But it's a poor dialect full of street slang and somewhat of a cockney beat to it, so obviously it's bad.) And that's not even mentioning the additional lesbophobia. I could go on for a damn essay and someone will still show up in the comments with "Well I!!! don't like Sera 'cause she's annoying". Point me to a male character who ever got so much hate for being "annoying". Even Oghren doesn't get that.

Taylor Kelly:

She dated one half of the main m/m ship and dared to have a personality and flaws and a life independent of him. She didn't coddle him or treat him like a baby and was actually instrumental to his growth as a person and also genuinely liked him and was a good partner to him both in universe and narratively, but she had the gall to not be a man. Also, she had the audacity to be a woman and make mistakes and put her career ahead of Darling Fandom Man.

She's so cool!!! She's smart, driven, and she pushes buttons and doesn't stop even when people try to get in her way. Relentless pursuit of the truth no matter what, even if it means burning bridges. She doesn't take people's shit but she's also fun and funny and caring in her own ways.

Fandom acts like she is a horrible selfish bitch who treated Buck so badly and hated Eddie when Buck was the one who cheated on her and she supported him and his friendship with Eddie.

She is ambitious and driven and yes that can lead to some morally gray actions but that is motivated by a pure desire to find out the truth after not knowing the truth about whether her father killed her mother. She is actually very forgiving of Buck, just not endlessly so.

She was a love interest to Buck, who is one half of the infamous ship Buddie, and she was a goal oriented career woman who was not overly nice and would do things for a story even if it hurt the people around her and she was very interesting and nuanced and some of the hate for the things she did made sense but mostly she was hated because she was in the way of buddie.

She was an interesting character who had a lot of potential as a friend to buck, an on and off friends with benefits relationship with buck, a messy romantic relationship with buck, and a somewhat antagonistic relationship with the rest of the 118 fire station. She could have been a really interesting and morally grey reccurring character, but instead she was run off the show.

they hate her, they trash her, they bash her, everything is her fault, she's portrayed as an absolute harpy because she had the gall to go behind fandom's darling's back AFTER HE CHEATED ON HER AND TRAPPED HER IN HIS APARTMENT AND LIED TO HER

if Taylor Kelly were a man, fandom would love her: she's ambitious, she's cute, she's funny, she has a sad backstory, she has gorgeous hair, she's standing up for herself, she isn't all that interested in romance or sex. unfortunately she's a woman and apparently that is grounds to hate her.

fandom makes her out to be an evil viper for being ambitious and self-serving in her career and completely ignores her warmth, interesting backstory, and character growth (which is significant despite being a temporary guest star). but really for daring to date one half of the juggernaut m/m ship.

She was purely love interest, but imo she had enough interesting character work for a whole spin off. She's an intrepid reporter who thinks she's driven by her relentless search for truth but she's let her ambition drive her instead. She doesn't have enough of an ethical compass to have deep thoughts about whether a story needs to be reported or how to report it, as long as she gets a scoop that makes her look good. (The search for truth part got an origin story: When she was a child either her father killed her mother, or her mother died by suicide and her father has been falsely imprisoned for it. She'll probably never know which for sure (just this one fact on its own is enough to build a whole main protagonist around, come onnnnn).) But she is also so much more than her ambition. She doesn't want to be lied to (she shares this with Buck, since she's also his foil). She doesn't know how to share her vulnerabilities even when she wants to, and needs to be pushed on it. She cares about Buck, even when they weren't dating. She's soft and gentle with him when he's going through it, but she turns a mirror to him when he messes up or is having an outsized reaction to something. She can be really insightful about human behavior, especially Buck's. She was on the covid reporting frontlines and was so so sad from all the loss. We saw her go from casual hook ups to falling in love for the first time and fumble it even though she knew exactly what would mess it up for her. Because of her intrepid reporter-ness, she sometimes has to defend herself to even the people who know her best that she didn't show up to a tragedy as a reporter but as a friend (tantalizingly similar to how Buck has to defend himself from his earned womanizer reputation that he's not actually disrespectful). Anyway, slap these mix of traits on a male character and I bet he'd be an instant fan favorite.

Buck's girlfriend for a solid while. She got "in the way" of Buddie, but people were also saying she was worse than Jonah - a character that killed people and tried to kill two main characters (Hen and Chimney). She had her flaws, but she was (imo) one of the most interesting LIs ever developed on this show. Being totally honest she wasn't a good girlfriend to Buck but vice versa he wasn't a good boyfriend to her.

Mai: