Long rant about defending Paper
The II fandom HATES paper. And for wild reasons too if you really look into it. And I'm going to be talking about them.
Reason one, People hate on Paper because of his outburst towards Poppy in episode 4 where he thinks that Poppy wanted the incident that happened in the same episode to happen, the same incident that landed Fan in the hospital.
Now, in his defense, he was technically right but Poppy wasn't expecting anyone to get hurt during it and just wanted some answers as to why they exist. And if we're hating on anyone here, it should be Tapey as she was the one who caused the fight to even start. Now I know that at the time it was accidental, but there's nothing stopping her from doing it again, as seeing the very next episode as she used it for her advantage to not get out, eliminating Starfruit instead.
Reason two, People hate Paper for his ''racism'' towards Poppy. And I know the joke of corn racism is an all-time high, specifically in the II fandom (but that's another rant for another day), but Paper isn't being racist. And I'm sorry for anyone who thought that way. He just reacting to trauma of what happened in the season 2 finale. Not only is recovery now gone as of currently writing this, but it doesn't help that Poppy looks like Steve except upside down with their husk as hair.
And on the topic of no recovery, he just saw someone literally almost died, of course he's going to be a bit irritable and skittish towards others, specifically Poppy
And not only that, but Test Tube was also hating on Poppy, even going as far as hitting them, but nobody said anything (at least to my knowledge) about that. And that's where popularity takes place for object show characters as a whole. Popularity somewhat acts like a cushion for the character to ''hide'' from their mistakes. And Paper is unfortunate to have a little fanbase, but a big hatebase.
And reason three, People think that Paper is just a boyfriend of OJ, seeing Paper doing nothing but have codependency issues with OJ. Mind you, this situation was already a problem in season 1 where the others thought that same way too. And to the other contestants in season 1, it was an alliance. Of course, it's going to look like Paper was ''dependent'' of OJ. That's how alliances work. You stay with the people in it until the finale for a better chance of winning.
And as for the codependency issue as a whole, we've seen Paper be independent multiple times throughout the series and has more to him than being ''the boyfriend'' (ironic considering this account's posts but still.)
In conclusion, the II fandom hate on Paper is unnecessary harsh and has no rhyme or reason to it. Now, this isn't me saying that you can't hate on him or any other character as I'm not the one who forces people to like a character. But you have to at least have SOME reasoning as to why you hate on a character that isn't a carbon copy or a petty reason.
With all that being said, thanks for listening/reading my rant about my favorite character!