bad takes about Quasimodo are swimming in the fandom again. they're going around saying that Esmeralda is the true hero of Hunchback, saving Paris, while Quasi stays all day "whining" and singing in the bell tower. And that he's "racist" for not liking that Esmeralda chose Phoebus over him (?)
What the actual heck?! How does any of that make sense whatsoever?
How can they accuse Quasimodo of whining when he almost never complains about anything? Yes, he expresses sadness, yearning, etc. – though only when he's alone, for the most part – but just expressing emotion isn't the same as complaining and certainly isn't whining! Can they just not handle a male hero who isn't stoic?
His songs aren't whining either: they're not even laments. If these people are talking about "Made of Stone" from the stage musical, that's not whining at all: it's rage, despair, and self-loathing because Esmeralda is about to die and it's all his fault. As for "Out There," it combines yearning with ecstatic joy at imagining life in the outside world, and "Heaven's Light" is about the affection and joy Esmeralda has brought into his life.
And criticizing him for not leaving the bell tower to fight against Frollo? That's (a) ignoring his character arc, and (b) victim-blaming. Quasi has been emotionally abused by Frollo all his life, yet at the same time sees Frollo as his father figure and only protector. His character arc in the Disney version is to gradually learn to see Frollo for who he is, overcome the fears and self-doubt that Frollo has instilled in him, and break free. It sounds like these people are criticizing him for having a character arc instead of being a flat paragon from the beginning – and while they're at it, victim-blaming him for having realistic psychological scars.
As for Esmeralda, I love her and admire her too, but how is she more of a "real hero" than Quasimodo? Yes, she stands up to Frollo at the festival, but afterwards she spends the rest of the film mostly running and hiding from Frollo and his soldiers, not doing anything more to stop them except discretely saving Phoebus's life. Quasi is the one who saves Paris in the end, by overpowering Frollo's soldiers in the battle at the cathedral, and then indirectly causing Frollo's death. (Or in the stage version, killing him outright.)
And as for calling him "racist"... where to begin?! In the first place, Quasi belongs to the same ethnic group as Esmeralda: he's Romani too, he's just lighter in coloring. But even if he weren't... WTF?!?! Is there some new rule that if you're a light-skinned person and you have romantic feelings for a person of color, then you're not allowed to be sad if they choose someone else, and if you are sad, that means you're racist?! There's no logic in that! No logic at all!
I'm starting to think these "fans" are really just trolls. Either that, or they're from other planets.
