More Like Danny Fentonyl

thank you ao3 for being an archive and not an algorithm. thank you for letting me like things without consequences, thank you for being free with no ads, thank you for having lawyers to defend our freedom of speech. thank you tag wranglers. thank you to all authors and thank you ao3

Oh fucking hell.

Quick update: I did message them. We'll see how this plays out. I'm hoping to settle this civilly.

Still waiting on a response from Nickelodeon. -_-

Short answer: Where’s the fun in ruining perfectly good angst? Long answer: The inherent implications of Maddie’s attitude toward Phantom in the show makes for a perfect allegory to xenophobia (any-phobia for that matter) and the dangers of bias. Her dehumanization of him despite obvious signs to the contrary is an echo of many real-life examples where perpetrators of atrocities are ‘just doing their jobs’ and their victims ‘aren’t really people.’ Working with established characters afforded me the unique opportunity to have the reader deeply empathize with the victim and yet be able to see the tangled path of Maddie’s thought process and understand (if not sympathize with) why she went there. That’s the real draw for me, that Maddie is relatable. She’s not a psychopath. The scary reality is that you don’t have to be. Even a very logical, caring, emotionally stable person can be biased and perpetuate hate, intentionally or otherwise. That’s worth reflecting on.

PS, OP you have GOT to read Cori’s fic KEtTLE. Reasonable scientists with intact empathetic responses abound!