#fandom analysis

I was thinking about how much BBC Merlin fic has been published since I joined the fandom, and felt inspired to take a leaf out of data queen @frogmerthur's book and make some graphs about it.

Let's look at a few examples:

Knifes Out (2019): An innovative mystery comedy about a latina woman having to navigate a rich family's many problems, that talked about issues of immigration, power, how façades of liberalism and conservatism fall when a rich person's money is at risk, etc... And after the movie was released, tumblr was full of x reader fanfics for the asshole villain of the story, just because he was played by Chris Evans.

Weapons (2025): a mix of horror and absurdism, about a town having to deal with a class of children that seemingly got up in the middle of the night and walked out of their homes, dissapearing into the night. It's bloody, it's thrilling, it's a metaphor for child abuse, school shootings, alcholism, disease... and the tumblr tag is just one x reader fanfic about the minor drug addict character after another, just because he is the most attractive white guy of the movie. Bonus points! Besides x reader fanfics, there are a bunch of analysis about how the teacher character, that got blamed and turned into a scapegoat after her students dissapeared, is actually a bad person and deserved what happened to her, because she has a history of alcoholism and innapropriate behaviour (she hugged a child and slept with a consenting coworker); but the drug addict is a funny cinnamon roll and his substance abuse is actually cool and fine because..... ?

Scream (1996): this is actually an interesting case, because a lot of older movies and series and whatnot, have tags filled with a lot of diverse content, since their fans tend to be older and not following the most recent trends of x reader fics. But because Scream is a franchise that is still being continued to this day, new movies get released and people go back and become fans of the older ones as well. So a lot of the Scream tag is Billy Loomis x reader, or Stu Macher x reader, or Billy Loomis x Stu Macher x reader, or...

Jujutsu Kaisen (2020): This is a good example of the extension that "white guy" can take on. Obviously, most characters in this series are japanese, and as such, not white guys, but depending on the fandom culture that springs around the piece of media, basically any light-skinned guy can become a white guy if you strip away all of his nuances. So Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto become white, Miguel O'Hara from Across the Spiderverse becomes white, most recently Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein (2025), becomes white, in the way they are written (i.e. their singular cultural and racial identities and the way those interact with the world around them are erased, and they are made to fit into the archetype that the writer wants them to fit into.) Bonus points! Like I said before, a lot of writers make content for wildly different types of media, across mediums and genres using the same tropes and established tecniques for all of them, regardless of the context the characters are in. So it seems like this specfic sub-phenomenon tends to happen because "white guy enjoyer" fans, started engaging with a new piece of media without any white guys, and just implemented what they already knew to new non "white guy" characters, and thus, turning them into "white guys". Also to note is that these characters also fall into traditional western male attractiveness models (thin, light-skinned, physically fit, etc).

Sinners (2025): This feels especially outrageous, and while the tag isn't entirely clogged with Remmick x reader fics, they still fill a significant portion. In a movie all about Black experiences, Black fears, Black history, filled with excellent (and attractive) Black actors, you deciding instead to focus on the singular white villain of the piece feels shallow at best, and activelly racist at worst.

Now let's look at a few fandoms where this didn't happen, mainly because there weren't any white or white-adjacent guys to do this to:

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022): First of all, there are only two white named characters, Becky and Deirdre; and they are both mostly instruments to the themes of especifically Asian-American dispora, culture, generational trauma and healing that is absolutely central to the story. The most central male characters don't fit traditional parameters of western male attractiveness as well, making it so that there are no ideal candidates for a "white guy enjoyer" to attach themselves to.

Glass Onion (2022): After the dissapointment that was the knives out tag in 2019, the glass Onion tag in 2022 healed a little bit of my soul. I can't really explain why Miles Bron or Duke Cody aren't seen as boyfriend material for x reader writers, but I am just glad that their negative rizz has kept the tag much more diverse.

Wicked (Musical, 2024 & 2025): Another instance where there is a white guy (two in fact!) to write fanfics for, but apparently the Gelphie agenda is so strong that they trump out everything else going on (for good and for bad).

Get Out (2017): A movie that feels similat to Sinners in the sense that it's a Black story, led by Black creatives, featuring Black actors about a horror that is so specific to Black people in the USA that you feel like you can't focus on anything else. Maybe it's because this movie came around a little before the phenomenon really kicked off on tumblr, maybe it's because the horrors done by the white characters are far too psychologically damning to be twisted into something palatable, maybe it's because all the young attractive men in the story are Black, and all the white dudes are old. I'm really not sure.

What motivated me to make this post, after years observing this thing happening and just sort of moving on with a disgruntled sigh, is after i watched the movie "I Came By" with my dad the other day, I was excited to go on tumblr and see what people had said about it. It's the story of a grafitti activist that goes into rich people's homes and tags their walls, and he accidentally discovers that a rich judge is actually a serial killer that targets refugees seeking asylum in the UK.

Spoiler alert! for the sake of my argument: the graffiti activist that initially discovers this is a white guy who gets killed a third into the movie. Now imagine my dissapointment when I go into the tag for the movie on tumblr and I find exactly three posts even pertaining to it, ALL of them are about this white guy and one is a x reader fanfic. Honestly, I'm kind of relieved that I didn't see any posts about the racist judge, but I wouldn't put it past this website.

Let's discuss why this bothers me so much: not only does it make finding other stuff so difficult on tumblr, because even with filters, a lot of times things aren't tagged correctly, or stuff slips past; it's also incredly frustrating because a lot of these fanfics sell the fantasy of x reader with these white guys at the expense of all other characters in the story, especially poc, especially women, especailly woc. I'm talking about Marta Cabrera not existing in Hugh Ramson x reader fanfics, because the reality of what he did to her (what his whole family did to her) is too unconfortable for the people wanting "What would Hugh Ramson give you on valentine's day?" fanfics. I'm talking about the way people villify or minimize Sidney Prescott's emotional turmoil, blaming her and her mother for hurting a boy's feelings, nevermind that that boy then decided to become a serial killer. I'm talking about the fact that the shounen genre is already littered with misogyny, and the few well-written female characters in stories like Jujutsu Kaisen and Kimetsu no Yaiba get completely thrown to the side in favour of highlighting the attractive boys. I'm talking about the fact that I have never watched a single episode of Peacemaker, but looking at the tag on tumblr, you would have guessed that Adrian Chase was the main character and Leota Adebayo was a funny side character (even in her own tag, she gets sidelined!). I'm talking about the fact that both Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne have their identities either erased, ignored or changed to fit into a specific mold that x reader writers have in mind.

If you want to write a story about falling in love with a character, fine! Don't let me stop you! But why is Remmick the one you were attracted to, and not Elijah or Elias? What is it about him that makes him the better option, can you tell me? Why are Walking Dead x reader always about Rick or Neagan and never about Glenn, or Tyresse, or Morgan? Why have I seen a million x reader stories about the same dozen light-skinned guys from Honkai Star Rail, and not a single one of Arlan, the ONLY dark-skinned character in the whole game? Why do I see so few of the women? Can you look me in the eyes and tell me that these tendencies across basically the entire tumblr fandom landscape is just "coincidence" (as someone to whom I talked about this back in 2020 told me) and since it isn't harming anyone, I should just move on with my life? Why is it that your fantasy doesn't have space for people with my shade of skin? Why is it that when I go on tumblr I have to be constantly reminded of the injustices that await me on the outside world, and you get to just have a good time? Why do people talk about wanting their male characters to be covered in blood, looking like wet pathetic cats, but when Michael B Jordan and Miles Caton get put through the ringer, you completely ignore them?

My argument is not “Arab villains are bad” or “Ra’s al Ghul can’t be evil.”

My issue is with how the comic constructs him and what representational frameworks it draws from.

Orientalism is not just individual prejudice. It is a system of representation that frames the “East” as irrational, excessive, mystical, authoritarian, violent, primitive, and fundamentally different.

These patterns shape interpretation before a character even acts.

As Edward Said argues, representation does not simply reflect reality — it constructs meaning. Comics are especially important here because they rely heavily on visual shorthand and immediate recognition.

Characters are rapidly simplified into recognizable types: hero, monster, threat, savior, fanatic, victim.

And Absolute Superman very consciously constructs Ra’s as spectacle.

Look at how he is framed: hypermuscular, towering, looming over Superman. Heavily shadowed. almost inhumanly massive

The nudity matters too.

Ra’s is repeatedly drawn with large exposed areas of skin while Superman remains clothed and visually controlled. The body becomes spectacle.

The proportions push beyond ordinary humanity into something monstrous and mythic: heavy muscles, exaggerated size, animalistic posture, overwhelming physical presence and dominance.

That matters because Orientalist depictions of Arab/Muslim men have historically framed them as barbaric, hyperviolent, sexually excessive, patriarchal and physically threatening. The body itself becomes coded as danger.

This isn’t accidental visual design. It’s part of a long representational history.

Ra’s also isn’t framed as a psychologically grounded person so much as an archetype. He becomes less a psychologically grounded person and more a ritualistic, prophetic archetype; eternal, imposing, almost inhuman. Meanwhile Superman is framed as emotionally readable, illuminated, morally centered, rational and humanized. The contrast is intentional.

Ra's characterization becomes symbolic instead of personal.

That’s why the resurrection imagery matters too Lazarus pits, ritual language, dynastic authority and rebirth imagery. He becomes less a political actor and more an immortal Eastern patriarch archetype.

Another issue is how systemic problems become displaced onto Ra’s specifically. The comic gestures toward environmental collapse, inequality, global instability and authoritarian systems but these issues become condensed into ONE racialized body.

So instead of engaging structurally with those problems, the narrative transforms them into individualized evil. Ra’s becomes a symbolic container for extremism, apocalypse, overpopulation discourse, authoritarianism and irrational violence.

This is especially important because many of the ideas attached to him (population control, eco-authoritarianism, necropolitics) have real historical roots in Western political systems too. But the comic relocates them entirely into an “Eastern” villain figure.

That displacement matters. It obscures structural accountability by making one racialized body carry the weight of multiple global anxieties.

And these portrayals do not exist in isolation.

The American media has a long history of constructing Arabs and Muslims through spectacle, threat, mysticism, and dehumanization, especially post-9/11.

And to me, that is the role her heart condition & hospitalisation play. Most of you of you have never been queer, chronically ill teen girls with self-worth issues & depression, and it shows. Which is fine, I am aware that is not a universal experience.

However, a lot of the analysis i see that frames the wish as being selfish (specifically the part about Homura wanting to be strong enough to protect Madoka) or obsessive from the start don't seem to understand Homura's relationship with Madoka - or even herself - at this point in time. There's the obvious of Homura still feeling physically weak & having hang-ups from spending a substantial period in the hospital by 14, and Madoka literally saves her life, then dies protecting her later, but if it was just these things Homura would've equally imprinted this onto Mami too.

No, the main thing is how chronic illness & isolation have formed Homura's social anxiety, self esteem issues & lack of social skills. Madoka is one of the first people to treat Homura with true kindness after starting school & genuinely tries to engage with Homura. Homura, after her first day, is already ripping into herself (an experiance lot's of teens with anxiety know well) before the witch appears, then is saved by Madoka who she finds out is as well as being confident & actively participating in school socially, in her free time saving people's lives. It's no wonder Homura starts to see Madoka as having all the traits & inherent emotional & physical strength Homura thinks she lacks. Especially as a girl in her early teens with strong self-worth issues, this idolisation of someone she saw as someone who brightened the world & protected others (emotionally & physically) wouldn't be unusual at all.

Homura wouldn't see it as prioritising her role as protector for credit or to further her ends with Madoka, more that in protecting Homura, Madoka was protecting someone unworthy & too weak to be worth the effort. So she wanted to be strong enough A) to not be a burden to Madoka, B) to be useful & worthy in the way Madoka was & C) By not being weak she wouldn't be from her view the cause of Madoka's death by causing Madoka to prioritise protecting Homura over herself. Homura would see this as just returning the favor of the role Madoka played saving her, she would probably see it as more selfish to wish for Madoka to be strong enough to save herself because Madoka was already the strongest person she knows, Homura saw her own weakness as the reason for Madoka dying, so fixing that would be the easiest way to help Madoka, in her eyes at least.

Gabe is described as "repulsively human" by Grover, and he claims it's because Gabe is so disgusting and horrible (there wasn't much detail about this so I'm assuming this is what they meant) that his putrid scent was enough to cover Percy for two weeks.

The directly implies that "the more horrible of a person you are, the further you stray from immortality".

Which just goes to show how the gods view mortals. Gods and powerful demigods can manipulate the Mist, we've seen that, and they directly affect the existence of the Mist itself. So the fact that the gods seem to think of themselves as these saintly creatures that can do no wrong whereas mortals are these horrible, stinky animals that aren't worthy of recognition, is kind of jarring especially because there are several other gods who are described as Gabe is. There is a literal direct comparison between Ares and Gabe. But that's a different point entirely.

And now I say that this shows how Luke's rebellion was doomed from the start only because the gods show that their attitudes are never going to change. The environment, the very existence of this mortal- scent thing never goes away, which is a direct reflection of how the gods view mortals.

In the first book, Chiron describes the Mist as a kind of fog that happens when the divine interacts with the non-supernatural, AKA, monsters and gods start messing with the mortal world. But later on through the books, there is a sort of derisive undercurrent when the characters talk about the Mist in relation to mortals - they always say something along the lines of "the Mist confuses mortals because their tiny brains can't process the information so they like to rationalize everything they see, ew what a bunch of non-believers."

It just really shows the hierarchy of this world. Gods think of themselves as these overlording, saintly creatures - which ironically makes them more human than anything, by giving them qualities like ego or pride which are commonly associated with the humans they so despise - and humans as the physical manifestations of all the sins that have ever existed. They were never going to change, because change requires respect and understanding. Which is never going to happen.

Are we going to talk about how people like Ponyboy , Dallas , Darrel , Soda, Steve , Johnny, and Keith (yes, I used their real names) exist in real life and you literally pass them on the street everyday and would judge them without a second thought?

Are we going talk about the fact that most of you would be terrified to drive in their neighborhood?

I've lived in houses that look just like the Curtis house, and hell, even my parents would've told me to stay away from kids like that.

Are we going to talk about the fact that a lot of people do not understand or choose to ignore that even if the Curtis parents had lived , they would still be in poverty?

Darrel was never going to college; he got an athletic scholarship and it still wasn't enough. The only reason he thinks Pony could go is that good academic scholarships are usually a full ride or pretty close to it.

Are we going to talk about the fact that a lot of people view Darrel as the "good one" because both Pony and Keith align him with Socs , forgetting that he still does illegal things like drinking and going to rumbles with everyone else.

Are we going to talk about the fact that a lot of you can only empathize with the characters through your attraction to the actors (musical fans included)?

Are we going to address the fact that a lot of people think of soc kids as upper middle class and not the wealthy nepo babies they truly are? Again, Darrel couldn't go to school with the athletic scholarship, and he's shown to be a better athlete than Paul...but Paul's in college, and he isn't.

The Socs and the greasers are not on equal economic playing fields. They are not even in the same stadium. It's not as simple as differing aesthetics. Sherry Valance is a 16-year-old with her own Corvette, and the Curtis house is sometimes the only way the boys get food.

I'm not saying the pressures of capitalism don't harm the Soc kids too, but most of it is psychological. The gang is literally fighting and working to LIVE. The socs are attacking the greasers based on prejudice and entitlement.

This fandom, funnily enough, in the same way Ponyboy does in the beginning of the book, aligns being a soc with "being good".

It's why, regardless of the gender of the reader, so many fics have a soc self insert reader. It's not the whole "rebel x rule follower" thing y'all try to make it. The soc kids are also doing illegal shit and being just as violent and reckless, it's just dismissed because they're rich.

(Also, side note: greaser is a slur, even when Sherry says it Pony kind of cringes, it's not something that could be said/ interpreted with fondness coming from a soc partner)

Even with creating original characters, more often than not, there's a weird emphasis on their class, and it's rare that it's the same as the gang.

Even if the reader is supposed to be related to one of them!

And if the reader is explicitly feminine?

I think I've read 3 fics out of HUNDREDS where she isn't a soc or described with this dainty, wealth-adjacent, very overtly white kind of femininity, that is viewed as more "innocent" or "good" or "in need of protecting," and it's fucking weird.

And obviously, this isn't a problem with everyone in the fandom. And I'm not perfect either, like I said, I was also taught to try and avoid people who were viewed as a lower class than me or "bad" people. But I've also tried to unpack a lot of that. (But like I said, I'm not perfect, no amount of unpacking can change the indisputable fact that if I ever met a Keith Two-Bit Mathews, he would get on my very last nerve).

The Hyuga clan isn’t just antagonistic or pretentious, they practice slavery.

The Uchiha clan weren’t just killed by some raging psychopath, they were systematically massacred.

Itachi isn’t just cruel to Sasuke because he’s a bad brother, he’s cruel because he’d been told time and time again that you can only survive by being cruel and he wants nothing more than for Sasuke to survive.

Nagato isn’t trying to take over the world just for the sake of power, he’s trying to take over the world because it beat him down to the point of believing that the only chance at peace there is is the world being forced into compliance through fear.

Iruka isn’t hard on Naruto just because he’s a strict teacher, he’s hard on Naruto because he knows from experience how unforgiving the world is towards orphans.

Kakashi isn’t just some silly and slightly lazy teacher, he’s a contract killer still grieving his loved ones and struggling to do better without knowing how he’s supposed to.

Sakura isn’t just a fangirl, she’s a normal girl in a very dangerous and abnormal world constantly being made to choose between what she’s supposed to do and what she feels.

Sasuke isn’t just some edgelord, he’s a survivor who lost everything then gets repeatedly told that he has to choose between keeping what he’s gained and doing better than his brother.

Naruto isn’t just trying to be the best Hokage there ever was, he’s trying to prove his worth to a society that abandoned him just for existing and, in a way, confirm his worth to himself.

The Naruto story is about humans trying to force themselves into the role of weapons because that’s what they were told they had to be. It’s a story where everyone is a perpetrator but no one is trying to do wrong. It’s a story where everyone is a victim but no one is a perfect victim.