#fandom woes

Everything about GO 3 has been plagued by setbacks and controversy, and for once there is something good to talk about in relation to this show, yet some people are always going to find a way to twist it into a negative. Obviously, no casting choice will make every single person happy, but trashing him when the season hasn't even been released yet is nothing more than a self-righteous exercise in pre-gaming rage.

It's particularly appalling to see so many of the attacks centering around race and religion, especially because there is no one way to "look" Palestinian or Jewish, and the entire point of Good Omens is that separating things into a black-and-white/"good" vs. "evil" dichotomy ignores and overlooks that so much of life exists in shades of grey.

The other message of the book/show is that to these two supernatural entities, humanity is more compelling and powerful than either Heaven or Hell, and they decide to work together to save the world and all of the people in it. That's about as close to following the teachings of God as it gets, so turning around and trashing Twinksus Christ because you have a problem with a casting choice is missing so many points it's not even funny. Also...

That... is one of the confounding things about this.

Because of course there are many good reasons to want this. Representation is always a good thing.

But what the people crying foul right now want is token representation, because they think that representation then... would cater to what they want.

Make the changes that they want.

And this thinking is literally only skin-color deep.

Because look at the arguments they bring. They cry foul on language and what the characters did.

And dismiss what Delainey, Sheila or Jacob have said on this. Dismiss what many black fans have said on this.

And no, of course there is no consensus here, and no, of course one cannot speak for everyone, and of course there are people out there who were deeply offended by the language used.

But why weren't they in season 1? When Claudia used much the same language? Just... hidden, supposedly against Lestat?

Why is it a problem now?

And this skin-color-deep thinking is why sooooo many argued for so long that Anusree Roy was brought onto the show to write Armand's backstory - because to them the thought this writer could write for a white character... did not compute. They think that because Anusree is of a certain demographic background that her expertise, too, must be solely on - and limited!!! to - that.

And I find that... extremely offending, actually.

And damaging in a very real-world-sense, beyond anything these people can probably understand.

Because then you will get - and extremely fast, unfortunately, just fucking look at history - back to segregating what people can do or can NOT do - what people can know or not know, what people can feel or not feel or empathize with ... based on their skin color.

Because that is, ultimately, what they argue for.

"You must have black writers to write for black characters". And in the same breath (I have seen it!): "Jacob cannot speak on this, he's mixed".

I don't think I have to comment on that, do I. 😑