Camp Campbell's Resident Furry

“Every day is a new day, and you’ll never find happiness if you don’t move on.” ~Carrie Underwood

“Now, Zuckerburg, let’s see you block MY stoil! Pew Pew Pew Pewww!”

Yes, I’m going to be defending the little hellspawn of the South Park fandom that’s even worse than the actual hellspawn, or that’s what I’m always hearing (Damien just murders people!). 

It’s a repeated trend in the SP fandom that people either LOVE Cartman or absolutely DESPISE him; it’s another one of those no in between scenarios. And to be fair, people have the right to not like him; he’s incredibly racist, mocks those with mental and physical illness, absolutely psychotic in every meaning of the word, and an overall messed-up little boy. I don’t know all the evil little things he’s done because I have yet to watch every single episodes, but I’ve seen enough to know just how much of a twisted character he is. But here’s the thing. He’s a LITTLE BOY. One in a cartoon where literally everything is exaggerated, no less, where everything is meant to be blown out of proportion for the shock and comedic value. You wouldn’t find a kid in real life who would ground up someone’s parents into chili merely for revenge reasons, now would you? There have been crazy kids, but they’re incredibly rare whereas in South Park they litter the community. My point being, you can easily pin Cartman’s extremes on the comedy of the show. 

But he’s still bigoted, right? THAT is actually possible in a 10 year old, certainly. There seems to be no real source either; his mother is a good woman, if neglectful in a way. That truly means Cartman is just evil, right? 

 Nobody seems to realize that every kid ever is different, but they tend to have a general personality; quiet and observant, skittish and easily guilty, curious and adventurous, loud and rambunctious, and analytical and manipulative. Each and every one needs to be figured out at a young age and raised differently to become the best individual they can be. When you don’t accommodate for a child’s needs, they’re going to turn out to be messed up in some regard because they don’t have the proper guidance to use their personalities for good. 

Cartman is easily categorized as an analytical and manipulative child. I know this easily because my little sister was and still is one; I see a lot of her behaviors in him, despite the fact that she herself is not racist or bigoted. He was probably the type of kid who would look at every person as a baby with a critical eye, figuring out what he could do to get what he wanted from them. Kids who are manipulative are incredibly smart and observant, able to judge what kind of person someone is and what makes them tick at a glance so that they’re able to work them to their own whims. They have incredible people-skills, but in the case of Cartman in particular, they’re also in need of attention, as most kids are. These types of kids you need to learn how to outsmart to keep one step ahead of them, and you have to do it fast. They can make incredible leaders if they’re controlled enough to learn how to respect; something they usually don’t know right away. 

Cartman is unfortunately a prime example of what happens if they’re NOT controlled; when he failed to learn respect, he instead learned what makes people tick and how to get them to a point easy enough to control. He learned that people who are upset are emotionally vulnerable and are easy to manipulate and to get their attention from, hence why he always calls people offensive names. He’ll do it repeatedly to people he knows he’ll get attention from every time, like poor Kahl. Add on the fact that his family life is quite a bit messed up and his mom isn’t often giving him attention— far less than a child like him needs... Well, that’s a recipe for disaster. 

 So, in conclusion, I wouldn’t totally pin the blame on his behavior on him, nor is he totally not redeemable. He is a very good example of a child born into the absolute worst environment for a child like him, especially since he is not the type of kid to just get over it and deal with it. Its not the worst family scenario in the world, granted, much less in South Park; from what I’ve seen, the general consensus is that Kenny holds that title. The difference between the two is their personalities; Kenny is more of the quiet and observant child, who tend to be much more flexible, appreciative, far less attention-hungry, and much lower maintainance, which is why he got out of his situation a much better child than Cartman did. If you think about it in that way, Cartman is an incredibly tragic character, don’t you think? I think he needs to be thought about more in that regard, beyond thinking he’s an “evil” character and more has an “attention-starved” nature. 

I found @themonotonysyndrome‘s story Consort of Chaos today and I think I have found my favorite New Kid concept to date, like they nail him

And no, this isn’t geared towards one particular fandom, so tag what fandom you will. This is a problem in literally every fandom, so long as there’s more than two characters in it.

But my god, I don’t think there is and will ever be a part of any fandom that is more judgmental, more spiteful, more freakin violent than a fandom’s shipping community, which is ironic ‘cause it’s supposed to be the most love-filled and supportive side, don’t you think? Like holy hell, someone hears about their friend shipping a couple they don’t like and they’ll want to have nothing to do with them. Someone hears someone shipping a relationship they dub “abusive” and they find it every reason to rip their throat out. Someone hears an innocent shipper shipping a ship that could never be canon and oop! The poor kid is suddenly shunned from the community!

People seem to forget that these characters they are shipping are figments of fiction. 

They may have emotions and their own individual thoughts, and some may hold significant meaning to the creators or their audience, but it’s not like you’ll ever be able to go face to face with them in any other way than cosplay, nor will they ever be effected by what their fans do directly. The shippings you guys get so defensive over are merely concepts of love-based relationships, first written into words then performed by directed characters. They may seem real, but that’s to get you to feel the emotions the authors are trying to get you to feel. At the end of the day, they just aren’t real.

But the people you guys bully over this stuff? They are real. 

They actually feel the words you say to them; they respond to your protests and your vicious bullyings. They’re not just a little emoji you see writing words or drawing artwork online; there’s a real human being behind the screen feeling every word you say. And it’s horrible. People are threatening the death of real people over a concept of love that’s not even of this world and in every other context other than the world of fiction, doesn’t even exist.

Isn’t that sad?

I see the common argument that if someone supports a supposedly abusive or unlawful relationship then the person that ships it supports that sort of relationship in real life as well. “They’re a pedophile” or “They’re an abuser/victim.” While this may be true for some-- after all, why some people certain ships because they see themselves in a relationship that they think is their ideal through this ship-- that can’t be the case for everyone. 

Think about it in this way: a lot of people have a favorite character a villain-- Daniel from Camp Camp, Loki from Thor, Zuko from Avatar, and don’t get me started with shows starring villains like Invader Zim, Villainous, and a lot of supervillain flicks-- but if they met people with similar traits of the villains in real life? Odds are they’d run or kick em in their secret weapon into next week, right? They just find the villain and all their devious deeds put into writing so fascinating, and they love this guy or gal for it; that does not mean they want these people in real life and would support their endeavors in the real world.

Same goes for fictional relationships. Even though they like an abusive relationship in a story does not mean they would want one themselves nor would cheer on a very real abuser in a very real relationship. Nor would a rationally-thinking adult actively seek out a child to kiss even though they like two characters together despite age differences; from what I’ve seen, most shippers like this are very aware of the moral wrongs and actively emphasis how wrong the situations they put their characters in are. At the end of the day, it’s still in good fun directed towards a particular niche in the community; it may not strike your fancy, but you should not attack something you shouldn’t understand. Unless these people do this sort of stuff in real life, you cannot blame for finding something so morally black fascinating, much like you do not and should not attack someone for loving a villain.

And don’t get me started with shipping actors. Just because two characters in a show are in a relationship does not mean the actors should be together as well.

Poor Millie Brown from Stranger Things having to deal with people judging her relationship choices because they ship her with someone else when she’s freakin 13. People who ship just feel so entitled to say who belongs with who and who deserves to die alone (poor Jacob.) No, that is not okay because, again, the characters they act as are fictional; a series of words that make up emotions and individual thoughts, they just take the form of a real person rather than a drawing. And this time, all the words you direct towards these characters go to the actors instead; entirely different people with entirely different thoughts and their own individualism. They’re the ones that feel your harsh words and respond to them, and you know what? They don’t deserve it, and you have no right to tell them who to date, much like I have no right to tell you you should date a porcupine because it would be better for you than Antonio. No, that’s just not how it works.