☾ minbari

the POINT of MONSTER (2004) is that ordinary PEOPLE can become MONSTERS and that johan's UPBRINGING did not INHERENTLY make him a MONSTER

I'm so close to having a coherent thought about this, but I find it very interesting how violent behaviour is viewed in characters, versus other sorts of antisocial behaviour (-phobias, -isms, etc). maybe it's the perceived separation from reality? because if you're lucky, nobody in your life will ever slit anyone's throat, so you get to view it as an abstract and fantastical action. it's pure play! whereas if a character says something like "you look fat in those jeans", BAM! instant hatred, because now you can link it to painful moments in your own life. even though the people you've heard those words from (moms, aunties, grandmas) are probably people that you still love.

the appeal of house is entirely because it came out in 2005, when financial medical anxiety was starting to enter the forefront of peoples' minds. imagine this doctor who, above all else, wants to cure you. he resents the economic aspects of the medical system and openly mocks them. he will not sell a drug he does not genuinely believe will help you. here is a doctor who will lie to his fellow doctors, his boss, his boss's boss, and a board that can disbar him just so you can receive the treatment you need. he is a funny, confrontational asshole about it, but he will respect you as a patient in need of care and it will supercede all other priorities in his care. he was a symbolic representation of what many americans wanted from their healthcare: no bullshit, just treatment. part of it is rooted him in seeing people as puzzles to solve and diagnostic medicine as the avenue to make a career out of that, but there are several instances in season 1 of him going the extra mile for a patient that can only be explained as wanting better for them. he is what americans idealize as an actor of the hippocratic oath.

i am thoroughly cameron house fire-pilled especially when i combine it with my headcanon of her growing up as an evangelical. of course she finds a sense of identity in endeavoring to be a good person, because Good People are rewarded and Bad People are punished. chase similarly grew up religious (though catholic) but the dysfunctional way he was raised taught him that bad people often do not go punished or are even rewarded (rowan never got punished for leaving chase to take care of his abusive alcoholic mother alone, his mother never got punished for being said abusive alcoholic, rich people are rewarded for antisocial behavior, therefore chase exhibits antisocial traits himself in S1, such as being a rat and apathy). cameron didn't grow up like this, so her sense of morality is much more retributive.

being a manny pardo fan in the hotline miami fandom from 2021 to 2023 and having to deal with unfunny thick skin jokes, moralfagging about how terrible manny is (like almost every hotline playable isn't as bad or worse than him), and ev*nny being the most popular manny ship