OOTS #1247 - The Discussion Thread

[Mariele]

Boy howdy, I think you guys are really blowing this whole "negative reader opinion of Serini" out of proportion here. People think different things about characters. Opinions are inherently subjective. We have an entire range of absolute hatred to absolute love we can feel for a fictional character and that's, of course, going to be related to how we feel about other aspects of the story. Maybe we've gotten attached to the regular crew of characters and have learned to laugh at or overlook their faults, but are less forgiving of those same faults in new characters. That's fine. Totally normal. It took a really long time before I could even slightly enjoy Belkar's screen time, and that's partly because I've gotten used to him and he's grown on me -- if a new, Belkar-like character popped up, I'd find them incredibly unfunny and annoying. It sounds like some of you are trying to turn "I don't particular enjoy it when this character has screen time" to "complex societal issues are driving my intense hatred for this character and everything they stand for" or even "disliking this character is irrational and that must be fixed".


Actually, anyone remember watching Recess as a kid? Remember the episode where the main character (TJ?) hears that the new kid doesn't like him, so he spends the entire episode trying to charm him and win him over? He does all sorts of cool stuff to try to impress him, only for the new kid to basically go "sorry dude, I just don't mesh with you, no hard feelings"? I feel like this "negative reader opinion of Serini" is at about that level. It just ain't that deep, man.


I like Serini. I think she's adding a lot of excitement to the plot and I just think she's fun. I didn't really like that elf chick with the tiger (can't remember her name). I just didn't really mesh with her. And this is all just from a character perspective, as in, who I find enjoyable to read about. If I had to go into who I would actually enjoy the company of in RL, I think we might be limited to Durkon, his mom, and Celia!


Hearing people take personal opinions about a character's likability so seriously is so darn hilarious to me right now, though. I've been rereading some manga I loved as a kid and looking at old message boards about it, and my favorite character (from any of the author's works!) is hands-down the most universally despised character in the entire series. Like, it's not even a competition. They just outright wrote him out of the anime. I guess I just mesh with him and other people don't. Some people think Friends is funny. Some people like the taste of bacon. I can't say I understand those people, but hey, tastes aren't rational, so I'm content to just shrug and laugh when people have different preferences.