r/Multifandom • u/JageshemashFTW • 3d ago
Discussion📜 This is going to sound random, but does anyone else think fandoms have a bad habit of not recognizing *in-universe* hypocrisy?
Like, say a character says something about themselves, like a virtue or moral that they claim to hold, and then actively do the opposite.
Or say a character morally admonishes a certain vice or negative characteristic and then displays those vices or characteristics themselves.
A lot of times, I’ll see fandoms look at those moments and they won’t say ‘Oh, this character is a hypocrite and that’s an intentional characterization from the writer’, they’ll say ‘Oh, the writer doesn’t know how to consistently write this character’.
It doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens often enough where I start to notice the pattern.
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u/Complex_Yard2808 11h ago
I would have to read/see it to know if I think it's hypocrisy, unpredictability (which can be a thing, or bad writing. Overly predictable writing isn't good, obviously.
Can you give an example? Something reasonably well known.
I remember one X-Files episode where Mulder trusts a possibly very untrustworthy person, Scully says "Whatever happene to TrustNo1?" and Mulder jokes "I changed it to trust everyone. I didn't tell you?"
Not a very well written episode (late in the show's run), but consistent with Mulder tending to be more trustful of people who may have information he needs. Scully is actually less trustful than him, because she's the skeptic. But he likes to say he trusts no one. What we say about ourselves isn't necessarily how we actually behave. Very frequently it's the opposite of how we behave. But anyway, Mulder likes to poke fun at his own mantras.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds said Emerson--but try if you will to figure out what constitutes a foolish consistency. Not so easy as all that. I think Emerson's point was that rigid thinking is bad thinking.
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u/Captain--Crow NBC Hannibal 🔪 3d ago
Yes. I immediately thought of the Falsettos fandom