#i thought about whether or not maintag this but i want to try and address any more anons and objections before they come in my inbox

[thevalleyisjolly]

in fairness i don’t think people are doing More Meta on ricky because he’s... being more western? i think ricky in season one is very funny and charming but overall a little flat, something that is joked about literally every episode (what darkness lies within the heart of ricky matsui oh wait there’s nothing, i have a secret i wasn’t always a firefighter, i have a crush on esther we all know, etc)

Right, no, I hear you anon, and I agree with part of what you’re saying in that the show itself did not, in Season 1, spend much time showing Ricky as a complex character, but the point of my post was to point out how fandom interacts with Asian characters such as Ricky.  Because let’s be honest, fandom in general is very good at creating lots of content for the most minor of characters.

I’m actually glad you sent this in, because this gives me a chance to address a point that didn’t fit in with the rest of the post, which is that citing canon or lack of canon material as a reason for not engaging with a character is not a strong argument.  I’ll be generous and not use H*rry P*tter or Star Wars fandom as an example, because those guys can truly create dozens of AO3 pages and blogs and pieces of art around characters that never speak a single word in mainstream canon.  The point I’m making now is that fans have never let lack of material stop them from discussing and creating content for characters.  Hell, even in Dimension 20, which is a relatively small fandom, there is so much content for minor NPCs with less than a total hour of screen time, or secondary PCs that we never got to see at all!

(Not ragging on fans who create content for those kinds of characters, by the way, you all are amazing and dedicated to your love for those characters and I really have to applaud)

So no, saying that Ricky is treated as a “flat” character by the show is not a valid excuse for fans, particularly when he is a main character of the show.

The overall point that I think you’re missing, anon, is that as consumers of popular media, we approach that media with certain unconscious biases, many of which we learn from the society and the systems we grew up in.  Very often, these biases are invisible to us, particularly if they’re not malignant and harmful, and particularly if they don’t affect us personally.  In my post, I point out how lack of fan engagement with Ricky was centred around character traits that tend to be common in East Asian immigrant cultures.  I also pointed out that this was an unconscious bias.  I am not saying that fans deliberately looked at Ricky and went “Gee, this is a boring Asian guy, I’m not going to bother with him,” I’m making the point that particularly for people who grew up in and live in Western societies, we are predisposed to prefer more articulate and assertive characters that display more Westernized traits.

You get what I’m saying, anon?

Now, you have the right to your opinion that Ricky is “flat.”  Notice how I said in the post that no one is obligated to like Ricky or agree with me.  Don’t try and couch it in “I thought he was very funny and charming,” stick to your guns.  Also.  If I’m writing a post like that, does it seem like I’m someone who thinks Ricky is a flat character?  I’m fairly sure I linked to at least one post in there that explained one of the reasons why I think Ricky is a nuanced character.  You don’t have to agree with me.  But don’t come into my inbox with “overall a little flat” and “literally every episode” because the impression that your words give me is that you have not seriously read and considered my post and that you are not approaching in good faith.  If you are, my apologies.  Tone can be difficult to convey on the Internet, which I know very well.  But please take some time to reread my actual post and consider what I’m actually saying before you come into my inbox defending yourself.