#i wrote this at 4am so forgive me for inaccuracies etc.

[sourapplesauces]

Seen a bit of twitter action on Vanessa's character lately, which was caused by this post talking about the double standards the fandom has about Vanny/Vanessa and Michael Afton.

The main excuse for the "hate" that I've seen is that SB sorta sucked as a game, Vanessa barely appears in a game that's supposed to be about her (according to the advertisement at least) and that Vanessa isn't a well-fleshed-out character. Now while all of that may be true, it also applies to Michael (except for the game part ofc) (based on the games, not the novels.) He barely appears in his own game: sure he has a physical presence as, you know, the main character of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th games... but he doesn't have a personality. I don't think it was even confirmed he was trying to redeem himself for killing his brother, I think that was just a headcanon that got insanely popular... playing the game for the first time you have nooo idea who the hell mike/fritz/eggs benedict is until you actually dip your toe in the lore, the games didn't do shit for him either...

Now as for Vanessa... I can be honest, I hated her presence in security breach. But the development of the game has nothing to do with her character... It wasn't so hard to develop a character out of Mike, why is it so hard for Vanessa? ... And I'd like to add that Vanessa isn't even CONFIRMED as Vanny!!! In-game it's implied that she is, but never forget that it also implies that she isn't. Which makes her being hated even worse because there is a huge chance she actually wasn't possessed and murdering children left and right. I feel like people really forget that detail when talking about her character. Also, I heard some people say that "all the details of her character are in the CDs and some people just don't care as much" -... if that's the case why are you even arguing against her?

I don't wanna throw accusations at people yknow to the possibility of being misogynistic, but Vanessa and Mike are practically the same yet... treated so differently???

(Let me add that: we can acknowledge the fact that Mike has had time to marinate as a character and Vanessa is fairly new to the fandom... while also acknowledging that Vanessa has received A LOT OF HATE- and for no particular reason?!?!)