Skimming through the RWDE tag after the Volume 9 final aired reminds me of how the FNDM will defend the show by saying ‘people make mistakes’ and ‘the writers are only human’ because now the show seems to be sending that message. It also reminded me that I wrote over 1000 words explaining why I think that’s terrible.
‘People make mistakes’ is the absolute worst argument in defense of something that I have every heard. I find it even more insulting than the infamous ‘don’t like, don’t watch,’ because it implies that putting effort into your craft is optional. What this argument says is that I am in the wrong for expecting anything more than garbage. You are legitimately saying, ‘It could have been better, but you’re wrong for saying so.’ Yes, I realize that nobody is perfect and that they are going to screw up every now and again. That’s why I’m criticizing it. I mean, when was the last time you heard people get criticized for doing something right.
This argument of ‘people make mistakes so you can’t complain’ also ignores the moment after, where they look back on what they did wrong and learn from it. That’s why we make mistakes, so that we can grow as people. Why should we try to improve ourselves if we’re already ‘good enough.’ ‘People make mistakes,’ is a fact of life, but that does not mean we should throw up our hands and give up all attempts to get better and it certainly doesn’t mean we should accepting bad stories.
But enough about my philosophy on mistakes, let’s talk about this one, specifically how situational it is:
Twilight is recognized across the globe as one of the worst books ever written. Even ignoring the way it bastardizes the concept of Vampires, it’s a story that reads less like a romance and more like a drug addiction. The lead characters have all the chemistry of a brick and a dead rat. The relationship it tries to push as beautiful and grand is downright abusive at points. And this isn’t even getting into all the misogyny and racism and pedophilia in those books. But people make mistakes, so I guess we shouldn’t hold it against Myers.
Sword Art Online is one of the most infamous anime there is. Despite its large following, whenever someone looks over it with a critical lens, they come to the conclusion that it’s utter crap. The plot and worldbuilding are inconsistent. The characters (Kirito especially) exist more to fill out roles in a fantasy than as actual people. It’s all about making Kirito look good and ensuring he comes out better than when he came in, no matter what. It goes out of its way to include some kind of sexual assault of the lead female character in a given arc with no respect for the subject matter, to the point where it’s hard to tell if Reki Kawahara thinks rape is the worst crime a man could commit or if he has a fetish for it. But people make mistakes, so the critics are more in the wrong for making videos on it.
In spite of (Or rather, because of) its troubled production, Sonic 06 is one of the worst video games in existence. It’s so glitchy, it borders on unplayable. The story is bland at best, flat out terrible at worst. The new characters it introduced were all unlikable for one reason or another. Level design was horrendous and boring. People have made numerous videos and blogposts explaining why it is one of Sonic’s worst games, if not one of the worst games period. But people make mistakes, so we should stop complaining.
Post season 4, Spongebob Squarepants took a downward dive. Characters became little more than one unlikable trait. It crossed the line from mischief to malice, so good characters suffered while the bad ones triumphed. It was extremely evident that they had already run out of ideas, because they kept rehashing the same episode plot over and over again and needed to pad out some episodes. But people make mistakes, so they should never have tried to fix this.
Lucy is the most boring movie I ever sat through. It’s just ‘This girl gains reality altering powers, be amazed at how easy everything is for her.’ There is never any point where she is in any sort of real danger or anything actually threatens her. She loses all empathy for her fellow man and has no problem throwing them away like broken toys (In an Asian country when our main character is white, mind you), yet it expects you to see her as the good guy throughout. Instead of being terrified by her rampage, it expects you to be amazed. And maybe that would have worked if it used said reality altering powers in more creative ways. But people make mistakes, so I guess it’s a good movie.
I could go on for ages and never run out of examples for any given form of media. And this is all ignoring examples that are actively malicious, like stories that are intentionally sexist, racist, or homophobic.
And then there’s that other group of people this argument conveniently doesn’t apply to: The critics. If people make mistakes and you think we should just ignore that, then you can’t challenge the critics on any ground, because they made a mistake by talking about the writer’s mistakes. If we are not allowed to judge your writer, then why are you allowed to judge ours?
Not to mention how this logic is almost self-refuting. When you say this, what you are saying is that the only thing wrong with the criticism is that it is criticism.
Furthermore, this argument also somewhat undermines the effort other artists and writers will put into their craft in order to make something as best as they possibly could. If we should all just accept when someone fails to make something good, then why should we recognize how Fictional Games ensured that Amnesia The Dark Descent had an atmosphere which on its own could leave you terrified rather than relying on cheap jumpscares? Why should we praise Tatsuya Endo’s writing for blending heartfelt, humorous, and action-packed when he wrote SpyXFamily? Why should we celebrate Avatar the Last Airbender not just for its amazing story of multiple cultures coming together and strengthening one another, but also for its fully realized and fantastical world?
By saying that we should accept mistakes and that it’s wrong to criticize bad writing, you wind up saying that all of their effort was pointless. Why bother trying to make something as best you can when people will accept anything? If we’re not going to pay attention to what a story or writer did wrong, why should we pay attention to what a story or writer did right?
‘People make mistakes,’ means just that, that people make mistakes. So how about we treat those mistakes as mistakes and hold people accountable for them, rather than act like everyone and everything is perfect and infallible?
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ok y’all btw I wanted to let you guys know if I ever tell you anything like ‘praying for you!’, since most of you aren’t religious/Christian and have the skewed stereotype of the hateful Christian born out of the abuse that they commit in the more traditional churches (I am so sorry for that by the way, I don’t consider those people to be real Christians at all and I dislike them just as much as all of you they are disgusting), I wanted to clarify a few things so it doesn’t feel as weird or rude as it may come across!
first things first: when I say that I’m praying for you, I am NOT trying to fix you. Yes, I genuinely believe in my religion like any other religious person of any religion would.
two: I am NEVER doing it out of pity. It’s either my way of showing very real, genuine care (I don’t pray as often as I should and it’s something I already struggle to remember to do.), or the same kind of care but extremely panicked and about to have a emotional breakdown. Just know all it means is I care about you so much I’ll take hours out of my week sitting and worrying over you in a very loving manner. I mean I already do this for a lot of people but for you it’s even more special.
and the reason I do it is just because I believe it?? Like. Yeh. :D I think it helps, and whether all the times that it’s seemed to work was just coincidence or not, I’ve thought about it and I’d rather be wrong about a god and lived life with more of a conscious to do the right thing (never a bad thing!) then be wrong and hells actuallt real and stuff I actually could not tell you I just am taking a leap of faith.
so YES I’m not traditionally christan value wise and there are so many hateful christans who use prayer as a way to “fix” people even though that’s really stupid??? And rude??? For me it’s just me caring for you really hard and whether god’s real or not I mean like manifest?? If there’s no god, at least maybe it’s like. Manifesting love and care and support on ye <3
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