#this is why i refuse to look for a fc5 discord server bc i do NOT trust anyone i dont already know

[ladyoriza]

@aynrandslashfiction made a post earlier asking if there were any other black fans of Far Cry 5 and said this in the tags:

#i been seein a lot of uhh… well. you know.#lot of blondes in sundresses and suchnot--#it's a lil…. hm#iykyk

Which has been in my brain all day and I finally got the spoon necessary to talk about it.

Because this is the exact problem I have as someone who likes two other characters with...let's just say it out loud- a lot of appeal to bigots. (Joshua Graham and Ulfric Stormcloak, for anyone wondering- for different reasons. They could be much better in competent hands and I like exploring what they could be).

This isn't even "you're liking this character wrong", it's "you stripped this character of everything they are, reducing them to a ken doll you can act out your Good Christian Housewife fantasy for". Joseph Seed is manipulative, controlling, abusive, and he's not above doing absolutely heinous things for what he believes is right. Rachel Jessop was 17 when Joseph began brainwashing her into becoming Faith. He did that to a child.

Obviously not everyone into the Seeds has a tradwife/tradhusband(?) fantasy. But there's an alarming number of fics out there that fly so close to it that I have to wonder, you know? When Joseph is reduced to a sad middle-aged man that just wants to help but the big mean Resistance just won't stop killing his poor innocent Peggies? (do not mind the corpses upon the billboards and signs, do not notice what he did to the three Faiths, do not even acknowledge Jacob, do not pass go).

When the Resistance just sees poor, sweet, Rook as a tool but Joseph Sees her and wants to take her away to love and safety?

When they're all weirdly antagonistic but Grace and Tracey are outright aggressive and violent towards Rook? Yeah, that's so thinly-veiled it might as well just take the final step into barefoot and pregnant. Actually, there is no veil. Just a head in the sand.

But no, of course, he's just concerned about poor Rook, right? He doesn't want them brainwashed or turned into an Angel or anything, right? (Again, under no circumstances are you to acknowledge the Whitetail region and Joseph's explicit approval of Jacob's brainwashing or the eventual existence of the Judge...unless it was written before New Dawn. Because I'll fault people for bad writing, not an inability to see the future).

I suppose that's a good litmus test, though. If the Whitetails are even acknowledged or if Eli and Staci are just chopped liver.

It's at best a complete lack of nuance. Like, sure Joseph was correct that the bombs would fall. At no point does that make ANYTHING Eden's Gate did acceptable or justifiable. One of my favorite NPC lines is one of the Resistance women saying something like "I don't care how much Childhood Trauma they had, that doesn't excuse what they're doing to us". And she's right.

Look, I don't read much with John or Jacob but I have a hunch this is a problem with all 3 seedlings.

My rambling point is: you can like the bad guy but for FUCK'S sake think about WHY you write what you write. Nothing exists in a vacuum. If you need to strip off all their traits to force them into a box...maybe just make an oc.