Perrydotto wrote:Yeah, a lot is the cute "waifu" vibe that people find appealing. Fluttershy is not a threatening character - She's agreeable, welcoming and eager to support others in their endeavours. Rarity, on the other hand, is an independent business runner with a strong will and a clear idea of what she wants and how to get there. People raised with bad views on women and their roles will find that threatening. Fluttershy, at a cursory glance, is someone who is submissive and in need of protecction; at the same glance, Rarity is strong and only gets help because she herself decides to want and get it, not because she inherently needs it.
Definitely don't let that ruin your enjoyment of the character though. I know that's easier said than done, but I think as long as you aren't so narrowminded to think that Fluttershy is a submissive moe-blob waifu (which the show blatantly shows she isn't, but you know, viewers can be selective in what they accept as "true") you are fine. Fluttershy as actually portrayed on the show is a shy, calm personality who foregoes her own desires to help others, but she can also defend herself and she has clear boundaries. She doesn't take kindly to abuse of her friendship at all, and she even stands up for that in front of a chaos god. Those are all impressive and wellrounded traits, and they DEFINITELY show that Fluttershy is anything but a helpless waifu. You have every bit of a reason to be a fan of hers, independently of idiots who just project their terrible views on women on her.
That's a great analysis
Wonkadoo wrote:Okay, people.
Please stop making up bad motives and ascribing them to people who hold opinions you disfavor. It may allow you to dismiss said opinions more easily, but it destroys your ability to deal rationally with actual people who hold those opinions.
It would be nice if you could stop ascribing bad couture to them as well.
Yes, I know it's hard. No, I don't always do it myself. It's still important.
This is a fair point too, and I'm not ascribing this to everyone who doesn't like Rarity by any means, but I
have had conversations with people who either disliked Rarity in the past or still dislike her because she reminded them of the popular girls in school.
Which is obviously down to issues with or resentments towards women they haven't worked through, but it's true that Rarity must have been super-popular in school. She's gregarious, confident and outgoing, and she's obsessed with the most stereotypically "girly" things - fashion, spa treatments, pretty, dainty things. And people can be kneejerk towards that stuff. But the show portrays her as a deeply kind, good-hearted person, which I guess indicates to some people that the popular, fashionable girls they were intimidated by in school might also have been deeply nice people?
But like you said, people can dislike a character for all sorts of reasons (in fact Twilight seems to get the most hate these days). But I think Rarity is the crowning achievement of the show and is emblematic of everything great about it. She was forced onto the show because Hasbro wanted a fashion character, Lauren never wanted a Rarity. And she turned out to this giddy ham, a deeply flawed, complicated, human character whose good spirit and intense kindness vies with her prissiness and ambition and everything else.
That's what I mean by her being emblematic, really. You could take Rarity, explain what she's like compared to what you'd expect that character to be going by the stereotypes of fashionable popular people in tv and movies and then laying out what she's actually
like, and finish that with "...and that's pretty much how the rest of the show works", and it would give people an idea of why so many people are gushy about a kid's show designed to sell plastic toys.
It's not about her being the best character (YMMV obviously) but she represents a lot about the reality of FiM versus how you'd perceive the show if you hadn't seen it.