What Misaimed Fandom do you have?

Have you watched or read a work where you're clearly supposed to hate a certain character, but instead you ended up liking or sympathizing with the character instead?

I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, but it's happened to me before.

Potential Flame Bait coming up: when reading His Dark Materials (well, the first book is the only one relevant in this case), I found myself thinking the General Oblation Board's plan (separating children from their daemons) was a good idea nastily implemented rather than, as I suspect Pullman intended, a Moral Event Horizon. This has nothing to do with religious beliefs (I'm an atheist, in fact); I just tend to sympathise with attempts to cure the fallen human condition.

edited 9th Dec '10 1:23:52 AM by DoktorvonEurotrash

The Awakeners by Sherri S. Tepper includes a character who tries to negotiate peace with human-eating aliens and ends up getting roasted alive. The reader is explicitly told after her failure that her views were tempting but dangerous, but she came surprisingly close to avoiding the slaughter that marks the ending

In The Stand Larry, Ralph, and Glen dying didn't strike me as a Heroic Sacrifice; they seemed like meaningless deaths that wouldn't have affected the Trashcan Man's destruction of Las Vegas one way or the other. God telling them to go seems more like a manipulative scheme on his part to steal credit for defeating the dark man.

Angelica Pickles. Hahaha. It is true, though. I see a lot of myself in her.

Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals. It's hard to believe that PETA parody is supposed to deter people away from eating turkey when you're having so much fun with the over-the-top violence (bloody eggs, turkey intestines in the gravy, etc.) and manaical nature of Mama. Her Heel–Face Turn was easily the worst part of the game.

I remember being taught Antigone in high school and agreeing a little more with Creon than I was probably supposed to. o.o

I'm part of the Rei Ayanami fanbase. I was very concerned recently upon learning of her Misaimed Fandom as to whether or not seeing her as a tragic figure rather than an inhuman monster meant there was somebody severely wrong with me.

edited 10th Dec '10 3:12:55 PM by Rotpar

It's funny how attempted satire can work that way. I've heard of this happening with other groups and their attempts to promote their causes - people who disagree with their cause end up finding humor in the work.

One of the ones that comes to mind is the social worker that Buffy The Vampire Slayer torments in the episode where Buffy turns invisible.

Also, Stevie in Wizards Of Waverly Place. Really, the one sibling rule sucks.

Don't get me wrong. PETA's more of a case of Don't Shoot The Message. Obviously, I support animal welfare, but PETA's actions are, simply put, embarrassing.

True, very true. I guess I should have been more clear on that. Sometimes the message is sound, but the messenger is hilariously bad.

I'm part of the Rei Ayanami fanbase. I was very concerned recently upon learning of her Misaimed Fandom as to whether or not seeing her as a tragic figure rather than an inhuman monster meant there was somebody severely wrong with me.

Really, until I came to TV Tropes, I didn't even know that she was supposed to be unsettling and inhuman. I mean, just take the first episode when Shinji refuses to control the EVA and Gendo wans to send out Rei. She is introduced as a poor girl, who needs to be protected. And the rest isn't much better. Granted, she does seem pretty weird, but more in a tragic than a scary way. Maybe Anno shouldn't have made her so sympathetic. At least, she shouldn't have warmed up over time and stayed a pure Emotionless Girl.

But as it is, there is no way I could find her unsettling.