~Mixing...~

I wish there was more nuance in how Kirby characters get portrayed.

Susie isn't a good person but if I'm being completely honest I hesitate to call Magolor and Taranza good people either. Tbh I think the fandom has gotten too comfortable with treating those two like they're good people.

I'm in the belief that having a redemption arc doesn't necessarily turn you into a good person, like you can still have serious flaws while improving.

i think wave 3 is a trio of deeply flawed individuals who are trying their hardest to become better people one step at a time

White people will do literally anything but try to engage meaningfully with art that hasn’t had all the edges and complexities and thought-provoking conflicts filed off for easy consumption

It’s not even particularly complex it’s a video game for small children about why racism is bad. How can you not handle that.

I do also wonder if the ignoring-KPR-colonialism-and-racism behavior may also be because it's an unnecessarily defensive response to the general negativity/discourse surrounding Susie and the fact that needless woobifying is something that happens to Kirby villains in general (because Taranza and Magolor also get too woobified, the difference is that their crimes are less realistic than Susie's, but that doesn't mean that their actions were okay either).

Oh, absolutely! A lot of it is overcorrecting in the wake of the negativity surrounding her, to… rather mixed results.

OK SO. ive been a susie lover since i got into kirby bc her story fascinates me and all that and i remember a specific noticeable phenomenon in the kirby fandom which happened i dont even remember how long ago where for a bit she was either HEAVILY villainized and portrayed as this evil scheming monster (while haltmann was entirely shoved to the side) or just got the classic #girlboss treatment and. With the recent resurgence of people pointing out that Maybe Theres A Reason That Happens To Women, there's also been a wave of people violently overcorrecting so they dont have to recognize their own misogyny. My point is, I think this giant wave of apologists who believe she did no wrong & that she wasnt blatantly a colonizer (which white people have a tendency to be terrified of because its one of the many crimes they arent be the victim of) is those same people who are trying so hard to be #progressive because they cannot accept that they can be wrong sometimes. Sorry if this is convoluted but thats what i think might be partially causing it

EXACTLY EXACTLY EXACTLYYYYY. i absolutely adore susie she’s one of my favourite characters in anything ever but the overcorrecting of “actually the game isn’t about racism at all“ and just flat out ignoring the plot and themes of the game and her whole character arc and development is just like. Man I don’t think you guys actually like her

Kirby Planet Robobot's colonization and racism themes are obvious enough to where it honestly makes me wonder if the people who say that they don't see it actually do see it deep down and are just pretending not to.

I may be wrong and some of them somehow genuinely don't see it, but if at least some of them are just pretending to not see it and actually do see it deep down, it's the only other explanation that makes any sort of sense.

And if that's the case, then the most likely reason why the people who pretend not to see it act like this because they think that they can't like Susie if they do acknowledge it, so they refuse to acknowledge these undertones because they think it gives them an excuse to like Susie.

.... They don't understand that you don't need to ignore the undertones in order to like her. Those people could be misunderstanding your statements and think that you're telling them to not like Susie, but that's not the case at all. They should probably be told that acknowledging Planet Robobot's uncomfortable undertones does NOT mean that you need to hate Susie, you can still like her while acknowledging that stuff.

I am a big Susie fan and I can admit that I may be a "Susie apologist" in the sense of defending her against claims of her being irredeemable, but you will NEVER see me pretending like the colonization and racism stuff doesn't exist, I've acknowledged it several times and have even said why I understand why that stuff can turn people off from liking her as much as other characters, and that I'm just one that can stomach it. The people that pretend to not see it should just stop being cowards.

hit the nail on the head here p much. i absolutely adore susie but ignoring her whole character arc in order to make her more palatable makes no sense to me