/Besides just being unlikeable, which would simply leave her bland and boring, she was dislikeable too. Really dislikeable. Even without all the bigotry and sociopathic shit, she's just generally nasty and self-absorbed, and not in an interesting or entertaining way. And she's constantly validated for it by other characters and the narrative/world itself./
Really, what ruins any sense of conflict or struggle for Anita is that everything’s given to her on a platter and her world revolves around her. All of the people that she insults are eventually shown to be evil or despicable, so her petty spite is justified by the narrative and she never has to admit that she was wrong or apologize to anyone. She collects harem members like Pokémon cards, so any romantic tension is rendered nonexistent. And she becomes so powerful that she never has to be held accountable for anything.
All of that would be annoying in a character that was honestly nice. With Anita, it’s infuriating, because she is such a horrible person. What would be unsettling in a decent or neutral character becomes absolutely terrifying when it comes to Anita because she proves how monstrous a person can become when there are no checks on their behavior. Not only is Anita despicable, she’s self-righteous, and both of those traits combined form a very ugly mix of entitlement and narcissism that hardly anyone can sympathize with.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2013-02-27 02:55 am (UTC)Really, what ruins any sense of conflict or struggle for Anita is that everything’s given to her on a platter and her world revolves around her. All of the people that she insults are eventually shown to be evil or despicable, so her petty spite is justified by the narrative and she never has to admit that she was wrong or apologize to anyone. She collects harem members like Pokémon cards, so any romantic tension is rendered nonexistent. And she becomes so powerful that she never has to be held accountable for anything.
All of that would be annoying in a character that was honestly nice. With Anita, it’s infuriating, because she is such a horrible person. What would be unsettling in a decent or neutral character becomes absolutely terrifying when it comes to Anita because she proves how monstrous a person can become when there are no checks on their behavior. Not only is Anita despicable, she’s self-righteous, and both of those traits combined form a very ugly mix of entitlement and narcissism that hardly anyone can sympathize with.