I could never figure out how much of this was simply lack of practice in picking up world-building cues and how much was a desire to view anything fantastical as outlandish and unworthy of serious attention.
Yes, I have seen so much of that--and I get really mad so I very rarely read reviews because I immediately want to leave an angry comment lol. I understand missing when casually viewing but I tend to be much more careful giving a public opinion if I wasn't really paying attention/thinking.
Have you seen those articles that are like "here's why characters in netflix movies are saying dumb and obvious things," and it's all because we're just not paying attention.
Yeah, shows are now expected to be second screens while people are also on their phones and have to be written accordingly. I see similar things into books (and have fallen into that trap myself, having a male character repeat everything a female character said to hammer a point for skim-readers).
There's a lot going on--one is an audience expecting to be spoon-fed everything, one is the "__ ending EXPLAINED" prevalence where everything MUST have an answer so some don't understand ambiguity is the point, another is the binge culture of no patience for character/plot development over time.
This is also a pet peeve of mine and I absolutely blame binge culture. "I didn't like how this character was in the beginning"--yes, Janet, there's this thing called "character development" where the character starts in one place and changes throughout the book and series. It's actually intentional!
Yes! I also feel that way about "problematic" that went from pointing out patterns of unexamined bigotry and other stuff to mean "this is bad and you are bad if you like it". Like people can just not like or "get" stuff without needing An Official Reason.
And so much of the conversations around that exact sort of position are predicated on this idea that if *I* didn't *like* something, then that means it's BAD. And if *I* DID like something, that means it's GOOD. And there has to be rational, objective reasonings behind all of it. Not just... vibe
WAY too many people are terrified of not being smart enough to like the things they're supposed to, and it's weird. We're all allowed to like things that are dumb and poorly-executed! We're all allowed to find masterpieces boring as snot!
It's okay to not like stuff! It's great if one can interrogate their reactions and determine WHY something didn't work for them but it's always the dumbest fucking take like "the characters were unlikable" (or again "it had plot holes") to justify it.
Comments
A SFF film would have an obvious explanation for something, and the reviewer would somehow either miss it or refuse to acknowledge it.
They did a very elegant reveal of that using an orrery. Was the reviewer in the bathroom for that entire scene?
I mean, Magneto IS a huge drama queen, but they established very very clearly what everyone's powerset is and why it matters.
Me: NO IT ISN'T. NO IT ISN'T. THEY LITERALLY SAY THAT THE WORK IS MYSTERIOUS. THAT'S A HUGE PART OF THE WHOLE POINT.
It's never just "didn't click for me"