One Thing I've Run Up Against When Dealing With Fandom And Characters Making Less Than Ideal Choices

One thing i've run up against when dealing with fandom and characters making less than ideal choices is that people seem to treat a character's decision being sympathetic, the decision being understandable, the decision being reasonable, and it being objectively the best solution for the situation, as synonymous. When those are 4 very different things.

Starting to feel like the most unbearably insufferable thing about John Constantine is he's a good detective. He's a wizard who smokes in other people's houses, he's the most annoying man you've ever been attracted to, and he's unfortunately genuinely competent

he's got a lot of columbo trickster energy

but columbo has enough befuddled grandpa energy to temper it and gaslight you into thinking he's maybe being annoying by accident

constantine is being annoying on purpose and everyone knows it

Okay but the contrast to this moment and Horse and the Infant!!

Because Odysseus begs both times, “Please don’t make me do this.”

But the first time Zeus is telling him to kill one baby to save everyone else (most importantly his wife) and he isn’t really being given a choice “This is the will of the Gods”

Whereas this time it really is a choice. A horrible choice, yes, but Odysseus is not being made to kill his crew, he is deciding between their lives and seeing his wife again. In Horse and The Infant he does something terrible to save more lives. In Thunder Bringer he does something terrible that sacrifices many lives solely to save his own. He really has become a monster.

And yet, right from the beginning Ody tells us that he would trade the world to see his son and wife. He would have always made this choice. It’s just that now he can throw the guilt away.

He has become a monster and in the same breath he is exactly the same.

That time Samael and Michael created this beautiful planet in preparation for the Garden of Eden. The second planet from a yellow sun. Perfect conditions, perfect temperature...

...And then they got into a fight and things went south, fast...

Of course they had to move on to the next planet, but there was a slight problem...

God: You see this planet, my sons? It is the third planet from the yellow sun. This will be the new home of Eden.

Samael and Michael: .......

God: Go forth and do my bidding.

Samael: But... It's a ball of molten lava. It was even hit by another planet!

Michael: Father, we could simply attempt to repair the second planet from the...

God: Did I stutter, my sons?

@dtaina 🤣

“Khonshu: Strikefile,” Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu (Vol. 1/2024), #0.

Writer: Jed MacKay; Penciler and Inker: Alessandro Cappuccio; Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg; Letterer: Cory Petit