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this is hardly even a blip in the discourse in this fandom, but it’s something that I’ve seen just often enough that it’s been swirling in my head so:
it’s completely understandable that some people don’t like the dark sbi genre of fics and avoid it like the plague, that’s half the reason why the tag even exists in the first place. the tag exists Because people know that sort of content can be upsetting for some people and they want them to be able to avoid it wherever possible.
but I think it’s also true that people tend to present and talk about the genre in a strange way. whether that’s serious accusations about people demonizing certain characters or people considering it red flags about someone’s opinions on a character, there’s this tendency to view it as a commentary on someone’s view of canon when that simply isn’t the case.
the dark sbi genre exists specifically to depict dynamics that don’t exist in canon, in the same way that a zombie apocalypse au or a hunger games/battle royale au exists to find interesting ways to bend characters’ personalities through intense survival situations.
the concept with dark sbi in particular is taking this group dynamic that the author enjoys and exploring a version of events where one or more of those characters are anywhere from toxic to outright villains. part of the fun is exploring that distortion, which wouldn’t be possible as a draw to the genre if the author wasn’t aware that it Was a distortion of the characters in question.
it’s also worth noting that there’s this weird impulse to pidgin hole the entire genre into whatever handful of fics a particular person has run into. there is no limit on what characters are changed and in what way, what setting they’re put in, and what kinds of relationships they have with each other. there are certain ideas that are popular within these spaces, but only in the normal way that people who share fandom spaces tend to be inspired by each other and rotate ideas around together. it’d be like trying to make an argument that coffee shop aus are dnf propaganda because you’ve run into fics in that genre with that pairing before. it’s just silly innit.
and again, this sort of thing isn’t for everybody. some people can’t handle horror or depictions of unhealthy relationships, and some people are more sensitive about those sorts of depictions when it comes to characters that are important to them. it’s a good thing that this genre is labeled and that people can filter it out if they don’t want it.
but as far as actually Discussing it as a fandom, there’s no reason why it should be treated any different from, say, aus where xyz character gets possessed by the egg and Does A Bad.