Bevendre

And I didn’t.  I wanted to expand the views of people, to offer a different perspective of a character that is portrayed very one dimensionally and shallowly.  If someone loses respect for the decisions that a writer or artist employs in their work in regards to a single aspect to the point of no longer wishing to follow what they do, despite calling themselves fans, then they didn’t have a lot of respect to begin with.

I am sorry if I come off as blunt or cruel, but it’s the way things are.  Some people want to see a favorite character in the same light over and over again.  That’s fine for them.  However, no character, real imagined contrived or historical should be seen only in one light.  As Ruuqo and others have pointed out, that aspect is a cornerstone of the creative community: seeing characters in different lights.  It is everywhere on tumblr and outside of tumblr.  That it is such speaks to the depth of the characters involved, namely in that they are flexible and elastic enough to be taken differently without fully breaking character.

If a character cannot be taken out of their comfort zone and be portrayed in a different light from the established norm, then they are a flat character.  Moreso, they are a bad character.  I don’t like Celestia as a character because she is generally portrayed as ‘good’'just’ and 'kind’ no matter the circumstance, when that isn’t the case in canon.  I have chosen to portray her, following aspects established in canon, as less than ideal for those she does not govern.  

You say that I have made her the equivalent of Hitler, and to a point you’re right.  Both proved very apt leaders of their own subjects/people.  Both were celebrated in their own lands and in the wider world (Hitler was Time Magazine’s Man of the Year at one point).  Both believed that a particular group were inferior to them.  Both held prejudices, and made dire mistakes based off of said prejudices.  They are alike in many regards, good and bad.  That is not a bad thing as it gives depth and variation to a character that is generally more plot device than character, and for those that don’t study history as much gives perspective to a person brushed aside as a monster (for good reason).  The good doesn’t invalidate the bad, nor does the bad override the good.  They both exist, and they should both be acknowledged, even if one doesn’t like it.

If I accuse someone of being ignorant, then it is not because they are stupid, or blind, but because they refuse to see things differently.  Ignorance is not the lack of knowledge or insight, but the lack of desire to seek more than one has and knows.  You are not ignorant because you do not know something, or don’t see something in such a way, but because you refuse to acknowledge that things are different from what you have known.  It is not an insult, it is a recommendation and an invitation to expand your views.

Expecting one’s influence or recommendation to sway another’s work to be closer to what you want is ignorance.  It ignores the creator’s desires, plans, efforts, etc. to relay their views and visions in preference of the audiences’.  It prevents or discourages one’s views to be shared, for them to reinforce or change the views and minds of others, when that is the creator’s intent.  Artists, writers, sculptors, musicians, etc. do not create for the sake of perpetuating the desires of the masses, but to add their desires and ideas to the cultural pool.  Withholding the creator’s ability to do that by expecting them to follow what you want them to do with their work is ignorance, and I have no qualms about pointing that out.

I am very sorry if this went on too long, or came off as demeaning or insulting, but it’s something that needs to be said not just about my story or blog or anything that I do, but about the creative community as a whole.  If you truly have respect for an artist of any medium, but you don’t like something that they did, you don’t tell them to change it or fix it; you wait and see how they finish it off.  If you can’t do that, you don’t show respect, you show ignorance.