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"The John Walker Effect is when in any form of [woke/poorly written] media, the writers unintentionally make the antagonist characters far more entertaining, far more believable as characters, more sympathetic, [or] more heroic than the stale and downright evil protagonists/heroes. Typically you will see the writers project all the things they view as evil onto these characters in order to make a strawman to pit against their 'perfect' protagonists. However, this unintentionally causes these characters to be loved by the audience, for they are the only ones who call out the protagonists' bullshit for what it is, [or] have actual ideas and motivations that aren't selfish."
This is what happens in modern media when you have assholes as writers/producers with a backwards worldview. They end up unintentionally creating villain protagonists and multifaceted/interesting/understandable antagonists.
When your protagonist is a reprehensible utter piece of SHIT like Disney+ Jen Walters from "She Hulk: Attorney at Law," it can make a supposed "incel" character like Todd much more likable, especially when said character's only real "flaws" were being short, unattractive, unattached, and supposedly unlikeable to a
narcissistic, wealthy LA lawyer who's bad at her job and only expects men who are 9s and higher, while Tatiana Maslany is a 5 at best.
Or this could be "feminem," The Dweller from Amazon's "The Rings of Power" (not gonna put "Lord of the Rings" in front of that) who ends up being more likeable than the asshole protagonist of fake Galadriel. This woke Netflixed-but-really-Amazon version of Galadriel has no redeeming qualities and acts on pure selfishness and greed, but is seen as the protagonist by the show and its writers. Which really reflects the writers' own nasty qualities and traits as human beings; same as it was in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. The John Walker Effect highlighting likeable antagonists and insufferable protagonists can take many different forms.
This could be 'Cuff' in the terrible video game "Forspoken," who's essentially just a soldier in a war, who gets treated as the villain for just doing his job. But throughout the game, is seen as the magic assistant helper to the protagonist, Frey, an obnoxious Mary Sue character in this Isekai story who has almost no redeeming qualities or likeable traits. She's a selfish asshole criminal and gets the powers of a god given to her by Cuff and never once shows gratitude or appreciation towards him, treating him like shit and taking advantage of him throughout the game. So when he's revealed to be the (not really a) "bad guy" towards the game's climax, many people watching this can totally get it and be like "Oh yeah, I would've done the same thing, she's an asshole; go ahead and kill her."
You have Ken in the 2023 Barbie movie, who is neglected and treated like garbage and given no respect by the vapid, narcissistic Barbies of his reality, especially the protagonist Barbie played by Margot Robbie. When he goes to the supposed "real world" (a cartoonishly fake representation of a modern feminists' idea of "patriarchy"), he's given a small modicum of respect and self esteem, and then brings that back to the Barbieland, where the Kens quite easily topple the supposed "smart and strong" Barbies, are allowed to be masculine and manly, while the other Barbies are allowed to be feminine, loving, and pampered by these Kens in a traditional relationship (as opposed to the Kens being in slavery.)
And for some unknown reason, the director/co-writer Greta Gerwig showed that both the Barbies and Kens were both HAPPY under traditional gender roles! It's only when Margot Robbie Barbie brainwashes and manipulates the Kens into fighting each other and undoing the progress of the "Kendom," is the happy Barbie society ruined and returned back to the vapid empty "matriarchy" it once was when the Kens are once treated like garbage and have no power as slaves, while the Barbies live empty unfulfilling lives as girlbosses.
Yet all of this is presented as a GOOD thing, where in any rational movie, this would make Margot Robbie Barbie the villain. This wasn't Gerwig's attempt at showing a "gender-swapped patriarchy" because the Kens (which would be representative of women in our supposed "patriarchy") are shown as the bad guys for wanting respect and equality. This would imply Gerwig thinks the "patriarchy" is a good thing, as the Barbieworld's version of a matriarchy is seen as the "correct and proper society" in the movie, and that any woman seeking "empowerment" (not that they don't already have more power than men in modern Western society) is bad and needs to be put in their place, just as the Kens were in the movie.
So no; this wasn't Gerwig trying to convey how she thinks females in society are treated using the Kens as stand-ins for real-world women; she just absolutely unironically HATES men and is just shitty at storytelling. Not to mention this movie probably had so many rewrites and studio interference that all attempts at showing the Kendom being the better society where everyone was happy had to have been purely accidental and unintentional.
So yes, Ken is the sympathetic hero in this movie, but is 100% seriously portrayed as the villain by the writers and directors; ironic because most women who liked the movie also saw Ryan Gosling as the best part of the movie as well, meaning men and women liked Ken better than Barbie. This plot was so effective, it made many real-world men sympathize with Ken with the "I am Kenough" meme, as he literally does nothing wrong in the movie except love Barbie and try to man-up and act masculine while still making the Barbies happy under his masculine leadership, but is still treated like a villain and asshole anyways by the writers and director.
It's a 100% perfect example of a shitty human being, Greta Gerwig, having such a messed-up worldview, that the enslaved, oppressed males in the movie, are the supposed "villains" for wanting masculinity, equality, and respect. And she does all of this while unironically believing she lives in a real-world "patriarchy," despite being worth millions of dollars and being given a $60 million international platform to spew this horseshit out to the masses...
(I didn't watch this movie, by the way; not even online. But I've seen enough YouTube reviews to know the entire plot by now.)
And of course, you have the "name troper" himself of John Walker from "Falcon and the Winter Soldier." A normal human man and army hero who was chosen by the government to be the new Captain America, despite not really wanting the role and reluctantly accepting it only to do good in the world and make a difference. He's treated as the "bad guy" by the woke writers simply for being a straight white male. But this is upped to eleven when he "kills" a terrorist who just killed his best friend (both the victim and slain friend being non-white, if it matters.) But the writers and the show itself presents him as being "a racist," a villain, and a psychopath after what just occurred.
Never mind the fact that Captain America LITERALLY SHOT MOTHERFUCKERS point blank with a gun in the first Captain America movie. Because it's almost like the writers forgot what soldiers actually do in war and got their "heroes don't kill people" trope mixed up to be "military combat soldiers don't kill people." Cause that's literally what John Walker is.
Also, never mind the fact that Walker is clearly shown to have PTSD and is in-over-his-head because he doesn't have superpowers or enhanced abilities like Steve Rogers did (at least, at this point in the story) and is way more likely to be killed or severely injured in this role as a literal superhero. John Walker isn't Batman; he's just some war vet and soldier the government hired. Walker has PTSD from his military days, as well as his new role as Captain America 2.0.
But Sam Wilson, WHOSE LITERAL DAY JOB IS TO HELP PTSD SOLDIERS IN THERAPY, treats Walker like shit, out of some perceived "aggression" that John Walker is "disrespecting Steve Rogers' legacy" even though John Walker really didn't even want to be "the new Captain America," didn't choose to replace Steve Rogers himself, and is clearly unqualified for it, as pretty much ANYONE is, as Steve Rogers' legacy isn't just a title you can re-cast with a different man. Steve Rogers wasn't made to be Captain America due to the super-soldier serum, but due to his spirit and character. Not to mention, this is already AFTER Sam Wilson first turned down the role himself.
And besides destroying Sam Wilson's character with grade-school pettiness of John Walker being given the role of "Captain America," they also destroy Wilson's character by making him an asshole woke racist, even though race has never come up in the MCU before this point and his best friend WAS A WHITE AMERICAN MAN FROM THE 1940s; LITERALLY THE MOST "POTENTIALLY RACIST" GUY WHO COULD EXIST IN THE MCU. And HE wasn't racist towards Wilson! But yeah, "America would never accept a black man as Captain America." But we fucking elected a black man as the real-life US president... TWICE. And have a black woman as current VP, even though Kamala Harris is a piece of shit. But yeah, "America won't accept me. Cause I'm black. Even though they accepted Black Panther; who isn't even from the same continent and rules over a futuristic hyperpower of a country worth trillions of dollars."
But no, instead of being mad at the government, Sam Wilson is mad at the guy they chose to cosplay as Captain America, and it's all due to "racism" or some shit. And even ignores Walker's PTSD in order to hold a petty schoolgirl-like feud with him. Sam Wilson does all of this, to support literal terrorists, by the way. The "Flag Smashers" are legitimate murderers of innocent civilians, doing all of this for purely selfish goals they try to frame as 'altruistic,' but the show wants you to sympathize with the ethnically-diverse terrorists and hate the straight white male trying his best to fill the shoes of someone no one can replace, merely by the sin of Walker being a "straight white male." (By the way, I'm not even a white male myself, in case you're thinking I'm projecting.)
Do you see where "The John Walker Effect" comes from now? And why the writers reveal more about their shitty personalities and ethics this way?
there doesn't seem to be anything here