I really enjoy having meaningful fannish conversations, I enjoy analyzing the things I like, even if what I find isn't stellar. I mean, I adore the Final Fantasy series, but I have some serious issues with how they deal with gender and race.

Does that mean I can't enjoy the series? No, it doesn't, but it doesn't mean I should ignore the fact that they handle some things in ways I disagree with.

imadra_blue wrote a piece about the portrayal of female characters in the FF series, and yeah, it's pretty disappointing. I mean, look how poorly they handled Rinoa? And Quistis? Sometimes, they do really well. XIII has a lot of well-characterized and independent female characters. But a lot of the time... they miss.

Do I still like the series? Yes. Do I acknowledge it has flaws? Yes.

(And I could get into the race thing, but, ah, I think it's pretty self-explanatory?)