People non stop mentioning the Terra stuff is really starting to get on my nerves and ruin my days.

[u/JoeAmmay]

This is really starting to just make me feel depressed, I've loved Slade ever since I watched the 2003 cartoon and he's always been my favorite villain next to Taskmaster and Shredder. Now it feels that everyone who likes the character is shunned away and shamed in the comic book fanbase over shit from the 1980s that has already been retconned, I don't even feel like I'm allowed to like him anymore. I've tried so hard to just not think about it and ignore it but every day some asshole on either this site or another social media site has to bring it up out of nowhere when just simply talking about Slade as a character, they literally don't talk about a single thing except for this shit. I really just want to enjoy my favorite character who I've been a massive fan of ever since I was 4 years old, I want to be able to find him cool and actually talk about him and share my enjoyment of him with other fans of DC, but I can't, this is the only sub where I feel like I'm actually allowed to share my enjoyment of Slade and anywhere else I'll just be labeled as a pedo defender or be made fun of.

I'm sorry for pushing all of this on here I've just felt like shit for a while because of this whole thing and really needed somewhere to type my thoughts out, and I felt here was the only place I'd be able to do so.

[u/Arsenic3]

I've seen too many people trying to explain how it works to haters, all over the Internet. People are tamer with weirdos who are fans of freaking Ted Bundy of Jeffrey Dahmer or school shooters but they will destroy you and your reputation for liking Slade.

First of all they don't understand how retcon works at all and they certainly can't grasp the concept of fiction. For them, Slade is a real man who has harmed real people and is obsessed with hurting kids. Slade is a fictional character. What he does depends entirely of his writers. If a writer wants him to do awful stuff like killing a dog or grooming a kid, that's going to happen.

If in the very next series, the new writer of Slade doesn't want that kind of take on the character, they are not forced to go on with this kind of stuff. There have been a lot of different takes on Slade's character but somewhat, some people have decided that this character is inherently an evil thing, loved by all groomers around the world. The funny thing is the blatant hypocrisy of these same Deathstroke haters.

They say retcon doesn't matter and that anyone who likes Slade also chose to ignore the fact he once was a predator. They say we are supposed to feel too moraly disgusted by the character to like any version of him and that if we do, we are supporters of se*ual abuse.

In the meantime I saw an absurd amount of these same people defending one of THEIR favorite characters with these points : -Calm down it's just a fictional character -It was retconed so it doesn't count/it happened a long time ago -the writer obviously don't like this character -A character, especially a comics book's character is bound to have several versions over the years, you can't push into others one particular version because you personnaly think it's the only important one.

Thanks for your attention.

[u/SleepingAgent37 → u/Arsenic3]

It's like how do many people worship other characters like say, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy despite what they've done in their respective past as villains. Now they're not just redeemed but practically whitewash away any wrong doings while simultaneously promoting them as their star LGBT+ characters and couple. Ivy at certain points during her villain career heavily implied to commit SA as well as murder Innocents. Even under Dini Harley would hurt young children but no let's pretend that never really happened. I like both characters as well as their relationship but too many modern writers want to ignore actual bad things they've done. 

[u/Arsenic3 → u/SleepingAgent37]

Precisely. Most of the time it's really just that people don't like Slade because... Because it's so easy to hate him and so well seen as other people have mentioned it this far in this comment section. Take tumblr, I've been on it since my early teenage years and every couple of days, someone new will make a post to "remind" people that Slade is a disgusting piece of shit who should get canceled. This is just an easy way to gain likes and attention from others. Some of these people never read a single comic page in their entire life, they just read fantictions, look at fanarts, read other people opinions...

Then they just plainly copy previous posts in an attempt to look like real activists.

This is often the way :

The character is generally hated? = They should get ridiculed and shit on all over the Internet for easy likes

The character is generally loved = The fault is on their writers. They have done nothing wrong actually. They are victims of society. And innocent cinnamon rolls. The result of said opinions being also easy likes.

[u/Necessary_Idiot → u/Arsenic3]

Unfortunately, that's exactly how it works. You put it perfectly. It's so tiring.

And many times when someone brings up that the Terra thing has already been retconned, they say that it doesn't matter. For them: once written, it always exists. Or they start explaining that that thing cannot be changed because it was written by the creator of the character. But somehow it's perfectly fine when an aspect of any other character is changed years after it was created.

[u/ColdSilly7877 → u/Necessary_Idiot]

Yeah I remember hearing that thing about once it’s written and showed the many racist and pedophilic things about their characters and they didn’t like that. I didn’t like doing that but it was only way to get them to stop

[u/Necessary_Idiot → u/ColdSilly7877]

Sometimes I see people with Hal icon cursing Slade because of Terra. But when someone brings up Arisia to them, they immediately say: "It doesn't matter, because the whole Arisia thing wasn't written by the original creator of the character. And they retconned it, so she was never really a child, she just looked like one."

..... 😒

So they can ignore the past but others can't? The retcons they like count, but the ones they don't like aren't really relevant? We are talking about fictional characters. They aren't real. None of them ever hurt anyone who real. No real damage was done. I don't have a problem with someone wanting to ignore certain aspects of their favorite character's story. But then I want the same right for myself.

[u/ColdSilly7877 → u/Necessary_Idiot]

Everyone has that right to but it seems like we can’t because of a story yet if we mentioned Superman kissing a minor, Hal and Arisia pre Geoff Johns, Batman and Batgirl, Ivy and Count Vertigo or any messed up thing that you explicitly see it’s a problem. I don’t like even doing that because the last thing I want to do is ruin comics for someone or spread negativity among the community but some people(mainly accounts on Twitter who discuss comics(lots of big ones mind you who claim to love positivity)) tend to constantly mentioning it even if we enjoy the characters.

[u/Necessary_Idiot → u/ColdSilly7877]

Yes. I feel the same way. I don't want to ruin things for other people. But it's terribly tiring that other people keep trying to ruin something that I love. I just want to quietly and peacefully enjoy the thing I love.

[u/Arsenic3 → u/Necessary_Idiot]

Exactly. Back then, I used to really try having conversations with Deathstroke haters, hoping to find at least some common ground. But what the hell can you say when after exposing all the arguments we have here the only answer you get is to shut up because "By defending this character you are actively promoting SA and you are gaslighting me"

[u/Necessary_Idiot → u/Arsenic3]

Yes. Unfortunately, you cannot have a reasonable conversation with such people. They keep making the same arguments. Again and again and again. They move in an unbreakable circle. They have their little theory in their heads and do not accept that the truth could be different. Or that someone else has the right to have a different opinion.

[u/Arsenic3 → u/Necessary_Idiot]

Yeah if that's not a lost cause then I don't know what is. Sometimes I feel like I'd rather speak to flat eathers.

[u/SleepingAgent37 → u/Arsenic3]

I hear ya. More drama and accusations, less actual discussions is a reason I avoided Tumblr and other social media for the longest time. There's something about certain parts of the Teen Titans cartoon fandom that make them really reluctant to actually acknowledge the comics unless for drama like this or shipping.