i shouldn't talk about this again because i'm still brain fried but i think that the defense against critics of hopepunk is to define "hopepunk" so broadly it is effectively meaningless, especially if you're trying to sell it as a *genre*
like y'all know that a genre is gonna span good and bad stuff, right. it's not a quality descriptor. you can't just put a bunch of stuff that you see as having a similar tone and also think is good in a bucket and say "this is a genre" and expect people to be like "great"
what it seems to be from watching several people talk about it is that they point at things with a specific tone that they say are good and say "that is hopepunk" and then they get really defensive when you say that's not really something anyone other than them can use
and then they get really mad and accuse you of liking game of thrones
the definition of "genre" they're using is so different from any other definition of "genre" that maybe the part where they accuse you of only liking grimdark things and yell about game of thrones is part of what it means to be hopepunk
what hopepunk is about is making a list of things that are only tenuously related to one another, telling people that every essay about hopepunk that defines it is actually bad and not what you meant, and then getting mad at people for liking game of thrones
the people you are getting mad at for liking game of thrones are NOT required to like game of thrones
it also feels like it has evolved out of a certain subcultural thing that has evolved out of tumblr that is trying to do this weird Finding Unproblematic Fiction where you end up with really weird and distorted discourse about fictional characters as if they're real moral actors
this isn't always bad, but it gets to be a problem when it's the only perspective
this isn't meant as a condemnation of all tumblr or buying in with the anti-tumblr reactionary shit, it just feels like something grown out of a certain form of discussion about fiction that has gotten really far up its own asshole
but the reason that people are saying it's reactionary is the focus on being mad about grimdark fiction, and also having one example available of grimdark fiction, and it's game of thrones
i hate game of thrones too but hating game of thrones isn't a genre
