As we speak is hololive VTuber La+ Darknesss’s birthday, and that has me enthusiastic about her relationship together with her followers. In a world that each passively and actively encourages expertise and followers alike to fall into obsession, she hardly ever lets others dictate what instructions to go.
I like watching new VTubers debut. Selection is the spice of life, and also you by no means know who’s going to be a nice shock. However I’ve additionally seen one thing when taking a look at reactions to those reveals: There’s a sure sort of viewer who appears very desperate to throw their full assist behind somebody or one thing. With simply an preliminary introduction (and even much less) to work off of, one of these fan behaves like they’re wanting desperately for a conduit for his or her ardour
This may be simply one other manner of participating with on-line personalities, albeit one which differs from my extra hesitant “wait and see” strategy. A forlorn coronary heart would possibly yearn to be acknowledged and have its intense emotions reciprocated, so having some sort of outlet will be wholesome. The truth that this could flip into real emotions of attraction and affection can nonetheless be okay if there may be recognition and understanding of the bounds of this relationship.
The place it begins to get iffy is when somebody both tasks all their values and fantasies right into a determine and fails to a minimum of admit that that is projection, or when the eagerness to discover a fandom turns into bitterness. That’s the purpose at which being parasocial turns into dangerous, and I fear about each side in these eventualities.
Some will play into this dynamic, however La+ has a little bit of an uncommon relationship together with her viewers. She is herself an idol fan, and he or she has expressed empathy for individuals who have been harm by an idol revealing that they’ve a big different. She’s additionally a self-professed doutan kyouhi: a aggressive fan who doesn’t need to work together with others who share the identical explicit fandom. She is aware of what it’s prefer to be obsessive about somebody…however she doesn’t actively search to be that object for different folks.
The best way the holoX commander prefers to carry her followers at arm’s size has truly at occasions garnered her haters. They want she was one thing she’s not attempting to be, and the truth that she doesn’t conform to their wishes bothers them. She’ll make connections exterior of hololive in massive collabs with folks no matter gender or style. She’ll gush over Mai Shiranui from the Deadly Fury franchise, channeling the power of preventing sport followers who grew up within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s regardless of not being of that period. She’ll ask to be insulted by her colleagues in hololive with mature voices. She’ll even provide you with an official title for her followers (Plusmates), however by no means truly use it. And when others speak about what La+ is like behind the scenes, they’ll point out how onerous she works for herself, her friends, and her followers. That’s one thing I actually admire about her: She does her personal factor and seems to have a great time within the course of.
La+ Darknesss prefers to behave as a fellow fan who has the privilege of doing idol-like actions, resembling singing and dancing on stage. On this manner, appears to have a look at the followers who would possibly probably change into her most obsessive and parasocial supporters, and says, “I get the place you’re coming from, however I can’t be that for you. I can entertain you, although.” That’s simply nice by me.
