Remember the Touhou website I linked to you, usuallydead.com? Well, turns out he also does Let's Play videos of Touhou games. I've watched the ones he's done so far, and one of them, the one for Perfect Cherry Blossom, was incredibly enlightening.
First of all, as far as I can tell, Usuallydead is a scholar, and not a nerd. Second of all, in that series, he posed a question, "What is it about some characters in Touhou that makes some people like that character, and other character not like that character?" He says that you can give whatever reason you want, but every reason you give will be shallow. For example, take Marisa. She's one of my favorite Touhou characters. Why? Because she's really really really kyute! ^_^ However, someone may read that and think, "What are you talking about!? She's not cute! Hence why I don't like her." Or they might think, "Really? Well, I like Marisa because her Master Spark Spell Card is really useful." or "Really? I like Marisa because she's got a cool theme song." You see, all of those reasons are shallow, even the ones that go into more depth. Yes, my liking of Youmu is shallow, even though I like her because of her personality, character design, method of fighting, and the uniqueness of her Half-human Half-ghost background, not because simply looking at her makes me think, "She's so kyute!" Even all of that is shallow.
UsuallyDead brings this up because his favorite Touhou character, nay, his favorite thing of all time, is Yuyuko. He didn't really try to explain why he loves Yuyuyuyuyuyuyuyuko so much, other than saying she was, "Ghostly hotness." Of course, when I heard that, my first reaction was, "What!?" My second reaction was, "My Lord! He sounds like the Rei worshippers that pervade every anime forum in existence!"
But it was then he offered his answer, why do people have opinions? Simple. There is no reason. There is no reason other than this; there is something in a person's innate personality that draws them to what their favorite character in a video game is, or what their favorite band is, or what their favorite brand of cereal is. As for why people of some personalities will like something, he had this to say, "Just like 'there is no i in team', there is no y in love." Get it? Because the letter y isn't in "love", and neither is an explainable reason why we love the things we do, beyond our personalities? Exactly. Upon this realization, I had a third reaction, "Oh really? Is that any different from your constant gushing of Yukari-chan? Or how you think Zidane is a paragon of what RPG heroes should be?"
By now, you're probably wondering, "Hey wait a second, so all this time, when you were hyperventilating about things you thought were overrated, it was a complete waste of time?" No. Now comes my part of this thesis.
It's true; opinions are influenced by nothing more than a person's personality. However, you can determine some things about a person's personality if you look at their likes and dislikes.
Take, for example, the anime version of Code Geass. You know how much I hate it. I think it's the worst anime series that debuted this decade. Some other people feel the way. Why? Because there is something about Code Geass that offends my sensibilities, and also, it contradicts the things I look for when I want to perform escapism via a television series. However, there are those who enjoy it because of what it does. They will offer their own reasons: because they're whores for anime/CLAMP/Sunrise, because they're masochistic and can tolerate the forced acting and ham-fisted writing, because they think (insert name of character) is "hot", or maybe simply because they like seeing a plot twist every three minutes. There is something within their personalities that draws them to it, and allows them to enjoy it, even though I can't.
However, keep in mind, a person who plays violent video games is not always, by nature, a violent person, just as a person who listens to gangsta rap doesn't always have to be a gangbanger either. My older brother is a fan of movies by "Blood and Guts" directors such as Martin Scorcese, Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez. However, he's nothing like the characters in these movies; he's not violent, he's not a junkie, and he rarely cusses in real life. Why does he enjoy these films? Because they're cool. And he likes how they're put together. The style of Blood and Guts movies captivates him. And, ya know what? I like some of those movies too. Some of them are really good.
Of course, this won't stop me from hating the things I hate, as well as bashing fans of something I dislike. However, I will keep this in mind: Usuallydead worships Yuyuko, just in the same way some Evangelion fans worship Rei, just in the same way I think Bender from Futurama is the funniest cartoon character ever. Why? Well, there is no Y in Love. There's just something about the things we love that connects to us on a personal level.
