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Misconceptions about "White Knights" and "Friend Bias"

Disclaimer: I know that "white knights" and "friend bias" both exist (no shit); my point in this journal is that people are throwing around these terms much too easily nowadays without actually thinking about what they mean (dejavu to Sues, neh?).

"White Knights"

Defending a friend does not automatically label someone a "white knight."

A "white knight" in today's internet lingo is someone who rushes blindly to the aid of another person either in the hopes of getting something in return or because that person is a friend/family (mostly the latter). This is usually done by the "white knight" without taking into consideration the errors of the person they're aiding or not taking in the point-of-view of the other side. In other words, they could be rushing to the aid of an art thief that knows what they're doing is wrong, yet the "white knight" will still say that the thief is in the right simply because that person is their friend.

If one of my friends gets attacked wrongly and I support them or "rush to their aid," that is NOT me being a "white knight" by the aforementioned definition. If I point out to the attackers the flaws in their accusations and/or arguments and I'm making logical fucking sense, I am not being a "white knight."

I don't know how people suddenly decided to switch around the definition to encompass those who actually react logically to conflicts between their friend(s) and others, but it annoys the butts outta me to see it. It's as if people are making defending our friends into something evil, like wow, seriously?

But "your friend doesn't need you to defend them!1! They can defend themselves!!1!" (aka: I'm losing the argument, TIME TO RESORT TO CALLING YOU OVERPROTECTIVE / A WHITE KNIGHT).
Yah, so what? Maybe our friends can defend themselves (depends on the situation, actually), but that doesn't mean we can't back them up or help them. For instance, if your friend falls to the ground and can still get up on their own, does that mean you won't offer them a hand to help them up? If your friend gets called a nasty name during class or is accused of something wrongly by the teacher, does that mean you won't speak up to defend them? These are the reasons why I can't take this argument seriously.

tl;dr - There is nothing wrong with defending a friend (or ANYONE for that matter) who is being wronged. If someone calls you a "white knight" for this, they're a nub who can't come up with a better argument/comeback to throw at you lmao like really.

"Friend Bias"

Just because a critic/reviewer is critiquing/reviewing a friend does not automatically mean their critique/review is biased.

"Friend bias" is when someone goes easy on a friend because that person is their friend, and they don't want to hurt their feelings or be "mean" to them. For instance, a person finds a flaw in their friend's character or artwork, but when asked about what they think about that character or artwork, that person neglects to correct them or tell them about the flaw because it's their friend they're giving a response to.

I have reviewed a shit ton of characters, and a good majority of them were done by friends. If I had any "friend bias" towards the reviews I gave, I wouldn't be reviewing in the first place, and I wouldn't be an honest friend.

Why people suddenly believe that you can't review/critique a character simply because that character's creator is a friend annoys me about nearly as much as the "white knight" misconceptions. Apparently, states the opinion that was so gracefully bestowed upon me, it's not logical for someone to like their friend's character for any other reason than that character being their friend's. Sorry gais, we can't like a friend's character by our own true opinions on what makes sense and what doesn't.

This also relates back to the "white knight" thing. If you attack my friends character and you're being unreasonable or making false accusations, you better fucking prepare yourself cuz I'm sending a torpedo of walltext logic up your sorry ass.

The days where internet logic urks me lmao. Welcome to the Tumblr character review world and dArama 101.