Ah, I guess that makes sense. It's less about the character themselves than the
idea of the character, and being able to identify with that idea. When you write your fanfic you aren't really thinking about the character as much as projecting yourself into them because some superficial identifier (or some desire to be associated) encourages you to write your personal fantasies regardless of whether it makes sense in the world and with the characters you've chosen. Since I was thinking about Harry Potter I also got to thinking about those fanfics where Hermione has to be saved from an abusive marriage with Ron by Harry (who is leaving his own loveless marriage to Ginny, who is inevitably a slut). I always wondered why people even
liked Hermione in the first place if they didn't think she would hex the shit out of Ron if he suddenly turned violent (and if she's supposed to be so smart and strong, why is she so easily cowed by a character they think is weak and stupid?).
With the context of tying one's identity in the characters, though, that makes a lot more sense. It's not about Hermione actually getting out of such a relationship, it's about becoming the smartest girl in school who's different from The Other Girls and ostracized and misunderstood but winds up proving herself to be so much better than them, and then living out a fantasy where you're swept away and cared for by a famous, suddenly hot, and ludicrously wealthy but also sensitive and caring man.
Which I guess actually explain Lily's use of Rey.
Sylvanas is definitely some kind of projected power fantasy -- look at me, I'm just like Sylvanas, I've been through
so much trauma but I'm still a badass bitch! -- but she doesn't really use Sylvanas for much in her writing, at least from what I've seen. Her focus is on Anevay and... the other one, whose name has escaped me and I'm not bothered to look it up. I do know that she's actually a minor Forsaken NPC from the game who, from what little dialogue she has, is pretty much a generic quest-director who's there to point you through a couple of battle plots. With a character like that you have pretty much a blank canvas to work with, although there are a few assumptions you can make, like the fact that she's fairly driven and stable and doesn't seem much fussed about being part of the Forsaken. Naturally Lily still turned her into a Tortured Soul her hates herself and has to be coaxed back into love by her gentle but also bloodthirtsy and terrifying fiancee.
But with Rey -- a character who is basically written to be a power fantasy for little girls -- you get this... weird reinterpretation where, after Lily's diverged from the script, Rey suddenly doesn't care about her fundamental motivations anymore. She casts aside the idea of ever meeting her parents against because Aliana is there to be a new family. She loses all agency because Aliana takes care of everything. She turns into a bloodthirsty psychopath who delights in torturing Kylo Ren (who is so incompetent and pathetic one wonders how he managed to traumatize Rey in the first place) and casually shrugs off murder, a character transition that occurred without passing GO and collecting its money. On Luke's planet, Rey is suddenly deprived of her ambition and drive to convince him to train her by meekly following behind Aliana, who does all the talking while Rey sometimes nods in agreement. It only took a few chapters for her whole character to be driven by and revolve around Aliana, and whatever Lily's writing now, it certainly isn't Rey.
But I guess it's the
idea of her, an incredibly powerful Force user swept up in a new quest against the Empire, who is so multi-talented and brilliant that she puts to shame every other character at everything they do. Her actual personality and motivations are irrelevant. That's the fantasy Lily wants, once more filtered through the need to be swept off her feet by a powerful and now widely feared but also broken and gentle lover with really cool, custom toys that are also better than everything else in the galaxy.
I have no idea from where does that come from. If Liliana recieved any messages like that, she never published them. Here I haven't seen such thing.
In fairness, she has published a few Asks where people encourage violence against her. The most memorable was somebody saying 'I hope you get raped', which she conveniently used as a segue to reveal that she had indeed been raped. For a second time.
Thing is, most of those Asks are very convenient like that. It just
happened that Lily could suddenly use that particular point as a way of garnering more sympathy and proving how Strong and Brave she was in the face of such wanton cruelty. I think somebody else mentioned stabbing and oh, guess what? That also happened but don't worry about it, guys. It's nothing.
They really don't come across as particularly organic, much how that analysis of Lily re: Sylvanas doesn't look at all organic, either. But it's an easy manipulative tactic to make Lily's haters seem like deranged psychopaths and to casually talk her up while still being able to play at humility. In other words, all part of the same attention-seeking scam.
