User blog:Chelsea.adams.524/A Jeff The Killer Rant

"Nuu. Jeff iz suppose tu be uglee an creppy. wai fangurls gotta maek him kawaii-desu bishie?!"





This is a fairly common complaint I see regarding fanart of everyone's favorite burnt smiling crazy killer, Jeff. Apparently, many people seem to think that the artwork of Jeffy is overrun by "sexy" Anime-style images created by crazed fangirls. I've seen pictures, journal entries, and whatnot where people complain about how Jeff is supposed to be "ugly" and "creepy" and how fangirls "ruined" him by making him look like "a sexy bishie" ("Bishie" by the way, is short for Bishonen, Japanese for "beautiful boy").





I strongly disagree with these complaints. Why? Well, I've got three reasons.





First off, I just don't see it. No, seriously. I searched through tons of Jeff The Killer fanart, and found that the vast majority of it is either in the classic "Creepy-Looking Jeff" style (or variations therof), or in a heavily stylized cartoony style (Most of what I've seen looking something akin to something drawn by either Jhonen Vasquez or Tim Burton). In fact, the "Anime-Style" Jeff fanart was in the minority. And, even then, most of it wasn't what I'd call "sexy" artwork of Jeff. Yes, it's  slightly more attractive than "Creepy Jeff" fanart (Mostly because he didn't look like the spawn of L and Ryuk from Death Note), but it's far from the "kawaii desu bishie" images people kept complaining about.





Heck, most "Anime-Style" Jeff fanart I've seen potray him as relatively plain looking with his trademark scars and looking very unkempt (IE: His hair his very messy and he looks like he probably hasn't bathed or washed his blood-splattered clothes in days). That's not exactly what I'd consider to be the "kawaii desu bishie" fanart I've heard about. In fact, that's actually how I'd picture Jeff considering he's a serial killer on the run. Even if he did look resonably attractive, he'd still probably smell horrible (No offense, Jeff). Not exactly something that screams "uber sexy".





Second, fans finding monsters, villains, and whatnot to be "sexy" is nothing new. It's what TV Tropes defines as "Draco In Leather Pants" and "Evil Is Sexy". And the causes for this reaction vary from character to character. Suffice to say, it basically just means that some villains come off as more attractive and/or sympathetic than the hero.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">And, I know some of you are thinking that those tropes only apply to "attractive" villains. Nope. I've seen fangirls swoon over characters like Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. Need I remind everyone that Freddy is a horribly burnt man who kills teenagers in their dreams and that Jason Voorhees is an undead hockey-mask wearing being who goes around impaling anyone who enters Camp Crystal Lake with his machete? Yet, somehow, both have fans who find them sexy and want to bear their children (eww). People finding Jeff attractive despite his disfigured appearance comes as no surprise to me.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Finally, even if Jeff was attractive, how would that change anything about him regarding his personality? He would still be a deranged lunatic who would stab first and as questions later. I wouldn't care how "sexy" or "kawaii" or whatnot he is. If I saw him running towards me with a knife, I'm still going to run as far away from him as I can.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Let me put this another way. Ever hear of Ted Bundy? There were people who thought he was attractive and who said he seemed like a normal person. This didn't change the fact that he was a notorious serial killer who brutally murdered people (mostly women). Heck, some people were surprised when he was convicted of killing so many people because they thought he didn't look like someone who would murder people.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">The same applies to Jeff. No matter how he's portrayed, he's still a psychopath who loves to kill things. And, people drawing him in a "sexy" style isn't going to change that.