Boyfriend Dungeon fans have demonstrated their inability to parse reality from fiction by attacking the actor who voiced the dungeon-crawler video game’s main baddie.
Boyfriend Dungeon has garnered far more attention and love than I ever imagined. When I first came across its curious title on an upcoming games list I had a bit of a laugh, thought about covering it, didn’t, and quickly forgot about its existence.
Fast forward a few weeks and there are apparently Boyfriend Dungeon fans fervent enough in their devotion (perhaps delusion) that they are driven to strike out at the man behind the game’s villain: Eric. I say ‘behind’, but actor Alexander Gross is about as responsible for Eric’s toxicity as the fans are – which is to say not at all.
So what the hell is going on? Gross took to Twitter to plead for confused fans to stop sending him “hate messages about my character in Boyfriend Dungeon”. He rightfully pointed out that while the character he portrayed sucks, he is in fact his own man.
A man that is willing to portray all sorts of characters, likeable or otherwise, because here’s the thing: he’s an actor by trade.
Saying "it reflects poorly on me to play a character like this" is so confusing. There's bad people out there, I don't support what these kind of people are doing/saying/thinking at all. It's just acting, y'all.
— Known Garuda Impact User (@Octopimp) August 16, 2021
As long as people desire to be entertained, there will be fictional characters that do bad things. Even the Care Bears, possibly the most positive piece of fluff ever dreamt up, required villains to function in a narrative form. I mean, what would the alternative be?
I’m trying to figure out what entertainment looks like without evil and all I’m coming up with is peace-loving orgies… which isn’t the vibe I’m getting from Boyfriend Dungeon.
Look, enough of this. I’ve just written a paragraph that includes Care Bears and ‘peace-loving orgies’ and I think I might be cursed now. People need to sober up and let actors do their thing. If the concept of a bad person offends you, in a work of fiction nonetheless, then I fear your time on this planet will be extraordinarily distressing.
And while that doesn’t bring me any pleasure, the villain from Boyfriend Dungeon (or the man who voices him) isn’t responsible. The game comes with a trigger warning, and if you aren’t enjoying it, you can choose to just turn it off.
Besides, does anyone who bought a game called Boyfriend Dungeon really have the moral high ground? Seems somewhat problematic to begin with.
