Booktok's obsession with "I can fix him" and

 From Cardan Greenbriar to Coriolanus Snow I'm sure at some point in your reading journey (especially if your a a romance reader)you have probably stumbled across a character and thought to yourself - I can fix him. I know I have. Although you can find this mind set in  almost every kind of media from music to film I have always wondered -What is the media's odd obsession with the “I can fix him” troupe? 

The “I can fix him” mind set is often used with mortally grey characters to reason/excuse  their interesting morals. For those who don’t know ,The Urban dictionary describes morally grey characters as” Morally grey is a character who does too much bad to be a good character, yet too much good to be a bad character. A character who is in between good and bad. "While this definition helps to show the more traditional type of morally grey character  and help us understand why people could apply this concept to them I do believe that it is also important to recognise that this isn’t the only category of this archetype emerging in pop culture. The first is you stereotypical morally grey Robin Hood type ,steal from the rich give to the poor. And while this does range from your more traditional morally grey characters to those who are slightly  more questionable (like Kaz breaker)they are all still characters with some morals.

   

However ,people also apply the “I can fix him troupe "to characters who claim to be morally grey characters but are really just serial killer suave. Take for example Coriolanus Snow -objectively he is cruel and brutal killer even when he is written from a more favourable perspective in the Ballad of the song birds and snakes. And yet, as you read the book there is still that little something niggling at the very back of your mind. 

Many people often have this mind set ,as it allows them to have a sense of control and delve deeper into the fictional world of the book. In fact  psychologist Sydney Gomez describes this phenomenon that also known as helper syndrome as "These individuals may derive a sense of purpose or value from their ability to help others. At times, this is done to counteract deeper-seeded feelings of worthlessness or insecurity,” 

Overall I don't think the "I can fix him mind" set if harmful(unless applied to an actual relationship) but rather just another TikTok trend