Wishing You Could Change Artists

I can’t remember exactly where this was, or if my brain made it up, but I believe I was listening to a One Piece podcast once where an exchange like this happened: HOST: “Yeah, it’s one of those things where I wish Oda just wasn’t such a perv with his character designs.” GUEST: “My partner and I used to feel that way for a long time. We used to wish we could change the things about Oda that we didn’t like. But eventually we started to feel like if you took those things away, he wouldn’t be Oda anymore and it wouldn’t really be One Piece.” This was a few years ago and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. At first, I had a bad knee-jerk reaction to what the guest said. But the guest is someone who I respect, and I love their work, so the exchange never really left my mind. The reason why I keep thinking about it is because I think I see myself on both sides of this exchange. I find myself torn between wishing that creators would change so I can love them withut reservation, versus…