Author's note: while I was writing this story, I came up with the idea for a story that focused more on racing. Where Appare and his friends arrive on the moon just in time for the solar system Grand Prix. Representatives from all 9 planets come to compete in a race that spans 5 perilous locations via wormholes. I abandoned the idea because I'm not confident in my ability to write a racing story and/or make it interesting. But if what I've described sounds enticing to you, then feel free to take this concept and run with it. And if you like this story, please leave a review; I know I'm relatively new to writing fan-fiction, but I'm hungry for feedback (even negative feedback).
Chapter 4
Appare was the first to wake up the next morning; incredibly excited to explore the city. But he still had to wait for his friends to get up; they were still exhausted from the ride to the Moon. This time, they did join Talos and his family for breakfast; it was the first time any of the humans had ever tasted lunar food, and they unanimously agreed it was delicious. During the meal, Thuvia revealed that she and Talos had agreed to let Terra and Titan accompany them on their exploration of Maggus city; on the condition that Septimius went along with them to keep an eye on the children. Naturally, Titan and Terra were a little annoyed by this, but Appare didn't mind at all. It meant that he could study the robot more closely. However, he was a little disappointed that they were taking the light-rail instead of one of the levitating vehicles they saw on their way in; (he would've liked to study one of those as well). His disappointment quickly faded though, when he realized how much of Maggus city they were still able to see. He concluded that a bird's eye view is not always the best perspective.
The first location they visited was a massive shopping mall; which at 8 floors high, felt like a city in and of itself. Luckily Septimius was there to guide them through it, or else Appare and his friends would've gotten hopelessly lost. As you'd expect, there were plenty of shoppers going about their business that day, and when they saw the earthlings escorting their prime minister's kids, many dropped what they were doing and formed a crowd around them. It was a much nicer experience, compared to their first interaction with the residents of the Moon. Teenage azurites asked the party if they could take selfies with them, and while Appare wasn't as enthusiastic about it as his friends were, he played along just to be polite. Amongst the admiring crowd were several young children, so Jing decided to show off her acrobatic skills; like she use to do for Joshua's nephews & nieces. Even Terra was impressed when she saw the earth woman perform a handstand on two fingers. While Jing continued to entertain the shoppers; Appare went to the photography store nearby, so he could acquire some high-quality pictures of this subterranean civilization. Strangely enough, the shopkeeper told him he could take as many as he wanted for absolutely no charge. "Commissioner Cocteau notified all our stores that you might be coming, and that he would personally reimburse us for any merchandise you took." Appare was a little stunned at the apparently high level of influence the commissioner had, but he wanted to collect his photos and return to his friends, so he didn't give it a second thought. When he did, he saw that the shoppers were finally starting to disperse; allowing him and his friends to continue on their way. Kosame told him about how he got to show off his katana to a group of young azurite boys. He said it gave him great pride to share a piece of his heritage with a younger generation, and made him think about how he would someday pass on his sword to his own son Recca. Although the mall contained a movie theater, Titan claimed he knew of a much nicer one across town. "If we leave now, we can catch the latest serial of Buzz Hermes" he said with a smile. Terra didn't seem too keen on going, but she saw how much fun her brother was having with the humans, so she decided not to complain. After another ride on the light-rail, they arrived at the Bosko grand theater; Terra explained that it was named after a famous clown who use to entertain Xergiok Rex and his fellow founding fathers. Septimius paid for the adults' tickets, while Hototo and the kids got to go in for free.
The serial began with a brief introduction to who Buzz Hermes was, and the story he was the hero of. Buzz was a young azurite musician who stumbled onto the planetary expedition of the autistic scientist Dr. Zoomo Duquesne, and his mechanic niece Mira Xodar. The three traveled to the alien planet of Juju, where they were quickly captured and brought before the court of the planet's emperor: Rodan the ruthless (a humanoid mantis with electrical powers), and his sexy daughter, Princess Flora (a humanoid butterfly). What was really interesting about Buzz was that on Juju, his musical talent allowed him to wield a magic guitar he found during his escape from Rodan's palace. And with the assistance of his allies: Bowie, prince of the monkey people; Elton, a humanoid beetle; the rightful ruler of Juju (as well as Rodan's nephew); and Vandross, king of the bird people who live on Juju's moon. Buzz leads the charge to rescue Mira & Dr. Duquesne, defeat the evil Rodan, and free Juju through the power of music. Jing was a little uncomfortable that the grotesque bug king with the hots for the half his age Mira, bore a close resemblance to her own father; (he even sounded like him). But overall, she enjoyed the show, as did the others. Her favorite character was Bowie, who reminded her of Sun Wukong from Journey to the west. Appare was more impressed with the spectacle and novelty of seeing a movie for the first time. Titan whispered to him that when he grew up, he wanted to make his own movies and bring Leo Thunder's adventures to life the way he visualized them in his head.
Once the show was over, Septimius suggested that Captain Sorano might want to visit the ministry of science where Dr. Caiaphas worked. This made Appare especially excited since he had been longing to learn more about Luna's technology ever since it was revealed to him that sentient beings lived there. They didn't take the light-rail this time, as the ministry of science was just down the street. Not surprisingly, Dejah was there that day, and a more feminine looking robot escorted the party to her personal laboratory. She was a little less standoffish than she was when they first met her; (maybe because she was in her element), and happily greeted her guests. But then shocked them by flatly asking Appare if she could have a small sample of his blood. She explained that she merely wanted to study his DNA; "it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to study the genetic material of an individual from another planet." The others breathed a sigh of relief once they realized that's what she meant, and Al expressed his initial concern by explaining how he used to hear scary stories about blood-sucking vampires from his grandfather as a child. Septimius then took the others on a grand tour of the facility, while Appare stayed with Dr. Caiaphas. As she conducted her experiments, he asked her about how the hover cars worked; she responded that it was a simple matter of using electro-magnetic plates to repel against the natural metals in the ground. "We've had this technology since before Morpheus blew-up" she said, "It's honestly barbaric compared to what we're accomplishing now." "Like robots?" Appare asked excitedly; "why yes actually" Dejah said with equal enthusiasm. "In fact, I started out working in Mr. Tron's very first robot factory years ago. Back then, robots were simple minded; little more than pets really. But shortly after arriving there, my partner and I developed the more complex robot brains they use today; as well as their more human look." The mention of a partner surprised Appare, Dejah didn't strike him as a person who liked working with others. When he asked about this mysterious partner and where they were now, she quickly reverted back to her icy and aloof demeanor. It was then that Septimius returned with his friends and informed him that they could only visit one more location before they would need to head back and get ready for the banquet. So Terra suggested they go to the local zoo, so the Gaians could see animals they would otherwise never see on their home planet. This time, they did ride in a hover car piloted by Septimius; Appare got to sit up front and see how it was operated.
Although the animals at the zoo bore many similar characteristics to the animals of Earth, they were wholly unique to the planet of their birth. One particularly strange looking creature had the long neck of a giraffe; albeit thicker, and with shaggy magenta hair and black stripes like a zebra. Its huge body was incased in a malachite turtle shell, and its red hairy legs were like that of a gorilla. To top it all off, it had the head of a polar bear, but its fur was turquoise instead of white. There was a nameplate outside the enclosure but none of the humans could read the lettering, so Terra explained that this species of animal was called a Xoger. "They're the largest mammalian omnivores in Luna, and they just so happen to be my favorite animals" she said. One of the massive beasts lowered its head towards the party, who all stepped back except Septimius and the two children. Much to their astonishment, Terra stepped forward to meet it, and petted the creature's head as if it were a dog. She reassured the humans that xogers are relatively harmless animals unless provoked. "The one you really need to watch out for is the Urazo" she said looking back while Titan had his turn with the xoger. As they made their way to the urazos' enclosure, she further explained that they were the apex predators of Luna, and many big-game hunters had been killed trying to take them down. When they reached them, Kosame pointed out that they looked like a mix between a monkey and a dragon: their bodies were dark blue and hairless, while their under-bellies were yellow. The torsos of these creatures were long, thin, and flexible like a snake. They had white tuffs on their wrists, ankles, and the tips of their tails. The males even had white, lion-like manes, and the antlers of a dragon. "As a matter of fact, these guys are one of the primary reasons why the jungles beyond Quasar have remained for the most part unexplored and uncultivated," said Terra, pointing at the imposing chimeras. "I think that's how they got their name, which in the selenite's language means 'guardians of the wild.'" This was the first time any of the human adventurers herd any mention of an alien race besides azurites. Hototo was especially intrigued; since they had seen other aliens during their day out, and he found it more than a little bothersome that nobody seemed to want to talk about them, and that said other aliens seemed more hesitant to interact with them than their azurite counterparts. But before he or anyone else could ask further questions, Septimius (as if on cue) interrupted them; saying that it was almost time for the banquet. It was noticeable that the robot herded Terra and Titan away from the humans and flashed a suspicious backward glance at Hototo specifically.
Talos had booked a reservation at Amtor's: the fanciest night-club in Maggus city. Because of this, Jing asked if they needed to dress up for the banquet; Thuvia said it wasn't necessary, but if she wanted to, she could lend her one of her dresses. Although Thuvia was a little thinner than Jing; she gave her a dress made of a pliable fabric that can fit any body type. "Although personally, I much prefer the clothes you arrived in" said Thuvia; "If I had your confidence, I'd flaunt my belly for all to see; especially if it was as lovely as yours." Jing blushed at this comment; aside from her fiancé Joshua, nobody really called direct attention to her bare midriff. She only wore such clothing because it was easier to move and fight in. "Between you and me, I actually hate wearing formal clothing" continued Thuvia; "I often wish for the days before Talos became prime minister, when I would spend hours in my garden growing fruits & vegetables. It was 6:30pm, when they arrived via flying stretch limo. Amtor's was shaped like a planetarium; both its interior and exterior was black & gold. Naturally, there was a bit of a crowd outside the club, and they took pictures of Appare and his friends as they walked in. Both Appare and Talos had to shield their eyes from the flashing lights until they made it inside. Once inside, a hostess escorted them to a table near the center of the club on a higher platform. Orin and Dr. Caiaphas were already sitting there, as well as some other well-dressed azurites that Appare didn't recognize. Orin stood up and enthusiastically greeted Talos and Appare (without even looking at the hostess or the rest of Appare's friends). After a waiter brought drinks to the table, Talos stood up to give a toast, but made sure he had the attention of everyone in the club before doing so. "Ladies & gentlemen, I'd like to propose a toast to Captain Appare Sorano of Gaia and his courageous crew. Who bravely left the world they knew to form a bond with ours. Let future history books state that this was the night that the kinship between our two great planets began." This sparked a round of applause from all the patrons and some of the staff in the club. It was shortly after everyone emptied their cups and sat back down again that the floorshow started.
Seven scantily clad dancers made their way onto the stage, but they were not azurites. Their skin was green (though each dancer was a different shade) and appeared slightly taller than most of the blue people there. Hands down, their most distinguishing feature was their long-pointed ears, which jutted out ten inches from their heads. Their long jet-black hair (which was done up in ponytails) swished to & fro as they flipped, leaped, and spun around on their bare feet. "Those are hisuians, Captain" Talos explained pointing at them. Orin followed it up by saying that their natural acrobatic skills made them excellent dancers, which was further proven when the dancers started pulling off more contortionist moves. Both Al and Kosame leaned in closer, transfixed by the beautiful and slender green women; Jing cleared her throat, and shot her two friends a look to snap them back to reality. Hototo however wasn't watching the dancers, his eyes were fixed on a waitress halfway across the room. She was neither hisuian nor azurite: her skin was white and glassy like porcelain; her hair was short and purple, but blue at its tips, while two long strands of hair stood erect like antennas. She had large oval shaped eyes that would've been off-putting if they weren't periwinkle. Unlike the azurites and hisuians, she had four arms instead of two, which she used to carry multiple trays at once; each hand had only three fingers instead of five. He had been attracted to girls back home amongst his people, (some of whom returned his feelings), but none of them grabbed his attention almost instantly like this one did. So, while the others were caught up in the show, Hototo snuck away from the table to start up a conversation with the mysterious alien beauty.
She noticed him coming, (and worried he might scare her off) pretended he was looking for the bathroom. The four-armed girl saw right through his act however, and with a knowing smile actually came to meet him halfway. "Hiya, my name's Dita, what's yours?" She asked cheerfully. Hototo quickly gave his name in response; knowing that she was still on the clock and couldn't talk for long. "I'm friends with the daughter of the lead belly-dancer, and we're going to a party after my shift is over. Why don't you join us, after you've actually had something to eat; the food here is really good, according to critics." Hototo was a little surprised, but also impressed by how forward this girl was. "Sure, I'd like that" he said (not wanting to seem too eager). "Great! Come to the backstage door in about an hour" said Dita, pointing to the door behind her on her right-side. "Just tell the bouncer you're a friend of mine; he might look mean but he's really a big sweetheart" she said with a smile. She then returned to her duties and Hototo rejoined his friends, who didn't even notice he had stepped away. The food was indeed delicious; at the request of Talos, the establishment put forth its most expensive food so the humans could taste the very best the Moon had to offer. Everyone agreed that it was the best food they had ever tasted. Exactly an hour later, Hototo once again snuck away from the dinner-party to meet up with Dita. The bouncer stood nearly 8 feet tall and looked like he belonged to the same race as Belik Thun; although his hair & beard were shorter, and his stomach was more blobby than muscular. Just like Dita said, he let him through with only the tiniest blip of reservation at the mention of her name. Once backstage, Hototo saw Dita and a hisuian girl talking with one of the belly dancers. He figured she was the lead dancer as well as the green girl's mother, for she was dressed in purple while the other dancers were dressed in yellow. She also had a navel ring, while the other dancers did not. Dita then signaled to Hototo to come closer so she could introduce him to her friend. "This is Leeloo Kuato" she said, drawing attention to the younger hisuian. She stared at him suspiciously for a long time, not sure what to make of him. Then looked to Dita, as if for confirmation that this alien boy could be trusted. "You know me Leeloo, I'm very good at judging people's character" she whispered into her friend's ear. "Plus, I think he's really cute" she said even softer. Leeloo smiled and winked, then offered her hand for Hototo to shake. Her fingernails were long & pointed like bird talons, but she was able to shake his hand without scratching him. As soon as Dita and Leelooo's mother were finished changing into regular clothes, the four of them left Amtor's and made their way to a very different part of town. The buildings looked older and weren't as tall, there was also a lot more hisuians and people like Dita and the bouncer about then there was near the center of the city. They pulled up in front of a small, square building that appeared to be made of bricks. Hototo expected they would enter through the front door, but then Dita and Leeloo went to the left of the building, where there seemed to be no doorway in sight. There was however one brick that jutted out a little from the wall, and when Dita pressed it, a large section of wall shifted to the side: revealing a passageway going down a flight a stairs. Amazed, Hototo followed the two girls down the stairs to a room alive with music and dancing.
All the light in the room was blue, and there were two robots playing electronic music at the turntables. The crowd was a diverse mix of azurites, hisuians, purple people, insect people, and people who resembled antelope, dancing to the rhythmic and addicting melody. Two of them actually left the dance floor, and came up to greet Dita and Leeloo as soon as they noticed them come in. The two figures appeared female, and around Hototo's age: the purple girl wasn't as tall as some of the other aliens present who looked like her but was still much taller than Hototo himself. Her indigo hair was done up into pigtails, and while she had a mouth full of sharp teeth like Belik Thun, she wore them in a smile that looked so honest and friendly, you could overlook how sharp they were; (it didn't hurt that her face & demeanor overall was very cute). Her black dress left her arms bare; revealing her impressive biceps, and had a cut-out in its center to show off her rock-hard abs. The other girl with her was more animalistic in appearance. She had two small horns protruding from the top of her head, but her face looked more like that of a wildcat's than a gazelle's. If she was naked, you would've seen brown splotches going down her back, which contrasted with the yellow fur all over her body. Her pointy ears were 7 inches long and were a little wider than Leeloo's. Unlike the other three girls, who were wearing skirts and dresses, this cute chimera was wearing a button-up shirt and dress pants. The purple girl spoke first; "I am so happy you made it my friends, and what is more, you brought along a new friend for us to become acquainted with." She then proceeded to lift all three of them off the ground and into a bear hug (much to Hototo's surprise). "You're as strong as a buffalo!" He said with amazement when she put them back down. "I do not know what a buffalo is, but your complement is greatly appreciated" she replied shyly. "I am Juno Lum, and this is Faye V Bluford," said the purple girl. "You don't have to say the whole thing every single time Juno" the cat girl said teasingly; "you can just call me Faye" she added, turning to Hototo and winking. He started to introduce himself, but Faye cut him off; explaining that she and Juno knew that he was one of the explorers from Gaia. Hototo suddenly remembered the press conference he was part of just yesterday and felt a little embarrassed. He didn't have to dwell on that for long however, as Dita guided him to the dance floor. It was a lot of fun, the entire time Hototo couldn't take his eyes off of Dita nor she hers off of him.
Once they were weary of dancing, they went to sit down at a booth were a teenage azurite boy was already sitting. His skin color was more of a bluish-green, and his ears while normal sized were pointed like an elf's. He sat up halfway to give Faye a kiss. "New guy, this is my boyfriend Tars Starwind, Tars, meet new guy" said Faye in her usual playfully teasing manner. "My name is Hototo" he replied sternly, but offered to shake hands with Tars who cheerfully accepted. "Don't mind Faye" said Tars; "she's like that with everyone, especially the people she cares about." Once everyone was seated, Hototo pointed out the wristband on Tars' left arm; it had some kind of inscription on it that didn't resemble the lettering on anything else he saw when he and his friends first entered the underground city. When he ask what it meant, the mood shifted, and the five young aliens leaned in around the table with Hototo following suit. "The writing of which you speak means 'Thun lives'" Juno whispered. "It is written in the ancient language of my people the Jangos. Very few azurites are able to read it, so Silver Comet uses it for all their secret messaging." Hototo finally felt like he was getting somewhere; "I knew something was off about this world ever since Talos told my friends and I about the 'history' & 'founding' of the Unified Sectors of Quasar." "Your suspicions were well placed" Dita replied, "this planet originally belonged to my ancestors the selenites; along with hisuians like Leeloo, and saber-boks like Faye. When the first azurites arrived over 300 years ago, they used their jango slaves to drive us out of our homes and claim the most fertile land for themselves. All this was old-hat to Hototo, who knew all too well what that was like. But something else grabbed his attention, the mention of Juno's people being enslaved by the azurites. She explained that both Jangos & Azurites came from Morpheus; "many centuries before our home planet was destroyed, my people lived a mostly peaceful and prosperous existence. Our blue brothers & sisters also had plenty of good land, but they were too lazy to maintain it themselves. So they used their knowledge & resources to kidnap & enslave us. My people tried many times to rescue their loved ones, but the azurites put force-fields around their communities to keep them out. And when the time came to escape Morpheus' explosion, they only took their slaves with them, even though the ark had more than enough room for everyone; 80% of the original Jango population was left behind to die."
While listening to Juno, Hototo briefly looked over to Tars just to see what his reaction was to all this. He looked as thou he had done all those awful things himself, and regretted it with every fiber of his being. Faye then took his hand into her own and that appeared to comfort him a little bit. Juno continued; "we jangos have only been free for about a hundred years (when robots became accessible to the public), and even now we and our Lunar siblings are not truly equal to our azurite siblings. Over the years, they have enacted laws designed to put them on top and everyone else on the bottom. Many have been overturned by now, but our communities are still underfunded and over policed. And they continue to make media that mocks and belittles us (weather they mean to or not)." "You know Buzz Hermes's nemesis, Rodan the ruthless?" Asked Leeloo; "he was originally designed to vilify both hisuians and selenites. Worse yet, the actor who plays him isn't even hisuian or selenite, but an azurite in green face make-up." Hototo was absorbing everything his new friends were telling him, but there was one thing he wished they would circle back to. "You mentioned a silver comet earlier Juno; who or what is this Silver Comet, and how is Belik Thun connected?" He asked. Tars proceeded to explain that Silver Comet was the name of a group of freedom fighters who had been working towards more equality for all lunarians for the past five years. "Mr. Thun is their leader; they say that he and his siblings-in-arms escaped from the toughest prison on the planet. Even by jango standards, he's super strong, but he's also a brilliant strategist. And he's almost always on the front lines; the first in the charge and the last in the retreat." Before he could go into further detail, everyone at the table was distracted by the sound of breaking glass.
Apparently, three young azurites were harassing a waitress who was a selenite like Dita. Partly fueled by everything he just heard, and partly fueled by wanting to impress Dita, Hototo made straight for the three jerks to try and stop them. "Hey! Why don't you leave the girl alone, haven't your people done enough." Dita and her friends all winced at that line, knowing that it was only going to make the situation worse; "come on Dita" said Faye, "we better go save your boyfriend before he gets himself killed." Normally, Dita would snap back that she only met Hototo a few hours ago, but she was more concerned about Hototo's safety. And indeed, the situation was escalating rapidly, as one of the young azurites went into full retaliation mode. "You know what, at first I thought you and your fellow aliens were kinda cool, but now that I see that you're a filthy bug lover it's clear to me that you need some re-education." He tried taking a swing at Hototo, but Juno caught the punch in her hand. "Violence is only acceptable when defending others or oneself" she said with a stern frown; before she pushed the bully with so much force, that he slide across the room and hit his head against the bar. Any chance of defusing the situation immediately vanished, for three other like-minded azurites got up from a nearby table to join the fray, (apparently just waiting for an excuse to start a fight). The bullies matched Hototo and his new friends in numbers, but in regards to muscle they were punching way above their weight. In fact, Juno and Faye could've easily defeated them on their own, but deliberately held back; not only to keep from hurting the bullies too badly, but also to allow their other friends chance to get in on the action. Hototo noticed that while he, Juno, Faye, Tars, and Leeloo did most of the actual fighting; Dita was running around in the background to make sure no innocent bystanders got hurt, and property damage was kept to a minimum. He was kind of amazed at how fast she was moving, but then he noticed that the first bully was getting up, and he had grabbed a knife! He saw him heading straight for Dita, who was too busy protected people to see him coming. Like lightning, Hototo ran to block his path. Dita turned around just in time to see Hototo knock out her would-be assailant with a single punch, but she also saw the knife lodged in his stomach, and the blood dripping from the wound. She quickly caught Hototo in her arms, and yelled to her friends for help. Luckily, they had already defeated the other bullies and were already trying to figure out what to do. "We've got to take him to my Hive Mother! Only she can save him now!" Said Dita in a distressed voice. The club owner then opened another secret door near the bar. "Everyone duck in here" she said after whistling to make sure everyone in the club was listening. "Me and my boys will tie up the troublemakers until the city guards show up, then I'll signal to the rest of you when it's ok to come back. Dita, I assume you know how to get to her from here?" Dita simply nodded, as she tried to walk Hototo to the exit. On their way out, he saw the two robots from the turntables tying up the unconscious bullies. The club owner wished Dita and her friends good luck as they passed through the doorway into another dark tunnel; "and say hi to your Hive Mother for me" she said, just before the crowd of teenagers started to pour in behind them. Once they were alone, Dita gave Hototo over to Juno who cradled him in her beefy yet comfortable arms. He was fading in and out of consciousness at this point, but he was awake to see Dita's body start to glow like a firefly. "Alright follow me, I'm already linked up to Hive Mother; she's gonna guide us right to her," and the five aliens headed off into the tunnels as quickly as they could, with Hototo desperately clinging to life. Because he kept fading in and out of consciousness, he wasn't certain how long the journey to this mysterious "Hive Mother" was. He was conscious however by the time they reached her, so he got to see what she looked like; (an encounter he would never forget). She was 60ft long; while her upper body looked like an older version of Dita, (albeit with her own distinguishing features); from the waist down, she was a huge slug like mass that made up 40% of her body. Altogether, her appearance was both beautiful and frightening. The last thing he remembered was the excruciating pain of having the knife pulled out of his wound, and then being placed in one of Hive Mother's giant hands. He wasn't sure how she was going to save his life, but if Dita trusted her that was good enough for him.
Author's note: I hope that by now it's apparent I've taken a lot of inspiration from classic science fiction, specifically the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, H G Wells, and Alex Raymond. One day I was listening to the Flash Gordon theme song composed by Queen, and I wondered, what if Freddie Mercury was the lead actor of the film and said film was an epic rock opera musical; that would be the basic premise of Buzz Hermes (yes I know it's not subtle). For Leo Thunder, I borrowed mostly from the John Carter of Mars franchise with some elements from Dragon ball Z & Superman thrown in for good measure. Now I love Sci-Fi, but I'll be the first to admit that the old stuff can have some down-right racists and xenophobic implications. Flash Gordon's nemesis, Ming the merciless is basically Fu Manchu in space. But I'm also of a mind who believes that you can enjoy things that are problematic, just so long as you acknowledge those offensive elements and view them as such. No work of fiction is above criticism, so be critical of the things you love (especially the things you love). And don't assume that just because someone likes something like Gone with the Wind or Huckleberry Finn, that it means that they're racist for liking something with racist elements in it. instead ask why they like it, most likely it won't be for all it's bad qualities.