MC, ever have trouble being a fan of a PC?

The PCs are distinctly not boring.

The players aren't doing anything that makes me uncomfortable.  I have played worse bad-guys than any of these characters.

The players aren't playing wrong in even the slightest way.  This is all about my MCing.

What I'd really like to do with this thread is sort out what it means to be a fan of players that I wouldn't personally like and can't imagine my NPCs liking/supporting either.  I perceive a potential incompatibility between an agendum (make Apocalypse World seem real) and an MC principle (be a fan of the players' characters) and I'm working through how to do that.  If I arrange most of the hard-holder's hold against him, I'm fucking him over, not being his fan.  If I don't, Apocalypse World doesn't seem real.  Or at least, that's a possibility.

And also, I ran my third session yesterday and I still love Apocalypse World.

Oh, also, I think I'm doing an adequate job of handling the situation.  This is not something that's going to cause me to quit MCing or my players to quit playing or a rift to swallow the world.  But it's a thing that I'm surprised to find that I'm the only one.  So I'm wondering what's going on that I'm not seeing.

I perceive a potential incompatibility between an agendum (make Apocalypse World seem real) and an MC principle (be a fan of the players' characters) and I'm working through how to do that.

I don't think there's an incompatibility at all, because "being a fan" is *NOT* "be nice to them", it's something radically different, and has nothing really to do with "making AW real".

If I arrange most of the hard-holder's hold against him, I'm fucking him over, not being his fan.  If I don't, Apocalypse World doesn't seem real.  Or at least, that's a possibility.

You "never speak its name", *YOU* are not arranging the Hardholder's hold against him, the realities of Apocalypse World are, you're just the agent of those realities making plausible and realistic moves by an, I'm assuming, oppressed population.  That's the "make Apocalypse World seem real" part.

The "Be a fan" part is looking at this horrible situation and honestly saying, "OMIGOD!  How is the Hardholder going to get out of this mess?  I'm excited to find out!" 

Yeah, that rings true and is pretty close to the understanding that I've come to.  My initial understanding of fandom was a little myopic.