Dreamingofsomethingdifferent - Dreaming Of Something Different

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The amazing digital art of li shuxing

“You were married; don’t you know how this is supposed to go? The woman doesn’t want you to argue or try to solve the problem with logic. The woman wants you to commiserate with her. You don’t have to fix anything. Just stand there and nod and say ‘uh huh’ and ‘I understand.’ That’s all you’re supposed to do.”

—    Lindsay Buroker,  The Emperor’s Edge    

not to post even more Villains Discourse on main but it really bugs me how people read giving villains tragic backstories as inherently excusing their actions and/or demonizing trauma survivors.

the actual message of Tragic Villains is (almost) always “people who are never taught or given any healthy, constructive outlets for their emotions will often find unhealthy, destructive outlets.” it’s that people who are traumatized and never learn how to cope with that trauma can become a danger to themselves and others. the message isn’t “trauma makes you evil!!!!” or “genocide is okay if you’ve been sad before!!!!” it’s “people need compassion and help to recover from trauma instead of becoming increasingly angry and harming themselves and others in the process.”

this site takes an alarmingly behaviorist and punitive approach to everything and it’s literally the most annoying thing. y’all have this concept that “if we just punish people hard enough, if we just scare them enough, if we just make them feel guilty enough.” that people just Do Bad Things Because They Do Bad Things, I Guess, and Because We Didn’t Threaten Them And Shame Them Enough. but humans are an innately social species. at our very core, we need compassion and kindness. we need healthy relationships with other humans.

you can keep looking at traumatized villains and being like “haha this dumb pathetic sadboi thinks murder is okay because his parents died” but as a survivor myself, unaddressed/untreated trauma absolutely can make you ragey and destructive. i was lucky enough to have support and eventually get the treatment i needed. but it’s not hard at all for me to imagine how, if that hadn’t been the case, that could’ve been me. obviously not on a movie-villain scale like murder or war crimes, but it’s so irritating as someone whose trauma has always manifested as anger to watch people on this site be like “this is just bad writing!!! real survivors/good survivors don’t end up like that the writers just hate survivors and want the audience to condone murder!”

Forgotten by the world, but not by nature.

If you’re a writer of any kind and you don’t plan to make the protagonist end up with the villain then please stop giving them sexual tension and better chemistry than the people they end up with. Please I’m begging you- I don’t know how much longer I can stand seeing a protagonist end up with a dry ass good guy when a sexy brooding man was waiting there this whole time. Please my weak heart cannot handle another disappointment.

Reylo

" We can rule together and bring a new order to the galaxy. Join me. Please. "

Darklina

" You were meant to be my balance. You are the only person in the world who might rule with me, who might keep my power in check. "

green? green <3

MAKKARI & DRUIG

ETERNALS (2021) dir. Chloé Zhao

look i know it’s a bold move but let’s start giving characters happy endings again