#like misreading while playing yeah but after it's all online it's hard excuse the ignorance

[luvevee]

Listen I'm all for seeing Sada and Turo realize how they neglected Arven before their death and/or going a no death au route with it, and/or the AIs stepping in to help fill the parental rolls that he didn't have.

But personally it doesn't sit well to gloss over the neglect and emotional abuse entirely. I'm not saying to clarify that's a known fact every time they're talked about, I'm just saying to understand that they were neglectful and emotionally abusive parents, and that a good chunk of Arven's character arc was about realizing he wasn't just an afterthought in their lives and that he's his own person with his own thoughts/feelings/dreams/etc.

#i know i've talked about this before #but seeing a post that glossed that over and really excused how he was treated made me genuinely uncomfortable #considering how i was emotionally neglected by my parents and in some points neglected straight up- #it made me uncomfortable seeing how easily explained away arven's trauma was #i really want to leave it up to it was some misreading but at this point the posts defending the behavior of the professors- #just really downsize the trauma that we see in arven and take away what made him even more relatable to the majority of people #no his parents didn't just suddenly neglect him when they died it was back when he was a child #and how the last time he saw them in person was when they took back the giant lizard they dumped on him #like bulbapedia literally has all the quotes he says come on it's really hard to give the benefit of the doubt #like misreading while playing yeah but after it's all online it's hard excuse the ignorance #like i'm not saying 'oh i misread it my mistake' it's the 'i've seen all this stuff and i'm still gonna say he was pretty ok' things #he literally even says he hated the lizards because his parents took them back after escaping and he felt like he got replaced #like that's really hard to ignore as part of the trauma #thing is i block people who gloss that over because it's like- #it's very clear neglect and emotional abuse being excused and being portrayed in a way that's very 'hey sympathize with your trauma here' #which is awesome considering how that gets steamrolled or made fun of in most media #but looking at that and saying 'no he wasn't neglected at all it just started when the emails stopped' is like just...idk #'well he had food and books and his dog had a bed and-' those are very basic necessities #listen i always think back to my guidance class in elementary school and the lovely lady who taught it #and i always think about the videos we were shown explaining abuse and neglect and her telling us about it #and the story of neglect that stuck to me was this little girl who would be left at home for days on end with just a bowl of oranges #and then she would get passed from home to home #and i look at arven and think 'he's just like that little girl' #and then i think 'a lot of that was how i got treated' #i wasn't left at home for days on end but i was emotionally neglected in favor of my parents wanting to always argue- #and a lot of times we wouldn't have dinner because they would argue instead and i'd be too afraid to get food because of it #and seeing arven's trauma being excused/downplayed/ignored/etc is like 'where do you draw the line with that' #where do you draw the line that a child was neglected and emotionally abused and abandoned? #is it because his parents are somewhat attractive? because ai squeaked out a very personally forced 'they loved you'? #just because he wasn't physically abused doesn't make his trauma any less valid or his parents any less of shitty people