#targets; and incredibly alienating and isolating and cruel to people who have already been targets'

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

having a lot of thoughts about how people use 'normalize' when they mean 'destigmatize' or 'make the nature of into common knowledge,' and how they conflate 'the perception of this thing as normal' with the thing actually being a normal occurrence, and how it is in fact incredibly harmful to try to convince people that an ideal situation is normal when that does not map onto their lived reality or the dangers they need to be aware of to avoid. it is 3:33am though so writing up an actual poast about it will have to wait for later

#whosebaby talks #this post brought to you by 'spreading awareness of what an abusive relationship is and looks like compared to a nonabusive relationship' #'is fantastic and i support it fully and think it's deeply important. giving people the false idea that abusive relationships are uncommon' #'and are flukes that go against the grain of society functioning as it normally does; is insanely dangerous to people who are potential #targets; and incredibly alienating and isolating and cruel to people who have already been targets' #'in uniquely awful ways depending on whether they're already aware of that or aren't. don't fucking do that' #it applies much more broadly than that; but it's an instance i think about A Lot and it's what led me to this line of thought to start with #there's also 'normal does not mean good and saying so has incredibly unbelievably harmful implications keep that shit out of your mouth' #but that is so obvious it boggles my mind that it has to be explained to anyone on this site; and it is talked about often enough #that i would rather focus on the parts i don't really see talked about much; if at all #also like the fact that 'statistically average' normal vs 'things are functioning as they usually do' is a critically important distinction #they are closely related and interplay heavily with each other but they are Not the Same Thing #and how 'normal' can refer to different layers and aspects of a subject--people with rare health conditions are not statistically average #and that by itself is fine. and those people having conditions that are disruptive to the usual functioning of a space or system #is avoidable in some cases by establishing as much infrastructure as possible to integrate their more common needs smoothly #and unavoidable in others; which means the normal functioning of a system/space that accommodates people with unexpected needs #has to account *for its normal functioning being disrupted sometimes* #and bend around that disruption without either breaking down or rolling right over the disabled people who Cause Problems #and at the same time 'rare health condition' gets applied to health conditions that are not rare *at all* to not only justify not bothering #to make the system integrate their needs in general when it could do so easily; but make it so that accommodating their needs anyway puts #immense and unnecessary strain on the system; so there is zero margin for anything you didn't specifically fight tooth and nail for already #anyway it's a really extensive subject and a fascinating one. for later. sleep now #abuse cw #ableism cw #the salt files #is there a name for that tag

[redfirerai]

It’s only been 5 episodes and the iwtv fandom is already a shithole.

First off, the fifth episode SHOULD have had a trigger warning; I agree on that fact. This is not to say that the writers poorly wrote this episode/ made Lestate OOC because, after having watched the episode, I honestly don’t find it surprising that show Lestat would do something like this. It makes sense; he only loved Claudia because Claudia is both loveable and an extension of Louis. Lestat has shown an incredibly large capacity for violence and cruelty. He is not a good person. He is not a hero and he only cares about being Louis’ top priority. But some of you are acting like it wasn’t jarring to watch. As much as I love Hannibal, this is an extremely different situation from the finale of season 2. Louis and Lestat were in a relationship. They were functionally MARRIED. They were never perfect, but this was never even hinted as happening. He’s not had any previous slips with harming Louis or Claudia so people have every right to be shocked.

Second of all, some of you people are acting like Louis and Lestat are equally abusive towards each other, and that is 100% false and reeks of racism. Every moment that Louis rejected or hurt Lestat was always in reaction to Lestat. He was recently human and his current disposition as a fledgling comes with all of his humanly attachments. He cares about his family. His brother died which permanently destroyed his relationship with his mother. His sister became alienated. He was being targeted from every angle for being a black, gay man who dared to move up the social ladder. It’s like half of you blanked out for most of episode two/three until you heard the words “this is why you’ll always be alone,” leave Louis’ mouth. At the very moment he needed humanity and support from the one person he was risking everything for, he was met with complete apathy to his struggles. Not only does Lestat completely misunderstand Louis’ core—the very foundation and set of rules that form his values—he want Louis in a way that is not possible. Louis is a monogamous man that craves family structure—louis is fundamentally a different creature. And that’s okay. That is the story and I’m fully on board to be entranced by its beauty and suffering. But getting mad on behalf of Lestat? Justifying literally any of his actions towards Louis is fucking insane. If he wasn’t conventionally attractive or white, this wouldn’t even be a topic of conversation. You can like him—I absolutely love TV show Lestat for being this unhinged, devoted, and brutal. But don’t fucking twist the canonical story of the TV show to justify the Lestat you head-cannoned in your brain. People do this; this is very real behaviour. Love-bombing and isolating is part of toxic relationships. Many abusers seem like perfectly loving people until things don’t go their way. Seeing only the sacrifices Lestat made for Louis is ignoring the time, context, and attachments Louis had to his human life. I am not saying Louis is an angel, but he definitely is not the abuser in the relationship

Lastly, Claudia’s implied SA is completely unnecessary to the story and her journey as a character. There was no need to do this to her; she could have arrived at the world being a cruel place without this.

On a side note, I don’t have qualms with her character writing but I do see what people are saying about how she didn’t need to see Louis being half beat to death to want to k*ll Lestat. That is probably the only criticism I agree with when it comes to the writing of that scene. I would have loved to see her and Lestat be at eachother’s throats because that was already implied. And Louis, as a father, is justified in choosing Claudia over Lestat, especially when there’s enough abuse already. Again, I don’t think the scene at the end of season 5 was bad/OOC per se, but I don’t think it was completely necessary.

#interview with the vampire #iwtv series #iwtv tv #rant post #the vampire lestat #louis pointe du lac #lestat de lioncourt #claudia

[livlepretre]

Awesome chapter of SWSB/SWBS bc I can never remember which way those words go lol

Good for Elena standing up to the Salvatore's and I can only imagine the possible ass kicking at least Damon might get from Klaus if he sees those bruises/smells him on her.

Speaking of Damon, I love how in character he is (technically I think they're all in character bc you're amazing), you don't tend to "woobify" him as we used to say in fandom lol

And oh yes the Jenna problem. I kind of never really see it as a huge problem where Elena and whomever she's with are concerned. I feel like bc of the nature of it being a supernatural show and what not, that it's sorta something all the characters have to go through anyway (loss, grief, etc) just bc the nature of their characters (becoming vampires, witches, etc). But at the same time I'm glad you do address it in your fics bc it is more realistic and I loved Jenna and wished she could have just became a vampire. Like I always wonder how that could have gone and if Elena would have made the same choices after the sacrifice had Jenna lived in some fashion.

The worst part being that Klaus basically did it out of spite, since she had already agreed to die for the sacrifice anyway, which honestly just makes him that much more of a deliciously evil sob. 😈 Oh the love to hate!

I haven't missed anything about Elena knowing it's Klaus's baby yet, right? I'm sorta blanking on if that came out yet haha

Can't wait for the next chapter! What do they say nowadays, *chefs kiss*

bahahaha that’s what I get for naming this fic after a line in a song (and screwing up the lyrics because I did it from memory LOL)

There are going to be fireworks, don’t you worry!

Woobification is such a great term. You’re right that it seems to have fallen out of vogue though. I think encountering woobification in tvd fic in particular was one of the frustrations that finally lit a fire under me to start writing my own fic. I’m all for people woobifying however they’d like and enjoying whatever they want, but it’s not my particular cup of tea-- I really enjoy digging into the really difficult parts of these characters-- the monstrous, the horrifying, the cruel, the selfish, the jealous... and thinking about which parts of those might actually be parts of their humanity. 

I’m incredibly thrilled that Damon is reading as “in character”-- if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times-- I find him incredibly difficult to write! After a decade of writing tvd fic I’m only just now gaining enough confidence with his character to have him actually stay in a scene rather than conveniently leave right away. 

Oh, I think Elena would have been soooo much better off if Jenna had lived! Her primary issue is that without a parent figure meaningfully in the picture-- in this case, that would mean a parent figure fully aware of the supernatural dangers and pressures Elena faces-- she ends up succumbing to the influence of the Salvatores, who are both such terrible influences on her and lead her further and further down this dark path to the point where they’ll eat someone in front of her, and she just doesn’t care so long as it’s not one of her friends. 

Part of this is that Elena has this remarkable capacity to forgive when she really shouldn’t. One of the most informative things to me about the incident where Damon breaks Jeremy’s neck and she ends up forgiving him, even after declaring that she never would, is that actually, Elena can forgive anything so long as it’s ultimately undoable. She can forgive Damon for murdering her brother, because her brother happens to come back to life. That shouldn’t in any way absolve Damon, who 1) didn’t know about the ring and 2) that’s really not an excuse at all, but for Elena, who is under those intense psychological pressures from her status in a supernatural setting, that’s sufficient. 

The Jenna thing becomes a huge issue then. It’s permanent. Jenna’s dead and that’s it. To me, this is actually the biggest impediment against Klaus/Elena in the show (unless we imagine a situation where Jenna lives, or remains a vampire, or there’s a canon divergence pre-sacrifice). I think her heart would want to forgive him, but she would keep coming up against the implacability of Jenna’s fate... so, that’s where one of the huge focuses of my fic writing and set up always comes in-- figuring out how Elena could possibly move past Jenna’s murder in order to fall for Klaus-- in SWBS, the answer turned out to be: make her so isolated and alienated and feel so broken and rejected that any company seemed like good company. 

I too think Klaus totally killed Jenna for spite. I have this head canon that he really does want Elena, but he’s angry that he has to kill her (and he’s wayyyyy too selfish to ever consider doing anything else) so he takes it out on her by killing Jenna. Because honestly? It’s such a weird choice for him to make! It’s so targeted and mean! Especially since Elena has always been loud and clear that she would go willingly with him! 

No one knows that the baby is Klaus’s, although, Elena almost put it together on the car drive to Whitmore... but she repressed repressed repressed rather than consciously figure that one out. But don’t you worry, there’s a clock counting down to when all will be revealed, and it’s getting very close to zero... Literally you can see me setting the stage for the end with the Salvatores coming back, plus a couple of other curve balls I have planned! 

Thanks so much for your comment, loved reading your thoughts!!! 

#finnismyoriginalsin #asks #swbs