turn

suffering [noun]

I’m sick of all the people (mostly on Twitter) who use the abuse Vegas experienced to justify and even excuse his actions. He’s an awful guy, but some people never want to admit that they like him, so they try to redeem him before the show even gets a chance.

Look, I get it. I like Vegas too. From a narrative perspective, he’s a spectacular character, and he’s deeply interesting and well-written. But that doesn’t mean he’s a good person. He’s terrible. It’s fine to like that, because it’s fictional. But excusing his behavior due to his trauma? That’s just wrong.

John Wayne Gacy was abused as a child. Does the abuse he suffered excuse rape, torture, and 33 murders? An estimated 1 in 7 children experiences abuse/neglect every year. Do they all grow up to rape, torture, and murder as well?

“Pete will fix him.”

And why is that his responsibility?

Vegas doesn’t need Pete to “fix” him. He needs a licensed therapist, professional medical help. He needs to get this during jail time (cmon, HIStory3: Trapped did it, KinnPorsche can too!). Pete may be empathetic as all hell, he may have some shared experiences, but unless he’s got a psychology degree buried somewhere in that murky backstory we’re just now uncovering, he can’t help Vegas the way so many people are hoping he will. And please don’t use Vegas’ relationship with Pete to excuse his actions either. Having a relationship with a good person does not make you a good person. Being gay doesn’t mean he can do no wrong.

Society if Cas had visible wings :,)

So this little comic kicks off my superfresh, still warm Patreon Account: patreon.com/cottoncandyofterror - There are a few more panels that are patreon-exclusive and too spicy for tumblr :3

I would be so happy if I could welcome some of you over there :)

And yes, he does sound American. You can hear it in some of his vowels but most prominent you can hear it in the way he pronounces the /r/ sound. It’s a rather unique feature and it is very strongly associated with American English.

The end of episode one is meant to establish that there is a physical attraction between the two of them, and that they’re both at least semi-aware of it; episode two is meant to show that initial attraction developing into something more as they get to know each other, leading up to their first kiss. The storyline in episode 2 makes literally zero sense if they’d already kissed; their body language and the progression of their relationship doesn’t suggest that they’d kissed already. They both like each other and get the vibes that their feelings may be reciprocated, but they’re not sure yet, which is why they’re sort of awkward and hesitant. Furthermore, the way they act in the piano scene further cements that the movie night kiss was their first kiss; why would Simon make such a big deal about “what happened on Friday” if they’d already kissed prior to that, and vice versa to Wille telling him they should forget it; you’d think if it wasn’t their first kiss he would’ve already told him to forget it.

I’m sure when Sara said “first visible kiss” she meant first on-screen kiss, not necessarily meaning there had been an off-screen kiss, and her subsequent poll about whether or not people thought they’d kiss before was just her messing around.

I also can’t stress enough how improper it would be in screenwriting to have your romantic leads’ first kiss happen off-screen. It’s one of the most important parts of developing a love story; you can’t just not show it. I don’t normally take issue with headcanons, but this would seriously just be bad writing. It also lessons the impact of the kiss in episode 2; the reason the scene is so powerful is because they’ve both been wanting to do it but hadn’t built up the nerves to yet. Remember, up until this point, although we as the audience know Wille is into Simon because of his behaviour, Simon is the only one that’s actually verbalized his attraction (when Ayub is teasing him and Simon half-heartedly responds, “no, I don’t know” about liking Wille, and when he gushed to Sara about hanging out with him). This is likely because Wille doesn’t really have anyone to talk to and Simon does. Wille brushing his finger against Simon’s thigh and letting Simon intertwine their fingers is what gives Simon the courage to make his move; it’s what solidifies for him that Wille is into him and that his feelings are mutual. That tension gets lost if they’d already kissed because Simon would have no reason to question whether or not to kiss Wille, because he’d already have known his feelings were reciprocated. Uni can clearly see him working through his nerves as he slowly moves to stand between Wille’s legs and then leans in and shyly pecks his lips. All of their actions and body languages points to it being the first time they’ve done it.

The original tweet summarizes it pretty well. Fanfic tends to be popular among certain types of neurodivergent people (aka people most likely to read excessively as a child, and have burnout as an adult) for the same reasons that we tend to hyperfixate–neurochemical signaling (I hope I’m using that phrase correctly). What I mean is, for people who are really dependent on changes in dopamine/serotonin/neurotransmitter levels, who have low levels or wonky neural reward systems (perhaps the most common types of neurodivergence)…people like us rely on dependable external sources of those neurochemicals. In order to function, we spend a lot of our free time trying to level out our brain chemistry using things that can reliably bring us a steady stream of joyful moments (rewards) without costing too much of the mental effort that is already in short supply. 

significantly: the investment of reading has to be balanced with a steady “return on investment”–and this return has to start fairly quickly. because again, we don’t have a lot of attention/energy to invest on tiring things. we have perpetual “low batteries” in that regard.

that doesn’t mean these stories are “simple,” or that they lack complexity or value–only that the reward has to come in short regular intervals, and it has to have a low “upfront cost.” these stories are only “easy” to read in the sense that the effort we put into them is rewarded in a timely manner. which is why fanfic stories are so perfectly formulated for neurodivergent readers–they are often beautifully written, but skip a lot of the upfront costs (of introducing new characters, of world-building, of getting the audience emotionally connected to the story elements).

the nature of fanfiction is that the reader has a pre-existing relationship with this world and these characters. that–combined with the shorter average length of fics–means that fan fics very quickly start rewarding the reader in a way that traditional fiction struggles to. that’s not a bad thing! and maybe it’s something more traditionally published writers should be paying attention to.