A Hedonist by heart

This is actually so funny to me. I hope puritans who migrated from Wattpad are so shocked and terrified by the fact AO3 is actually against censorship that they come crawling back to Wattpad and leave AO3 alone forever.

Like why are you surprised that the site that was created specifically to host dark/taboo/fucked up fics—that were banned on pro censorship platforms—because the founders are proships who got tired of censorship, actually hosts and allows dark/taboo/fucked up fics that were banned on pro censorship platforms 😭 Your report will do nothing because AO3 EXPLICITLY ALLOWS AND WELCOMES DARK/TABOO/FUCKED UP FICS. AO3 IS THE PLATFORM THAT WAS CREATED FOR DARK/TABOO/FUCKED UP FICS.

STOP-

i think the "wrongness" of kriselle -- both in the normal and weird route -- is one of the main things that makes it so interesting, and i actually dont mean it in some sort of Taboo way. as in, i dont think "taboo" is the right way to put it. it's much more like... narratively, it isn't the obvious or "correct" option. susie and noelle are supposed to end up together, and kris and susie's bond is repeatedly highlighted and deepened... and of course you have other ships that dont quite fall into the laid-out suselle narrative, like ralsusie and whatever else, but none of it feels "wrong" quite like kriselle does. this is because there are a lot of things wrong with them and their relationship that i shouldn't need to explain by this point

i say it's in both the normal and weird route, but kriselle interactions in the normal route wouldnt feel the way they do without the existence of the weird route. the concept of Kriselle is irreversibly tied to this "wrong" path, the "wrong" way to play the game, hence the email responses saying "it's all wrong!" ... of course those responses mainly apply to the WR, but you cant help but think about its applications to the NR as well, like a bad memory you just cant shake.

I think it's even more interesting with the context of chapter 5. on the NR, i certainly think noelle can find happiness and feel content with susie, and break free from her proverbial chains with the power of hope and love for her friends. but the narrative isn't really being broken in any sense, this is just how the game plays out. but in the WR... for kris and noelle to be "together," they have to learn how to STOP being themselves. they cant be Kris and Noelle anymore. they break out of the story, and their own molds. it's "wrong" in the sense that it gruesomely, forcefully rips the characters apart before smacking them together and tossing them in the ocean.

then, what makes it worth exploring as an actual ship, platonic or romantic or secretthirdthing -- is how in theory they shouldn't need to do that. they shouldnt have to shed themselves and throw everything away. there SHOULD be some kind of chance, right? would they be so bad together? even susie thought they were a couple at first. but even without that, they both have too much baggage to really look each other in the eye. even if you sat them down and forced them to talk everything out, who's to say it would 'fix' their relationship? so then you start to think... well, maybe throwing everything away -- the past and their old selves -- is the way to fix it. they dont have to worry about anything else now, no family, no monotony, no being Constantly Plagued By The Past. if they can be reborn, then maybe...

but no! It's all wrong. maybe it's been flawed since conception... maybe it will never work in any universe. but just because it doesnt ever pan out, doesn't mean its not worth exploring or it means nothing. that's why we all get invested in kriselle when we know it's probably destined to fail no matter what