Downwards is the only way forwards.

Not understanding that he was 1000% heightened by panic when he burst into that room is appalling.

Not understanding that what he ends up seeing is literally HIMSELF is appalling.

He has taken each of them under his wing and has shown care and catered to their education in individualistic ways. Robby has given each of them what they needed as unique individuals. THAT'S why he's so 'pressionable'.

The issue is that Samira Mohan is, quite literally, a young Michael Robinavitch. (And if he hated women, he wouldn't see himself IN A WOMAN.) We are seeing this more and more with his warnings to her. And why is he warning her? Why is he lashing out and trying to stop her from completely turning into him?

Because he hates himself and what he's become. And that's a guy with C-PTSD and severe depression and anxiety. He doesn't WANT that for her; he wants BETTER for her.

To add to the nuance, he's effectively in the 11th hour of a severe mental health crisis, and was not only lashing out at her (and a case can be made about him burning bridges all over the place because hey, if they hate me, it won't hurt so bad when I do it), but yelling at HIMSELF for letting it get this bad to begin with. He's telling her to control herself because he couldn't. Compartmentalize. Set boundaries. He couldn't do that and now look at him. LOOK.

Mental illness isn't fucking cute. We squee and aww over sad bois and girls and draw adorable fan art but the real truth is that's it's fucking messy and often leaves a lot of disaster in its wake. This show has been applauded for its realism; why the fuck would they stop now?

If you can't handle a person's mental illness because it's no longer cute or appealing to you, that's perfectly fucking fine. You're valid in that because this shit is hard. But walk the fuck away. Making posts that he should die and attacking the character IS that fucking deep because there are real people out there that are seeing this and feeling represented, maybe for the first time fucking ever, and the response they're seeing in this is that everyone will hate them if they aren't fucking ✨perfectly✨ mentally ill and that they should die.

And I'm so sure that if I listened to their stuff and then AI-generated something similar and listened to only that bc it's "better" they'd be rightfully heartbroken and also kind of pissed at me

I understand that I'm not personally gonna be able to do all the art for them that they might want, let alone in the way they want it. A different artist can, but they understandably also want to be paid for their work, and these guys are paying for everything out of pocket rn

These guys are rightfully mad at the absolutely atrocious pay musicians receive from the streaming services that host their music. They are of the explicit opinion that you should buy merch, physical CDs, concert tickets - because streaming music does little to nothing in terms of actually supporting the artists.

And then they turn around and go "oh but that's only for MUSIC artists. Using AI to generate visual "art" is fine, actually"

As if that isn't even worse bc AI doesn't even pay the artists horrendously badly! It outright just steals anything it can get, regurgitates it and insists that the slop it spits out is not only great, it's actually BETTER than what it originally stole.

and so I will eat this small block of fancy cheese, for morale. I will take a break and drink some tea, for morale. I will pick up that weird bug, for morale.