#pobthoughts

I love Bad Things. It's such a good game. I love the update too, it really gives you a peak behind the curtain at how BAD things truly were. I could not express in words how much this games means to, especially at the time in my life it found me in.

The fandom though. Oh my dear god I hate the fandom. So I'm going to write a little rant about why I think (at least some of) the fandom treats these characters and the narrative so SO terribly! I think this is a problem that spans to a lot of games and stories surrounding abuse honestly, but I'm focusing on Bad Things specifically because it makes me mad.

I love the update, but I can't help but feel it was made in part because of how drastically the fandom misinterpreted/ignored Ivan and Andrew's dynamic. It frustrates me to no end that the devs had to- quite literally- spell it out for the fanbase that Ivan is not a good person because half the people were ignoring the narrative entirely to ship them or were arguing Andrew was just as bad. I liked the subtlety of the original, because- just as it'd play out in reality- most people will never get a peak behind that curtain, and most victims are not perfect. Abuse is not obvious. It does not come in one big glaring waving red flag that you can point out like a game of spot the difference. It ramps up subtly. It gets worse subtly. And if you're not directly in it, you won't know the extent it goes. We already had the clues to piece together that Ivan was physically abusive as well as emotionally. It shouldn't even matter if his abuse was physical or not. I think the update is very good at spelling out what it needed to, but I'm frustrated half the fanbase apparently didn't get the memo the first time.

There's two things I've seen run semi-rampant that are infuriating to me. One is the shipping of Ivan and Andrew. The other is the blaming of Andrew. Now granted, I don't interact much with the fandom to begin with because I knew with a game as nuanced as this most people wouldn't handle it with the respect it deserved. But even just skimming, I notice it.

It's obvious there are undertones that- at the very least- Ivan had a crush on Andrew (through things like the comments from his 'father'), and that Andrew might have been gay (through the scene of him leaving his parents house). To ignore that they had any chemistry would be blind. What infuriates me is the way people completely ignore the entire point of this game, which was that despite being friends, Ivan consistently hurt Andrew and left him with permanent scars, and that Ivan is not a good person, so that they can ship the two. Ivan did bad things, and he didn't stop until Andrew literally LEFT and it personally affected him. And I would say it's safe to assume Ivan had issues before Andrew moved in with him. Andrew moving in just exasperated them. The way I've seen SO MANY people COMPLETELY IGNORE this so that they can ship the two is baffling. Did we play the same game? Did you witness what I did? In what world do you look at a situation where someone forces their friend to work nonstop, sleep on the floor, berate them, and nearly KILL them- and think "Gosh they're so cute together!" Do you hear yourself? Like, genuinely, do you hear yourself? I notice it so consistently with mlm ships too, but people love to ignore any ounce of abuse in order to have their "cute yaoi" and it's infuriating. AND THIS IS COMING FROM A GAY MAN!

And the blaming of Andrew… I don't see it as often, but the way people like to hand-wave away Ivan's behavior because of the few instances where Andrew was insensitive makes me so angry. Andrew is not a perfect victim. Perfect victims do not exist. Just because Andrew was rude to Ivan sometimes does not suddenly give Ivan the go ahead to be as abusive as he wants to to Andrew. Ivan was OBJECTIVELY worse in his behavior in every way imaginable, and if he was a sensible person he would have talked out his pain with Andrew instead of taking it out on him. I get misinterpreting the narrative at first when first playing, but the fact I've literally heard people say they don't like Andrew of all people because he was 'mean' is? Insane? To me? It should not have taken a sequence excruciatingly detailing Ivan's physical abuse for you (directed at those who felt this way) to change your mind on Ivan's behavior.

Have YOU got an AU? Has that AU got a Branch design unique from his original?

THEN SHOW HIM TO ME NEEEOOWWW!!!!!

I wanna draw a bunch of various AU Branch designs but I obviously don't. know EVERY single AU out there, so hand over your funny guys !!