clair

It's always fun when an author claims their work contains no politics, because either they're blatantly lying, or they genuinely think they're telling the truth and you get a lot of insight into what assertions about human nature they regard as so obviously and self-evidently true as to lie outside the political sphere.

too weird for normal kids too normal for weird kids Just right for being alone and miserable my entire life

and my take today is that framing misogynistic writing as an "inability to write female characters" subconsciously takes away most of the blame, implying that women are an alien creature compared to men and that it is no fault of the writer because it's out of their skill set. it's not an inability, not a lack of expertise, it's the simple refusal to consider women as individual people and give them the same depth and grace that comes easily to the writer when they write male characters. it's not that christopher nolan, stephen king, james cameron (and frankly anyone using the argument, both professional and hobbyist; yes, that includes fanfic writers) etc can't write women, it's that they just won't. at that point in time it is a conscious decision driven by the laziness to unpack their misogynistic biases, and should be addressed as such

most accurate pjsk royalty au is mizuki as the princess, ena as her knight, and ruikasa as her two jesters

anyway chapter 5 weird route is so important to me when it comes to weird route as an allegory for cocsa by proxy bc like. the way kris reacts after being forced to hurt noelle so badly by falling so deep into depression and disassociation they stop moving from their bed unless forced to. and noelle responding in the exact opposite way finding a twisted sense of freedom in being hurt and abused despite the fact it’s destroying her because pain is something and she feels so alone and alienated and trapped that she'll take emotional and physical agony over it. kris shuts down while noelle convinces herself she likes being abused. that she loves who she thinks is her abuser (kris isn’t but she can’t know that). she feels more loved being forced into things no child should be forced into than she feels in her own home now that her sister is gone and her dad is near death. and so when kris's shutdown is so intense they have to be physically forced to even get out of bed and do anything at all noelle is so desperate for that twisted “affection” she's begging kris to hurt her again. literally pulling them along with her. if kris says stop she doesn’t listen because she’s so convinced what they’re doing is the only way they can feel free and that it’s what kris wants anyway. she screams at you to put her through the torment she’s been through because it’s all she lives for anymore. and, well. she literally kills herself and kris. while she literally in the scene is genuinely thinking they’ll be able to do anything to Some degree i think her statements about how she felt after losing dess and how she refuses to stop even when her and kris are dying shows she's to some degree willingly suicidal (and thinks kris is too). death is as much as an escape as flying over the lake would be. what the two of them have been through is so horrific they’re totally willing to die just to “escape”, even as noelle tries to convince herself it’s on her it’s her choice and she’s fine with the abuse and the pain. and kris just gives up entirely. they stop providing input entirely during the drowning scene. you don’t get them begging for things to stop anymore you just get two proceeds. as mentioned before they’re so utterly traumatised by being forced to hurt their friend they don’t show any resistance to her dragging them into certain death. after they clawed at their bedsheets to desperately try and not see and hurt noelle again. kris either wants to die at that point (which is most likely bc they try and poison themselves in chapter 4 weird route) or is so checked out from the trauma they’re not even there anymore they’ve been through so much abuse they’ve disassociated completely or both. they’re so obviously two abused kids like in general the weird route very blatantly has themes of abuse to deny that would be covering your eyes and ears but the way noelle reacts especially reminds me a lot of how grooming victims can react to their abuse by convincing themselves they like it and it’s fine and they’re consenting even though they can’t because they’re children and it breaks my heart. poor babies :(

Another thing about Kralsusie is that they take turns being the evil intimidating horse

I know we make jokes about the proverbial asexual pervert who has written hundreds of thousands of words of smut on ao3, but also shoutout to the aces who aren’t perverts. to the aces who skip the sex scenes and wince at sex jokes and awkwardly leave the conversation when your friends start talking about sex. your boundaries aren’t childish and fuck anyone who says otherwise.