#(also. some of the ways mireille acts suggest that hate might not be the ONLY thing she feels toward silvana. there's obvious homoerotic
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Thoughts on toxic yuri?
One of my very favorite storytelling concepts, I love it when women make each other worse. <3
I do think it's important, for me anyway, to note the difference between a dynamic that's toxic in one direction versus something that is mutually toxic. The first one doesn't really interest me a whole lot, usually because it means one character suffers constantly without being allowed to do anything else--at the very least, it will come across as the more ""normal"" character not really being that into the relationship in question. I need BOTH parties to be unhinged.
The important thing for any fictional relationship (though we're specifying toxic yuri here, obviously) is that it's interesting. If there is no limit to what the women can do within a dynamic, then there are an infinite number of ways for that dynamic to go. And while you can learn a lot about a character through examining their values and positive qualities, you can learn just as much (if not more) by considering their flaws. And those flaws really come out in the case of toxic yuri; characters get to show the uglier parts of themselves in this context, which I am always a fan of. A fraught, complex relationship, when written well, can be a really great way to psychologically explore the characters: what inspires them to act this way? why do they think this behavior is acceptable? if they don't think it's acceptable, why do they keep doing it? what do they think about the concept of love as a whole? how far would they go for intimacy or to be understood? how do they view other people in general? and probably most importantly, what led to them developing the beliefs underlying their actions in the first place?
From a more "psychologically, why do people enjoy this" standpoint, mutual toxicity often goes hand in hand with extreme obsession, extreme jealousy, and a willingness to forgive a whole lot of horrible shit. Which, yeah, in real life you don't want to be in a relationship like that. But I think there's a lot of emotional resonance in exploring those feelings. The idea that someone will never leave you. That they think so intensely about you specifically that they'll break anything and anyone to stay with you. That even if you're the worst version of yourself, someone will still want you because that's still you. Someone knows exactly how to fuck you up because they genuinely understand you. Things in fiction that we would never want in real life can be incredibly interesting or even cathartic to witness from a distance. I think we all feel things that scare us sometimes (or even simply feel an innocuous emotion so intensely that it scares us), and looking at unpleasant feelings within fiction can help identify, parse out, process, and successfully cope with those feelings. And I think, at the end of it all, a lot of people want to matter to someone, in some way. It makes sense that some creators would take that concept-of meaning a great deal to another person, of affecting them deeply-to its absolute extreme through writing.
(And also, consider. That I am very gay. And that horrible women are very attractive.)
#good morning I am here to make my Thoughts™ everybody's problem :)#THANK YOU I LIKED THIS ONE A LOT#multi t(ASK)ing#also thank you for making 'yuri' pink that delighted me#me + messy wlw media <-this too is yuri#behold! a creation!#also re: mutual toxicity. I understand that this is quite a thing to claim to want when probably The™ wlw ship of all time for me is#mireille x silvana#but a) mireille is rather unhinged on her own outside of her relationship with silvana courtesy of being a highly cynical assassin#(and is herself not immune to doing some pretty intense shit for the sake of people she loves)#b) mireille is committed to KILLING silvana for said toxic behavior.#& also c) their rivalry is so DEEPLY personal that mireille is still obsessed with silvana even if it's for...not the same reason silvana#is obsessed with mireille. like the TYPE of obsession is different but the LEVEL of obsession is the same. if that makes any sense.#(also. some of the ways mireille acts suggest that hate might not be the ONLY thing she feels toward silvana. there's obvious homoerotic#tension on silvana's end but I think there's some on mireille's too. at the very least she seems to regret that silvana wasn't#the kind of person mireille originally thought she was. along with probably a sick sense of pseudo-respect)#mel screams about fictional ladies again#writing#fiction#toxic romance#(<-not really sure how else to tag this)
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