#I could've written a better reasoning for it without going OOC.

[tarraxahum]

(SPOILERS FOR LIFE IS STRANGE COMICS which are old at this point what are you doing AND SOME DOUBLE EXPOSURE SPOILERS)

Got that warning out of the way. Yeah. So. If you know The Spoiler then you know.

With FULL disclaimer that I know the comics are officially "only one possible version of reality", and are in no way binding canon. Nevertheless, they are official still.

Here's Chloe freelancing as a designer for a rock band. She also travels with them later.

Here's Chloe taking an internship at an auto repairs shop, 'cause she's good with cars.

Here's Chloe some years later taking an active part in rebuilding Arcadia Bay and her mother's diner. Taking a responsible leader role and shit.

Here's Chloe opening her own auto repairs shop she's now the boss of. And evidently designing it herself. Y'know. 'Cause she's good at stuff

Here's Chloe also buying an apartment for Max and her. Together. On her initiative.

Here's Chloe being willing to wait for her superpowered ass girlfriend for the aforementioned years because plot happened to Max, as it does, and she's her "partner in time".

Here they both are after another timeskip, fully consistent with LiS 2 photo

Y'know. This one.

In a recovering town. Where Chloe rebuilt a diner and established her own auto shop with her own hard work and skill. And bought them an apartment. TO SETTLE DOWN TOGETHER.

Note: Full disclosure, they had an apartment in Seattle together before "plot happened" and also traveled around with a rock band for years so it's not like Chloe ultimately ends up confined to Arcadia Bay again. Don't worry.

BONUS: Them being normal with Victoria:

So yeah. "Chloe is a free spirit who didn't wanna be tied down or take life seriously and fucked off to flirt with Victoria Chase" MY ASS.

Granted, both this and DE are about equal in being "canon" but. In terms of Chloe's characterization and what we know from previous games. I can see her do all this. Even if you take the relationship out of the equation, fine, the rest of it. I do NOT see her doing ALL THAT.

Bite me, for all their faults the comics understood Chloe's character much better than whatever DE has got so far.

Anyway this is not a "GOTCHA" post, this is a "If you're pissed like me take this and run"

[iamnmbr3]

Cursed Child rant? as a treat? 👉👈

Oh god. Where to even start. Listen, I know some people enjoy CC and I say more power to you. I'm not here to be the fun police and say what people can and can't like or write fic about or derive meaning from or whatever. But for me, personally, Cursed Child is an absolute mess of the worst kind that irritates me on a profound level.

First off, it's completely inconsistent with the canon characterizations and established rules of world building (and JKR didn't even do that much world building so there wasn't that much to keep track of and yet, they couldn't even bother to do that). I mean, Cedric, who tried to give the Triwizard Cup to Harry doesn't win and that somehow causes him to become a Death Eater??? Huh? It's not just ooc. It's bad storytelling. I mean, even if he was a hugely sore loser why would losing a tournament cause him to join an extremist blood purist paramilitary group? That has nothing to do with him losing. It's stupid and childish and nonsensical and SO bad.

And really? That's the best you can come up with? If the point of that whole thing was the tired trope of 'time travel goes wrong and makes things worse' they could've just had the gang expose Crouch earlier but instead of Voldemort not returning he just ends up returning but not using Harry's blood which allows him to do his original plan of growing his power in secret. And idk. Maybe then he takes over and he kills Harry and Harry doesn't come back. I didn't even put any effort into that. It's a bit dumb and inelegant but it gets the job done without wild character assassination and a lack of logic so profound it would insult the reasoning abilities of a fungus.

But ok, let's judge it as its own vaguely Harry Potter inspired thing rather than as an actual sequel to the canon series. You know what the result is? IT'S STILL BAD. It's just. SO BAD. I don't understand how it's a real thing.

It's like a parody of a bad play. It can't possibly be real. Harry suddenly has a phobia of pigeons? Why??? It's so...stupid. And I'm supposed to take that seriously? What? And the dialogue. The dialogue. "Bad" doesn't even cover it. The fact that "Wow. Squeak. My geekness is a-quivering" is a real actual line in the actual play causes me physical pain. WHO WRITES THAT?! AND THEN LEAVES IT IN THE FINAL DRAFT?!?!?

And Delphi. WHAT EVEN?! She's literally like a parody of a bad fanfic Mary Sue. Down to the blue streak in her hair. But we're supposed to take her seriously? As a villain? Tf? She's like a bad Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way knockoff. The whole play is like an unfunny parody of bad writing. But it's not supposed to be. It actually pretends to be a genuine drama. Which is so much worse. I truly think My Immortal is better. And way funnier.

No effort at all went into the story construction. Characters act incredibly childishly and unrealistically and simplistically. The story doesn't feel like it was written by adults. There's no feeling or depth or emotion. It's all plot contrivances and nauseatingly simplistic writing. It isn't a story. It's just some stuff that happens. Because the writers were just like 'eh it's Harry Potter it'll sell.' And that's not art. That's just churned out content. And it bothers me on such a profound level that they did it and got away with it.

I would be embarrassed to write that for myself, let alone to turn that in as a professional writer. It's so inconsistent with the original story that I legitimately think the 2 guys who wrote it didn't even read the books. They just glanced at the wiki and decided they were good to go. Despite being PAID to do this. How sloppy is that? Not to mention Harry Potter meant so much to so many people who were ecstatic to get more content yet the two clowns who wrote this just skimmed the wiki and then vomited out some of the worst lines ever penned in history and called it a day.

[shoukiko]

Hi, you can keep this unanswered and not post it, but I want to help you understand the thought behind some of the points in your criticism post. Before I start I want to apologise if I come off as blunt and rude, that's not my intention and I'll try my best to show my tone as unthreatening but I'm autistic and not a native English speaker, which complicates things lol

*general you used throughout the ask

First, I want to start with this: they all are part of the army. You don't need to dig much to see you'll rarely see a "morally upstanding" person in the army, be it because they're cheaters, abusers, compliant with all that or they're (insert -ist/-phobe category here). UK military spouses are 3 times more likely to experience intimate partner violence (IPV). I'm not saying the COD characters need to be written like that, but it wouldn't be "unrealistic" if we take real life statistics into account.

Second, and maybe the most important thing, everyone writes COD characters OOC. The majority of the active fandom on Tumblr and tiktok have seen gifs and 10min out of context clips from the game at best. It's to be expected to not frequently find something actually in character for a lot of the guys. Especially with characters that are just operators like König, Nikto and Krueger. In their case everything is and isn't OOC at the same time because we just... Don't know these characters. We lack characterisation past maybe 1-3 traits about them. I'd argue that's why the fandom liked König so much, other than being masked, he's the perfect paper doll! You can dress him up in whatever characterisation you want and it probably won't contradict his canon (because he barely has one and what he has is quickly misinterpreted (anxiety disorder turning into shyness for example)).

Now specifically on your "How are you going to hc a victim as the abuser?" - simple, whether you like to accept it or not is up to you, but it's not far fetched for victims to become abusers later in life. Just look at serial killers statistics - 74% of US serial killers were psychologically abused and 42% were physically abused as children and later in life followed a similar pattern brought to an extreme. Or on the other hand, a tamer example would be generational trauma because that's how we get that (grandparent was abused and because that's all they know, they implement it in bringing up their child who, for the same reason, implements it in bringing up the grandchild and so on).

The final thing I want to say is, it's good to block people who you don't vibe with. Doesn't matter if it's because they wrote something that personally disturbed you or you simply don't like their blog theme or you see them too often in the tag. Personally curating your experience is key in fandom, utilise the tools Tumblr has given us. Of course as you and others have mentioned that's impossible without some assistance from the other side. Tagging is extremely important (tagging with the correct words without censoring!!! Or the filter won't catch! Rape, noncon, incest ✅; r@pe, n*nc*n, 1nc*st ✖️✖️).

I hope this isn't too messy or long aaaa

I really appreciate you taking the time to type this up and actually speak to me about this, your input is very appreciated. /gen

I do think I could've done better on that post since I wrote it in the heat of the moment, all characters are written OOC and it was ignorant of me to say

"Maybe read the characters backstories and actually take their past into consideration because you guys kinda look dumb for making these characters so OOC."

I hope ya'll can really take the time to see my POV, I did not mean. any harm, I've come across some gross things, but blocking and filtering tags so much as begun to be tiring.

My main issue is tagging, without tagging I am left with getting triggered by random posts because the first few sentences may include something on my trigger list.

That's all I want and also what a lot of other people want.

Writing is meant for anyone and everyone, a form of art and perhaps a for of therapy.

Please tag your work, you are not the only person on the internet.

Thank you for reading!

[lost-inanotherlife]

Lost S2 Rewatch - Final thoughts

Following this post, here are some more random thoughts about S2:

They did it once, they've done it again: killing off a female character for the sake of the paired male character's manpain. They did it with Shannon and they've done it again with Libby. Twice in a season. At this point I think it's a pattern and I totally hate it. The writers could write extremely well, they could've written something better but they just didn't do it. Totally uncool.

Speaking of Libby, I wish they didn't kill her off before telling us her story. Up until her death her character's main purpose is being the possible love interest of Hurley. Which, yeah, okay cool, I'm down with it. But maybe show us more as well? It's a shame that we come to know about her connection with Desmond literally after her death. And yes, I know, "plot reasons" and it kinda made sense too. And yet I felt a bit disappointed. We saw 0, nada, nothing, of her arc. Again, totally uncool.

"What Kate Did" is the season's best episode and I fucking love it.

I still have mixed feelings about Kate and Jack. What I mean is that they're definetely connected and they somehow click and not click together. I love thier dynamic. However in S2, although we have a kiss and a "caught in the net" moment (lol, Sawyer I luv u), they didn't share much screen-time together. Yes, yes, I know, this is a common way to write romance (a kiss, an "I'm sorry. I'm not", a bit of lack of communication, circumstances bring them apart and yadda yadda) but to "buy" their love story I needed a scene of the two of them together, without any interruptions, in between the kiss and the net. There wasn't so I don't know how I feel about them: do they like-like each other or are they just projecting *stuff* onto one another?

On the other hand, my baby girl Jack and Sawyer shared A LOT of intense scenes together. Like the one where Sawyer tells Jack that he's his friend (well, close to one) <3. Or when they play cards. Kate literally left them alone, lol. It was INSANE. I'm sorry but this confirms my reading that the real meaty love story is between the two of them. If the show aired totay we'd all be talking about the homoerotic subtext in Jack/Sawyer scenes. I said what I said.

Jack, please my love, listen to Sayid. His character faded a bit in the background this season, I mean something had to give with the introduction of FIVE new characters. But he was quite right about everything and I wanted to scream at Jacko everytime he was like "uh but Sayid we don't know!". Listen to the soldier/torturer/communication officer, doctor! You do you, let Sayid do Sayid, lol.

As I've said, I didn't enjoy Ana Lucia's connection to Christian. However, I like her story. Unfortunately her arc meets a brutal end: she was on her way to come to terms with her actions and she was stopped too soon. Honestly? I don't agree with this choice: the writers took their sweet time to let us discover Ana and her complexities, I'm sad her story ended beforehand. :(

I'm quite torn about Mr Eko. On one hand, interesting, brilliant character, on the other I feel like the last episodes made him act a bit OOC. We're showed a Mr Eko who's both ruthless and compassionate: he's a paradox and it's stimulating, we wanna know more about him. But then he goes all "I've received Revelation in my dream" and acts a lot like a dick. Like when he doesn't go to Ana Lucia and Libby's funeral. Dude, come on. Intellectually I know that it was all there, the moment he met Locke signed the fact that they'd first be united in their shared belief about the island and then they'd have split over their faith or lack thereof. Still, like with Ana, I think it was done too fast, I personally think they wasted quite some time with the Ben storyline. Too bad.

This rewatch reminded me of how tragic and absurd Locke's life is. Has he ever had ONE happy day in his life? Also, I always find myself a bit irritated that they didn't cast an older actor to play his father. I'm sorry I don't know the actors' age but Terry O'Quinn definitely looks older than the guy who plays Anthony Cooper.

Okay, I have more to say but I'll stop here! On to s3!

[skaruresonic]

Feel like you're taking 06's unfinished mocappedness over actual characterizing, though fans do the exact same in overly making him seem noble just cuz of taking the last scene OOC, and ignoring everything else

-He curtly tells Rouge he simply was rescuing her, which, kinda rude/blunt

-Mephiles he immediately calls BS

-Sonic he pushes back at the "don't be late" comment

-While he could've joined the others in simply going back to the present after Iblis, he remained out of his own volition of finding out WTF Mephiles is

-Silver he kicks and calls him misguided, rather than be proactive

Shadow isn't really misled or acting out of confusion/vengeance unlike earlier games in 06. It's a culmination of past char dev, along with different circumstance. So he doesn't have much to rib off of

Even then, in game there are a lot of quotes showing his ego. My fav is "Hah! There's no strength in numbers!" When he encounters hordes of enemies in later stages/Hard mode. The scrapped audio of him and Sonic having an Extra mode highlights more his attitude, though not to exaggerated levels like what the fandom does

And then Rivals 1/2, games literally written by Iizuka, was released a couple days later, and he very much is combatitive there to other chars interferring. He's not "softened" or "edged up", he's a very tempermental char depending on context/char interaction. Shadow's ego is very much "tell and show", so if nothing needs to be shown, he won't say as he's generally a reserved person

Later games are similar in that he doesn't have much to go off of in char chemistry for being "bratty", contrary to what fandom says. I'd argue the only bad use of him is Free Riders, cuz he legitimately has no reason or drive to participate in that contest

TLDR: I find fandom stupid, but I find your dismissal of 06 Shadow to fall in the same trap, for different reasons

My bad, I forgot '06 implied Shadow has an IQ of 200. xP

While I get what you're saying, my objections are more that fans call '06!Shadow peak Shadow without considering the fact that '06!Shadow looks like he's dissociating in half his scenes... Even more than the game where he's actively suffering PTSD flashbacks.

In addition, '06's canon status begs questions of just how much weight we ought to be giving it, when other games have largely tackled the same subject matter. We knew that Shadow will fight the world if necessary, since you have the choice to fight the entire world in ShTH.

I honestly don't know what '06 could say about his character that hasn't already been said. Because it seems to me the game offers more insight into Rouge and Omega's views on Shadow than Shadow's views on them, you know what I mean?

Rouge confirms her loyalty towards him and Shadow just stands there. It's not like in Battle where he begrudgingly calls her ally, or SA2 where Rouge's goading compels him to justify himself with "I came back for the Chaos Emeralds."

To say nothing of how the "I'd choose you over the world" sentiment loses a little of its luster when you realize it's not limited to just Rouge in her attempt to make Shadow feel better; Amy and Elise say it to or regarding Sonic as well. So it's not even particularly unique to Rouge and Shadow's relationship in this game anyhow. Compare these scenes. There's no real back-and-forth.

You also read the post where I said I feel the only thing Maekawa seems to think to do with Shadow is stuff him in a capsule, right? I don't really give its inclusion in '06 quarter for being an old game because A.) if folks are calling this portrayal peak, then I'm going to hold it to a fairly high standard, and B.) it's a recycling of the same plot we've seen over and over again, and suffers the same pitfalls of reducing Shadow to a plot device. We already had an evil "mastermind" try to manipulate him in the previous game.

'06 saying "Shadow won't fall for the chessmaster's tricks" is kind of a redundant point to make twice. Mephiles attempts to mess with his head a la Black Doom, but even that conflict falls flat if Shadow doesn't at least buy into it a little.

I've read analyses of '06 Shadow before. Half the scenes people analyze consist of him staring blankly into space. And I get the point they're trying to make, but it's hard for me to overlook the fact that, compared to other iterations, '06!Shadow has no real discernible personality. It's not like in SA2 where he's simply quiet; he's inscrutable in a way that makes him seem dead inside.

He has the exact same look on his face as when he kicks Silver in the head as when Mephiles drops the bombshell on him that the world will turn against him as when he's staring at Rouge's boobs. And I'm not sure if calling this Shadow peak over all over iterations is any better than the accusations that Pontaff-era!Shadow is an edgelord. Because it's like okay I guess, you can overlook Shadow appearing to have no affectation at all, but don't like it when he displays personality in other games?

And then Rivals 1/2, games literally written by Iizuka, was released a couple days later, and he very much is combatitive there to other chars interferring. He's not "softened" or "edged up", he's a very tempermental char depending on context/char interaction. Shadow's ego is very much "tell and show", so if nothing needs to be shown, he won't say as he's generally a reserved person

I wasn't contesting that, lol. xP When I say Shadow's an asshole, bear in mind I'm not saying that's the only thing he can be, of course. I know he is also reserved and isn't always "fight me" depending on the context. But at the same time, I feel like folks don't like to acknowledge that he does have rough edges and a sometimes unlikable temperament.

[jourquet]

for the 'get to know your fic writer' prompt — 3, 17, 43, & 56 🫶🏼

GET TO KNOW YOUR FIC WRITER PROMPT

3. describe the creative process if writing a chapter/fanfic

usually, i base it on the franchise's genre. for example a halo fanfic, i would follow science-fiction rules about writing the fanfic. such as long chapters, complex or expanded lore, military, politics, and so on.

i'll use maybe half a year studying the plot, characters, and lore. and game it myself if possible. just take my time to reflecting on how i interpret everything.

first at the third stage, i begin to talk to other people in fandon, read others fanfics and headcanons etc. without the groundwork, a proper fanfic can't be written. my spn fanfic readers knows this better than anyone.

i tend to mix half plotting and half pantsing the story with the three main plot not changing. the characters have normally free reign, i do not chain them down as long they get from plot point A to B.

17. what do you do when writing becomes difficult? (maybe a lack of inspiration or writers block)

i take a break from writing entirely. indulge in some other fanfics either in same fandom or others. sometimes i play games on my ps5. or watch documentaries, read books (usually classics), manga, cartoons or draw.

i sometimes take fanfics breaks by roleplaying online instead. that way, my writing skills remain sharp.

other times, i go on hikes or travels IRL. or go to the cinema, to the mall to buy stuff or just eat at Baker Brun (mini baker place).

i don't force my writing, ever. that only makes my block worse. i like to write out of habit; that's why i'm dependable about it when i've the energy capacity for it.

43. do you take a sadistic joy in whumping your characters, or are you more the "If you hurt them I would kill everyone and then myself" kind of person?

i do enjoy hurting my characters. i wouldn't have been known as 'the evil writer' without reason. though, for me, is more of a catharsis than actually sadistic enjoyment, because they reflect my own struggles most readers wouldn't pick up on unless i told them about it.

is for a reason my headcanons are rarely, if any, self-inserts. i like to stick to as close to canon as i possibly can. and if that means i've to write scenes the whole fandom will witch hunt me for, i'll. because i write my fanfics to be AS IF THEY WERE ACTUAL CANON from an outsider.

56. what’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

that my readers never in my full life of being a fanfic writer, have complained of my canon characters being ooc. that i've great unique concepts which i actually pull off and do my own research on (though, i still daydream of the day i get to have my own beta readers), and that i've no issue taking criticism about my writing and correct where necessary. only from trusted writer friends and readers, ONLY, however.

that my first two fanfics are completed with 50+ chapters. one of them with 13K reads on wattpad too. 🤍

the praise i've gotten from multiple native speakers over the years, that they could've never guessed i was not american or british because i write well enough to be considered as one of them. this means a lot to me, considering i'm mostly self-taught in english. used so many years reading books far above my age range not understanding anything, and barely passing my english grades. the constant judgement i got for not knowing how to write "i'm" or "you're". to now people sometimes asking me if i live in new york, texas, or london. 🥺 for most of my childhood most of the psychologists believed i had dyslexia too (i never did, i just learned to read by complete/recognize words instead of letter for letter, which was greek to me).

also that i combine my knowledge in classic books and the fact i understand many languages into my writing. it creates an unique writing no AI could ever dream about mimicking. is hard; but i always go the extra mile of deep research. my fanfics are meant to be read for anyone outside it too. and all the extra hours i spend just doing research so the characters feel like real human beings. it's worth it in the end.

and that through all my hardships, i found solace in my writing. i don't know who i would be without it. i found friends, i found community, i found people who genuinely care about me. all because i chose that one night on the plane trip from the US to norway, to learn english. i still have the book i read on that plane trip too ... that propelled to where i'm today in skills.

thank you, all my friends over the years. thank you, all my readers who has stuck by and never lost faith in me. thank you for everything. 🤍

[deaneverafter]

Just came across a post saying that any other ending would've been ooc, one of the reasons being it would be impossible to have anything else in that limited time, and I-

I'm not saying a lot of "issues" that have been raised since the finale aren't baseless. Lack of any number of random supporting characters, or ships, did not make the finale bad. The deliberately cruel and unworthy ending dabb's revenge fanfic gave Dean made it bad. Saying that Dean wouldn't want some safety and agency and that's why it had to be like this is ignorant at best, malicious at worst, because we've seen him fighting for something better. For years and years, we've seen that. And we've seen him having a normal life and being happy, and we've seen him do it without abandoning his brother. So saying that he couldn't get to some sort of situation where he is happy and safe and has a long life, that's just not true. Saying that he wouldn't want to get out of hunting (which is just not true, when he's spoken of retiring, even in the finale itself, he has a plan) and so it had to be this way, is also silly, because even IF that were true, there's a million other endings other than him retiring and the fever dream that we got. So, so damn many.

So, saying that Dean didn't want to be happy, or that there couldn't be happiness in the span of one episode, that's just not true. Especially when 15x19 exists right there. I mean, sure, there was room for improvement in the first sections, the first of which would be the Winchesters having some actual agency and part in defeating the villains. But the ending? Them driving off into the sunset? I mean, are there endings out there that I think would be even better? Sure. But, with a writers' room full of people who hate Dean, I would've settled for this ending happily. It really is the best we could've had, in a way that I find it hard to fathom that the one after was filmed despite that.

Them in their car, driving off? The people who wanted them to keep hunting, well, they can rest assured that they're hunting. The people who wanted them to get out of hunting together, that's what happened (I personally thought that's what that scene signified at first watch). People who wanted them to be driving to yet another big battle and dying in a blaze of glory, or some random hunt? There you go. People who wanted them to get out, and then settle down and have their own lives, each with their own blurry wives? Perfect, that's what happened. One of them keeps hunting and the other gets out? That is absolutely possible.

Everyone who actually cared about the story and the characters could've been happy. Instead we got the one where Dean is thrown out like he's nothing and Sam reaches his full selfish asshole potential, and one side is crying that the random people who the story wasn't about to begin with weren't there, and the other side praising the ending that treated Dean like nothing, where Sam abandons him for no reason whatsoever (brotherly love, where?), and then they both get trapped in the heaven ruled by the very entities these people wanted them away from.

So saying there was any reason, other than dabb's hatred and spite for Dean, that that finale had to happen when 15x19 is right there is absurd. Usually, I just do my best to ignore that that fever dream even took place (doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, because it does, so damn much. Still. I'm not interested in letting anything take Dean away from me, and certainly not one trashy fic, riddled with nonsense, potholes and full of disrespect for Dean, his life and his story, written by Dean's #1 hater). But when I see claims and "justifications" like this, well, I just can't stay quiet.

[blastthechaos]

The reason why I'm assuming that something beyond Flynn's control affected how shadow is written is that it's VERY different from how he wrote Shadow back at Archie. Sure he likely could've written things better even under these circumstances, he's not completely out of the woods, but this does not feel like something an unrestricted Flynn would write

I didn’t read a lot o Archie so I might be wrong but I kinda recall him getting into dumb fights, also King Shadow.

The thing that bothers me is that there was the Tinker situation and it was handled far better than this mess, so it seems odd that when IDW!Shadow comes back he is like this, it would be weird to me that Sega actually messes up with the comic when they didn’t before.

Also, the other reason it bothers me is that most other characters are good, sure they hug the idiot ball often but despite that they still shine (Sonic takes things seriously and shows a big range of emotion in this comic without resorting to OOC crying and Eggman is the awesome bastard from the games, both of them hugged the idiot ball) Rouge, Amy, Cream’s family, Tails, Omega and the Chaotix have also been portrayed really well (unless you wanna argue that this is because of Sega, which go ahead I appreciate it), so it seems weird Shadow would be a stinker (and the biggest one).

I don’t know exactly how comic books work, ad if SEGA reveals this was their intentions I guess I eat my words but so far I don’t see how this is their fault aside from ignoring it.

This will probably go down as just another dumb part of the arc alongside Sonic and Eggman’s, won’t make me hate the arc as a whole but it does detract points from it.

[rnelodyy]

I vehemently disagree with this post actually. The way c!Tommy's trauma is portrayed is actually very realistic, and not at all harmful.

(cw: discussions of suicide, self harm, mental illness and abuse)

(/dsmp /rp, unless otherwise specified all names refer to characters, not content creators)

What I am saying, is that C!Tommy is a fictional character who exists within a narrative, a story. And in a good story, consistency is half the battle. I, as the audience consuming the story, need to be able to look at C!Tommy and pick up on and understand the effects abuse has had on him. And these effects need to be consistent, otherwise, as an audience member, I’m going to get confused and start having questions about why he acts one way here but doesn’t somewhere else.

C!Tommy can’t just say he “Goes to Puffy for Therapy” offhandedly one time, as a means of handwaving away why he doesn’t really consistently act as traumatized as he used to even though it’s literally only been a few weeks, or months at most. To explain how he can jump back between being really sad and depressed about something, to joking about Women and Twitter. It seems weird if he’s able to just so seamlessly, so effortlessly, go back and forth. Almost as if he’s bouncing between OOC and IC, but that’s a whole other discussion.

Yes, Tommy can jump back and forth effortlessly between being sad or depressed and joking about women and Twitter. This has a pretty good and obvious reason, and is, in fact, not at all out of character or in need of justification.

Tommy uses humor as a coping mechanism. If you go back to literally any time he's been in danger, you can see him trying to crack jokes and lighten the mood. Especially in exile, he was making jokes to try and keep his spirits up, because the only alternative was wallowing in abject misery.

If you've met a person who has depression and is open about it, you'll know that they can seamlessly transition between saying they want to kill themselves and cracking jokes. In fact, a lot of them make jokes about wanting to kill themselves. Humor is a pretty common coping mechanism, and the way Tommy uses it isn't strange at all.

Also, if DSMP was a story written by a team of professional writers who can hire consultants and fact-checkers, then yeah, it would've been narratively better for there to have been a stream where Tommy goes to therapy. But considering these are all amateur writers without any of those resources, it's actually for the best that Tommy's therapy took place off-screen, because cc!Puffy isn't a licensed therapist, and let's be real, c!Puffy isn't either. CC!Puffy wouldn't know how to accurately write an entire therapy session, especially when most of it would've been improv, and could easily fall back on some harmful tropes and ideas.

And yeah, Tommy isn't always gonna react the same way to things. Like with depression, people with PTSD can have good and bad days, symptoms can vary or (partially) fade with time, and as he spends more time in a safe environment away from his abuser, he's going to start to recover at least a little bit on his own. Yeah, some aspects of it could've been done better, the part where he panicked when taking damage was dropped a bit too quick IMO, but overall, it's handled pretty realistically.

Show don’t tell. Show me Tommy getting better, because otherwise you’re just telling me he made character development, and showing me this completely different character as proof. No, last I remembered C!Tommy was having panic attacks and yelling when C!Dream was even mentioned. You can’t tell me that a day later he can interact normally after days of being in the prison and a month of being dead.

Tommy no longer having panic attacks at the mere mention of Dream is him getting better. It's a sign that he feels safe, that he believes that Dream can't get to him anymore. He's shown signs of recovery beyond that too, he's worked to clean up the server while actively getting others involved in it, he's buried his Netherite "war armor", he's even adopted a spider! That's not inconsistency, that's him building a new life for himself after months of war and abuse and being trapped away from home.

Also, Tommy wasn't interacting "normally" after his revival and getting let out of prison. His revival stream was basically just an extended panic attack, and the conversations he had with the other server members after being let out were uncomfortable and stilted at best, and raw and emotional at worst. It took him a few days before he felt okay enough to interact with people again, and even then he was showing some concerning behavior.

You’re not really saying anything about the abuse C!Tommy goes through, if all of that trauma is automatically wiped from the story when the writers get too lazy or too scared to keep it in. At best, you are showing abuse and trauma for the sole purpose of showing it, with no intention of properly dealing with and addressing it in the story. At worst, you are basically just doing torture porn.

Tommy's trauma is by no means wiped from the story. He still has lingering issues from exile, like low self esteem, issues with jealousy, and a persistent fear of Dream breaking out of prison. The reason we don't see it as much anymore is because a) he's currently in a safe place away from his abuser and most of his triggers, b) he doesn't want to talk about exile to anyone, not even Tubbo, and c) one of his most recent streams revealed that he repressed a lot of it.

That said, the upcoming arc is most likely gonna feature Dream breaking out of prison, and Sam has said that exile is going to become a lot more relevant. So if you're looking for Tommy trauma, that's likely where you should look.

Exile Arc sure did a good job at making C!Tommy suffer. But as soon as that arc ended, a lot of the stuff that happened in it went completely glossed over and unaddressed for a long while. That might have been fine in the lead-up to Doomsday, since a lot of plot stuff had been going on and stopping to handle C!Tommy’s issues might (Might is heavily doubted cause it certainly isn’t impossible) mess with the pacing a bit. But then after Doomsday, there isn’t really any excuse to put it off. Because nothing was really happening for a good while, and nobody had anything to do plotwise.

And this became even more true with C!Dream being locked in Prison. Nothing was really happening, so what was stopping the story from taking the time to properly discuss and deal with this stuff?

The story did deal with it, though. Tommy wasn't explicitly going to therapy or getting official diagnoses, but he was taking his time to unwind, and invest time and energy into doing something he loved. The Big Innit Hotel was something he could hang onto, and Sam Nook not only provided him with a stable adult figure in his life who wouldn't hurt or abuse him, but also gave him simple, fun tasks to do to keep him busy. Recovery from abuse isn't just about therapy and medication, it's about building up a routine, finding things you enjoy again, and rebuilding a sense of safety and comfort in a space where you feel at home.

C!Tommy, instead of finding a proper means of coping with his issues (proper therapy, diagnosis for his issues, forming and maintaining healthy support systems, focusing on things he loves, etc) is shown to repeatedly focus back on C!Dream. When he was making Big Innit Hotel, it did seem like he was to an extent finding ways to cope with his shit. He was still kinda shitty and his hotel was not exactly made and run by the most morally great standards, though I suppose I can’t expect too much when he is a very traumatized teen and doesn’t really know what he’s doing.

Tommy was doing his best with the tools and knowledge he had. There were no therapists on the SMP, let alone anyone capable of diagnosing him with anything, but all of that other stuff, he did do. He continued to mend his relationship with Tubbo, he found a stable authority figure that wouldn't hurt him in Sam and later Sam Nook, and created the hotel because it was something he loved doing.

The hotel was kind of a scam in the end, but the way it was created was perfectly fine; Tommy tried building it himself, then when he discovered he's shit at building, hired Sam to do it for him. Sam then encouraged him to help anyway by creating Sam Nook, who gave Tommy materials to gather to complete the hotel, or small tasks to do to keep him busy and feel like he was accomplishing stuff.

And yeah, he was still kind of an asshole, but Sam Nook's positive reinforcement did actually make a positive impact on Tommy's behavior. Case in point: at one point Tommy got frustrated and threatened to kill Sam Nook, to which Sam Nook replied that he would never hurt Tommy. Tommy then realized that what he said was bad, calmed down, sincerely apologized, and never said anything like that to Sam Nook again.

See, the thing is, C!Tommy can never just… have trauma. Having trauma that he can healthily and methodically work through is something that for him as a Character, is basically impossible. His character is an angry one, one built on spite and childishness, and who holds the mantle, unfortunately, of “Spunky Male Protagonist In A YA Novel”. So, his mental health issues can never just be a struggle he has to cope with, especially not when the DreamSMP can never seem to have anything between “A lot is happening right now omg” or “Literally nothing is happening and nobody is playing on the server at all omg”.

Instead, his issues have to be seen as a battle, and they fuel the narrative of the story. Him having been abused by C!Dream cannot just exist as a thing that he as a person has to work through slowly with the help of others around him. It has to be seen as this Epic Triumph Against Evil, another battle of Tommyinnit VS Dream on the DreamSMP, a classic Villain versus Hero fight.

This, of course, isn’t too great. By C!Tommy’s abuse plotline being framed in this manner, it makes it so that C!Tommy is constantly obsessing over his abuser and recklessly throwing himself into dangerous and triggering situations is some attempt at an “Epic Battle With Evil”, rather than this being treated like the self-harm it actually is. And yes, it is self-harm, a form of it.

...no?

Tommy's mental health issues have never been portrayed as a "grand battle." In fact, the only time Tommy has tried to deal with them in that manner in the exposure therapy stream, it's explicitly shown to only hurt him more. His traumas exist in the background until he's triggered by something, at which point he has a flashback or a panic attack, and it's all dragged to the foreground again. It's not an Epic Battle, it's an accurate portrayal of Tommy clawing himself back out of the hole Dream threw him into.

Dream's abuse was never framed that way either. It was never this "epic villain vs hero fight", it was more like a horror movie where the protagonist is desperately trying to hide from the monster trying to eat their face off. Dream was so infinitely more powerful and confident than Tommy that Tommy spent the vast majority of his time post-exile in hiding, and relying on Techno to keep Dream the fuck away from him. The only event post-exile that resembles what you described is the Final Disc War, and that was less focused on Tommy's trauma and more on his attempts to get the discs back and Dream's attempt to take over the server.

Also, Tommy wasn't "obsessing over his abuser" or "throwing himself in dangerous or triggering situations". Tommy's attitude towards Dream post-exile was, for the most part, something along the lines of "For the love of god, leave me alone."

Every conflict between Tommy and Dream post-Nov16 was provoked by Dream. Dream started the entire Exile-arc, he came looking for Tommy multiple times during the Bedrock Bros arc, he blew up the Community House to frame Tommy, he started Doomsday with Techno and told Tommy their story would never be over (for context, Tommy's line was "our story isn't over, but it will be"), he nuked Tommy's house and threatened to burn the discs to get him to meet him for the Final Disc War. Tommy, meanwhile, was just trying to get back onto his feet and make sense of everything that just happened, honestly not helped by Techno insisting he help get revenge on L'Manburg.

You seem to be implying in the rest of your post that Tommy went to visit Dream to take revenge on him, when that was never his motive. The first time he visited, he was making sure Dream was fully locked up and wouldn't be able to get to him, and the second time, he was trying to get closure before vowing to never visit the prison again. He killed Dream twice out of revenge during the Final Disc War, but after that, revenge was not on his mind (or at least, not his top priority). Even when he was actively trying to kill Dream by sneaking into the prison, his motive wasn't revenge, but his fear of Dream reviving Wilbur and using him to escape prison. I agree that visiting Dream was never a good idea, but it wasn't an attempt at self-harm (in fact, Tommy pretty much entirely stopped self-harming after he escaped exile).

When C!Tommy went to go visit C!Dream the first time in Pandora’s Vault, he brought with him stacks of TnT. He did it because he wanted to mimic what C!Dream had done to him in Exile, where he would take all of C!Tommy’s newly gained items and blow them up underground for dramatic effect.

That's literally just speculation. Tommy did have 62 TNT in his inventory, but there's nothing to indicate he would've used them on Dream, since carrying TNT isn't really out of the ordinary for him.

When C!Tommy got into the prison, he mocked C!Dream, hit him repeatedly, and tried to boss him around. He made him write ridiculous books and verbally berated the man. He did this in a feeble attempt to gain some feeling of control over C!Dream. This, evidently, did not work. At best his success was momentary. And this sense of achievement he gained was gained through projecting his abuse trauma onto someone else.

He repeated the cycle.

Yes, Tommy was vindictive. Yes, Tommy tried to bully Dream around, and it didn't make him feel much better. In fact, it's shown in the story that it didn't make him feel much better. This was also literally a day after the Final Disc War, where Dream tried to murder Tubbo in front of Tommy and lock Tommy up in the prison himself, so I honestly don't blame him for wanting a bit of petty revenge. I don't really understand why you have a problem with this, it's not an ideal portrayal of how he should have handled it, but it's realistic to how Tommy, and a lot of people IRL, would have handled it.

After he got brought back from the dead and let out of the prison, he was much much worse. C!Tommy was now paranoid, anxious, constantly thinking about C!Dream, and had his mindset solely on getting revenge on him, by killing him.

Again, revenge was not his motive. He even outright says that it's not his motive.

Tommy didn't try to kill Dream out of revenge, but out of a genuine fear for his, and everyone else's safety. He tried to get Dream to give up the knowledge of the revival book, so he wouldn't have to kill him, but Dream refused, and said he'd bring back Wilbur, making Tommy feel like he had no other choice. Obviously this backfired horribly, but the situation is not at all like the one you're describing.

The problem is not so much showing an unhealthy depiction of a mentally ill or traumatized person. Because trauma and mental illness and the effects of abuse are not always pretty, and they shouldn’t always have to be portrayed and pretty or sympathetic to be accurate.

It becomes a problem when you get this depiction of C!Tommy’s coping being presented uncritically to an audience of a lot of underaged and young people.

That is just flat-out not true. Just because no character has said "Gee golly, Tommy, those coping mechanisms of yours don't look very healthy", doesn't mean they're presented uncritically. In fact, the narrative is pretty blatant in showing what works and what doesn't. The Hotel arc made him feel better, the prison visits didn't really help, and the exposure therapy was a horrible idea that he never should have attempted, and those points can all be gleaned pretty easily from the narrative itself.

This is what "Show Don't Tell" looks like. We don't need someone to tell us which parts of Tommy's coping mechanisms are unhealthy, because the narrative makes it pretty obvious.

Because I shouldn’t have to explain why children and teenagers, especially those that are using these people to cope, are not always going to make level-headed and common-sense decisions. They will be influenced by these Content Creators, whether we think it’s “Stupid” or not.

If a child has gone through the same amount of abuse Tommy has, they're most likely already receiving professional help. If they aren't, and they see themselves in Tommy's story, I feel like a lot of aspects of it may actually be really good for them. It tells them it's okay to leave an abusive situation, that your abuser isn't really your friend, and that people will love you even if you feel you're unlovable. It teaches them that recovery starts with something you enjoy, something you can sink your time and energy into and you can find fulfillment in, and preferably, something you can share with others.

There's another layer to this, and for that I wanna recommend you watch this video. It's made by someone who works with mentally ill people, and it's very informative.

But the point I wanna focus on is the point the guy makes about a certain scene from 13 Reasons Why.

In that scene, a character with depression makes some pretty harmful claims about mental illness. Specifically, she claims that suicide is a coward's way out, and that self-harm is something you do when you don't feel like killing yourself.

This point is, quite obviously, very harmful. But, as pointed out in the video, a lot of people with depression do think that way. Some people may see themselves in the long-haired girl with smeared makeup crying in the bathroom, who knows suicide is a tragedy and self-harm is a bad coping mechanism, but a lot of depressed people may more closely relate to a character who says stuff like... that.

And seeing a character who says and does things like that recover and get better can be extremely helpful to those people, because it tells them that they are not beyond help themselves.

The fact that some of Tommy's coping mechanisms are unhealthy isn't a bad thing. Because in real life, some people do try to do at-home exposure therapy and traumatize themselves more, and do try to engage with their abuser to get some form of closure. And for those people, seeing Tommy try things like that, fail, and try something else that does work can be very helpful. Plus, there are people who just don't have access to professional help, so showing them what works and what doesn't can also be good.

Finally... The DSMP audience isn't as young and naïve as you seem to think they are. Most of them are going to be teenagers above the age of 15, a lot of them neurodivergent and/or LGBTQ+. These kids are likely engaging with the fandom as well, meaning they don't just get the direct messaging from the streams, but also see how other people interpret them.

When the exposure therapy stream went up, there was not an analysis post out there that portrayed Tommy's attempt at therapy in a positive light. All of them pretty much talked about how unhealthy that was, and how desperate he must've been to even try it. You could not go onto any social media without seeing dozens of posts basically screaming DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS into your face. And even if someone is watching this years down the line, or doesn't engage with the fandom, the fact that the only thing Tommy got out of that stream was several panic attacks should make the message pretty clear.

These kids can use Google. They can talk to others who may be in the same boat, who can share healthy coping mechanisms they learned from their therapists. Very, very few people are actually gonna try to copy Tommy's unhealthy coping mechanisms completely uncritically, especially since the story makes it clear that that's not a good idea.

The Dream SMP is by no means a perfect show. It's clumsily written at times, there are plot points that could have been handled better, and there's the very obvious current problem with pacing and planning out lore streams. But Tommy's story is very well handled, especially for a story written by amateur writers, and while there's always room for improvement, it's not even close to being as bad as you're making it out to be.

C!Tommy’s Storyline With C!Dream Is A Very Concerning Depiction Of Abuse

Wild Title 

Okay, I’m sure that this probably isn’t too new information for anyone paying attention to the overall story of the DreamSMP, especially C!Tommy’s storyline, but I figured I’d give my two cents for this anyways. 

C!Tommy is an Abuse Victim who has gone through horrific stuff at the hands of C!Dream. This is not an arguable fact. regardless of if C!Dream had reasons for doing what he did, if C!Dream also later gets abused, or if ultimately the abuse portrayal could be considered in some ways flawed or unrealistic, that stuff doesn’t ultimately matter. Because we’ve seen what happened to C!Tommy during Exile, have seen the physical, emotional, and mental abuse he was put through. Just because they won’t call it Abuse doesn’t mean it isn’t Abuse.

Now, C!Tommy being an abuse victim is an interesting idea from a storytelling perspective. It has a lot of potential to lead to genuine character development, or to affect relationships and story beats in interesting ways. And it could be an interesting way to really say something about abuse and coping with it. 

And to an extent, an argument could be made that it has, though I’d argue the exact way those are handled in canon, but not the point. The point is, abuse is not just something that you get to gloss over. If you want to include themes of abuse in the story, a story you are making available to the public for millions to see, then there needs to be a clear and obvious message being portrayed with including abuse in the story. Preferably, that abuse is bad, and can have majorly negative effects on anyone, especially children. We don’t always get that lucky, but whatever. 

But, from my months of watching the story of the DreamSMP, and trust me I’ve been here a long while, I haven’t seen C!Tommy’s abuse being handled very… well. I could, of course, be wrong in some aspects, and maybe be misremembering stuff since this dumpster fire has been happening for a year now, and feel free to correct me or bring up more points if you know something I don’t. But, I still think that overall, I have a point of view that should be considered. 

So basically, C!Tommy is an abuse victim, right? this is easy to see, very obvious in the way he acts and behaves. Or… is it? 

Abuse is a complex topic and one that, in real life, presents itself in all sorts of forms. Many abuse victims were raised in unloving homes and ended up becoming more vulnerable to abuse later on in life as a result of that. Others never properly learned how to express emotions or turn people down and got taken advantage of. Others were abused from the start, and develop various ways of coping and dealing with that, even ways that they might not be fully conscious of themselves. Abuse is not a one-way street, it could hardly be considered a street at all given how diverse and differing the people who experience it end up developing into are. 

So I’m not saying that, if C!Tommy were a real person, that he isn’t “Being traumatized enough” or that “Why isn’t he more like what I expect him to be like?”. That is not what I’m saying at all.

What I am saying, is that C!Tommy is a fictional character who exists within a narrative, a story. And in a good story, consistency is half the battle. I, as the audience consuming the story, need to be able to look at C!Tommy and pick up on and understand the effects abuse has had on him. And these effects need to be consistent, otherwise, as an audience member, I’m going to get confused and start having questions about why he acts one way here but doesn’t somewhere else.

I also need to be able to clearly see and understand, by being given narrative stepping stones, if something is changing for his character.

As the saying goes, “Show don’t tell”. C!Tommy can’t just say he “Goes to Puffy for Therapy” offhandedly one time, as a means of handwaving away why he doesn’t really consistently act as traumatized as he used to even though it’s literally only been a few weeks, or months at most. To explain how he can jump back between being really sad and depressed about something, to joking about Women and Twitter. It seems weird if he’s able to just so seamlessly, so effortlessly, go back and forth. Almost as if he’s bouncing between OOC and IC, but that’s a whole other discussion. 

Sure, C!Tommy is representing real mental health issues, but he is, ultimately a Fictional Character existing in a story. I need to be given signs, proof, foreshadowing, to explain when he has certain reactions and behaviours in order to understand his character. And these need to be consistent, otherwise we get plotholes and general confusion.

I criticize the inconsistency and the offscreen handwaving because it’s generally not very good writing. It’s the same reason I disliked Eret’s basically off-screen-sort-of-redemption-arc. It’s the same reason people dislike it when Villains of previous seasons suddenly come back as fully reformed good guys for seemingly no reason. There is no arc, no development, no progress is shown to us. 

Because when you’re telling a story about a character having some major change or developing in some way, or having an important character trait, if I don’t see it on screen, then it didn’t happen. How am I supposed to root for C!Tommy’s progress, or understand what he’s doing to progress, if a never see his coping mechanisms? His therapy appointments? 

You can’t just say something, or inconsistently portray something, and expect me to jump through hoops to connect these nearly transparent dots that keep getting thrown around. 

Show don’t tell. Show me Tommy getting better, because otherwise you’re just telling me he made character development, and showing me this completely different character as proof. No, last I remembered C!Tommy was having panic attacks and yelling when C!Dream was even mentioned. You can’t tell me that a day later he can interact normally after days of being in the prison and a month of being dead.

Or, if you are gonna have him flip flop back and forth, don’t have it be so sudden and jarring, give an explanation. Is he faking being fine? Does he have memory issues? C!Tommy doesn’t read to me as the type who’s good at suppressing his emotions, he wears his heart on his sleeve. So you’re going to have to explain, clearly, in a way that isn’t ambiguous, what’s happening with C!Tommy here.

You’re not really saying anything about the abuse C!Tommy goes through, if all of that trauma is automatically wiped from the story when the writers get too lazy or too scared to keep it in. At best, you are showing abuse and trauma for the sole purpose of showing it, with no intention of properly dealing with and addressing it in the story. At worst, you are basically just doing torture porn. 

Pain, Hurt, Trauma for the sake of it. Not with any goal in mind. Just for the drama of it, or to hurt the audience. 

And then your audience is just supposed to take that content in uncritically, and they gain no true understanding of how abuse victims survive and cope after their traumatic treatment.

Exile Arc sure did a good job at making C!Tommy suffer. But as soon as that arc ended, a lot of the stuff that happened in it went completely glossed over and unaddressed for a long while. That might have been fine in the lead-up to Doomsday, since a lot of plot stuff had been going on and stopping to handle C!Tommy’s issues might (Might is heavily doubted cause it certainly isn’t impossible) mess with the pacing a bit. But then after Doomsday, there isn’t really any excuse to put it off. Because nothing was really happening for a good while, and nobody had anything to do plotwise. 

And this became even more true with C!Dream being locked in Prison. Nothing was really happening, so what was stopping the story from taking the time to properly discuss and deal with this stuff?

Well, nothing really. So, the Hotel Arc happened. And oh boy, was it a mess. 

So, C!Tommy being angry at C!Dream for the abuse and trauma he has suffered at Dream’s hand isn’t an issue. It’s an incredibly common thing for victims to feel angry at their abusers, and to even go so far as to wish for vengeance against them in some way. And that’s a totally valid and fine feeling. 

You’re hurting, you’re scared, you’re in pain. I get that. When we’re hurting, we don’t always act rationally or healthily.

But, ultimately, that rage, and hurt, and want for vengeance is not a healthy thing to hold onto. In many circumstances with an abuse victim wanting to inflict pain back on their abuser, we run into various problems. 

For one, getting vengeance on your abuser is quite frequently going to give you more emotional pain than it will fulfilment. Especially if you are young, or are letting this want for vengeance take over your entire livelihood. It does you no good ultimately, to attempt to bring pain to the person who hurt you, because not only will you often be unsuccessful, you frequently won’t find emotional healing and stability in that. 

(The only exception to this rule being if ignoring them or moving on from them isn’t an option for you right now.)

Actions have consequences, and if you invest more time in that person who hurt you, then you have no time to work on yourself or the relationships around you. You have no time to heal, and this can become self-destructive.

Spending time around an abuser, as a victim, is in all likelihood just going to upset you more. You’re retraumatizing yourself by spending time around them, and as you make attempts to give them their comeuppance, you could possibly end up internalizing the methods they used on you, and just end up perpetuating the cycle of abuse again. 

And even if you have no problem with doing that to this particular person, consider how fully internalizing these abusive behaviours could affect your friends or family. Frequently, even when they don’t mean to, abuse victims can internalize the things that they went through and then use those same behaviours against people in their life later on. Being shitty to your support system because of what you went through isn’t a good move, for you or them.

Basically just, an Abuse Victim has more to gain from working on themselves while finding ways to heal and overcome their trauma and abuse, than they do spending their time and energy on the abuser. Its frequently unhealthy, distressing, and self-destructive to indulge in that too much.

(Of course, I don’t speak for everyone, but from what iIve looked into and seen, this is the healthiest method of actually healing from your abuse. That doesn’t mean you just… leave your abuser alone and never address or talk about what they did, you don’t let them get away with it, of course not. It just means you don’t waste your mental well being and time obsessing over someone, especially someone who has hurt you so much.

You deserve better than that. You deserve to heal.)

Now, let’s get back to C!Tommy. 

C!Tommy, instead of finding a proper means of coping with his issues (proper therapy, diagnosis for his issues, forming and maintaining healthy support systems, focusing on things he loves, etc) is shown to repeatedly focus back on C!Dream. When he was making Big Innit Hotel, it did seem like he was to an extent finding ways to cope with his shit. He was still kinda shitty and his hotel was not exactly made and run by the most morally great standards, though I suppose I can’t expect too much when he is a very traumatized teen and doesn’t really know what he’s doing. 

But, ultimately, this all fell apart when he got locked in Pandora’s Vault with C!Dream. Arguably, it was already falling apart the moment he decided to keep pursuing C!Dream even when he was locked up.

See, the thing is, C!Tommy can never just… have trauma. Having trauma that he can healthily and methodically work through is something that for him as a Character, is basically impossible. His character is an angry one, one built on spite and childishness, and who holds the mantle, unfortunately, of “Spunky Male Protagonist In A YA Novel”. So, his mental health issues can never just be a struggle he has to cope with, especially not when the DreamSMP can never seem to have anything between “A lot is happening right now omg” or “Literally nothing is happening and nobody is playing on the server at all omg”.

Instead, his issues have to be seen as a battle, and they fuel the narrative of the story. Him having been abused by C!Dream cannot just exist as a thing that he as a person has to work through slowly with the help of others around him. It has to be seen as this Epic Triumph Against Evil, another battle of Tommyinnit VS Dream on the DreamSMP, a classic Villain versus Hero fight.

This, of course, isn’t too great. By C!Tommy’s abuse plotline being framed in this manner, it makes it so that C!Tommy is constantly obsessing over his abuser and recklessly throwing himself into dangerous and triggering situations is some attempt at an “Epic Battle With Evil”, rather than this being treated like the self-harm it actually is. And yes, it is self-harm, a form of it. 

C!Tommy uses his trauma and issues as fuel for the story, making it so that its impossible for him to truly progress and a character, and the moment he does start growing, he has to get retraumatized again so he goes right back to where he was.

C!Tommy does not become a better person when he’s around C!Dream, nor does he find any form of fulfilment in being around him. He gets shaky and panicky at just the sight of him. He regularly has violent and explosive outbursts at just the mention of him. When C!Dream talks to him, he gets nervous and basically can’t help but listen due to conditioning he still listens to. 

When C!Tommy went to go visit C!Dream the first time in Pandora’s Vault, he brought with him stacks of TnT. He did it because he wanted to mimic what C!Dream had done to him in Exile, where he would take all of C!Tommy’s newly gained items and blow them up underground for dramatic effect. 

C!Dream did this for control over C!Tommy, to manipulate him, for his suffering.

And C!Tommy wanted to do this to C!Dream, because he was feeling vindictive. 

When C!Tommy got into the prison, he mocked C!Dream, hit him repeatedly, and tried to boss him around. He made him write ridiculous books and verbally berated the man. He did this in a feeble attempt to gain some feeling of control over C!Dream. This, evidently, did not work. At best his success was momentary. And this sense of achievement he gained was gained through projecting his abuse trauma onto someone else.

He repeated the cycle. 

After he got brought back from the dead and let out of the prison, he was much much worse. C!Tommy was now paranoid, anxious, constantly thinking about C!Dream, and had his mindset solely on getting revenge on him, by killing him. 

It got so bad, he ended up doing lacklustre “Exposure Therapy” to help himself not panic when he went into Pandora’s Vault to kill C!Dream. It got so bad he dragged C!Tubbo and C!Ranboo into this, putting them in danger and putting more pressure on another two teenagers’ shoulders. 

It got so bad, that Ghostbur died, C!Sam closed off even more, and C!Wilbur came back. 

Objectively, C!Tommy leaving C!Dream alone would be the better thing for everyone. And yet he keeps repeating the cycle. Because C!Tommy is not meant to grow, learn and heal. He is made to suffer. 

The problem is not so much showing an unhealthy depiction of a mentally ill or traumatized person. Because trauma and mental illness and the effects of abuse are not always pretty, and they shouldn’t always have to be portrayed and pretty or sympathetic to be accurate. 

It becomes a problem when you get this depiction of C!Tommy’s coping being presented uncritically to an audience of a lot of underaged and young people. 

Nobody in canon, whether they be adults or fellow teens, has ever tried to question C!Tommy’s methods for coping. C!Ranboo and C!Tubbo just limply went along with his plans for Exposure Therapy with no consideration of if this was a good idea. No adults really offer to genuinely step in and help C!Tommy deal with his shit, and the ones that do leave him or get corrupted in some way, often leaving him with more trauma as they do. 

C!Puffy’s therapy methods are dubious at best, and the most we ever see of her actually helping C!Tommy is her humouring his toxic behaviours, and C!Tommy making offhanded mentions to vague therapists appointments we never see. 

C!Technoblade stopped giving a shit as soon as C!Tommy walked off the screen. C!Wilbur was dead, and now that he isn’t he certainly isn’t helping C!Tommy. C!Phil isn’t C!Tommy’s dad and has no obligation to do anything for him as a result. C!Ranboo has the backbone of a chocolate eclair. C!Tubbo is too busy repressing his own trauma to help C!Tommy with his. C!Sam is being ruled by the prison and C!Quackity. C!Quackity has become an Ancap. 

Nobody in this story is a reliable or trusted person to C!Tommy, who could properly tell him his methods are unhealthy and give him better alternatives. And as a result, nobody is able to tell the audience that C!Tommy is wrong 

Unreliable Narrators are only effective when the narrative in some way has their unreliableness pointed out or proven to the audience. If you go into a story with the assumption that everybody watching will be able to see past C!Tommy’s POV and not take him at face value, then you are naive. Especially when this fandom is made up of many teens and children. 

I only know C!Tommy’s methods are unhealthy because I care way too much and do my research. A vast majority of the world doesn’t have the same understanding and education on these topics, especially not children and teenagers. A good chunk of people, especially neurodivergent and mentally ill people, could very well take the story at face value and automatically assume that what Tommy’s doing is actually a good coping mechanism because they don’t know any better.

There is no clarification or safety net for preventing misinterpretation. And being of the opinion that “Well, they should know better than to trust a bunch of Minecraft Youtubers for this stuff” or “We can’t expect them to be psychologists! You expect too much” is just… not helping. 

Because I shouldn’t have to explain why children and teenagers, especially those that are using these people to cope, are not always going to make level-headed and common-sense decisions. They will be influenced by these Content Creators, whether we think it’s “Stupid” or not. 

And I can say with certainty that, while yes, this might be a bit much to expect from a bunch of British/American white guys who play Minecraft to handle, may I also point out that nobody fucking made them put this stuff in the story. There are ways to write a story without stepping outside of your realm of true understanding. Nobody begged these MCYTs to go and make torture porn for a 16 year old, nobody asked them to touch on topics they have no fucking clue about. 

They put that in themselves. And we have the right to point out the problems and flaws in it, and criticize them for not handling this stuff better. 

You don’t start applying for a job you don’t meet the requirements for. You don’t start an expensive project you can’t finish. 

You don’t include elements in a story you aren’t willing to fully go through with and address in a proper and sensitive way. 

[my-taintedheart]

Thank youu, like I personally can’t believe they broke up— I just don’t see that happening after everything they’ve been through but even so in no way did they have to demonise Chloe’s character because they wanted Max to be shipped with the other characters in DE.

No matter how hard deck nine tries, no ship in the entire life is strange history can be compared or even be remotely comparable to pricefield.

(SPOILERS FOR LIFE IS STRANGE COMICS which are old at this point what are you doing AND SOME DOUBLE EXPOSURE SPOILERS)

Got that warning out of the way. Yeah. So. If you know The Spoiler then you know.

With FULL disclaimer that I know the comics are officially "only one possible version of reality", and are in no way binding canon. Nevertheless, they are official still.

Here's Chloe freelancing as a designer for a rock band. She also travels with them later.

Here's Chloe taking an internship at an auto repairs shop, 'cause she's good with cars.

Here's Chloe some years later taking an active part in rebuilding Arcadia Bay and her mother's diner. Taking a responsible leader role and shit.

Here's Chloe opening her own auto repairs shop she's now the boss of. And evidently designing it herself. Y'know. 'Cause she's good at stuff

Here's Chloe also buying an apartment for Max and her. Together. On her initiative.

Here's Chloe being willing to wait for her superpowered ass girlfriend for the aforementioned years because plot happened to Max, as it does, and she's her "partner in time".

Here they both are after another timeskip, fully consistent with LiS 2 photo

Y'know. This one.

In a recovering town. Where Chloe rebuilt a diner and established her own auto shop with her own hard work and skill. And bought them an apartment. TO SETTLE DOWN TOGETHER.

Note: Full disclosure, they had an apartment in Seattle together before "plot happened" and also traveled around with a rock band for years so it's not like Chloe ultimately ends up confined to Arcadia Bay again. Don't worry.

BONUS: Them being normal with Victoria:

So yeah. "Chloe is a free spirit who didn't wanna be tied down or take life seriously and fucked off to flirt with Victoria Chase" MY ASS.

Granted, both this and DE are about equal in being "canon" but. In terms of Chloe's characterization and what we know from previous games. I can see her do all this. Even if you take the relationship out of the equation, fine, the rest of it. I do NOT see her doing ALL THAT.

Bite me, for all their faults the comics understood Chloe's character much better than whatever DE has got so far.

Anyway this is not a "GOTCHA" post, this is a "If you're pissed like me take this and run"