#Like sorry that I'm not gonna get mad at an abuse victim who was betrayed and abused for having trust issues

[papercutslut]

Just a curious question: do you think the show's narrative tends to be a bit hard on Ford? Like, at the end of J3 Ford kind of self-depreiciates that he needs to trust people, even tho theres not much to show Ford that he needs to. Like, he got betrayed by many people, so I dont find it fair he needs to be forced to trust people.

Even Hirsch in an early interview claimed that Ford was in the wrong about his arrogance and so on.

https://www.tvinsider.com/73765/gravity-falls-series-finale-alex-hirsch-interview/

idk I have a lot of jumbled thoughts about Ford, and Im not the best at putting them down, so forgive me if this doesnt make sense.

Post betrayal I think Ford was justified to have trust issues. He self isolated due to paranoia, and he was kind of in the right for that. The fun thing about Bill's abuse was that since it was supernatural in nature, Ford's reaction of a complete loss of trust and having a mental break was kind of entirely justified.

I've said before that at least in the main series, we basically never see Ford when he isn't stressed, and I think people tend to judge him too harshly for his action post betrayal and pre portal. He was in the middle of some very heavy abuse and sleep deprivation while also trying to stop Bill from ending the world. I think he can be forgiven for acting a little rude.

As for after Ford gets back... He does kind of have trust issues. Not trust issues in the traditional sense, but he has trouble trusting other people to be able to help at all. Ford had kind of gotten it into his head that he had to be the one, the only one, to defeat Bill.

I think people tend to think Ford only is like this out of arrogance; "he has main character syndrome" people say. I think that's part of it, but I think a bigger part of it is that he has like. Responsibility issues? He thinks that since the problem started with him, that he HAS to solve it alone. That allowing anyone else to be involved just makes things worse for them, that this is his burden to bear alone.

He has "main character syndrome" not in a "IM THE BEST PERSON EVER AND EVERYONE ELSE IS JUST STUPID" but kind of in the "I am a lone wolf. I must bear every burden alone, for this is my punishment for my misdeeds" way.

Like, Stanford has to learn how to trust people. But the why he has to learn how to trust people isn't because he's evil or even really arrogant. He has to learn how to trust people because he's traumatized, and his trauma response is to insist he HAS to do everything himself. His arc in his story is that learning that letting other people help him, trusting them, won't result in betrayal or ruining other people's lives. That he can have a support network. That he doesn't have to be alone.

At least, that's my interpretation. I might just be entirely wrong.

[firegirl888101]

Heyoo İts me! (Again) first of all thanks for answering my question! I'm glad we through same!

Anyway here is what I want to ask;

We all read in the first episode that scaramouche hit us. I wanna ask Are you gonna make some of the harbingers kind of abusive? Like they hurt the reader when she does somhething wrong. And if you gonna do some of them abusive may I ask which? (I'm asking too much things ı realize sorry about that)

Alright, this is important. Thanks for asking this since it's linked to something else I want to mention.

There won't be much abuse, however I will definitely try to include some. This is because the characters are Yandere - not to mention being Harbingers whom are used to kill and fight for the Tsaritsa. Let's look at Childe for example, in the lore he is known to have killed an entire fatui camp under Pulcinella because he was 'training', as well as needing to fight to keep his lust for battle at bay. If he were to fall inlove with someone, in this case the reader, I can imagine his lust for battle increasing if he were to become jealous or feel anything negative when it comes to his crush. Kind of like in Fontaine where he said he 'was in a bad mood' and it was connected to him being in the Abyss when he was younger.

Anyway, I won't spoil what this means for him in the modern world since it'll spoil a bit of his character in Insatiable Madness, but there will be lots of death.

Now, Abuse towards the reader was the specific question so I'll talk about that:

Scaramouche hit and kicked the reader multiple times because he was frustrated. In the lore, Scaramouche is known to be very cruel towards fatui soldiers, and kills some who get on his nerves - please correct me if I'm wrong about this. Besides, his character is known to hate humans with his entire being due to being betrayed by those whom he trusted and connected with the most.

As the Harbingers get to know the reader, they will hurt and force them less into things they don't want to do. However, this doesn't mean the toxic behaviour towards them and others around them will just 'stop'.

If/when the reader feels confident to run away, that's when I think the physical violence will start against them again. The best way to explain it would be in toxic relationships when one side acts very nice to attract the other, when they get what they want that's when they begin to reveal who they actually are and manipulate the victim into thinking they have nobody else but the one who hurts them all the time.

I hope I answered your question correctly!, another thing I need to mention is that I'll be adding the warning at the bottom of Insatiable Madness (8) to every single part since I think it should be reminded more. Thanks for reading :)

[jihyunkm]

ugh i totally agree with everything you said about v in that anon response. tbh i'm still so confused about what cher/itz was going for there? they make it clear that he did what he did because he was trying to protect everyone he possibly could and they explicitly show that he was a victim of domestic abuse who couldn't bring himself to leave his abuser (because she manipulatively placed sole responsibility for her mental health entirely on him), making him a sympathetic character (1/4)

but then they turn around and **** him with no chance for redemption, instead giving the redemption arc to said abuser who gets a new start with no consequences for her actions, and also gets the continued love and admiration of the very people she betrayed. and the audience is supposed to be okay with this because?? fuck v i guess?? i will never understand why chertz made such a compelling, complex, extremely flawed but still sympathetic character and just threw him in the trash like that (2/4)

and called it a happy ending. like i would say it’s intentionally bittersweet and you’re supposed to feel for v, but so much of the fandom shits on him as much as the characters in the game did and i’m just? am i missing something here? i just don’t know. i just don’t see how we as the audience are supposed to villanize him after all the development the game gave him, but i also can’t see how we’re supposed to be okay with how his story ends. it’s just super frustrating and imma be forever (¾)

bitter about how he was treated in the game. (it’s actually why i’m not as active in the fandom as i was before playing seven’s route). it’s seriously tragic and honestly v was such a great character and deserved to be part of a narrative that treated him better ;_;. (sorry for the multi-part rant i just got a lot of v feelings and reading that ask brought em all up again lmao) (4/4)

well you basically took the words right out of my mouth? i don’t have anything to add besides emphasizing my intense frustration over the ending bullshit. it REALLY pisses me off that half of the rfa are totally in the dark about the whole situation. they literally go full circle with lying about r*ka. did they not see where that got v? r*ka being around literally helps no one. toss her ass in jail, she can get help there. oh right they were gonna but zen just had to have a dream and prevent it from happening jfhsdgd i’m not really mad at him for that since he didn’t know everything about what was going on but was instead told that r*ka was just a disciple But also….did he not question as to why they were trying to ship her off to jail. anyway that’s off topic lol. 

chrtz really must not have expected people to like him so much considering the whole no justice/redemption thing. they truly just brushed him under the rug and acted like nothing even happened. seven deleting the files about r*ka makes me want to explode lmao jfhgkjh GOD i truly can’t with this canon ending shit. what does k****** v even do for the plot? like oh good everyone forgives him AFTER he d***?! fuck that. but also…ugh. imagine they keep him alive and r*ka pops up in his vicinity lmao i’d delete the app right then and there.

anyway v deserves sooooo much better than all the shit he got. deserves better than his abusing ex-fiancee, deserves better than being brushed under the rug, deserves better than getting no justice whatsoever. i will definitely remain bitter about how they treated him. then they tossed his closest friendship in the trash in the dlc HAhaha…great. just great.