#and we don't ship abusers

[annyankers]

for all the amicability in the whirlwind later on i think it's really important to never lose sight of why dru was turned and then why she in turn sired spike. she was tortured and turned for angelus' enjoyment, her continued suffering brings him pleasure. he owns her, she is a Thing to him and she has no way to escape this. she makes spike to be "her brave knight" a position that, especially in fairytales, means a very romantic man physically protects and serves a woman who is usually gonna end up being some kind of damsel in distress.

while yes dru is evil and a vampire she's still obviously very upset about what happened to her and those moments seem to be her times of lucidity, not delusion. not to mention that she's already been beaten out of the notion that she can escape angelus, she tried to as a human and it didn't work, it likely won't work now either, especially if darla sides with him. but with spike around there's someone who basically always takes her side and fights to keep angelus away from her. who is, at least, a buffer between her and her tormentor. he also takes care of her and validates her, something neither darla or angelus seem to be interested in doing at all.

i feel like people tend to intellectually remember what happened to her but forget that it you know, has long lasting consequences when say, they evaluate her behavior in late s2 when angelus comes back. like... yeah ofc she goes back to appeasing him and shit. spike's a wheelchair and she was beaten into shape to be "daddy's little girl" (gag) YEARS before she even MET spike. her abuser is back and her defender is out of commission not to mention her whole view of reality has been actively warped by the most narcissistic sleezoid around.

and all the reasons why people love spike or point to as why he's better with buffy or whatever.... dru was the one who saw those first and picked him because of those. like... it's wild to see people act like they spent a loveless century together and spike was just used the whole time when we SEE them literally in love, he states MULTIPLE times she means so much to him and we get an OUTSIDE SOURCE CONFIRM THEY HAVE "AFFECTION AND JEALOUSY FOR EACH OTHER". we have the spike we know of today because drusilla saw the hero in him and wanted him to rescue her. and ya know, he kinda did. multiple times. over a century of deep, mutual horrifying love. you only even GET spike and buffy in the same ROOM because he loved dru so much he saved her from a mob, traveled with her across a continent (maybe 2 depending on direction) and over an ocean for even a SHOT at a cure. like... cMON.

this got a little off topic into some of my pet peeves but also kinda not because just-- i don't think people always remember that dru is still a victim and a victim who was intentionally frozen the moment of maximum despair and internal destruction. then spent about 20 years being groomed by her tormentor before she ever had anyone care about her as a priority. i think people tend to forget that it was angelus who wanted to turn spike into a monster and drusilla who wanted him to be a hero. it's dru who gives him his swagger, his confidence, his love for life, who encouraged his romanticism and adored his poetics. it's not that she groomed or built him, but just that she saw all that potential already in there and facilitated it and nurtured it. sure in a fucked up vampire way but still.

[wisteriasymphony]

I feel like. The fundamental opposite of a lot of ML fans. Like yes I care about the LS but a HUGE part of the show that has been consistently lacking is it's worldbuilding!! Both the side characters and the actual lore! It took way too long to get to it.

This is finally starting to feel like a real full-fledged comic book universe to me- and that was Astruc's intention when he created Ladybug in the first place. Don't forget that the original idea was a teenage girl inheriting a mysterious pair of earrings! Inspired to take up the name Ladybug and fight crime and investigate secret evils lurking in the city after her father is suddenly murdered and she demands justice! And then the networks wouldn't greenlight the show unless he turned it into a kids' romcom. But even the rejected concept bibles had these overarching themes woven in- and comics thrive on very elaborate worldbuilding.

So I'm digging that we're getting to see this coming through now. Do I miss lovesquare shenanigans? Yeah, a little, but I wouldn't trade it. Nodding along like YES here are my classic Batman and Spider-Man vibes.

I do feel bad for those fans who bought into this thinking we were gonna get a kids' romcom the full way through, to be honest. I do love what's going on, and I think for a lot of people who were never super enthralled by the lovesquare and were always in it for the lore, this is a change they don't really mind!

But it does almost feel like a bait-and-switch, doesn't it? If everything about the show used to be so heavily centered around the lovesquare in all its fluffy, saccharine glory?

I do wonder what it would've been like if we had just gotten to jump into the comic book stuff to begin with, though. Whether the show would have gotten as far as it has without the romance, etc. At the very least the willingness to introduce more villains and more lore makes the prospect of 14 seasons a little more bearable, since the scope will seemingly keep increasing.

Still, even though I do feel for my mutuals mourning the lovesquare souring a little post s5 finale, I am also one of those world-first fans, so it is nice that the show is delivering on that front now.

[hussyknee]

I'm really not a villain enjoyer. I love anti-heroes and anti-villains. But I can't see fictional evil separate from real evil. As in not that enjoying dark fiction means you condone it, but that all fiction holds up some kind of mirror to the world as it is. Killing innocent people doesn't make you an iconic lesbian girlboss it just makes you part of the mundane and stultifying black rot of the universe.

"But characters struggling with honour and goodness and the egoism of being good are so boring." Cool well some of us actually struggle with that stuff on the daily because being a good person is complicated and harder than being an edgelord.

Sure you can use fiction to explore the darkness of human nature and learn empathy, but the world doesn't actually suffer from a deficit of empathy for powerful and privileged people who do heinous stuff. You could literally kill a thousand babies in broad daylight and they'll find a way to blame your childhood trauma for it as long as you're white, cisgender, abled and attractive, and you'll be their poor little meow meow by the end of the week. Don't act like you're advocating for Quasimodo when you're just making Elon Musk hot, smart and gay.

[timegears]

god please remind me never to go into the balls-deep shipping side of the utdr fandom because obviously this is not exclusive to this fandom but the way some of you talk about noelle's "obsession" with susie just feels like you're desperate to call her a predatory lesbian lmao

[astro-b-o-y-d]

If I say Ford should be allowed to exist as an imperfect victim of abuse without being shamed for falling for that abuse while also being allowed to be viewed as an ass at points, will the fandom flay me alive on both sides?

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

remember that post that was like “c//a needed to be more toxic, they should have stabbed each other”?

i hate to say it but attempted murder was the least of c//a's concerns. stabbing each other would somehow be healthier than all the shit that was shoved into this trainwreck of a ship.

[burningcheese-merchant]

Dear merchant, as an Airfryer shipper, please forgive my fellow shipper if they ever attack you for shipping Pitayafire.

Also, *cough cough* "it's dark in my imagination" next chapter?

I have no idea what Airfryer is, but thank you for your kindness anyway 🫡 no one has given me trouble for shipping PitayaFire (yet), thankfully. (Sometimes I wonder why? Never got too much trouble for shipping BurningCheese and Beast x Ancient, either. Maybe it's because I'm pretty unknown? 700-ish followers isn't much in the grand scheme of things. I suppose being such a small fry is a blessing in disguise.) I don't intend to pay them any mind if they ever do. Best not to bother with people like that. "Do what you want and be happy" is the way to go about things, I think. And I've got thick skin and more important things to worry about than internet randos bashing me for wanting the fire man to kiss+fuck the dragon lol

(as for It's Dark In My Imagination... Soon 👀 I'm sorry that's so late, I never meant for it to be. I've had a lot to deal with irl the past couple of months (major crisis of confidence + legitimate emergencies, like the scare with my dog) and it took me away from writing. But I'm trying to get back on the saddle! I'm about 4k words into the final draft, chapter 3 should be posted in the next day or two hopefully! I didn't abandon the fic, I promise! Chapter 3 exists and you'll see it soon!)

[scoutie]

i tried to check out severancetwt and i hated it so much i have to detox on here . genuinely dumbest and most annoying people on earth

[rowinablx]

How I feel because Wolfwren didn't never will happen

[dykethevvitch]

just finished book of bill and i wanna smash in the head of billford shippers a little bit. i think if you unironically ship billford you have to give every gf fan who's survived abused $100 and an essay on how bill is a textbook abuser

[chipen]

when i tell you en.deavor/hawks as a ship makes me physically ill