#but in the book you don't have as clear an answer merricat is the way she is | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

devoutjunk · 3 years ago

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oh for fuck's sake. i don't even have a horse in this race/particularly strong feelings re: any of the superhero dynasties beyond "they're fun, sometimes" but now someone is arguing that merricat is "the villain" of WHALITC and Charles is actually the protagonist/"hero" (lmao) and it's making me want to bang my head against the wall

not every story is a little diagram where you can draw a line down the middle and sort the characters into "good" and "evil" piles. and--i know it's mind boggling--but a character can be the protagonist of a novel and still be a bad, flawed person, or an unreliable narrator, and if you come away from an amazing book like jackson's that situates you so completely inside Merricat's world, inside her twisted, fucked up logic and the all-consuming, codependent relationship she and Constance both perpetuate and your takeaway is "i'm cancelling merricat bc she's #problematic" i really don't know what to say to you bc i think you missed the point

ugh i am sorry to be a brat but the m*rvel stans have taken over the WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE tag and now it's just BDSM Sebastian Stan fanfiction. and while i am pleased the phrase "bratty charles blackwood" exists on the internet... i just wanted to reblog some quotes about merricat and constance

#merricat IS vicious and terrible.#she's also deeply loyal #and terrified and trapped by a pattern that's been woven since before she was born #she and constance cling to what's familiar #what little control they have #and tho merricat sometimes outwardly seems like the more active or controlling member of their duo #constance has just as much if not more influence over her #she just exerts it in a way that's read as more typically feminine and soft whereas merricat very clearly struggles to fit into that #template #and CHARLES #he's clearly scheming and manipulative and even though he isn't as openly/physically violent in the book #as he is in the film #the implication and threat of male violence lurking #ready to destroy the sisters' home and the peace they've found is there in the text #i actually thought it was a good choice (for the film adaptation anyway) that the director made charles and blackwood senior more #explicitly violent #but in the book you don't have as clear an answer merricat is the way she is #which is more unsettling #and in away more interesting i think #but it's silly to pretend she's the only fucked up #maladjusted #downright murderous person in the novel #she's just the only one who succeeds!!#*lucille bluth voice* good for her

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