#explain but not excuse

[bethanydelleman]

So I do think the lady who wrote this stupid book has a point about modern media excusing terrible behaviour with tragic backstories, because I read a lot of justifications of Darcy that are centred in Darcy having TRAUMA. Poor boy didn't mean to be rude at the Meryton assembly, he's a poor little orphan who just had sister troubles.

Except that blaming this trend/trope on Austen is insane, because Darcy does not excuse his behaviour in this way AT ALL. He does blame his education somewhat, but if anything his excuse is that his parents loved him so darn much that he became a brat. That's not trauma, that's Trust Fund Baby Syndrome.

In fact, the one person who attempts a trauma explanation of Darcy is... Wickham! He claims that Darcy Sr. loved him more than Darcy Jr., causing Fitzwilliam to be jealous of Wickham. Which would be kind of understandable, if it were true, but Darcy doesn't really seem to care about this and clearly loved his father, so if anything Wickham was a minor annoyance in his life pre-Ramsgate.

The narrator says clearly that Darcy has always been like this, it isn't a trauma reaction, "He was at the same time haughty, reserved, and fastidious; and his manners, though well bred, were not inviting... Bingley was sure of being liked wherever he appeared; Darcy was continually giving offence." And Darcy confirms this, he's been rude "from eight to eight-and-twenty" The only time he brings up the whole Georgiana thing is to tell Elizabeth about it, he never blames that event for his behaviour.

If anything, Jane Austen was a proponent of "explain but not excuse". Lucy Steele is mercenary because she is barely clinging to her status in the gentry, but she's still portrayed as a villain because the way she goes about trying to secure Edward (and later Robert) is fundamentally wrong. Mary Crawford has a back story full of trauma, she's an orphan twice over, her uncle sounds like a misogynist creep, and yet Austen doesn't accept it as an excuse, Mary must become better to be worthy of Edmund. Willoughby is an orphan, he's in debt, he's made bad choices, but he needs to do better and because he doesn't, he's not worthy of Marianne.

My Point: Don't blame Austen for the trauma excuses all bad behaviour trope, because she didn't start it and she frequently subverted it!

[lead0]

they are in love your honor

[violetwolfraven]

The funniest thing in the world to me is when people write mermaids that are bothered by humans eating fish. Like do you think fish don’t eat each other? The ocean is full of little freaks that will eat whatever or whoever the fuck will fit in their mouths. If the mermaids haven’t been eating fish this whole time what do you think they’ve been eating? If the answer is humans, that doesn’t make it any less funny. They’ll eat the species that looks like the top half of them but won’t eat a species that looks like the bottom half? Peak comedy.

[r1ver-6]

Say what you will about committing to the bit, but no one does it better than Burton Guster. Shawn does it because he has to and it comes naturally to him. But Gus? Gus does it because he gets to. And he can always perfectly follow Shawn’s hints. He doesn’t have to but he does. Every time. For years.

[toffeebrews]

I have this hc that when error gets emotional and glitches, sometimes it stretches like those stretch glitches you see in video games.

[phoenixinthefiles]

If I was DC screenwriter I think people would hate me

Cus I’m pulling out all the stops

Dick Grayson with anger issues who absolutely is not a golden retriever (that man will purposely target your occipital bone with his escrima) but does value his family over anything and loves them fiercely (even when they give him a heart attack)

Jason Todd the sunshine robin who’s really passionate which leads to his “extreme anger” Yes he’s a theatre nerd and he does listen to Jane Austen but that’s not his entire personality.

Cassandra Cain can speak.

*ducks away from window* Tim Drake is not a short king who is extremely sleep deprived and needs coffee to function. His smarts rival Bruce’s and he hates coffee, likes Mountain Dew a normal amount, and is sleep deprived but he takes power naps cus he plays into the corporate king role. He’s taller than Dick (cus that’s funny) and he’s missing a spleen but he blew up all the Lazarus pits so he does not care. Also he has commitment issues (mans cannot keep a girl or boy)

Duke Thomas is not the “normal one” he’s just as crazy as the rest of em and if you think he’s not it’s because you’ve fallen into his trap. The boy started a revolution and is the only meta Batman has pardoned (😝 Clark)

Damian is a precocious, traumatized, kinda mean, child. But he’s still a child, he can’t see over the counter at the doctor’s office, he wants his mom and dad together, and he loves being loved. Yeah he’s a bit of a brat but his grandfather is royalty and his father is Gotham’s dark prince; he’s allowed to be a bit pretentious. He’s a good kid and he had some bad influences but He is good.

Bruce Wayne doesn’t collect child soldiers, he is not physically abusive (physically, cus he’s had some moments) He won’t kill joker because the thin line that keeps that little boy in the alley sane is his fragile moral code. His kids were his kids first (with the exception of Tim😭) he would stop if he could, but because he can’t; he trains them.

Talia Al Ghul is not a rapist and she does love her son (the way she knows how).

Alfred Pennyworth is immortal🥰

(I’m aware I left some members off but these are just my main takes)

[whiteiris0016]

IM SORRY WHAT

[autiacorart]

i was asked to give connor this and here we are

[dsmp-lainey]

it’s often painfully apparent if someone truly cares about dsmp as an actual story and or if they’re JUST a stan of a real life content creator who was on it, because the latter will always find a way to have the most exhaustingly boring and reductive takes.

they’ll completely ignore any actual character building that took place in order to project their feelings about the cc’s onto every character. which gives them a bizarrely skewed view of characters actions and motivations.

[manda-kat]

Friendly reminder that if you used to go to Church or a Christian school as a kid, but did not continue to study or grow your faith as you got older, than - no, you actually don't understand Christianity on the same level as a practicing adult believer.

I'm tired of hearing people dismiss the Christian faith and say 'well, I went to church as a kid, so I know what you believe'. That's the same as saying, 'my parents took my to the aquarium every week as a kid, so I know as much as your average marine biologist'.

If you're going to brag about how much knowledge you have about Christianity anyway, you should at least try not to say it on posts where you get things blatantly wrong about the Bible, the Church or- idk- the core message of the Gospel.

[marsstarsnstuff]

/gen

Do people understand the reason Q cannot apologize about the situation right now? Or are people a bit confused?

It's basically something in the US court system, that when someone is involved in a case and apologizes for the issues and takes the blame (rightful or not) the others in the same case can use it to put all the blame on one person and the others would get off scott free.

That is something that does actually happen, and I have had experience with. I can explain a little if people want but the circumstances are different as mine is around family and inheritance mostly.

So, yes, while the admins, 100% deserve explanations and apologies, due to leaks of private messages (that they are in their own right to show) I personally do not think an apology will be given until any of the higher up issues have been resolved.

*Edit*

Thanks @qsmpbutwithsignlanguage :

"An apology is considered a complete admission of guilt in the court of law in the United States of America, for more specific terminology. "

I forgot the specifics when writing this

[bananafire11]

Please put the knife away sir

+ sketches i wont be finishing

[peace-hunter]

tfone au where OP is created as the last of the primes but way after them, a sparkling born at what were thought to be the last days of the war against the quintessons, the beginning of a new generation of peace after eons of war. a child meant to be loved and raised knowing nothing of war nor sacrifice.

he's kept mostly out of the spotlight by his siblings, who don't wish to expose him to everyone's optics so young, and want to wait until the war is done and over to properly introduce him to their people.

except of course the primes are betrayed and murdered by sentinel, the war is lost and everyone who knows and cared for the truth is either banished or outright killed in order to suppress it.

and the high guard, the ones the primes trusted the most, the ones that were supposed to protect them, the ones who failed in their most important duty, have to make a choice. to take the last prime, their last hope, with them to the surface, a hostile environment where there's little to no supplies and where they'll be hunted down by both sentinel and the quintessons as the biggest threat to their regimen.

or hide him in plain sight. place him where sentinel won't think to look for him. one more sparkling among many. and hope it will be enough to keep him alive. pray to primus that he'll protect his last child long enough for them to come back for him when it's safer (even if most of them have already lost their faith on him when he allowed the rest of his children to be massacred like that)

they almost lose their resolve when they realize they will have to take the little one's cog away in order to make him blend in with the rest of the newborns (and oh do they burn with murderous intent when they see what sentinel has done to their people but it's not the time yet-) but in the end they decide an impaired little prime is better than a dead one.

and so in the chaos of thirteen dead primes and a sudden energon crisis, a little sparkling who very few mechs really knew about and even fewer had seen completely vanishes. and in the depths of iacon a mech in charge of a new batch of newborns scratches their helm in confusion as they realize they must have miscounted the first time.

optimus prime is quietly erased from any official records by sentinel, written off as dead when they find a sparkling's frame mangled beyond recognition after an attack on the base of those rebels that insist on being a thorn on his side. killing the sparkling hadn't been precisely in his plans, he probably could've found some use for it after all, but he's not particularly upset about it either.

and orion pax grows up with an ache on his spark that tells him he's missing something far more important than a t-cog and dreams of gentle and loving hands, cradling him against the frames of mechs he cannot recall the faces of.

[4pp13-ju1c3]

this ONEs a real doozy!! (i am ill and will not recover. this series has left me irreparably damaged)

[communistkenobi]

like god you guys need to get like a government stipend for explaining racism and colonialism to fandom bloggers or at the very least a big red button to press that kills them immediately bc like I remember last summer trying to talk about colonialism in star trek (a very basic observation) and that was some of the most intensely negative reactions I’ve gotten from people on here about fandom in years lol. truly don’t know how you do it on a daily basis. I can imagine the constant sense of alienation whenever interacting with people who are basically just telling you to leave their digital whites-only neighbourhood

[thresholdbb]

I'm a Kai Winn apologist but not because I think she's a good person. She's a compelling tragic character