#he’s not even being nasty this time not intentionally anyway he’s just repressed as hell

[leporinelou]

steve being overly tactile with billy when they become friends. slinging an arm around billy’s shoulder’s while they’re watching a movie. putting his hands on billy’s waist to move past him. tucking billy’s hair behind his ear to look at his earring. slipping a finger through the loop of billy’s jeans to tug him closer. grabbing billy’s chin to tilt his head because oh, you have freckles..

steve telling himself that sure he touches billy a lot but. he’s always been a touchy guy. it doesn’t mean anything.

steve not accepting that he has a crush on billy and that’s the reason he can’t keep his hands to himself.

because obviously steve isn’t a queer.

as if.

billy being simultaneously overwhelmed with and loving all the attention. because it’s steve. steve pressing his face into billy’s neck when they’re high. pulling billy’s hand close to play with his ring. running his hand over billy’s stomach when they pass out in the same bed and he thinks billy’s still asleep. tracing circles around billy’s ankle as he listens to billy read.

because it’s steve. steve who billy’s had a thing for since he arrived in hawkins. steve who can’t like billy like that. steve who isn’t like billy. steve who likes girls.

steve who called byers a queer.

billy wondering if this is just what it’s like to have a friend. a best friend. if this is just what you do. because billy doesn’t know. wouldn’t know. no one’s ever gotten close enough. billy thinking it’s all in his head. that he’s twisting his and steve’s relationship. making it into something it’s not.

steve staring at billy’s lips and wondering what it’d be like to touch them. billy wondering if steve’s gonna break his heart without even trying.

[asha-mage]

Actually no it turns out I have more to say about this:

But Xue Yang and Luo Binghe are characters that are meant to intentionally challenge the reader’s preconceptions and notions. They are meant to be uncomfortable, sometimes distressing to read about, because their explorations of the visceral humanity behind ugly, often monstrous actions. And that discomfort creates an urge- an urge that many give into- to simplify and flatten those characters to better suit our preconceptions then challenge our preconceptions in response to them. It’s easier, less fraught, for Luo Binghe and Xue Yang to simply be monstrous villains then it is to deal with the reality MXTX is attempting to portray: that their messy sometimes broken human beings shaped by their trauma’s and environments. It’s especially galling because arguably the whole POINT of SVSSS is that their is no such thing as a ‘simple scum villain’ that you can blame for everything that goes wrong, and to think otherwise is a comforting fiction at base, and an excuse to dehumanize others at worst.

What set off this post was me reading a fic where that posited (non ironically) that Luo Binghe will eventually kill Shen Yuan out of jealous obsession and/or an inability to control him, which aside from ignoring the ending of the book and Luo Binghe’s character development, fundamentally misreads what Binghe wants out of their relationship in the first place: affection and validation. Post Abyss, Luo Binghe already has all of the control in their relationship and is VERY aware of it, but he is also aware that it dosen’t actually change anything, since he can not force Shen Qingqiu to love him or give him validation and affection: trying would be meaningless.

Post Abyss, Luo Binghe could, at any time kidnap Shen Qinggiu and drag him back to the Demon Realm to be his concubine, but he dosen’t. Instead he hatches a plan to win back Shen Qingqiu’s respect by taking over Huan Hua Palace and essentially jump up and down going ‘see! see! I’m a respectable righteous cultivator, you don’t need to hate me or be afraid of me anymore, I’ve overcome that nasty demon blood you hated so much and it’s okay if your mad at me still but I can fix it see? I’m not a monster see?’. The only times we ever see him exert force on Shen Qingqiu are when he is trying to actively help him (healing him of the sower infection with his blood parasites) or is when he is unaware it’s Shen Qingqiu at all (the Mushroom body, pre-reveal). Even when Luo Binghe takes Shen Qingqiu prisoner at the end of the Mushroom body arc, he expresses frustration and disgust with himself, and it’s only as a last resort to separate Shen Qingqiu from those he views as the source of all their problems: Cang Mountain. And notably it dose not work because Cang Mountain is not the source of what’s wrong between them. The only way for Luo Binghe to get what he wants (the time pre-Abyss in the bamboo hut where he was truly happy) is for Shen Qingqiu both of them to overcome their inner demons (Shen Qingqiu’s his repression, Luo Binghe his jealously) and work from a place of genuine trust. And like even then the ending leaves you with the idea that everything isn’t magically fixed by fucking it out on the mountain and destroying Xin Mo (though both HELP), and the book dosen’t imply it is: just that this it the start of their real relationship. Hell, SEVERAL of the SVSSS Extras are about how their having intimacy issues and need to work through them like adults.

Anyways, I have more thoughts on Binghe and Xue Yang parallels but this to say: reducing Binghe to a yandere stalker monster is both a disservice to his character and also super boring in comparison to the messy things you could explore about their relationship, send tumble take 2.

People like to intentionally misread Binghe's character in the same way they like to misread Xue Yang's send tumble.