#i think mxtx leaves a lot of space and silence around what is really going on with him but people always read tragedy and failure into it

[ghooostbaby]

ok YEAH i just found the words to express the frustration i have with stories/characters based on revenge...

there's this all or nothing between a character becoming so consumed by revenge they destroy themselves or the "healthy" choice to leave it behind and choose life, love, happiness ... how many posts talk about loving revenge tropes but often paint them as this inevitable descent into madness and futility, and in that way they always end up being kind of moral instructions through tragedy. if only they had turned away from revenge at the last moment and chosen happiness...

i just went to this herbalism workshop on anger, what plants can be used for and to sustain us through anger... and it wasn't how to heal from anger, like a malevolent force you need to get out of you, how to stop being angry, how to be content... it was more like how to sustain yourself through anger at injustice that is right to feel and anger as an emotion to harness by taking good care of yourself in the midst of its process. how to counteract the damage longterm anger can do to your body so you won't shut down and can continue to fight.

there's something disconcerting about the standard sighing over the tragedy of revenge characters doing their revenge, neglecting to settle down and follow their bliss. what about a perspective of care and support sustaining us through the vengeance, the justice we need? maybe there's a reason for that, that we believe we can only be angry and shut down or so frenzied we're ineffectual and lose everyone we love in the process, or the alternative is abandon justice and investment in the struggle and become happy. maybe its in certain institutions best interests for us to believe those are our only choices...

what about a story where someone on a quest for revenge is sustained and supported in their struggle? why is it always a meltdown of dysfunction and social abandonment? i think if we hear stories like that over and over we believe them and forget what else is possible

P.S. the plants were: burdock, tulsi, hawthorne, linden, and rose