#in conclusion: that one post abt how everyone thinks your blorbo sucks for the wrong reasons

[astralleywright]

the ashton stuff where everyone is reverting back to treating them like they did in early c3 just reminds me of when people were pushing back against everyone seeing caduceus as a perfect flawless angel by saying he was actually super arrogant and cruel and judgy. which like... dude?

so the thing abt ashton is that they’re a weird asshole and they suck so bad. and there were plenty of people who were put off by this, some of whom came around when he started becoming more vulnerable with the hells, and especially when he started his hero era. and then, like a beautiful butterfly emerging from its cacoon, New Ashton is born and is... also a weird asshole. A weird asshole who cares deeply about things, which makes people infinitely more uncomfortable than a weird asshole who pretends not to care. so now some of the people who thought Ashton was becoming terrifying things like "nice" and "well adjusted" and actually wanted that are confused and annoyed at him. that's what i think of when you mention people reverting to early c3 treatment.

related to, but not the same as that, is people who treat ashton's current behavior as not just weird asshole behavior (which it often is), but weird asshole behavior rooted in stupid or invalid premises and feelings. its gods discourse again, basically, when expecting anything of them at all (even, "don’t kill me in the name of protecting your colonialist interests") is selfish and entitled, bc they're totally dying rn and 👏 gods 👏 don't 👏 owe 👏 you 👏 anything 👏. ashton's suffering is sympathetic until they start demanding some sort of recompense, or seeking out their own power and capacity to enact change.

and there are cogent points in that discussion, about how Ashton's politics are still mostly self-centered and he's rushing into things he doesn't understand and acting on impulse judgements. and then there’s cross-campaign meta about how Taliesen's Characters are Always Super Wrong About Stuff, and Also Mad (Which is Bad), where i have no idea how much of that actually holds true. but even if it does, a lot of that stuff's wrapped up in discussions abt how "Ashton Resents the Dominant Power Structures of the World and Yet He Desires Power in Order to Destabilize Them, Curious! I Am Very Intelligent," and it's like, alright. what the fuck goes on.