#sorry for the rant ish but I hate when old ass men tell me shit like that

[lactosecarrotsoup]

My thoughts on Sean & Finn’s kiss

This will be long and of course contain spoilers, as if you can’t tell by the title... thingy. So, be warned. This will also contain my opinion(s); which is a very sensitive subject in this fandom. 

We’re all entitled to our own thoughts, opinions, beliefs, etc.

With that said, let’s get started!

For those who are new to this game... I will give you a short summery. Life is Strange is a video game series ran by DontNod. A great company who loves to make players cry. This season has new characters from the other season and DLC. This season takes place in Washington where you play as a 16 year old boy, Sean Diaz, who’s a regular teenager. He loves drawing, skating, and of course stereotypical teen stuff such as drugs and parties. Taking away the partying and drug usage, he’s your typical shy-ish guy. He also has a little brother named Daniel, he’s 9 years old.

Both of them are Hispanic, including their father (Esteban), making this season’s cast more diverse than the first season, where the main characters were mainly white.

Speaking of their father, he dies. Yep. After Sean forces Daniel out of his room, Daniel runs to their hot-headed neighbor and accidentally spills homemade zombie blood on him. Sean over see’s the neighbor about to hurt Daniel and rushes out the house, protecting him. After a few racial slurs/crude remarks to Daniel, Sean decides to fight him. Sean shoves the neighbor onto a small rock (which I still dont understand how that injured him), and he lays on the ground in shock/going unconscious.

A cop shows up and hell breaks loose. The cop only see’s the “blood” on the neighbors shirt and Daniels, thinking nothing but the worst of the situation rather than questioning them. The dad comes out, trying to reason with the officer and he gets trigger happy, shooting Sean & Daniel’s dad, killing him. Daniel screams in shock/anger/horror and Sean blacks out. Whenever he wakes up, the entire street is destroyed and more people are dead/unconscious. He grabs Daniel and they runaway, not wanting to get involved with the crime. It’s later found out that Daniel has powers (similar theme to LIS season 1) and can move objects with his mind.

More shit happens, yada yada yada.

NOW.

Episode 3 just released. In episode two, the brothers meet quite a few people. But most notably for this post, Cassidy and Finn. These two are regular friends (or maybe even “fuck buddies” as Finn and another girl described their relationship), who are a lot like Sean and Daniel. Cassidy left her old home life to live on the road. Finn, I can’t remember if he said anything or not. But I would think it would be for the same reason or something crime related.

Anyways, point is, they all group together and live in the woods. But, they all also work for this dude who runs a farm with nothing but pot.

Yep.

A nine year old and sixteen year old kid are working at a pot farm.

This leads to Finn, Cassidy, and Sean to get high, drunk, etc.

Finn get’s a hair up his ass and decides; “Hey, why don’t we steal all the cash from our boss? Who cares if he may know about Sean & Daniel’s backstory, has security footage evidence of them, and shotguns?!”

Cassidy is against this. But you, the player, have the option to accept or refuse his plan to rob the big dude with the cash.

And in the words of Chloe Price from season one; he’s got some “hella cash”

SORRY I HAD TOO.

But still, you can either rob from the guy or go against it. But HO HO HO! This choice doesn’t matter that much. Finn does it anyways (with a fUCKING NINE YEAR OLD HELPING HIM AND RISKING THAT KID’S LIFE) and Cassidy gets upset and worried. So, if you disagree with Cassidy, you end up meeting with them anyways so you can stop them. You get in trouble either way, btw.

But, let’s back it up.

If you agree to join Finn’s plan, he’s happy and you have the chance to romance him. Which, at first thought (including mine), was great! In the first season, Max was bisexual. You can flirt/romance with Chloe and/or Warren. With Sean romancing Cassidy and Finn, the developers made him bisexual.

But... it’s not all roses. Let me give you my first reaction. I do actually have it recorded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGJ8lg5clHM

2:29:55 - 2:34:24

If you don’t watch it, basically I was excited and shocked. I didn’t like Finn at first but in that moment, I shipped them. I wanted Sean to be happy and happy enough to open up about his sexuality, if he hadn’t already.

But, I realized something.

Finn is most likely 20+. Sean is still 16. This means Finn is an older guy kissing a minor, which is of course, illegal. Not to mention that earlier in that episode, he was teaching Daniel to throw knifes and such. He smokes and drinks and admits his sexual relationships in front of a kid, too.

Speaking of his sexual relationships, it would be highly toxic if Sean and him dated/had casual sexual intercourse. Just based on Sean’s personality and how he had a crush on that Jen girl in the first episode, and how close him and Cassidy warmed up to each-other, he wears his heart on his sleeve. One thing this season has done WONDERFULLY is not distribute toxic masculinity. Sean and Daniel have both cried several times. Most men don’t like to talk/show their feelings because they feel weak and such, which is horrible. No guy should feel that way and should openly express them-self.

Sean does this, which is amazing. Yet, still can harm him.

Right after you agree to Finn’s plan, you can kiss him. Throughout the episode, he also flirts with Sean. Of course you have the CHOICE to kiss him... but it’s only after you accept his agreement. You can kiss Cassidy (and sleep with her) but she will storm off, angry, without kissing you, if you agree to Finn’s plan. Which is reasonable. Or, you can lie to her, saying you thought his plan was dumb, and she’ll kiss you. Both reasonable (in my opinion) responses to each situations.

But, how come you can’t kiss Finn regardless? Sean can say no and they could still talk about their feelings, leading to a kiss. Instead, they do nothing.

Finn is manipulative. He used Sean’s emotions to get to him. He probably noticed how close him and Cassidy were and how much love he has for Daniel, openly saying it every now and then, and wanting to protect him. Finn noticed how open Sean is and took advantage. 

Imagine if this wasn’t a choice base game and the story automatically follows Sean agreeing with Finn.

He flirts with him throughout the episode and is very charismatic. Since Daniel notices how close Sean and Cassidy are getting, he rants to Finn. Finn takes in this information and uses it against them. He becomes “cool” in Daniel’s eyes by being super chill, rebellious, and showing him how to violently protect himself/hurt others. In a sense, he becomes Daniel’s temporary older and “cooler” brother, making Daniel look up to him. With Finn’s flirting, he admits (once again, if your choices didn’t matter) that he has feelings for some guys.

Finn takes note of this.

The idea pops into his head to steal from the man who runs the pot farm... thing. I’m an innocent bean who hasn’t done anything harder than prescribed drugs for anxiety and stuff. So forgive me if I’m getting these terms wrong, LOL! But, the point still remains, he tells Daniel who is automatically on board. I doubt a 9 year old boy truly cares if they have enough money or not. I bet his main thought was “If I do this, then Finn will think I’m cool! He’ll treat me like an adult and so will others.”

In fact, I bet you that was his exact thoughts, just based on what he said to Sean and how he acted towards others.

If you really look at it, guys... it looks similar to a Mark Jefferson/Nathan Prescott relationship in season 1. I’m not going to go into many details for the people who haven’t played/watched season 1 yet, but I’ll give you guys a basic rundown by what I mean.

Nathan was mentally ill. He suffered from possibly multiple disorders and had an abusive father. His father wanted him to be the best of the best, not for his sake, but for the families sake. This got to Nathan and he hated his father. Mark Jefferson was a teacher who noticed this, befriending Nathan, and becoming a fatherly figure. The two teamed up to do sickening plans and crimes together which ended up getting them caught in the end.

Now, who does that sound like?

Daniel just lost his father and he’s angry. He probably has PTSD and anger management issues, based on how he’s acting and the situations he’s been through. Finn is an older figure and tricks Daniel to follow his plans and crime, as they’re stealing. They end up getting caught by the boss no matter what they, Sean, Cassidy, or the player does.

Sean is in the same boat, minus the anger issues. He probably suffers more from depression and PTSD (since he talks about the past a lot to others and how they know their story). Since he does talk about his feelings, Finn uses to his advantage.

When Sean agrees to the heist, Finn and him (can) kiss as an award. An award for falling into his trap and doing whatever he wanted.

Nathan got fatherly love and praise from Jefferson, resulting in him to continue their disgusting plans in order to feel loved.

Sean (and Daniel) and becoming the Nathan of this season.

We have to watch out who will be our jefferson.

I also have to address another elephant in the room.

We’re the reason this happened.

If you go through old DontNod/Life is Strange official posts (I suggest instagram or facebook, where i saw mine), I saw nothing but comments saying how much they want Chloe and Max back. I assume this is because of how you can romance Chloe. They want their love story/friendship to continue. Even though we did get a comic series based on them, it wasn’t good enough.

DontNod probably got sick of it and forced this to happen. While they were probably writing Cassidy as a love interest in the beginning, and Finn as probably just a random stranger or a brother of hers, the noticed all the hate and said “fuck it!”

As a result, we got the chance to kiss Finn... before you could write him off by injuring or killing him. Which, many people were pissed about.

But if you REALLY think about it, we were the cause of that. They probably didn’t want that, wanting to focus on Cassidy and the actual story. But many people wanted LGBTQ+ moments (which is understandable) but didn’t want Sean and Daniel’s story. Or they did get involved in their story but wanted a LGBTQ+ character.

The story of Life is Strange (both seasons + DLC) is nothing more but teens/young adults finding themselves through very difficult times. This with the responsibility of super powers, which are hurting those around them. It’s not meant to be a romance. It’s meant to be a drama, sci-fi, and angst story. (And thriller bc of Max’s nightmare bc that shit scared me)

While yes, I was happy and excited at first about Sean & Finn kissing. I was happy that there was potential for things to be “normal” and Sean to be happy, there was a lot of red flags. The age differences, the manipulation, the parallel's, and how forced it was.

Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk! Before you leave a hateful response, please know my opinion is valid like yours and others. Not only that, but I’m not the first to point some of this out. :)

[swiftsgetawaycar]

RANT TIME

(NB: this is gonna be long and may include some profanity lol sorry not sorry) 

Okay, SO! I was at dinner tonight with some family friends and the restaurant we were at had the radio playing lightly in the background, and unsurprisingly, as Taylor is SLAYING the charts, Gorgeous came on and I immediately, very nicely, asked our waiter if she would mind turning it up a little and she was happy to oblige. Anyway, it’s like a minute into the song and the first ding™ was coming up so I was mentally preparing to wink and try my best to do Taylor sassy-sexy smirk thing when the boy I’m out with (he’s a few years younger than me and dead-ass knows how much I fucking LOVE Taylor Alison Swift) goes “ugh, how do you like so much? her music is SO boring, all she writes about are her boyfriends” at which point my mother’s wine glass loudly made contact with the table and my sister started vehemently shaking her head and trying to cut him off because they knew that I WANTED TO FUCKING PUNCH HIS SMUG ASS FACE AND MOST LIKELY WOULD’VE HAD I NOT BEEN IN A CROWDED RESTAURANT IN THE MIDDLE OF LONDON! But, I stayed calm(ish), which was truly a remarkable feat considering that the bridges in Gorgeous are especially emotional to me because Taylor and I bonded over them at the SS,  and then went on a long ass rant about why his statement was totally wrong and a product of the sexist and incredibly self-conscious media industry that has made Taylor out to be this man-using slut who falls in love only to make money which let me tell you as someone who has met and spent time with her is THE FURTHEST THING FROM THE TRUTH POSSIBLE!!!!!!!! So, for anyone out there who still buys into that whole character-assassination plot that is Taylor using her exes and boyfriends purely as writing material, listen up whilst I explain to you why the statement set me off so fucking much that I had a whole pub of people listening to me scream at a teenage boy about Taylor Swift on a Friday night. 

1. Whether or not meaning to be, it is an ENTIRELY sexist statement to make that Taylor Swift only writes about her love interests because when has the media and/or society EVER criticised a man over using exes and love and break-ups as content for song writing? All successful male artists have written about love at some point, and some of them have been successful because they have ONLY written about love, and never once has anyone had a problem with that or suggested that their music was any less fabulous because of it. Meanwhile, a woman uses her experiences in life which just happen to coincide with her experiences with love and the whole world automatically stirs up this narrative that she’s boy-obsessed, hysterical and has nothing else to write about but those relationships, failed or not. MEN HAVE DONE THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AND IT HAS NOT BEEN A PROBLEM, TAYLOR DOES IT AND IT MAKES HER UNTALENTED, MAN-HUNGRY AND BORING - WHERE IS THE LOGIC IN THAT?!?! Oh right, it’s back in the Eighteenth fricking  century when men thought women were hysterical for acting out and having thoughts/feelings. Honestly, saying Taylor’s music, or any other female artist’s music, is boring because it’s all about love is bullshit because 99% of the music on the market has always been about love from Mozart’s Fur Elise to Beyonce so that is one argument my feminist ass will always take down and hold against you. 

2. IT’S 2017 AND TAYLOR HAS PROVED TIME AND TIME AGAIN THAT SHE CAN WRITE MUSIC ABOUT FUCKING ANYTHING! She could literally write a song about a brick wall and it’d go platinum in record time - why? BECAUSE SHE’S THE MOST TALENTED SONG-WRITER OF THIS GENERATION!!!! I can list multiple songs of Taylor’s that have NOTHING to do with romantic love (aka The Best Day, Long Live, Never Grow Up, Eyes Open, Mean, Welcome to New York, Bad Blood, Shake It Off, Look What You Made Me Do etc.) most of which are her biggest hits, like Shake It Off for example which was number 1 in multiple countries for MONTHS! I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT PEOPLE THINK IT’S ORIGINAL/VALID TO MAKE THAT CRITICISM BECAUSE HONESTLY IT’S BEEN TALKED ABOUT TO DEATH AND THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE WHO WILL FIGHT TILL THE DEATH TO PROVE THAT LOVE IS NOT THE ONLY THING TAYLOR WRITES ABOUT!!!!!!! 

3. “Boring” and “Taylor Swift” do not belong in the same post code let alone the same sentence because Taylor never has been even close to “boring”. She is one of the only artist out there that is in touch enough with their audience and fans to know what they like best and never fails to deliver it. She has changed her sound over the years not just for us, the fans, but also because she naturally recognised the need for a shift in her music (see her comments on Red not wining AOTY at The Grammy’s like it should’ve if you don’t believe me) and there are not many people in the industry who have been courageous enough to take the risk and break away from what made them successful in the first place. Yet, Taylor did and became even bigger and better for it; 1989 was a totally new direction for her and still deeply resonated with ALL her fans from her country days. Name another artist that has successful transitioned from one genre to another so seamlessly, flawlessly and in a way that still keeps true to their sound and themselves?! I’ll be waiting a long time for you to answer that.

4. LOVE IS THE MOST COMMON HUMAN EXPERIENCE EVER!!!!!! Even if it was all Taylor wrote about, which I think it’s safe to say we’ve established is not the case, could you blame her?! We have all had or are going to have an experience of falling in love someday whether it be in a romantic, sexual or platonic way. There is literally nothing more common in humans (other than hearts and lungs and death) than love - it happens to every one of us in our lives despite race or religion or gender or socio-economic class or geography or political stance so of course it is an experience that a writer would want to use as inspiration and share to an audience. Love is in everything from sciences to literature to music - is it really that inconceivable that someone who wants to connect with others would do so by using a universal experience!?!?!

5. Lastly, if it doesn’t have a negative impact on your life or actively harms someone why the fuck do you even care?! Taylor’s music makes SO many people SO incredibly happy (as does Taylor, just saying)  so why try to ruin that for them? What has Taylor ever done to you? It is honestly NOBODY’S business who Taylor writes her songs about or who was in mind when it was conceived, whether a fan or a friend, it is her life and her story and she DOES NOT have to share it with anybody unless she wants to and chooses to! SHE DOESN’T OWE US ANYTHING!! And if you know that somebody strongly resonates with her music and is a huge fan of her art, what’s in it for you to make them sad and hurt? Do you think we like to hear people talking shit about someone who has been nothing but kind and loving towards us? It’s not fun being a Swiftie at times because we  literally have to spend all our time defending Taylor over and over again from stupid, false and cruel misconceptions about her, we would much rather be out enjoying her music, baking cookies, watching Friends and looking at cat videos on YouTube but instead we need to remind you that Taylor is a fucking person rather than some object you can use and abuse for your own selfish agenda.  So, please, keep your opinion to yourself, especially when you know how much @taylorswift means to us. 

Basically, you have no clue what the fuck you’re talking about and if you honestly believe the things the media says not only are you stupid but you are undeserving to have your ears blessed by Taylor’s music, and I feel sorry for you that you won’t get to have it in your life because it is fucking amazing! 

I know that “Haters Gonna Hate” but really, couldn’t they at least be factually correct instead of hiding behind decade-old jokes and tabloid headlines?!

OH ALSO IN CASE ANY OF Y’ALL WERE WONDERING AFTER MY LITTLE RANT I WAS SO WORKED UP MY MOTHER ACTUALLY LET ME HAVE A GLASS OF WINE TO CALM DOWN WITH AND THE WAITRESS MADE A POINT OF TURNING UP THE RADIO AGAIN WHEN TAYLOR CAME ON (I MADE MY MUM LEAVE A HUGE TIP FOR THAT LEGEND!) AND I FORCED SAID BOY TO WATCH THE READY FOR IT MUSIC VIDEO WITH ME WHILST I PAUSED IT TO EXPLAIN THE METAPHORS AND THE MEDIA AND THEN I BLASTED TAYLOR ON REPEAT AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE TO WRITE THIS.