
but God I hate the “he had a hard past so his actions make sense” troupe. That’s like saying every child who came from an abusive home and managed to grow up a good person is obsolete. I get it, his past sucked, but this man DECIDED to be an asshole anyway. If anything, a top who isn’t a dîck DESPITE his bad childhood is WAY more attractive than an abusive one.
Hot Take
I’ve been seeing a lot of uploaders on old and recent manhwas/mangas posting ship art on their little uploader info page, and even the ships from the mangas/manhwas themselves, and people go to WAR in the comments about it and it’s so stupid to me.
Like, not all ships are created equal. I’d go as far as to say some ships are generally pretty not-that-great, but everyone is entitled to their own ships
AS LONG AS THEY AREN’T HURTING ANYONE OR FORCING THEIR SHIPS ON OTHERS.
Like, leave them alone, dang.
Ship wars is the most stupid and toxic concept ever. Just ignore the ship if you don’t like it. It’s legit not that hard
i obviously don’t think ppl should go to war over little things like this but i would also say the one that i did not like, that i think this could be about, is a ship of an adult and a minor. i dont think that’s an okay thing to “ship”, let alone post art of in a suggestive way and say “we listen and we don’t judge”. i can understand it’s not hurting anyone, they’re fictional, but to post suggestive art with a minor is at the very least weird (and at most is predatory) and says something abt that uploader. other than that specifically, i could care less. i want to read things without first being jumpscared by a naked child.
As many of you BL enjoyers (myself included) have seen, Jinx is back! And it’s become strikingly apparent that the author is trying to give the ML a “tragic backstory” to possibly justify his mistreatment of the MC. Now, she’s not the first and WILL NOT be the last to use this troupe. But I pose a serious question.
Does a tragic/sad/or fucked up childhood justify a character mistreating others?
Imo I feel like it depends on the degree of fucked up. Like, Caesar from Rose and Champagne had possibly the most deranged childhoods a character could get and it heavily impact his ability to treat others well because he didn’t know any better. Like, I’d say in that case, it mostly justified his behavior. But if the worst they had was a slightly hard childhood that doesn’t actually affect their psyche like in R&C I don’t think it warrants them treating someone else awfully.
What do y’all think?
the stories are always the same, like an abusive household and not being able to love properly,
but most of the time the characters actions are literally what a psychopath would do, so the backstories never excuse them, ( half the time the authors dont even try making a backstory, and diagnose the ml with something )
i think a lot of the time in real life (as someone who had a terrible childhood), you become much more aware of urself and ur actions bc you know how much something affected you. for example, having been in an abusive relationship and then realizing that you are doing something similar. i would say this is a more healthy approach/mentality to have, but a lot of the time these mls/unhealthy characters have no ounce of self awareness nor emotional intelligence, and i think that’s their biggest downfall. and i get the “lonesome, cold ml” trope, but do we HAVE to have non-con/non-con themes when dealing with a person that is supposed to be rooted for, at least partly?
all of this to say, i am one to be on the part of “your broken childhood should be a reason, not an excuse”. you may have qualms/triggers from childhood that you can explore via storylines, but don’t try and excuse actions by just saying “but poor him… little guy got hurt as a kid :(
The thing my psychology teachers once told me applies here "bad childhood explains people's behavior, but it doesn't excuse it". That holds true in most cases. Like yes, I get that your bad behavior has sad origins (every bad behavior does) but the harm caused to me in the present is just as real and my experience is also valid.
By the way " my childhood was bad I'm sorry" is a very well known gaslighting technique.
I would also like to add that human behavior is not deterministic that way. Just because someone has had a bad childhood doesn't mean they have to be bad as well. Human will is very powerful. Humans have control over themselves, unlike animals. And if a person doesn't know that certain behaviours will have certain consequences, then they're emotionally immature and will drag you down with them
I get the nuance of what ur saying but it lwk rubbed me the wrong way when u said Caesar’s behavior is justified because of his tragic backstory. Nothing justifies doing that shit. It EXPLAINS it but it doesn’t justify it. When u say someone is justified to do shit like that it becomes a slippery slope of letting ppl get away with shit.
What is with authors giving rapist characters a tragic backstory? And no, a rapist is still a rapist. Just because a character has a tragic backstory doesn't change the fact that they did a crime. I don't care what happened in their past, they chose to rape someone. They are a criminal, and just because they have character development later on isn't going to make me like them. I hate any character who is a fucking rapist, and they can suffer. I don't give a shit
Is the ending happy? Spoil me, please! I only wanna read if I can avoid sad tears!