#not saying that we are all bullies or going to be predatory to minors bc it's not safe. but tbh you're not going to be met so kindly

[supercantaloupe]

on Aelwyn Abernant, the Reformed Villain Squad, and redeeming teenage antagonists

an analysis on antagonist character development in Fantasy High. spoilers through sophomore year and (mildly so) the most recent roll20 oneshot. essay under the cut bc i am very long winded

the turnaround with Aelwyn in s2 is handled so well  i cant get over it. she was such a major antagonist in the first season and just. despicable. she had no pathos. we hated this bitchy older sister who tried to kill Adaine and her friends and raise an evil dragon, and when she gets knocked on her ass and thrown in jail, we cheer.

and then s2 fucking starts saying “hey she’s in jail still if you’d like to look into that” and pursuing that thread ends up being almost as comedic an idea as it is a reluctant one; it’s also quickly shunted to the background as soon as more pressing leads present themselves, to the point where we almost forget about her until Adaine is kidnapped and then the first time you see her it’s just. viscerally upsetting.

she’s bad. she did evil. she got what she deserved.

but she already got what she deserved. last season.

she got her ass handed to her by a bunch of 14 year olds including her little sister (how embarrassing!). her plans were thwarted. she got punched in the face and made fun of. she already got her punishment.

it just……immediately registers as over-the-top Wrong to be told “hey, remember that antagonist you beat last season? she’s still being punished for that, except it’s way worse than just going to mumple.”

and there’s that reminder that like…this is a teenager. a child. who has been manipulated and abused. which is a really fascinating look at this character we used to see pretty much unilaterally as a one dimensional bitchy villain.

i mean we got a more in depth look at Penelope’s and Biz’s motivations in s1 (Penelope being the popular rich girl sorceress obviously hungry for power and the alllure of the high school clout that is being prom queen, but also we know that her having to turn on her best friend Sam Nightingale as part of the scheme was something she was reluctant and not happy to do; and Biz being that predatory incel creeper type dude besides just a nerd with computers and a lack of social graces). and they were as much willingly active in the plot as Aelwyn was. yet in s1 they really never do bother to explore Aelwyn’s motivations. i remember after watching s1 but before s2 that was one of my biggest lingering questions: why tf was Aelwyn involved?

well. she was manipulated and abused. her terrible parents raised her in an awful environment that conditioned her to Listen and Obey and Behave and Be Perfect, and then Kalina helped cinch the noose around her neck with threats and coersion into the KVS Kaper and the NMK crown debacle. she doesn’t freely choose any of it; she’s coerced, manipulated, abused.

and she already got justifiably punished for her bad actions in s1. the torture is almost literal overkill. it’s just……there’s this immediate turnaround in sympathy and view of the character. on first watch, it’s viscerally upsetting to see her getting so brutally punished for actions she already faced consequences for, and on rewatch, it makes your skin crawl to know she’s being tortured for terrible things she had little choice in carrying out. and tortured by some of the very same people who coerced her to behave terribly in the first place, to add insult to injury.

and it’s still fucking frustrating when they rescue her and her memory gets reset and she goes back to her parents because it’s like “well shit, she’s evil again, and we just wasted all that effort for nothing” but it’s also sad cause we know she’s running back to her abusers and she isn’t happy about it but doesn’t feel like she has a choice. and it’s sadder still that what eventually inevitably gets her to turn to good for good (i.e. away from her parents) is just. a full dissociative mental breakdown.

(but then she survives and it’s gonna be good!!! until Adaine dies in her fucking arms. which is. almost funny. she’s been through so much shit and that isn’t something that Brennan would have just. preplanned. like a written in plot point. no, that was just an unpredictable consequence of the battle. what a juicy fucking moment. she’s been through All That Shit™️ and has finally turned to fight for good and her sister just fully dies in front of her. yeowch)

and she turns out okay in the end. she comes out the other side alive and whole and supported by her sister and her friends, with the hope of a future and recovery. there is an acknowledgement that A) she can and will grow from her mistakes and damage, B) it’s going to be really hard, and C) the post-s2 one shots both prove that she’s doing okay now. hell, she has a whole squad now of other former-teenage-villains-turned-good-guys. she has friends now, Ragh and Zayn, with common ground, and a secret handshake and everything. they’ve all grown from the mistakes of their past into better, happier, healthier people

and about Zayn and Ragh. we’ve seen a lot of characters, protagonist and antagonist, teenage and adult, PC and NPC do some really fucked up shit and get punished for it. but why do they get happy endings? why are Aelwyn, Ragh, and Zayn the only members of the RVS and not someone else like Biz or Penelope or Dayne? 

well, the latter two are dead by then; but then again, Biz and Ragh were also killed by the Bad Kids in s1, and subsequently resurrected. (Zayn died too, but was neither killed nor revived at the Bad Kids’ hands, so i’ll get to him in a sec.) and there are plenty of adult antagonists the Bad Kids face who are killed and left that way by the Bad Kids without second thought: Johnny Spells, Coach Daybreak, Captain Wicklaw, the Abernant parents (presuming Arianwen doesn’t survive in the forest for very long, which i doubt). why do some characters get second chances while others don’t?

in the case of Zayn, his death was pretty much out of the Bad Kids’ hands, and they later found out he was manipulated by Daybreak into being bad anyway because of his sad living situation. he was a pretty minor antagonist in the scheme of things, and when we re-meet him as a ghost in the s1 epilogue, he’s pretty obviously remorseful for his actions. and dying seems like a steep enough punishment to me for the shit he did to contribute to the KVX caper; returning as a ghost, free from the trappings of his unfortunate living life, he now has the room and freedom to grow into a better person.

in the cases of Daybreak, Spells, Wicklaw, and the Abernant parents: these are bad people who should know better. these are fully grown adults who actively choose to do evil. whether they think it’s the right thing to do or not (in Daybreak’s case), whether they think it will benefit them and don’t care about anyone else (in the Abernants’ case), or whether they don’t care much at all and are just doing shit because they feel like it (in the cases of Spells and Wicklaw), these are all adults who consciously make the decision to do terrible things and hurt other people. of course Johnny Spells, who is generally a punk thief and thug, is not on the same level of bad as Angwyn, who kidnaps and tortures his own daughters for political gain, but the point remains. these fuckers should know better. they’re grown ups. they had their chances to be good and they chose not to heed them. their minds are set on bad actions and they are a continued danger to other people as long as they are alive. when they die, the Bad Kids do their damndest to make sure it stays that way.

now, in the cases of Penelope and Dayne: these are teenagers who actively chose to participate in an evil plot. Penelope, Dayne, and Biz were all fully cognizant of what they were doing trying to raise KVX back to his former power. why? well, to some extent, we can only speculate. i suspect Penelope was just one of those Regina George bitches who is rich and popular and powerful and obsessed with power and popularity within high school as if that’s the end-all-be-all of existence (which, like, when you’re currently in high school, is a somewhat understandable worldview i think). Dayne being her boyfriend and a musclehead jock probably falls into a similar line of thinking. they are actively and willingly trying to cause harm, and teenager or not, must be stopped. they’re killed, anyway, during the Climactic Battle™️ anyhow; it’s not like the Bad Kids were going to gain anything at that point by keeping them alive.

now, Biz: Biz is the creepy Nice Guy incel type, sees woman as a prize he deserves to win, yadda yadda. he does, like Penelope and Dayne, actively choose to help KVX. there might be something to be said about his motivation the Bad Kids discover after the arcade battle by detecting his thoughts (that being to upload the captured maidens from the palimpsests to “call the shots” himself) is an altered memory; whether this was his original motivation from the start or not, i’m not sure. but the Bad Kids do kill him – and then resurrect him for important, time-sensitive information. and they beat it out of him – he gets two of his fucking fingers blown off. and Riz reattaches them once they have their info, and they realize his memory is altered. of course, the Bad Kids don’t know at this point that the altered memory was something he, Penelope, and Aelwyn had planned and agreed on and done to themselves, but this points to something important in my opinion: the Bad Kids, and the narrative/show as a whole by extension, acknowledge that external manipulation affects how guilty someone is in a crime.

which brings us to Ragh. Ragh, introduced from episode 1 as the meathead jock. Ragh the archetypical one-dimensional high school bully. Ragh who works with the harvestmen in effort to (ostensibly) end the world/provoke international war. Ragh, whose low intelligence but high loyalty and internalized homophobia led him to be fully swayed and blindly led by his coach and captain, who have actively chosen to do evil. Ragh who is killed in combat by the Bad Kids and resurrected for information, not Daybreak. Ragh, who the Bad Kids realize was probably not aware of exactly what he was being made to do and how bad it really was. Ragh, who by their kindness in sparing his life and directing him on a better path, becomes a well-rounded character and an active ally to the Bad Kids during and after prom, an invaluable companion during their quest in sophomore year, and overall a really good friend and person. 

(it might also be worth considering the case of Jawbone here, too, who started out a very minor antagonist in a fight but ended up becoming a major NPC because the Bad Kids talked to him, found out he came from an unfortunate situation and set of circumstances, and showed him kindness in offering the school guidance counselor position, a kindness that isn’t really owed but given anyway and ends up changing his entire life for good.)

and then, Aelwyn, whose case is already discussed above. so, why is the RVS what it is, why them but not others?

if you’re familiar with Avatar: the Last Airbender, you’re probably familiar with Zuko’s character arc, and how it’s often lauded as a masterful example of developing a villain into a hero over the course of a narrative. what makes Zuko’s arc so well done and exceptional is that he starts out as a kid in a bad situation under the influence of bad adults seeking to do bad deeds, but he later realizes the error of those ways, actively removes himself from that situation despite the difficulty and danger in doing so, goes through a lot of shit and reflects on his past mistakes and learns from them, and then actively chooses to fight for good in the end with the help of close, trusted friends, found family. 

this, i believe, is the same in the case of Fantasy High and its treatment of the RVS. its members, like Zuko, are all teenagers who came from shitty situations and were manipulated by evil adults to do bad. they are punished for their bad actions, and they learn from their errors and mistakes. with the kindness and help of good people, friends and chosen family, they are able to escape their abusers and bad situations and grow into their own people. and they actively choose to improve themselves with that help and fight for good.

Fantasy High, through the arcs of Jawbone, Zayn, Ragh, and especially Aelwyn, asserts that it is not your fault if you come from a bad situation and are forced to behave badly as a result. it does not pretend that you are absolved of any responsibility for those actions; quite the opposite, as even though they were externally manipulated into their evil actions, all of those mentioned characters face tangible consequences for their actions and later express remorse for their mistakes. but Fantasy High also asserts that even if you have made great mistakes in your past, even if you came from a bad situation beyond your control, even if you were manipulated and abused, with care and love and support and a hell of a lot of work and effort, you can improve your situation and find good, happiness, peace, you can thrive. evil adults who should know better don’t get redeemed. teenagers who aren’t coerced but actively choose evil don’t get redeemed. but abused kids deserve another shot at happiness. with enough work, and some love and help along the way, they can get there, even from the lowest imaginable point, from rock fucking buttom. it’s possible. 

#fantasy high #fantasy high spoilers #dimension 20 live #dimension 20 #fantasy high sophomore year #fantasy high freshman year #d20 #dimension 20 live spoilers #brennan lee mulligan #aelwyn abernant #zayn darkshadow #ragh barkrock #sasha reviews #hello tumblr. tonight i bring you a 2.3k word essay. tomorrow? who knows #i'll just throw myself into the nearest river if this doesn't show up in the tags this is fine #this one's for y'all in my notes i see u and i love u here's some content #the first half of this is mostly copy pasted from my discord ramblings #i didnt intend for this to be as long as it got but yknow. i never do and it always is #so thats why the first part of this is written differently from the rest of it lol

[purecamp]

RE: Sharon

okay so, i think this has been a long time coming. back when people were anonymously harassing me, i guess they wanted to bully a traumatised 17 year old into a statement, and i definitely wasn’t gonna give in to that. i guess i can speak now.

i want to be VERY clear on a few things.

1. i do not, in any way, support or excuse the previous genuinely racially insensitive behaviour (so not the RHPS mix up, for example) of sharon. i never have, as you will have seen on posts about it before.

2. you should always believe the victim until proven otherwise.

3. believing the victim does NOT mean you should immediately jump on, cancel, and harass the accused, or their friends and family.

4. i am not defending her nor am i claiming the accusations are false.

so now i’m going to share some thoughts. you’re under no obligation to read, however, do NOT send me abusive asks or demands without reading the whole thing. or just don’t in general, because i’m sick of it.

first of all i need you to understand that what went down at the end of june was very traumatic for me. you can laugh all you want if you’re going to be a dick, but that’s what it was. i have been a fan of sharon since 2016, when i was 13 years old, and so she’s been a huge part of my adolescence as i’ve grown into the person i am today. i was shy, insecure and young, and through my devotion to her, the new friends i made because of her, and my increasing confidence, i changed and grew a lot into someone i am happy to be, partly due to her. i held her very close to my heart, as you all know. the allegation was devastating to me, and i openly and truthfully admit that i cried on and off for a full week after they came out. any time i thought about her or saw her name, i would start to tear up and cry again. i felt totally crushed, and essentially began grieving the loss of someone i loved.

i want to be sure that you know i did not idolise sharon. i never wanted to be her or be like her, nor did i view her as a role model. drag queens as a whole are not role models, they are entertainers who originally used to thrive on shock, deviance and contemporary culture before drag race became a thing. she was never my idol, but i loved her art and i cared for her as a person.

for a good while i avoided her entirely, online and in my own mind. i was horrified and in too much pain to brush it aside, as i expect everyone was. i had read the document, and would revisit it to hurt myself, until i realised how damaging that was to my mental health, and vowed to stop. i never viewed it again, which is why some of the details i won’t be discussing purely bc i don’t remember, and i refused to think about it, rereading old favourite series to distract myself and burying my head.

in recent months i’ve allowed myself to think on things a little more, and formed my own opinions on the matter. i may be wrong, i may not. for now, none of us know the full truth.

i can say with full certainty that the nature of sharon and annecy’s relationship was unusual and unhealthy. i do NOT believe it was predatory, nor intended to manipulate, cause harm, or gain something sinister.

it seems to me that what is described happening, for the most part, is true, but not as sinister and deliberately harmful as it has been presented to us. we all know people around us, people who love us, can cause us harm unintentionally, and this is what the situation strikes me as. (i maintain the fact that i could be wrong, however, please take my thoughts with a pinch of salt and not as gospel). i believe that their parents should have been more aware and more careful. i think they should have used more discretion. i think sharon and other adults should have been better, and they weren’t.

what happened to them is heartbreaking to read about, and i really feel for their pain and trauma. i don’t believe this trauma was inflicted intentionally, nor do i agree with (the fanbase mostly) the presentation of sharon as an evil, p*dophilic predator, preying on a helpless young girl. annecy was in an inappropriate place for someone of their age, at the time, and sharon misused her power, not in a position to be responsible like she should’ve been. to be clear, though: she was not a sexual predator or p*dophile, and these accusations which have come purely from fans and not from the document itself, should be cut right now.

i want everyone involved to have access to the resources they need in order to recover, learn, change, and grow. i don’t hate anyone involved. i want this to be clear as well.

furthermore - the document has since been deleted. a few things i know are that sharon has been in contact with lawyers, understandably, and this is why she hasn’t made a statement as so many people are demanding of her. if you think having a lawyer makes you guilty... i don’t know what to say, other than that’s a weird view to have. i don’t know if the deletion is to do with the lawyers, or if it was their own decision. i also know that they have gone on to accuse lists and lists of people - some that i can remember including morgan mcmichaels, jinkx monsoon, alaska, alaska’s brother cory, detox, bendelacreme - of inappropriately touching them while they were a minor, as well as (proven falsely) claiming that aquaria was also abused by sharon, and sent underage nudes to her. again, this was not true, and at least for me, casts doubt on the credibility of the idea of sharon as an evil person and determined abuser.

like i said - i’m not saying that sharon didn’t act inappropriately, because she 100% did, and i find this very upsetting. i’m just saying that i don’t believe there was deliberate ill-intention or harm behind any of what happened, besides a fucked up situation between some fucked up people.

i don’t know how to end this, so i’ll leave it here. i hope this makes some kind of sense and that i haven’t dug myself into a hole.

i don’t support or excuse what she did. i don’t deny that it happened. but i don’t think i hate her anymore.

lastly, i have been given permission to tell you to direct any rude comments to my legal representative @veronicasanders who read through this for me, who will “happily rip their assholes out of their throats for harassing you.”

i understand that you may have criticism for me, but i have thought long and hard about my opinions and i hope you can respect them.

#my thoughts

[zonbiconbi]

So it's just the extremists you dislike. I'm guessing if you saw a group of minors trying to get a nasty creep to stop doing something you would be on the side of the minors. But you don't like violence or cyber bullying. It's kinda weird how there are extremes on every side of a problem. There are people who say they're helping kids and minorities and then there are people who are straight up evil and don't care either way. The discourse kinda helps the predatory people cuz it's a distraction.

Okay apologies ahead of time this is gonna be a long one. I’ve tagged “long post” if anybody wants to blacklist!

Extremists are always a problem, yes, the thing is, especially in the anti community, they’re so vocal and large in number that it drowns out anybody who’s genuinely trying to do good. They’ve poisoned the term and the meaning of the community, whatever it may be. BC whatever it used to be, it’s just been bastardized to mean “send death threats like it’s a holy crusade, blood and all” in the current day.

I would definitely try to help the people who are saying they are uncomfortable or saying that they’re for real being harmed and hurt, that’s without question.

If minors say they’re uncomfortable with something, that’s fine! Then the person who they’re talking to should be respectful, tag their work, and remind minors to not go seeking things that make them uncomfortable, because there’s only so much hand holding one can do online. If a minor goes out of their way to look for content they don’t like, that’s not the responsibility of the person who made it very clear that there’s uncomfortable stuff (and by the by uncomfortable could literally mean anything in this context. Like. IDK. Kataang or w/e to use an ancient ship) in their posts and tagged appropriately.

If the person ignores them or doesn’t do what they can to make it so that doesn’t happen again, then that’s why we have block and report options.

Ironically, the last time I saw minors doing the “cut it out” thing was TO an anti that was harassing an artist who turned out to be a minor. Said anti told them to shut up and let them do the death threats for them because “you guys don’t know better” and “well the artist who is a minor should have known better” and said they were trying to protect them and then never apologized for wishing violence and death on them in the first place. It literally works both ways.

Tagging, marking blogs as adult or “minors will be blocked”, etc ARE ways to keep minors safe unless they explicitly go out of their way to find the stuff they don’t like. And real predatory people, before you use it as an argument, don’t need these adult tagged blogs/posts to do their predatory things. They can use anything they want, it’s not hard. They can use MLP, they can use Barbies, They can use Legos! There’s no “new ammo” because predators aren’t idiots that sit around waiting for “bad content”. There’s no making things easier for them, because it’s ALREADY easy. All you can do is find the real actual people doing real actual harm and make sure they’re made accountable for their actions.

And you’re right! The discourse does help them! Which is why a lot of people are sick of antis kicking up a storm over pixels and fanfic (the nature of which has been around since many of us were even born, btw) because it detracts from real people doing harm and instead tends to target the victims of said harm first and foremost.

I’m not saying there aren’t nasty folks on the “anti anti” side as well, but they, as far as I’ve seen, haven’t been nearly as vocal, and certainly are not approved of by the rest of the movement, who really just want to be left alone.

#tw abuse #long post #if you still have my discord anon I'm ok to talk about it with you btw! #I wont out you in public or anything I'm not that kind of person #Anonymous