i think it's so so so great that beating someone up can actually injure and scar you. like from a symbolic perspective. every act of violence leaves a mark on you, chipping away at you with each blow until you're nothing but hard muscle and sharp edges. the hurt you visit on others shapes you in its image.
I don’t know which author needs to hear this right now but even if you never update your wip i would never regret reading it a time of joy is never wasted
this is the best album release of all time because where else are you going to get unironic takes like this and then even get a few hundred people to agree with it
if i'm being absolutely completely totally honest i think that "it wasn't you" doesn't go far enough in absolving someone of the guilt of being the subject of a brainwashing or mind control plot. because at the end of the day, it was you. it was your body, your mind, potentially even your soul, being stripped of its autonomy, intimately violated and turned against you as much as anyone else. it's a kind of assault, and should be treated as such, especially in more mature narratives. i think that "it wasn't your fault" and "your shame at being made helpless and unable to control your own body and mind's involuntary responses is understandable, but you are not in any way irredeemable or unforgivable because of what was done to you" are also necessary reassurances. and i think that there should be lingering resentment in spite of words of forgiveness and miscommunication and long-term post-traumatic consequences also.