I have just discovered the offensive reality of straight people A/B/O through Bridgerton fanfics—truly a misogynistic patriarchal reinforcement of gender stereotypes that horrifies me to my soul.
Straight people should not have access to this trope, they have no concept of how to use it. Like, if you’re determined to do a “family legacy” thing for the Bridgertons, they’re all horny Omegas looking for love.
However, if we’re being more INTERESTING with it:
Simon/Daphne should be Beta/Omega, and you could use Simon being a Beta to play into his daddy issues.
Kate/Anthony is Alpha/Alpha, anyone who tries to make Kate an Omega is out of their fucking minds. Also, that is a woman who wants to fuck her husband, let’s be so for real.
Penelope/Colin would be the actual Alpha/Omega dynamic but Pen is obviously the Alpha. Colin wants to be good for her SO BAD. I don’t make the rules. (Except I DO and I’M RIGHT).
John/Francesca are a couple of autistic Betas who just want the crazy Alphas and Omegas to leave them out of their messy drama so they can be quiet nerds together.
As for Eloise and Benedict, there’s a few options.
Eloise as an Alpha or Omega can be used to explore how that effects her as a woman in 19th century regency who feels like she SHOULD be able to do the same things as her brothers but is restricted either bc she’s a girl (Alpha) or bc she’s an Omega, and how that’s affected by her internalized misogyny (against omega girls for example). Could also contribute to her and Pen’s friendship dynamics—if she’s an Alpha, as a bonding point for not quite fitting, but if she’s an Omega you can make it a like she thinks Pen being an Alpha is cool/is envious of her.
Benedict I feel like you could argue for any secondary gender and make it interesting, cause that’s the kind of character he is. But I think most interesting would be making him a Beta to really play into the way he’s trying to find his place without having a set role in his family.
Have I put way to much thought into this? No, I literally came up with this as soon as I thought about it, it’s so easy and way more interesting than “the boys are alphas and the girls are good little omegas bc i hate queer people and prefer to write boring uninteresting worlds and dynamics and fetishize terrible gender stereotypes”.
The only way ur allowed to use A/B/O for het couples is if ur messing with the secondary gender shit. Otherwise it just feels inherently misogynistic and homo-and-transphobic to me.
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I think one of the reasons that kaladin can deal with actively killing as a soldier but not with accidentally (passively) letting someone die as a surgeon is the sense of failure (plus of course the obvious protection aspect and the whole me-vs-them mentality he only really starts to question when Shin joins bridge four, and he starts interacting fairly regularly with a light-eyes he can genuinely respect). dalinar himself said that he "love(s) taking responsibility for things", which is especially clear in the way he still can't quite blame amaram for tien's demise (because he feels like this is his failure, too).
like we can see in the first book that the deaths of the people he swore to protect weigh on him not only because of the dying people per se, but also (and I would argue: especially) because of his FAILURE to keep them alive. he always makes this connection to himself, thinks of their demise in relation to HIS own person and HIS role and HIS failure (cue the whole "stormfather cursed me specifically" thing). like, besides tien and the bridgemen (who we know because they are active current characters), can we truly say much of anything about the people he failed to protect in the past? the only thing we really know is how HE feels about it and how it messed HIM up. but the people themselves??
kaladin just has insane main character syndrome, and everything happening to him (first dark-eyed to have the rank of a light-eyed, one of the only surgebinders, guy able to survive multiple fights with actual shardbearers, etc etc) do the opposite of helping him dissuade the notion. I feel like I lost the plot of my own post. Kal is honorable and a good guy and everything but he is also pretty self-centered? which I actually find really cool because many times people who do objectively good actions are still kind of demonized if they don't do it for the "right" reasons (aka purely 1000% selflessness), but Kal explicitly starts helping the bridgemen not because he actually cares about them but because he needs a reason to not commit suicide. and when he loses bridgemen (especially in the beginning where he barely knows them) he always immediately thinks back to the other people he FAILED to save. he isn't devastated because that person in particular died, he is upset because he is very bad at dealing with his own failures and also terrified that the wretch will use this to lure him back onto the ledge. i mean, he loathes failure so much he was resigned to never see his parents again (who he clearly loves a lot and who he knows would welcome him back with open arms; it's his own shame that he can't confront)
he helps people primarily to try to make up for the failures of the past, an attempt to dissuade the guilt and shame eating him alive 24/7 (which of course never works because guilt is a very unreasonable emotion and as long as he doesn't change his mindset and confronts his own beliefs about himself and the world it will never go away.)
"do the fire sprin create the flames or are they attracted by them?" of course syl was compelled to follow kaladin around. dude keeps actively (even if semi-unconsciously) putting himself into the same role and situation over and over again in the hopes that if he can only succeed one time it will somehow redeem him for his past failures. literally every single thing Kal does and thinks and believes is rooted in the fact that he blames himself for tien's demise. he needs to somehow redeem himself in order to be able to live with himself but at the same time he can never be redeemed because letting tien die is an unforgivable crime and yet he needs to make it up somehow because the wretch is always in the back of his mind and he's actually terrified of it but he is equally scared of actually somehow managing to get over this sense of guilt and failure because wouldn't forgiving himself mean he thinks tien is less important than his own stupid (and, in his mind, deserved) feelings?
that guy is so not over his brother's death it actually isn't funny anymore 💀 please get that dude some fucking therapy 😭😭
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Corroded Coffin Fest - Day 3 - Best Friends
Summary: Corroded Coffin...a group of good-looking young guys. But jealousy is not a good look on any of them.
Word Count: 941
Rating: T
Warnings/Themes: Friendship, jealousy, tiny bit of angst, mentions of FOI, tiny bit of Jeff backstory, Freak #3 is named Dave in my universe, special appearance of the freshman.
Check Out the Main Post for @corrodedcoffinfest here! Even if you didn’t start on Day 1, you can still join!
You can find my masterlist here.
Please do not interact if you are not 18+.
Enjoy!
Friendship dynamics in groups were always tricky things.
You'd know more about one person in the group than the others, someone might know more about you than you know about them. More often than not, the bonds of friendship were more braided and intricate than a straight connection from Person A to Person B.
This concept had led to many-a-fight between Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Will. Petty, puberty-driven, anxiety-riddled fights that Eddie stupidly tried to mediate one afternoon when he got to the lunch table and found them all bickering.
The other, older boys groaned when their leader asked with a snort, "alright, who's fighting over the Skeletor action figure this time?"
Their arguing only got louder, all of them turned to face Eddie now, who realized his mistake as they spoke over one another and shoved elbows into each others sides.
He remedied it by whistling loudly to get them all to shut up.
"One at a time," he demanded, and then waved to Dustin, who sat the closest to him.
And Dustin, desperate for some sort of epiphany or intervention, asked,
"Eddie, who is your best friend?"
"Oh, that's easy," he waved dismissively. "It's Jeff."
It was a record-scratch moment.
Maybe not for everyone at the table, but certainly for the other members of Corroded Coffin.
"What about Ronnie?" Jeff himself questioned.
"Yeah what about Ronnie?"
"Weren't you guys in Kindergarten together?"
"Jeff can't be your best friend, because he's my best friend."
Everyone froze then and turned to Gareth, who shrunk under everyone's stares for a moment and then straightened his shoulders.
"Yeah," he nodded. "Jeff's my best friend, what about it?"
"When do you guys hang out except for Hellfire...or class...or band practice?" Eddie narrowed his eyes at Gareth.
"When do you guys hang out except for those places?" Dave retorted. "If anything, Jeff's my best friend because I've actually been to his house to listen to tapes before."
And from there it just devolved, as all of the boys at the table began to argue about who was whose best friend.
Everyone but Jeff.
Eddie was the first to notice him, sitting there taking immense interest in his lunch. Cutting his meatloaf into the tiniest bites.
"Alright!" he snapped, earning the table's. "Let's hear it from the man of the hour. Jeff, since you seem to be winning the popularity contest and have everyone up in arms about being the Ethel to your Lucy...who is your best friend?"
The thing was...if Eddie was the face of Corroded Coffin--of Hellfire Club--Jeff was the heart. And he knew it. He'd easily slid into the space that Ronnie had left vacant when she graduated, offering guidance and kindness and help to all of his friends.
He enjoyed a laugh, enjoyed being surrounded by everyone, enjoyed getting to see them all smile. Their happiness was his, and they all held a special place in his heart and in his life.
So it shouldn't have been a surprise to him that they all held him in such a high regard as well.
He didn't know how to soften the blow when the answer to this heavy, weighted question was "Richie Stafford."
It was said clearly and confidently, no hesitation whatsoever.
Cue another record scratch for all the boys at the table.
"Wait...Isn't..." Dave's face scrunched for a moment. "Isn't that your cousin?"
"Yeah," Jeff nodded. "It is."
"Wasn't he on the football team?"
"Yeah, but he isn't a bad guy." He shrugged and gestured to Eddie. "He graduated last year. That's why I was surprised you didn't say Ronnie. Because my answer is Richie."
Jeff watched his friends deflate for a second before he continued.
"You guys are all my pals. And I wouldn't give any of you up for the world. But Richie was my first friend, my best friend. I don't know if you remember Ed, but I was just as scared as these guy were to come up and talk to you on my first week of high school. A metal band? At Hawkins High? I thought you guys were the coolest!
"But I wouldn't even be in Corroded Coffin or Hellfire if Richie give me the push to try. I sat with him and his friends at lunch that first week, and he could tell how uncomfortable I was...but...I dunno, you got up on the table one day and played air guitar or something. Got detention, I'm sure. But Richie said it was like the clouds parted, so the next Monday, he sent me over to sit with you guys.
"He always said I was a nerd, but he never gave me shit for being myself," Jeff finished confidently. "So that's why he's my best friend."
Hellfire Club's table was silent for a moment, somber at the news that their favorite person favored someone else.
Eddie, ever the leader, was the first one to speak up.
"Well, thanks for being honest with us all Jeff. You stuck with your guns, and I think it's pretty metal of you, actually."
He and Jeff shared a smile with one another, Jeff happy that his friend and role model wasn't upset with him.
They whole table erupted into chatter, their voices filled with friendship this time, instead of anger or annoyance. They all picked on Jeff, telling him not to let the popularity get to his head.
"I will say," Gareth piped up over the din, "I feel better that at least you picked Richie...and not any of these turds."
The whole table broke down in laughter, and Gareth earned a soft punch to the shoulder from his best friend.
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