#it's so insanely unhealthily codependent

[infizero]

i may have chosen this cute pic of young basil but rest assured this kid has fucking issues

[gurorori]

heres a random assortment of dddne 🪦🕊️ from m y head uhh its jus 2 actually. im violently ill

[nightcolorz]

do you have thoughts on how marius would have kept a human amadeo in line for another ten years. I have to imagine it's holding vampirism over his head for longer but rereading the parts of TVA I was looking at today and how tumultuous their relationship already was after two years I'm like damn that bitch had his work cut out for him....

Lmao omg 😭😭 love this question I love the idea of a nearing thirty yr old Amadeo who’s fit and strong and CRAZY driving Marius to insanity (as he should). I mean it definitely wasn’t easy. Marius is very insecure and I picture him being made very anxious over Amadeo becoming stronger and older and feeling helpless to stop this. Marius considers his control over Amadeo essential to their “love” and relationship, and feeling like he’s loosing control when Amadeo becomes a person is terrifying to him. We know from the books that any inclination that Amadeo is growing into an independent person capable of being self sufficient causes Marius to loose his absolute mind.

I feel like Amadeo is so attached to marius tho that he didn’t have to do much more then threaten to leave him + leave him alone for a few days to remind him of how much he needs him (therefore stopping any rebellion in its tracks). Amadeo is a Crazy bitch but the second Marius leaves to visit Akasha for a little bit Amadeo looses his shit and begs him to stay with him. Any threat on Amadeo’s part to run away is all talk and they both know it. Marius has done sm to abuse Amadeo into codependency that I feel like by the time Amadeo is an adult and has been living this life attached to Marius for so long the abuse does the work for him. Like, Amadeo is still going to be a piece of work but there is no real possibility of Marius loosing him, bcus Amadeo can’t live without him.

It’s definitely not all roses, like I imagine by the time Amadeo is a restless adult being treated the same as he was when he was fifteen the beatings r going to increase based on reckless and insane behavior increasing. But Amadeo feels like he can’t live without Marius and would rather die then be left alone, so I think that a reminder of “I could abandon u at a moments notice” would be enough for Amadeo to keep himself in check. (Especially bcus amc Marius makes it clearer then book Marius that Amadeo is property to him and Amadeo is very aware of the fact that he is a thing that can be replaced and therefore needs to make himself useful. Amc Armand is not necessarily privileged enough to rebel to an extreme point 😭).

so my thoughts r, I think that Marius is so insecure that he forgets how much Armand’s history of abuse affects his behavior. So what I think is, even tho Amadeo has very little chance of actually becoming independent from Marius bcus of how unhealthily codependent he is, Marius despite being aware of this fears his independence a ton and gets that out of his system by taking more abusive measures to make sure amadeo’s afraid of rebelling. This is kind of what happens in the book, but I imagine with an extra ten years it becomes more extreme. According to Armand in tva marius only really starts beating him when he hits puberty and starts fighting for his identity and independence, so I think with an adult Amadeo the beatings just get really bad. In the book Marius beats Armand when he displays his identity and independence that’s uncontrollable by him when he’s yearning for his family he lost. Marius is frightened by Armand regaining who he was before him (cuz marius is afraid of loosing control over Armand). So I think in amc iwtv this behavior gets to the point of like, marius starts restricting when Amadeo can leave the palazzo, doesn’t allow him to see Bianca or Riccardo, controlling stuff like that, that r like useless measures attempting to stop Amadeo from growing up and therefore realizing that he doesn’t need Marius.

and u know how in the vampire Armand Marius shaves Amadeo before he turns him so that he’ll be as young looking as possible for eternity? I imagine for amc Armand, Marius is also very frightened of Amadeo growing into an adult and becoming physically a man. So maybe he puts restrictions on his physical appearance, shaves him down like he does in tva, cuts his hair, emotionally abuses him into seeing himself as more of a child then he is, just so that he won’t loose that youth Marius is attracted to. What Marius is really scared of is Armand becoming an adult, bcus Marius is attracted to the child he can control, not an adult. he doesn’t want a man, he wants a boy. And the horrible thing is, the way that Marius treats Armand ends up ultimately stunting his ability to be an adult, and in a way Marius gets his eternal boy forever.

[batvvvvv]

love these 2 with all my heart theyre crazy. infodump incoming

ivy and jon met in college about 18 years before the plot starts (ages 18 and 19 respectively) they were both like, intense and unsettling and as traumatized gay people do they kind of gravitated towards each other. jonathan broke his pen one time and asked pamela if he could borrow one and they just kind of ... never stopped talking. they've been inseperable since

jon was ivy's first friend not made out of neccessity, and pam was jonathan's first friend period. they are absolutely ride or die for each other.

they moved in together after a year to split rent, and despite still being Incredibly fucked up it was both of their first taste of normal life. or as normal as gotham can be idk. living the queer codependent best friends lifestyle !!! something almost like happiness

jonathan did sell drugs out of their apartment for a few months to make ends meet but that Definitely has no impact on his future later! haha! anyway

then they graduated! jon got a job in psychiatry and moved out; ivy stayed and took a job at arkham in the infirmary, where she meets harley. and while pam became more bitter and jaded at the horrible things she witnessed in arkham, jonathan got fired for tormenting a patient, spiralled completely into his obsession with fear and created the first version of his fear toxin. he was arrested and sent to blackgate (and then arkham a week later), then 6 months later ivy was arrested for blowing up a factory, and sent to blackgate.

they didnt speak for the next year and a half. jon continued to isolate himself and spiral, landing himself in arkham once or twice a month at a certain point, while pam got unhealthily fixated on taking down the corrupt in gotham, getting herself into her own fair share of trouble. both of them get to a breaking point around the same time-- forced to face their own actions and the consequences they bring.

so pamela escapes prison again and decides to lay low: gets an apartment under a fake name, and begins to plan her next operations more carefully. somewhere along the way harley moves in with her (after being ditched and left to fend for herself by the joker) and things are Okay !

jonathan's road to recovery (if you can really call it that he's still fucked up and crazy) is a little more explosive and insane but he ends up on ivy's doorstep, dripping wet and covered in blood, and asks to come in. despite everything she lets him stay! (i've written a fic for this that i'll share sometime if i can figure out how 💔)

and they've been keeping each other alive for the 15 years since! they're mean as hell to each other but also they would do anything for eachother. never underestimate the bond betw two fucked up and evil gay people

yeah i love these two so much . most annoying best friends ever !!!!!

[crimeronan]

Suppppeeer into the idea of Amity realizing the extent of Hunter and Luz’s codependency by just hanging out more with them. As much as she also isn’t qualified for anything related to healthy relationships and mental health (lol her?), she’s still *someone* new who might help just by being around, and maybe getting both Luz and Hunter to open up independently to her. She’d be a super stoic sounding board who tries her best and wants both Hunter and Luz to sort their shit TM but totally not because she cares or craves their company nono. Since the circumstances around them building a link with Amity aren’t as traumatic, it might help Hunter release some stress, give Luz an age appropriate friend (to lover hehe) and give Amity some comfort outside of workworkworkworkworkIneedToSurviveAndDoMore.

MM. YEAH.

amity already has a pretty strong foundational background in understanding luz and hunter's shit. she's figured out that belos was abusive and that luz killed him; she's figured out that luz has Some kind of terrible trauma shit going on; she's figured out that hunter is emotionally fried to a crisp and unhealthily devoted to luz; she knows that luz loves hunter and seems to care a lot about his wellbeing.

she and hunter also have a relationship that's like..... truly it's best described in homestuck terms i'm sorry it is SO platonic pitch-pale vacillation. which in layman's terms basically means "you're a rival who drives me fucking crazy and you're the one person i can be mean to because i know you can take it, i don't have to hold back around you, i can be nasty and you can be nasty and it's awesome. but also.... i can't help but notice you're completely insane and need a hug. i promise i won't tell anyone if you panic around me"

and amity really likes luz. and luz really likes amity. there are obviously the political complications and the complications of amity and luz's respective neuroses.... but when they put aside their empress-and-soldier worries, they just. they just get along really well. luz is so unlike the other scouts. amity likes being around her but Hates that now she seems like a social climber who only cares about making her mommy happy

amity is so desperately lonely. every time she looks at hunter and luz being their weirdo codependent selves, she's like, "i could never love someone that much. i'm too smart to give that much of myself away. these are both crazy people and it's good that i'm too emotionally stable [LMAO] to get involved in their bullshit."

"......i wish i could, though... :("

[lucky-bishop]

I think you are dead on balls accurate when you say Stiles and Peter love being cruel (Stiles just out here making fun of Isaac for being abused lmao), and that is why I think Derek/Peter/Stiles is the triad to end all triads.

Stiles and Peter are perfect murder boyfriends, and Derek is juuust dark enough to get along with both but keep them from murdering too much (but he also murders).

Steterek is one of my absolute favorite things. The dynamics are so intricate and fucked up and they're SO unhealthily codependent and I love every second. When I first started writing it I wrote Stiles as the bridge between Derek and Peter because of their complicated history, but the more I think about it and examine I really think Derek is more the bridge. Stiles and Peter are both cruel and I'm so glad you agree with that because it does drive me a little bit insane when Stiles is portrayed as just like, the nicest guy around and I think Derek balances them.

Derek understands them even if he doesn't express himself in the same way and that makes it all work and yes he's cool with a little murder now and then. as a treat.

[siblingshowdown]

YUNMENG TRIO PROPAGANDA!!!!!

I promise as the moderator of this competition I won’t campaign for any specific sibling sets after this but I cannot let my faves Jiang Yanli, Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Cheng lose in the first round when they were seeded pretty high.

For context, here is who I’m talking about:

Look at those babies!

The Yunmeng Trio are three siblings from the book Mo Dao Zu Shi or the TV show The Untamed.  They consist of oldest sister Jiang Yanli, middle adopted brother Wei Wuxian, and youngest brother Jiang Cheng.  Their relationship is crucial to the story, as it follows Wei Wuxian and his dynamic with both siblings (but especially Jiang Cheng) influences a lot of his decisions, which in turn influences a lot of the state of the world they live in as a whole.

Could these siblings win a physical fight against other sibling sets? YES.  Jiang Cheng is a very skill swordsman and has a magic lightning whip.  Wei Wuxian invented a new kind of magic and by and large is super overpowered (can take on hundreds of people at a time due to his ability to control ghosts/corpses/harness resentful energy).  Yanli, while not much of a physical fighter, can easily win over anyone’s heart with the power of soup.  (Seriously, in the book it lists her weapons as “love and soup”)  Everyone loves her, especially her brothers, which lowkey makes her an extremely powerful character because they’d do anything for her.

Do these siblings have sibling swag? YES.  They bicker! Especially WWX and JC.  Yanli loves to make her brothers soup and they always argue over who has the bigger portion!  They have inside jokes!  JC and WWX are always nitpicking at each other but will not allow anyone else to do so!  They’re all traumatized by their parents in different ways and therefore lean on each other and are unhealthily codependent because of it!  Whenever one of the brothers goes off by himself Yanli always asks the other one to go bring him back, and when she couldn’t do that she waded out into an active battlefield to try to find them!

Do they love each other? YES.  “We are the closest three in the world.”  Jiang Cheng sacrificing himself so Wei Wuxian doesn’t get taken hostage.  Wei Wuxian convincing his friend to perform ethically dubious and extremely dangerous surgery on him to try to get Jiang Cheng back to 100%.  The sole time Yanli loses her temper in the show, it’s because people are yelling at Wei Wuxian and not showing him respect!  She wore her wedding outfit when she and Jiang Cheng went to visit Wei Wuxian in exile because he wouldn’t be able to be at her actual wedding and she wanted him to see it!  Jiang Cheng suggested that Yanli let Wei name her son!  That scene made me cry no joke!

Are they interesting? YES.  I just described how much they love each other but the show actually begins with us seeing Jiang Cheng supposedly kill Wei before we jump back in time, so you know they have some intense emotional arcs going on!  Wei Wuxian was adopted when he and JC were around 6, and his status as an insanely talented and amazing cultivator plays really interestingly with the fact that his younger brother will be clan leader because WWX isn’t in the bloodline, and that influences JC immensely because in a way he has to deal with some of the worst parts of being a younger sibling while also having to deal with things an older sibling would otherwise have to.  Once Wei starts doing big plot things and becomes Public Enemy Number 1, JC and Yanli have to be careful with how they navigate the political world while trying to rebuild their clan and navigate an engagement that could unite their clan with a much more powerful one, but they still try to protect their brother.  Bodies start dropping.  They’re all traumatized over various events that occur before they’re even fully adults.  They make me feel so many emotions it’s not even funny.

tldr: I love them. please don’t let them lose in the first round please just give them this they’ve suffered enough.

[bit-odd-innit]

Was thinking about this platonic Stobin post by @greenlikethesea and specifically about the idea they’d become so unhealthily codependent it negatively affects their relationships outside of each other and they get in a huge fight about it (and they make up and grow from it and set healthy boundaries, love this so so much). It got me thinking about Nancy and Eddie tag-teaming to get them to communicate again—first Eddie with Robin and Nancy with Steve, then they switch.

But because my brain is hardwired to always Find the Goof:

Eddie: When I said let’s meet up after we talk with them and swap notes I did not think you would literally take notes.

Nancy: How else are we supposed to help our friends improve their relationship if we don’t go over every detail of the worst fight they’ve ever had with a fine toothed comb?

Eddie: Oh I see. You’re insane in a way that’s completely different from the way I am insane. When this gets resolved we’re going to have a lot of fun with that.

[narcissa-black-supermacy]

Look, I don't want drama. So keep the other one in the drafts.

But! Top 5 memri memes, AND top 5 prongsfoot tropes

Top 5 Prongsfoot tropes:

James Somehow Comes Back from the Dead. Always. no matter the setting. I eat that up every time. especially when it's with Sirius still convicted or freshly out of Azkaban or stuck in 12GP and then James shows up and he's like "????" and just puts everyone back in place for the way they're treating him and Harry. just. nngggghhhhhh. delicious stuff. @gracelesslady23 has a fic like that that i'm reading rn and its just.....chefs kisses.

Post-Death Reunion. tears. pain. apologies. sirius finally letting himself fall apart in his arms after staying so strong for so long against all of it. both of them. just. full on sobbing and holding each other.

Toxic unhealthily codependent relationship. just.... i adORE that. like the legendary Pioneers that i won't shut up about and On Fire, But We Can't Feel A Thing by @benjamin-ovich that i am absolutely insanely in love with. it just sits so well on them. and the more messy it is, the more i love it.

Getting back together. just...my absolute favourite trope for anything. the bittersweet tenderness of re-learning each other. the care that's still there despite the pain and the hurt of what happened. the fear of messing it up again, of not being able to fix it. the cautious touches. still remembering all the small details like how the other likes his tea/coffee/etc. my heart can not take.

drugs. apparently. that's a thing now thanks to Holli's (sadly yet unpublished) drug thing. drug addict sirius. nngghhhhh. also. goes hand in hand w the toxic unhealthy relationship and this general dynamic of like. sirius always trying to push good things away from him to prevent the inevitable bc he knows that good things eventually get taken from him. and james' hero/saviour complex and his need to be NEEDED to feel like he matters. i am gonna stop before i tear up again.

OKAY TOP 5 MEMRI MEMES LETS GO (under the cut; cw for misogyny, america hate and fr*nch)

the fr*nch one, obvsly (full version this time):

2. the three magical words:

3. priorities.png:

4. women these days:

5. friendship(tm):

runner ups:

[no-naem]

Now I shall put some of my favorites of the unfinished art from the 100 Kayano Days challenge. [Rubs hands together]

These are all in order from old to new, from September 2022 to January 2023.

It's a hot day. Karma: "I want cuddles, and I can't cuddle Akari (she'd kill me). So..." Nagisa: "You're too hot." Karma: "I know I am." Nagisa: "YOU KNOW THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!!" Karma: "Cuddle time." Nagisa: "IT'S 31 C!!! AKARI, HELP!!" Akari: "Sorry Nagisa! I have another love to attend to. You're on your own."

(Lol the dialogue is kinda off but I like what I was trying to go for.)

Aguri lives AU but at what cost. Akari is this 🤏 close to losing it.

Adults Kayano, Kanzaki, and Karma went to that one cafe that was doing that collaboration with a popular video game.

GoM AU, with Akari slowly turning into an antimatter creature. It took a long time for her to transform, and there was no cure to stop this. It wasn't fun, but at least her friends were there for her.

Kayano and Akari, Deemo AU, based on that one art for ANiMA from the game.

Okay, THIS one I still like a lot. It takes place in the Okinawa arc, and the concept was that there'd be a montage where each student would use Korosensei's Ultimate Defense Form as a blunt weapon to knock out all of the guards. And then end with Karasuma taking out Takaoka the same way.

GoM AU again. Nagisa excitedly shows off one of his partners. ...and yes I made antimatter Akari 10 feet tall. :D

Surprise Koro Q! Based on that one episode from the anime. Imagine if the transformation was permanent.

Baby shark doo doo doodoodoodoo...onesie.

Shirt reads: "I am completely normal and not insane I have no desire to harm anyone I am not carrying a weapon." I like the potential chaotic vibes in NagiKae. They're besties.

Eldritch AU!!! Context: some of the 3E students are eldritch beings, and Kayano is the reincarnation of an ancient being that ruled a whole other dimension filled with other eldritch monstrosities, which she can summon. This AU gave me so many brain worms, yet not enough to help me finish any of them. 😩

I have a bleak zombie apocalypse AU. Takes place after their high school graduation, probably after the events of Korotan D? Kayano's half-infected, Nagisa's a zombie, Karma has severe head trauma that he can't fix and it's making him go wack, and Gakushuu's trying to keep everything together.

I wanted to draw more than one birthday art for Akari and this was one of them. Just her and her big sister...

This one was gonna be a prank. Forgot about it though LOL.

The concept was Kayano arriving in limbo, dazed, after getting killed. But Aguri tells her to go back. It's not time yet.

Aberration AU. Takes place 4 years after canon, right around the time they're in college. The monster behind them is basically both of them. Their memories and DNAs make up the monster. Kayano and Nagisa are unhealthily codependent after being kidnapped and used as experiments for...3 years. 😐 But it's okay. They eventually get rescued and get therapy.

Kayano twins AU. I was gonna draw a short comic about the twins but I had to give up because I was struggling for some reason. (Why is this pic so LONG???)

One of the Christmas/Karma birthday ideas. It'd have Karushuu kissing under a mistletoe. Kayano's just here for the desserts, man.

Eldritch AU. This would be a sequel to Day 88, featuring Kanzaki (she's a time god) instead, but I didn't have enough motivation to finish it.

This is just Day 93, but Aguri and Korosensei were supposed to be there with her, along with the rest of group 4!! But I ran out of time.

And finally, this is another limbo situation where the Yukimura sisters would hug each other one last time. But then I thought it was too sad and went for the "Aguri lives" ones.

If you made it all the way to the end, then WOW thanks for reading!! Hope y'all liked reading about my thoughts! There are actually more arts that are unfinished but those are like...really messy lol.

[heatwa-ves]

Thoughts on izuleo

yeah

fr tho they are so aughghghhjjhhhjhjh like okay!!! they've been through a lot together and changed and grown as people so they're no longer so unhealthily codependent and hurting each other and now they make each other better!! they're undeniably the most important person to each other!! they're living together in florence (do you think there's only one b-) and like... leo is helping izumi start up his modelling career and izumi is supporting leo starting his career in music aside from idol activities... obv being idols will be still so important to them especially since they're the ones who founded knights and it's grown so much both as a unit and it's members as people...to the point where they really can call themselves knights... izumi still feels so much guilt over what happened in the war and partially blames himself for everything leo went through like..just look at this....

it's so important that he's able to look back on everything like this tho it really shows how much he's changed as a person... anyway ill stop now bc I think none of this makes sense but ykwim. they make me insane

[bakedrice0022]

I think about my addiction a lot. The people I hurt and fucked over. All the awful things I did during it honestly. I often want to reach out but don’t because who am I to pop back in when I know all their lives have improved since I left? Allie crosses my mind a thousand times a day and then some. At this point, I’ve just accepted that I’ll always have that longing for her. I’ll always have such immense love for her. I stole money from her, sold her things, we fought a lot. She found drugs idk how many times and I’d just…lie. Or try to anyway. Things really got out of hand when she broke up with me. I was too unhealthily codependent on her and completely spiraled that day. Neither one of us deserved what I put us through. That being said, it’s hard being gentle with myself through this healing. It’s hard to forgive myself and genuinely love myself through it. I did such awful things to such an amazing person. Something I have to carry with me forever. How does a person live with that? I just wanted love. To be seen. She came close but we could never quite meet in the middle. I was always too soft and forgiving and she was hard and cold when it came time. I was truly the light and her dark; the most beautiful combination. The Yin and Yang we had was insane. It’s hard to let go of something that was once your entire world. We were both hurting in ways we didn’t understand at the time and the projection was days of dealing with it were toxic as hell. I can see that and I don’t think she’s healed enough to yet. I still have healing with it too; I feel some anger and resentment with it but nothing compared to the love. I feel her so strong it takes my breath away at times. Love is better than hate but truly healing and setting boundaries with what you want also matter...it doesn’t mean you hate them. It means you love them and yourself so much that you don’t want to be put in uncomfortable situations. I’ve learned a lot since being gone for 2 years. I’m someone I never thought I’d be and I’m only going to keep growing. I’m proud of myself. It’s been hard lately; especially with Twy being gone. I have no one to fully talk to that wouldn’t see me as crazy and when I think about even remotely reaching out to her I don’t because she’s actively not speaking to me. Choosing not to be with me. So I have to continue to choose me when I feel people aren’t. And when they aren’t? It’s because they’re not for me - plain and simple. It doesn’t make it any less hard tho.. I miss you both. In aliveness and death. I ache for you both. I don’t know who I am anymore. Almost every last shred of Sarah died when I left and both Sarah and Moe died when Twy died. I’m just a skinsuit with emotions reaching and pleading for signs and synchronicities every second of the day. Just to make it all a little easier. A little more bearable. Life is hard. Love is harder.

Peace, love and water

Moe 🧡💫

[ladylore97]

Don't know if you ever see Hazbin Hotel in a series on YouTube so you can watch it for free.. But a character in that series name Alastor is probably what evil male version of Spinel would be like. Someone even parody Alastor Insane song for Spinel.

(wow late response I'm sry) I love Harbin Hotel! I just listened to Insane for the first time, and it does have a similar flare to Spinel and "Other Friends"! If there's a Spinel-specific parody, though, I can't find it :/ Maybe you can link it?

I don't know if it's because of Spinel or it always existed, but I have quite an affinity now for chaotic-evil, unhinged former-entertainers. Alastor definitely gives similar energy, and I'm sad there's not more Hazbin Hotel to watch. However, Blitzo from Helluva Boss is climbing up there on the list of compelling former-clown characters with a tragic past. >:)

There's some great villains with similar energy and style to Spinel! Some additional favorites aesthetic-wise include:

Mommy Long Legs from Poppy Playtime

Baroness Von Bon Bon from Cuphead (She was just introduced in The Cuphead Show too)

La Brava from My Hero Academia (not necessarily manic, but similarly codependent and unhealthily attached

Jinx from Arcane (Seriously if you haven't watched this idk what you've been doing please gift yourself with this fine piece of art)

I'm sure there's lots more anime look-alikes out there, but I do particularly like Maka Albarn from Soul Eater. I haven't watched enough of the show to say if her personality is similar to Spinel's at all, though

[venusluvrr]

The Psychological Horror Manhwa “Killing Stalking” is not a Romance, but an Emotional Series Depicting the Codependent Relationship Between Two Ill Individuals

Content Warning!!: contains mentions of sexual abuse (rape) and mental illness.

Killing Stalking is an immensely twisted webcomic series, mainly popular within the Yaoi community for its boy on boy focused plotline. The story follows characters Yoon Bum (Bum), a shy, scrawny young man with a haunting past filled with abuse, and Oh Sangwoo (Sangwoo), a younger man who also has a quite damaging upbringing but masks it perfectly with his vibrant, extroverted personality. After being saved from a rape attempt during his time serving in the military, Bum develops a crush on his saviour, Sangwoo, from which an unhealthy obsession starts to arise and he eventually finds himself locating and breaking into the man’s home one day when he’s out. When he does, he discovers a terribly injured woman being held captive in his basement, and with further evidence, soon comes to the realization that his crush is actually a serial killer -- hence the name “Killing Stalking,” as Sangwoo kills and Bum stalks. For a very specific reason though, Sangwoo decides not to kill the man that had been stalking him, and instead holds him hostage in his custody. From here, the story goes into exceeding depth of the abnormal, toxic, and manipulative relationship the two form during their time spent together. By just the mere description of it, it’s a bit concerning to know that a large portion of readers still support Sangwoo and Bum’s relationship. In other words, they believe they truly loved each other and that the story was not only horror fiction but a romance as well. One could easily come to this conclusion by basing their relationship on the few parts within the novel where they showed affection towards each other -- for example when Bum allows Sangwoo to hug him to sleep when he suffered through the night, or my personal favourite, when Sangwoo buys Bum a stuffed frog keychain after finding out that he had an affinity for such creatures. But we cannot simply dismiss the underlying factors of their relationship because of some cute things they did that made our heart melt -- Sangwoo still abused Bum at his leisure which makes those moments quite meaningless in the sense of it all. What Sangwoo and Yoonbum shared can’t be classified as “love,” because even with their peculiar bond and endearing moments, the psychological damage they both endured played a bigger part in the way they perceived each other.

Many toxic relationships start out lovely and glamorous until the couple have become comfortable enough to start revealing some bad habits, but in Sangwoo and Bum’s case, they were already off to a bad start, as the reason they remained with each other was solely for reasons pertaining to their poor mental health.

At the time Sangwoo saved Bum in the military, Bum still suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) -- a disorder he inferrably developed due to the fact that he grew up being constantly physically and sexually abused by the people around him. People with this illness may easily develop an infatuation for a person who shows them even the least bit of care; It can reach the point where they begin to idolize them and see them almost as a perfect human being -- which is exactly how Bum viewed Sangwoo after he helped him to escape a rape attempt. The likely specific term for what Sangwoo was to Bum is a Favourite Person (FP). To an individual suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder, their FP is everything -- their self-worth, identity and emotional dependency all rely on this one person, making them the center of their lives. In contrast to this sincere fondness, the only reason Sangwoo kept Bum alive was because of the man’s resemblance to his late mother -- the one person in his life who he truly loved. While his father was abusive and negligent, his mother tried her best to care for her son even while her own mental stability wasn’t so great either. Even though it was implied that he was responsible for the murder of both his mother and father in high school -- getting away with it scotch-free because of how perfectly executed his plan was -- he still shared a special bond with the woman, allowing her existence follow and continue to torutue him mentally as he grew older. When he saw Yoonbum, he felt as if she had been somewhat resurrected, or at least he could pretend so by dressing him up in his mother’s clothes and making him cook and do the chores; He also played the husband role by abusing and assaulting Bum just as his father did to his mother -- mostly just out of his own nature. Sangwoo had his own issues, “mommy issues,” and he initially needed to keep Bum alive so he could fulfill his own longing desires. Knowing the man’s character though, things wouldn’t end there and instead headed down a very gruesome and frightful path.

The very reasons that the two were drawn to each other we’re even more evident the longer they lived under the same roof. While Yoonbum continued to recall the perfect image he had of Sangwoo in his head, Sangwoo continued to manipulate the man in order to satisfy his own needs. A healthy relationship cannot be based on deceit, because one person will end up victimized instead of loved.

Oh Sangwoo is a sadistic sociopath with a history of kidnapping, abusing, raping and torturing innocent people, and because of his illness, he shows feels and shows no remorse for his actions and even proceeds to kill off his victims as they pleaded in objection. What some people don’t understand is that when Sangwoo met Bum, the only reason he treated him differently was not because he thought of him as special, but because he had a personal agenda that included making Bum think that was the truth and that he was indeed the favoured victim among many. It’s no surprise with the man’s manipulative personality that he would enjoy planting a lie in Bum’s head to make him stay and continue to do as he says, and this is confirmed whenever he returned back to his old destructive habits even after showing the man acts of affection. Yes, Sangwoo spared Bum’s life, clothed him and fed him, but as their bond grew, his narcissistic attitude was still more apparent than ever.

Upon meeting Bum for the first time, Sangwoo didn’t hesitate to aggressively break his ankles to prevent his mobility, he left the man within the dark confinement of his basement for a certain period of time before letting him out only after he had gained his trust. He made him sit in a chair to wash dishes and make dinner because he could no longer stand. Sangwoo also constantly dragged Bum down with derogatory words and statements every chance he could get, this included calling him a “retard,” and referring to him as a “disgusting” and “filthy” human being. As confirmed by the author, Sangwoo is also heterosexual, which is further proved by the homophobic remarks he made towards a significantly older man who was sexually attracted to him while murdering him with Bum’s aid. This fact alone is another one that should justify a strong point that demonstrates the true hostility of their relationship -- Yoonbum never gave his consent to have sex with Sangwoo, nor did he allow it to happen because “he wanted it.” He specifically used phrases such as, “No,” “Stop,” and “It hurts,” implying that sometimes there was no mutual agreement when they had sex and Sangwoo had actually raped him several times.

People with Borderline Personality Disorder have been reported to have difficulties seeing the faults in their partner -- this explains why Bum still held on to him. He chose to stay when he had the chance to escape, and with tears rolling down his face from excruciating pain he still told Sangwoo he loved him. In a scene where Bum is left alone with the police as they investigate the suspicions they have surrounding him, he questions them saying, “Could you kiss somebody like me? Could you love somebody like me?” As he believes nobody but Sangwoo could answer yes to those two questions, convinced that Sangwoo really does have feelings for him. It’s saddening to know that the poor man had successfully been lured into a trap, and because of his mental health it would be much harder for him to realize it.

To the readers that think, “Sangwoo and Yoonbum needed each other,” -- You’re not completely wrong. They did need each other in the way that they found somewhat of a saneness from each other’s presence, each using one another to each other’s benefit. But being together at the same time built on their insanity, as the presence of Sangwoo’s mother seemed to grow even more prevalent with Bum, who resembled her, also in the picture, and Yoonbum growing so unhealthily attached to Sangwoo that he constantly feared of abandonment and turned the sociopath into the only source of his happiness. They needed each other, but not for the right reasons. They were attached to each other, but there was no love, otherwise it would reflect throughout the story. One of the most debate-worthy scenes that challenge this fact is when Sangwoo is reported by an old lady in the hospital, the one that had ended his life, that he was calling out Bum’s name throughout the night as he lay in his deathbed. Those were his final words, and Yoonbum’s final word was also Sangwoo’s name before he was very well implied to have been hit by a car while he chased an illusion of the man he “loved.” Even I almost felt that this was solid proof that even through the tough and terrible of their relationship, deep inside, the two really were in love but could not express it in the right way due to their mental health issues -- after all, what someone makes of their final moments before death is much more meaningful than most of what they've done in their life entirely. But I came to realize that the only way I could support this relationship would be if they had met in an alternate universe where they did not suffer from such dreadful childhood trauma that made them into the hurting individual they had become before meeting each other. As difficult as it is for me to picture the two with different partners, it would be best if the two had not met at all as they only fed into the severity of their conditions.

[sergeant-angels-trashcan]

the thing about supernatural is like. they made this show on accident. nobody was sitting around twenty years ago in a writer’s room all “let’s make a show about a toxic family and incredibly unhealthily codependent brothers, we mean an insane amount of codependent, so hypermasculine that it rounds the corner into being gay, with absurd amounts of homoerotic subtext and misogyny” they just. they did that on accident. they wanted to make a show about monster hunting all-american working man brothers and every attempt to course correct into a brother buddy cop monster show backfired. this is so funny. if they’d tried to make supernatural the show it actually wound up being nobody would have let them do it. 

[treetownconfessions]

IMO, Fliq despises Flippy because they're both terribly codependent on each other. Flippy was VERY dependent on Fliqpy when they were serving, which is obvious, but Fliqpy's dependent on Flippy to an extent because I think he'd properly and genuinely go insane without the presence of someone else + if Flippy wasn't around to cut his flip-outs short he'd be completely nuts on like, the third day being by myself. Except, once they were no longer serving, Flippy stopped relying on Fliqpy to kill enemies, and I guess the realization that Flippy didn't 'need' him, whilst he still needed Flippy, pissed him off so much it turned into fucking despising Flippy and trying to get rid of him and be on his own to prove this morphed idea wrong. (except plot twist Flippy totally still does rely on Fliqpy even outside of the war because he's gotten unhealthily reliant on flipping out when he's in a tough situation that if he didn't have Fliqpy to take over when a fucking balloon pops he'd probably have a whole breakdown)