#this is your own fault brennan

[slayerchick303]

Brennan: Why does everyone see me as a snack gremlin who is a bird fanatic?

*proceeds to spend the next 15 minutes discussing his love for food and birds*

[littledoggy-girlcollar]

STOP GIVING ALLY BEARDSLEY OPPORTUNITIES

[pearlsdiamondsandvodka]

WOW THAT SURE IS ONE HELL OF AWAY TO START AN EPISODE!!!

[actual-sleeping-beauty]

The thing that's bothering me with people saying the Bad Kids didn't even try to reach out to the Rat Grinders and just started indiscriminately killing them is that THEY DID.

Like, sure Wanda Childa originally started as a bit so that Fig could gather Intel on Ruben. But the whole dream sequence and faking Wanda Childa's death outside Ruben's house was to persuade him to abandon the Rat Grinders. It's not Fig's (or Emily's!) fault that it didn't work. But she was desperately trying to get a read on that kid throughout the whoooooole season.

The Bad Kids have been doing insight checks on Kipperlilly the whole season and getting NOTHING. Even with pretty good insight checks they were just getting, "this is a very fake person." That coupled with the fact that Kipperlilly appears to have come up with the plan to dig up Eugenia's grave to get her automatic A before she got rage-starred, what exactly were they supposed to do with her?

And when it comes to Buddy Dawn, my goodness. Kristen has given that kid endless amounts of her patience and kindness when he has not earned it. He hasn't necessarily earned her ire, but he hasn't earned her kindness. And yet, the first thing she did when he got killed was try desperately to find a way to resurrect him, despite the fact that members of her own party would maybe need that higher spell slot later. The first thing Kristen did after getting to the gym? Insight check on Buddy Dawn to see whether he had actually bought into this. Kristen can't help that Ally, the player, rolled a Nat 1. It's not Kristen's fault. But up until the very last, Kristen was trying to save him, because she sees herself in him.

Sure, with Ivy, Oisin, and Mary Ann no one tried very hard to get a read on them. But also I feel like we didn't see them much. And the Bad Kids did try at that first party to figure them out, they just rolled poorly. As Brennan put it, the dice have been on the Bad Kids' side, not on the side of the story he had prepped to tell. And that's fine! The dice are the uncontrollable element of DND! But you can't get mad at the Bad Kids for not trying when they have, in fact, been trying all season to get a read on these kids and just totally whiffing every time.

Also, people are apparently getting mad at the cast too? Which, 1, this is not your game and these are not your friends, so leave them alone. And 2, Ally said this episode that they felt "blackout drunk" driving home, which I am assuming is from exhaustion given the filming schedule mentioned in (I think) episode 17. These people are exhausted and running on fumes. As actual human beings they are likely struggling with concentration etc. and they should all be given some slack.

[heytherecentaurs]

The psychology of this episode is more interesting than Yes or No. Before the reveal Yes or No is a pretty standard game. Try your best and you may fail but at least you tried. Despite his BEST EFFORTS Brennan lost Yes or No through no fault of his own. This new episode goes further—the players figure out the game early because unlike Yes or No, the game isn’t the mystery, it’s the knowledge of it. Knowing is what makes it torture for Brennan, and I’d argue it’s more effective because at least when it’s a mystery he can say “I failed, but I didn’t know what I was doing.” Now even winning means losing. Not only is Sam literally rewarding the runner up, but Brennan’s losing because he’s being asked to compromise his values for points—something he once said he’d do ANYTHING for. It creates a much richer internal conflict: does Brennan maintain his values of trying his best no matter the results OR does he do anything for points, including trying less. (Although, may I propose that maybe trying hard to try less is actually true to his philosophy.) It’s a really fun and genius game they made, a more sophisticated torture device.

[utilitycaster]

Do you think part of the D20 journalistic bias comes from D20 being edited? It gives the appearance of much more effortless play and lets them control the pacing in a way unedited play like CR simply can't do. They get to (potentially) hide a lot of stuff people would jump on as flaws while CR has no choice but to let it all play out. I greatly prefer CR's approach, despite it biting them in the ass a bit through no fault of their own.

Answering these both together to group cause and my opinions, and I do want to note this is specifically about journalism/press coverage, not their respective fandoms even though there's obviously some overlap.

I think there's a couple things, but I do want to note this was actually prompted by Daggerheart, not Critical Role. The response from several prominent voices in the Actual Play journalism community, whom I will not name here but whom I do not respect intellectually, really was, within hours of the open beta (which as far as I know they didn't have early access to - more on that later) "um it could be better, I don't like xyz and also it's sooooooo important to have criticism" and again, it is important to have criticism, but also you act like D20 has never had a mediocre moment and that Kollok is brilliant, so.

This...got away from me a bit. I'd say I'm sorry but actually I adore writing thousands of words about actual play and it will happen again but I'm putting the detailed answer below a cut. The short answer is I think a lot of Actual Play journalists actually sort of fell into their jobs through being vaguely involved in nerd spaces and aren't actually equipped to talk intelligently about TTRPGs and actual play as a medium that should, at its best, be a perfect fusion of narrative and mechanics. So instead they're distracted by flashy edits and bright lights and cool noises and some abstract concept of "novelty" and write only about that. Also Critical Role is the 700 lb gorilla in the AP space (though not, actually, the TTRPG space) and doesn't give them early access and that's meaaaaaan. Indeed, for all I think a lot of their coverage of D20 and Worlds Beyond Number is obsessively fawning, I also think it's extremely surface level, frequently factually wrong, and fails to get at what's truly excellent about those shows either.

I think, honestly, the biggest one is that I don't actually think a lot of Actual Play journalists watch series in full. I was looking for Polygon coverage of Fantasy High Junior Year and they have one glowing article but it's more about Fantasy High as setting and institution and D20 "changing the game" (also more on this later) to the point of outright contradicting the pull quotes they used from interviewing Brennan Lee Mulligan (also more on this later). So I started looking through their coverage and actually, quite a number of their write-ups are based on only one episode, or half a season. Clearly, they haven't read the full open beta (nor have I, but I think their complaints about the character build process belie a profound misunderstanding of what TTRPGs are, also more on this later). So editing is certainly part of it because it's really easy to see cool special effects and sound design within one episode and shit out a hacky article about it, whereas actually getting to the substance - character relationships, cohesive narrative, storytelling - requires work that I do not think they're doing. And on the one hand I do kind of get it, because yeah, if journalism is your livelihood then you perhaps do not have the time to watch 4 hours of D&D a week for 2-3 years if you're only going to get one article every six months out of it. But I don't think the answer is "focus intently on Microsoft Powerpoint-esque scene transition tricks while ignoring that nothing occurring at the table is actually fun to watch." For more on this, see this post.

The second, which is very relevant to Daggerheart but also is actually a big gap in D20 and WBN coverage in my opinion, and which I put in the tags, is that I actually don't think a lot of journalists have a solid understanding of TTRPGs nor of most genres. And I think Critical Role has a particularly good understanding of both these things, actually, if one skewed towards collaborative storytelling that is not rules-light. I think one really big example is that one person within the space is mad at the Daggerheart questions for the character archetypes because what if your character doesn't fit these. I think this is dumb as shit. I actually think that a common criticism of D&D - that you can't play ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING - is not valid, or rather, it's a valid opinion to hold but if you want to play a character who doesn't fit into the available archetypes perhaps you need to find another game. We all inherently understand that Blades in the Dark characters will be members of a criminal organization in a relatively low-magic setting, correct? That you can't show up to BitD and play a lawful good wizard prince because that's not the story being told? Or like, how in Honey Heist, you are a bear and you are trying to get honey, and you cannot play a human child investigating the old abandoned house at the edge of town, but there's a cool game called Kids on Bikes that will let you do that? Great! Why is this suddenly so hard to understand in the realm of heroic fantasy, that you will fit into specific archetypes? Why do people's brains, if they have them to begin with, vanish suddenly? I know I just did a big old rant that included this within it but genuinely I think a lot of people are deeply ignorant of heroic fantasy, or don't like it, and either is fine, but then they get mad at the heroic fantasy game for having heroic fantasy archetypes when the answer is "maybe this will never make you happy because it's not for you." (Frankly, I think this is also why they love D20, because it doesn't really do straight-up heroic fantasy, and that's fine, but they do keep acting like doing a Game of Thrones pastiche is equivalent to the invention of the wheel.) Like...I remember in the Midst Q&A that Xen said they tend to not like playing typical D&D classes, but their solution was to, you know, create Midst instead of sitting around going "actually, because D&D doesn't support cyberpunk narrative and the character archetypes within very well it is an utter failure." (I could go on forever about how actually TTRPGs are not a showcase for your already extant OCs to prance around but that's a totally separate post).

Mechanics and story are inherently intertwined, is what I'm trying to get at (sorry I'm really tired and have a lot to do but I'm passionate about this answer, it will be rambly, she says like 3 pages in) and I really don't think most actual play journalists get this. At all. And I do think that CR, and Daggerheart, and the people working for it, and especially Spenser Starke, Rowan Hall, Matt Mercer, and Travis Willingham, get this more than almost anyone else in the field. I also think Brennan Lee Mulligan and Aabria Iyengar get this, and the thing is, for all the praise showered upon them, much of which I think is deserved and most of what I think is undeserved is not because they are lacking but because the person writing about them is an idiot crediting them for things they (Brennan and Aabria) would never claim to have invented, their mechanical prowess is rarely if ever written about well. Fantasy High Junior Year's downtime mechanics actually fill in a famous gap in D&D, namely, downtime, and provide an excellent marriage of story and mechanics in my opinion, and I haven't really seen any discussion, because that would require watching the part of the TTRPG show where they play the TTRPG, and knowing the vague word on the street about D&D criticism that isn't just "*nods sagely* capitalism is the BBEG."

And finally: related a bit to the edit but Critical Role used to not be able to provide any early access to press, because it was literally a live show, and I suspect they never broke the habit, and I think that is for the best. As discussed a lot of D20 coverage actually feels like they watched the press screener and then never returned to the show. And I do not know the politics about them, but given that several of these publications (notably Polygon, but some others) have been shitting on Critical Role for several years, and just generally given the way CR's leadership vs. how D20's leadership respond to fandom pressure, I suspect Critical Role does not give these journalists a ton of early or increased, if any. Honestly, why should you, if you're getting interviewed in Variety? And I think the journalists are mad, because they think they're special and should get treated as such.

I do want to wrap something up, and I want to thank @captainofthetidesbreath for talking a little about this in game design/ttrpgs and giving me the idea, but in story, you should be challenging your audience, expanding their horizons, and being new and interesting. In the actual playing of TTRPGs, especially a new one, it is vital to be inclusive and easy to understand and patient and provide points of reference. I really feel like many Actual Play journalists and some TTRPG ones as well have this equation flipped and are looking for challenging concepts that most people will never be able to get a group to be willing to play, and bells and whistles in production, but leave story as an afterthought. Critical Role designs games to actually be played and to be used specifically to tell good stories, and puts story before production, and I think that undercuts those journalists' whole deal.

[ominous-horse-noises]

not done talking ab fhjy actually so i'll just say some of you guys who go on about how you could've done better themes and narrative arcs can't even think critically about the one in front of you.

i do wish that the other bad kids had interacted with their foils more this season because it was fun seeing them trade insults, but i also dont think it would've done much for them. i mean, people forget the tbks did try to turn reuben early on (they literally saved him from grix even though it was his fault he showed up trying to kill people). adaine thought oisin was cool and tbks were onboard with thinking maybe he wasn't that bad, and then he sent his grandma to murder them and their entire school. fabian tried to get an 'in' with ivy and it nearly cost him a genuine relationship with a character who had a way better chance of helping them figure things out without the risk of being betrayed. kipperlilly had an ego-driven hateboner for riz since BEFORE the rage stars and killed her own party member in cold blood just to stick it to kristen, and you're telling me that she could've been my little ponyied into giving up her chance to squash the symbol of all her inadequacy? buddy and maryann are the only rat grinders who havent fucked them over meaningfully and guess what? they're not thrilled about having to kill them- they're actively avoiding targeting them! almost like theyre capable of distinguishing between someone not on their side and someone who's proved to be a threat!

brennan made it pretty clear that trying to befriend trgs in their rage forms was futile and actively punished it ingame. you can have your opinions of that, but it definitely had a narrative point: if you get rage starred, you cant be 'this isnt youuuu'd out of it. you think ONLY of rage, and rage can't be reasoned with. it's arguably worse than death, bc at least someone can revivify you and there's no lasting consequences. think about how hard brennan was trying to push the ihs into taking rage tokens. he knew exactly how dire he'd made the consequences and that was on purpose. the season has no stakes if you can just talk your way out of being rage starred bc tbks could save each other easily. the whole climax literally can't happen if trgs arent being evil bc porter can't be a living god of rage without followers. tbks hating trgs isnt a flaw in the story: it IS the story.

[empire-if]

DEMO (TBA)

After rising to the top do you have what it takes to stay there? Do you even want to?

Hollywood; the crown jewel of California. An unconquerable entity that stands the test of time despite various setbacks. Rising to the top was a long and arduous journey but you have done just that.

Sitting upon your throne of broken promises and fanciful lies— all of them being gilded in gold. Leaving behind your past without a second glance back. Childish merriment was replaced with the flashing lights of cameras. Grass-stained jeans turning to designer clothes. You never wanted to go back to what you used to be.

That is until the pesky problems of death threats start to become an actual concern. To your team and the authorities at least.

Meaning you have to leave behind your mansion in the hills for your parents two bedroom house in Airedale, Maine.

How are you going to deal with your past and present clashing? And what will you do about someone wanting you dead?

Empire is Rated 18+ for explicit language, sexual themes, drug/alcohol use, questionable behavior, mentions of murder, and more.

♛ FEATURES ♛

Customizable MC: name, sexuality, gender, appearance, vices, your mansion, and more as things begin to crop up within the story.

Choose what type of Star you have been to the public-- have you been the media's darling or more of black sheep? With a smattering of vices that have helped you cope with the stress of Hollywood.

Have you done something so horrible that it warrants someone wanting you dead? Was your last performance truly that bad? Or is it something a bit closer to home?

Romance 1 of 5 options that will offer something unique. Will you fall for your old sweetheart again; did you ever stop loving them? Or will you fall for the pesky journalist that is coming just a little too close for comfort? Time will tell.

Will your empire, the one you’ve fought so hard for, crumble into dust? Or will you rise above it all?

♛ THE ROs ♛

Scott/Scarlett Frost ♛ He/Him or She/Her ♛ 29 ♛

Your high school sweetheart/ex-fiancé has since become a veterinarian in the small town of Airedale. Light blue eyes still shining with the same warmth as you remember. Though it was a gaze filled with understandable weariness.

Edward/Elizabeth Holland ♛ He/Him or She/Her ♛ 30 ♛

Your costar from your most recent film. Who also happens to be your current PR significant other. Unfortunately, that also means that they have to come with you to not completely ruin everything you both have been implementing. You just hope everything ends up working out all right.

Victor/Victoria Swann ♛ He/Him or She/Her ♛ 29 ♛

The bad kid turned Deputy Sheriff in the small town of Airedale. A sight that you weren’t expecting to see at all when returning. Nor were expecting the reaction you got from them when they finally saw you once again.

Carter Griffith ♛ He/Him or She/Her ♛ 28 ♛

An old family friend has come to town for your class reunion; because of course, your reunion has to be whenever you’re forced to come back. Sly remarks and amused smiles are still a common entity with Carter. You wouldn’t expect anything less from them though.

Taylor Brennan ♛ He/Him or She/Her ♛ 28 ♛

The journalist that’s getting a little too close for comfort but maybe that’s your own fault too. You just have to make sure that you don’t let anything too detrimental slip out. As bad press wouldn’t be the worst thing you’d have to worry about then.

[18catsreading]

Gilear: I'm gonna speak up. I'm gonna say some stuff alright? I'm gonna say some stuff now.

Fabian: what?

Gorgug: shh! Prophecy! Shh!

Gilear: I'm not the nightmare king alright? I'm not the nightmare king.

Fig: I had to ask, you understand I had to ask

Gilear: you didn't

*giggles from outside the dome* Brennan and everyone breaks

I need to. I'm sorry.

Fabian: is it the nut? Is it the nut you ate coming back up?

Gorgug: there's the other of half of it in the --

Riz: this is bullying

Fig: its large for a nut ok?

Gilear: nearly 100% of people who are punched in the back of the head by a demon would die. *outside giggling again* Nearly 100%.

Your view of the world and how it works is, not your own fault, so wildly warped by your adventuring school, by what you've learned, by what you've experienced with goldenhoard, kalvaxis ...

Fig: well by the fact that you're my dad

Gilear: I love you so much. I died today. I died. The gorilla monster punched the back of my head so hard my brain broke and then I was dead.

Adaine: and you don't know anything about the nightmare king

Gilear: maybe I did before the gorilla monster punched me

Gorgug: Gilear you died but I see you standing right now. Well. You're sitting in the van but.

Gilear: I:m sitting in the back of the van swaddled in a blanket shaking so hard

Fabian: But you're standing in your way

Gilear: I'm physically shaking so hard.

Siobhan: can I give him Boggy?

Brennan: He takes Boggy and starts crying. As Gilear: "This frog is very good".

[verosvault]

🚨SPOILERS FOR FANTASY HIGH JUNIOR YEAR EPISODE 8🚨

Dimension20 "Fantasy High Junior Year"

Episode 8 "Fracas at the Frostyfaire Folk Festival"

Timestamp: 00:16:14

Video Length: 3min. & 37sec.

Kristen gets a vision and hears a familiar voice! 😱 + Theories about Cassandra and the Pride Armor!

Brennan: "As you do so, all of you hear Kristen's stomach growl and gurgle as well."

Kristen's stomach: *gurgling sounds; magical chimes*

Emily: "Is it contagious?!" 😭😭

Brennan: "And Kristen, you get a sudden flash of red. You are back in the wizard's food court for a second. You see glass and red light. You hear a scream of a familiar voice and sudden silence. And then you look into Adaine's open eyes as you are reviving her, and you see a reflection in her eyes of blood splattered on the ground somewhere."

Ally: "Is the voice Cassandra?"

Brennan: "It is not Cassadra's, but you cannot delve deeper into that. It's a voice you recognize, but you can't get more information about it."

Fig: "Okay, Cassandra had someone coming after her. Did it seem like that? 'Cause I've been thinking about the fact that she's doubt would completely destabilize the entire pantheon, right? If gods get their power from faith, and she's doubt, she might have had a mark on her externally-"

Kristen: "Oh, Interesting."

Fig: "...from your ministrations." 💀

Kristen: "Yeah."

Adaine: "Yeah, maybe it's not your fault at all. Maybe it's completely nothing to do with you."

Kristen: "I think I... Yeah, I definitely killed her, but I do wonder-" 😭😭

(players snickering) 😂😭💀✋

Kristen: "Okay, okay. Wait, wait, 'cause this kinda feels like thematically what everything is ****ing feeling like at school. Aguefort represented nuance and weirdness and he's gone, and now it's extremely strict and by the book."

Fig: "Yeah, and without doubt, you just have rigid faith, which shatters and has no flexibility."

Riz: "Is it possible that things are being changed right now by Aguefort being back in time?"

Kristen: "Oh my gosh, yeah."

Adaine: "Oh. That he's changing things in the past that are affecting things in the present?"

Ally: "He's like- microwaving a burrito and it's ruining everything." *Laughs*

Riz: "Also, can we talk for a second about how insane that was?"

Fabian: "Yes, wait. I wanted to let you guys get your thoughts out. What the **** just happened?"

Riz: "Dust mites, and then you just got knocked out?"

Adaine: "I'm assuming this has just been in a box for, like-"

Riz: "Fig was just helping you read a book."

Fabian: "Everyone felt like- Did everyone else get shrimp vibes from that?"

Kristen: "That was shrimp vibes."

Fabian: "Just kind of like a nasty chain reaction?!"

Fig: "Yeah! It's me, okay? Look, my Bardics are cursed, I think. I think I'm cursed."

Siobhan: "Can I do an Arcana check on Fig?"

Brennan: "Do an Arcana check right now."

Emily: "I lay down like a patient on a table."

Siobhan: *rolls dice*

Lou: "Yes, I'm also going to do an Arcana check."

Siobhan: "24. I got a 24."

Murph: "Yeah, I'll Investigate Fig."

Emily: "Everyone Arcana check me!"

Murph: "21."

Siobhan: "How yogurt-y is she smelling right now?"

Brennan: "As you guys put these texts and tomes to the side and begin to Investigate Fig-"

Murph: "I know what I could do. The Gregorian Necktie can do Detect Evil and Good."

Ally: "Ohhhh."

Siobhan: "Oh."

Emily: "Oh, well."

Murph: "Well, Outside of just the-"

Brennan: "As you do the necktie, it beeps, and a fiendish aura surrounds Fig, not her own innate one."

Siobhan: "Ooooo!"

Riz: "Okay. Yeah, no, you're cursed for sure."

Fig: "Yeah, I think-"

Fabian: "Totally cursed."

Fig: "I think whoever- I put Wretchrot on it. I'm trying to find out-"

Riz: "Oh, good."

Fig: "Yeah, yeah. I deputized Wretchrot."

Siobhan: "Reliable."

Fig: "I'm trying to find out, I think it's whoever owned the pride armor."

Riz: "We don't know who that is."

Fig: "I'm paying, maybe, a debt that Gilear owes."

Kristen: "Yogurt!" 😂🤣💀

😂😂😂 The laughs!!! It really sounded like Kristen had cracked something!!! 😂🤣💀😭✋

Fig: "Yes?"

Siobhan: "I was thinking it's 'cause he was a straight man wearing pride armor."

Ally: "Yogurt! Yeah, the pride armor was rainbow." 😂😂🤣🤣🌈🌈

Siobhan: "I'm an ally! The A stands for ally!"

[ouatsnark]

So.

I've seen people compare Hook killing his father, Brennan, to the EQ killing her own dad, Henry 1.

Which, yeah, technically it is the same thing on surface level but I feel like people ignore the circumstances.

EQ apologists will claim that EQ murdering Henry was his own fault because he allowed her to be abused her entire life (which... While I would argue Cora is abusive, I don't really agree with because the man himself never abused Regina and even tried to advocate for her from what I remember) and because he owed it to her so she could be happy.

They then say she made up for it by naming her kid after him (which awww sweet, naming your kid after someone you MURDERED. Isn't that such a nice way to make up for what you did?).

They say his afterlife was too good for him/was given by Regina and he should be thankful he didn't get worse when he was a 'shitty' dad.

But they then turn around and go:

Oh Hook is a MONSTER because he murdered his own FATHER.

They point to the flashbacks in a swan song, ignoring the part where he abandoned them. Saying him lighting the lantern means that he was a good dad and him abandoning them couldn't be helped.

They say his actions didn't parentify Liam 1. They say he was sorry because he named his 3rd son after his first and that should have been enough.

That Hook was an asshole who orphaned his half brother out of jealousy and showed no remorse, ignoring the fact they eventually made up.

I just... don't see how?

The number one thing with Regina apologists is that they HAVE to make Regina into the biggest victim so that they can justify their love and defense of her indefensible crimes. In short, Regina Apologists are the biggest double standard hypocritical losers I’ve ever seen.

They have to insert their head canons about Regina’s childhood, demonize Henry Sr and then lie about Killian’s father, Brennan’s and Killian’s motives, ignore canon instances of Killian’s remorse just to lift up their tyrant queen.

They then come up with these ridiculous reasons to absolve Regina and Brennan of their crimes while ignoring the fact that if we use their logic, Killian should also be absolved of his (if they’d accept canon fact of Killian’s remorse). No, naming a child after your victim doesn’t absolve you of crimes. What good does that do anyone but Regina or Brennan? It doesn’t. The naming was solely for their own benefit.

How is replacing your first born making up for abandoning your children into slavery? Oh and if they say Brennan didn’t have any choice then why does he need to make up for anything? Can’t have it both ways peeps! No, Brennan naming his third son Liam doesn’t mean he is sorry it just means he’s giving himself a second chance and assuaging his own guilt just as Regina did with Henry Jr.

How about the truth: Villain Regina and villain Killian were both monsters for killing their respective fathers? Why can’t we leave it at that? But sure if they want to play the game of which one is worse, well, I have bad news for them. Regina was.

1. Regina murdered an innocent man. Killian killed his scumbag fugitive father.

Henry Sr was a loving doting father that stood behind Regina no matter what she did. No, Henry Sr did not “allow” Regina to be abused her entire life

Anon is absolutely right when they say Henry Sr did try to advocate for Regina and did his best to stand up to Cora (1x18). Besides. What did they want him to do? She was a powerful dark magic user that could kill him with a snap of her fingers.

I find it interesting that Regina Apologists use the excuse that Regina fixated her revenge on Snow and not Cora because she was afraid of her powerful mother. Like ya wanna think about this for a second, RAs? If you claim that Regina was so afraid of her mother her entire life (even tho she snooped in her desk with no fear etc etc) then do you all think maybe her dad might have been too? What could Henry Sr have done against a powerful wife? He had no powers himself. So if he was scared of Cora, he put Regina before his own fears and stayed for Regina’s sake. He never abandoned her to face Cora alone because no matter what happened at least he could be there for his daughter? Just a food for thought there.

Bottom line was, Henry Sr never abused Regina but he was always there for her, no matter what atrocity she committed, even while she was killing him. So no, adult Regina being abused by her mother over who she marries does not justify murdering the father who loved and supported her and it sure as hell doesn’t justify murdering him so she can get a happy ending and curse an entire kingdom to a life of misery.

It’s like Regina Apologists can’t think past her heaving cleavage.

Brennan did abandon his kids to slavery and to suggest otherwise is a lie. No, him naming his 3rd son Liam doesn’t make up for his abuse

He may have left a lantern on but that means jack crap the moment he abandoned his children to save his own skin. He had a choice. His choice was to die protecting them or at the least ensuring their own escape at his expense. But he chose to save himself and left his sons to face an unimaginable fate without him. Escaping your crimes and leaving your children to face your consequences is most certainly child abuse, neglect and abandonment.

And just so we are clear: Killian’s feeling of betrayal doesn’t justify leaving his half-brother an orphan. But which crime is more understandable? I can sympathize a lot more with the pain Killian felt in the face of his father’s betrayal than I can with Regina murdering a man so she can destroy the lives of an entire kingdom.

2. Regina committed her crime to destroy the lives of an entire kingdom. Killian’s crime effected three people.

Regina committed cold-blooded premeditated murder of an innocent man for the sole purpose of ruining the lives of an entire kingdom. Her goal was to punish Snow for a crime she didn't even commit! The only person that Regina was taking into consideration here was herself.

Killian wasn’t even going to go through with Regina’s test of killing Brennan, a crook and a child abuser, until he learned his half-brother’s name. It became a heat of the moment crime. A crime that only effected three people: himself, his scumbag father and his half-brother.

"You named your boy Liam. After my brother, after the son… you abandoned. Was he really that easy to replace? I saw what you said to him in there! It's the same thing you said to me! It was a lie then, and it's a lie now! … you would leave me." - past Hook 5x11

And despite what Regina Apologists say, Killian didn’t kill Brennan out of jealousy. To frame this as simple as jealousy diminishes the gravity of the situation here and Killian's pain. Put yourself in Killian's shoes for a moment.

You can think Brennan is telling the truth in this scene but I don't blame Killian for not believing him. The man callously left his sons to be enslaved, an act that eventually led to his beloved brother’s death, and here he finds out that his father has simply replaced his brother with a new son. When faced with this, Killian's walls go back up.

Brennan naming his son Liam was not an apology. It was to assuage his own guilt and give himself a second chance. Brennan claims he was honoring Liam 1, and maybe he thought he was, but it doesn't mean that Liam 2 wasn't a replacement for the sons he abandoned.

Lastly, it's a lie to say Killian never showed remorse.

The fact that he made Regina swear never to speak of this shows how immensely guilty and wrecked Killian was over this.

He was also willing to die for Liam 2. Even in the past, he wanted to help his brother turn from the path he was on and not make the same bad choices he'd made. If Henry hadn't returned, Killian was ready to let Liam have his vengeance.

So I have some questions for the Regina Apologists:

If Henry Sr is a shitty father and doesn’t deserve an afterlife for not being able to protect his adult child from his powerful wife, then what does Regina deserve for emotionally abusing the son she illegally adopted and putting her curse and her happiness before his welfare? And yes, she abused Henry. Yes, she is to blame for how she treated him. This isn’t up for debate.

How is naming a child after your victim showing remorse and making up for the act? but Killian Jones can’t be forgiven when he actually expresses remorse and was willing to die for his half-brother and made peace with Liam (as Anonymous pointed out in the ask)?

if being a coward that didn’t stand up to someone more powerful means you don’t deserve happiness in the afterlife then what should murdering, raping and abusing children get you? Yeah, Regina did that.

So please answer the question Regina Apologists!

[neurodiversebones]

so almost everyone in the squint squad has established childhood trauma (brennan, booth, sweets), what was all of their mental health like when they were younger? how did they cope? i hope you're doing alright!!!

OH i really adore this question !!! i <3 angst potential and i love these mf's sad backstories . gonna be honest, this is darker than most things i've posted before. it's mostly based on my own experiences and the experiences of a lot of my close friends- i'm gonna put a trigger warning for mention of abuse, self harm, eating disorders , substance abuse (drugs and alcohol), and suicide under the read more . please take care of yourselves !!! nothing is given graphic detail, but use your judgement and please don't read if it'll trigger you . i love you !!!

this evolved past just . their younger years and kind of became their Journeys with their mental health . i have a lot of thoughts pls ask me more about this omg :-))

i wrote so fucking much about this btw . i didn't know i had that many thoughts about this until i started writing and couldn't stop . my brain is Buzzing with angst for them .

brennan : brennan's mental health was always a little rocky, since she really struggled with loneliness in school, and didn't have many friends . as a kid, she never really understood why people didn't like her. she knew there was something different about her, but she couldn't see why people were so mean to her- the bullying lasted pretty much from the time she started school to graduation, and it was hell. a lot of adults didn't believe her or want to help her, and so she spent a lot of her childhood thinking that it was her fault she felt so alone. she didn't get to experience friendships as a kid, and despite learning being her favourite thing in the world, school was never a safe place for her.

however , once her parents left it got a Lot worse- the abandonment, and subsequent abuse she experienced in foster care, is what triggered her to develop ptsd. she was in some really bad homes- we get a few of the details in canon (like the family that locked her in the trunk of a car for breaking a dish), but there was always more. some were outright violently abusive, like that one, some were neglectful, and some, while not actively horrible, made it very clear that they didn't care much for her and she wasn't really a part of their family. she struggled with a lot of depression and hopelessness in her teen years because of this- the abuse was really difficult to deal with, and she turned to self harm and an eating disorder as a way to give herself some control over the situation. she spent almost all her time hiding away in her room studying, so between that and the constantly chaotic living situations, nobody even noticed what she was doing to herself. a social worker made her do therapy once, but she refused to speak the entire session, and continued to do so until she was allowed to quit. it hurt her, that nobody cared enough to notice that she was hurting herself, but she didn't want to ask for help because she refused to rely on anyone else after she'd already been abandoned once.

this, along with passive suicidality, followed her into adulthood, especially because she refused to address the problem or seek help. even for a good part of canon (really, up until season 6), we see her struggle with her mental health, struggling to understand the trauma she experienced as well as struggling to comprehend that even with all of that in her past, she can have positive relationships. her friendships helped her a lot though !! her friends at the jeffersonian were pretty much the first time in her life she wasn't... alone. this, along with actually finally seeking out help (therapy and meds), helped her to recover so she could finally feel Alive again (a big motivation for her was so that she could be a good mom to christine and hank <3) .

booth : we know from canon that booth has ptsd and experienced suicidal thoughts in his childhood . the trauma of the abuse from his dad fucked him up a lot- when he was a kid, he didn't really let it show, since he was in survival mode. he tried to be the best he could, be charming and happy and smart, both to avoid the abuse and to make sure nobody found out, since it was guaranteed that would make it worse. once he and jared were finally able to escape it and go live with their grandfather, it was the first time he actually let himself feel those feelings, and it was bad. his trauma manifested through anger- he wanted to hurt his dad for the torture he put them through, but he couldn't, so he took it out on himself instead. i think he struggled a lot with self harm in his youth and teen years, and continued to struggle with suicidal thoughts. he attempted, once, in highschool, but just woke up the next morning and pretended everything was fine. none of his friends ever knew he was hurting, most of them didn't even know about what he'd gone through as a kid. but his grandfather found the note in his room that day and talked to him about it when he got home, and he cried for probably the first time in years. that's what got him to finally accept help- he didn't realize how bad it was until that conversation.

another thing that was really triggering for him was alcohol- he was a football player, and all his friends were party boys. they drank a lot, and he usually avoided it. the most he ever had was a single beer, since he was terrified of losing control and being like his father. there was one time he got wasted- it was at a party, and he stumbled home that night. jared was in the kitchen, getting something to eat . booth was about 16 then, so jared was only 12 or 13. jared saw that he was drunk, and completely froze in fear, completely having a flashback. this fucked booth up- he was absolutely terrified of drinking from there on out, and was pretty much 100% sober until he was out of college.

angela : angela's mental health was pretty good until her late teen years (around 16). she had good friends, lots of hobbies, and she was really close with her dad. we don't know what happened to her mom, but i suspect it wasn't anything good- either she died when angela was young, or left. angela had some Issues with that, but it wasn't a huge deal for most of her life, since it had almost always been just her and her dad. when she was about sixteen though, things got rough- this is when her bipolar started, and it was really hard. she would cycle really rapidly in between manic and depressive episodes, and had some really terrifying mixed episodes as well (which can be really dangerous). she started getting more self destructive too- she developed an eating disorder around this time (bulimia), and started engaging in a lot of reckless behaviour that she could excuse by being a "party girl". she would binge drink, experiment with drugs, have reckless sex, etc. people worried about her, but she didn't even understand how dangerous any of it was until she hit rock bottom right at the end of her junior year. she was wildly depressed, and could barely get out of bed- her dad pulled her out of school, and she spent the last month of the school year just trying to get better. he cancelled a bunch of tour dates just to be with her and help her recover, and with a lot of help, things did start to get better.

her senior year, she didn't feel like going back to the place that had her so ill. and so she did her final year through homeschool, and spent it on the road with her dad. this was the best decision she ever made- it's where she fell in love with art, painting all the beautiful things she saw and learning to express how she was feeling through creation rather than destruction. when she goes to college the next year , she's in a MUCH more stable place and although she still struggles, she's much better at coping.

hodgins : hodgins started struggling with his mental health at a pretty young age (like, early middle school), but because of his families status, it was frowned upon to talk about. he didn't understand what was going on with him, just that he was so, so angry and sad all the time. he thought that something was wrong with him, that he was broken in some way, but he knew instinctively that it was something he wasn't supposed to talk about. he realized he was trans sometime around this age too, which really impacted his mental health- his dysphoria was really bad at this time, since there was nothing he could do about it. he had to keep his hair long, wear the "girls" uniform at school, act like a "proper lady" when his family was around. there was so much anger and sadness inside of him that he just didn't understand or know what to do with, which lead to a long battle with self harm that continued into his adulthood. his parents were aware of this, they just... wanted to ignore it until it went away.

when he was an older teenager, there was more he could do- he chopped all his hair off, which infuriated his parents, and was constantly in detention in school for refusing to wear the "proper" uniform. he wouldn't respond to his deadname, only jack, which got him in a lot of shit both in school and at home. he was already hurting himself as a way to rebel against this, but turned to drinking and drugs as another way to say "fuck you" to his family and the life he never felt like he belonged in. he fell in with a rougher crowd, since they were the only ones who understood and accepted him, and got into a bunch of trouble as a teen. he doesn't like to think back on those years. through university, he cleaned up his act a little, but really only on the outside. he was still wildly depressed, drinking, and so goddamn angry. it wasn't until he found his passion in school that he really started to care about his life- but once he found it, he realized he really did want to live. it was still really fucking hard, but he started to try to get better. he stayed mostly no-contact with his family, and started engaging in life more, trying to find hobbies and friends and have relationships that didn't revolve around just suffering and surviving together.

cam : cam grew up with a big pressure to be the perfect child placed upon her- she was the oldest daughter, and spent her whole childhood being "the smart one". she was really popular too, and from the outside looked like she had everything. but she really struggled with loneliness, and didn't feel like she fit in anywhere due to her undiagnosed autism and the pressure to constantly mask. the pressure of keeping up with her friends, of having perfect grades, of getting into the perfect school, of making her parents proud... caught up with her a lot once she was in her mid-late teen years. her eating disorder started around 15, and it offered her a huge sense of control in a world where she didn't feel like she had much- it was the easiest way to get away with hurting herself too. and it got her the approval and praise she wanted so badly- she looked like she was being healthy, and everyone praised her for how "good" she looked. it helped her fit in.

speaking of fitting in, her loneliness and the pressure to mask was really hard in highschool. sure, she had lots of friends, but she didn't feel like she connected with a single one of them. she knew there was something different about her, but she just couldn't figure out what it was. and so, she did everything in her power to try seem "normal". her friends were big party-goers, and so she would be too. she would drink... a somewhat concerning amount at parties. it was the only time she wasn't stressing about looking "right", about acting "normal". she was fun, and bubbly, and people liked her. boys liked her, her friends were too drunk to care that she was so obviously different to them, and she wasn't worried for once in her life. it doesn't help that alcohol and restrictive eating disorders is a known Really Bad Combination.

her ocd was also a big part of why she needed so much control in her life- her ocd started in childhood, around age 9. people thought she was just an anxious kid and a bit of a drama queen, but it was really scary for her. she had a lot of intrusive thoughts about the people around her getting hurt, and so her compulsions were really urgent and terrifying because she was so scared of things being her fault. in her teen years, her ocd fed into her ed a lot, but it also isolated her even further- she was so scared of being ostracized that she never enjoyed herself and . it sucked, to be the person who was always smiling but never really felt happy.

[nonbinaryeye]

(sending to you bc I have So Many Thoughts about Jean Vicquemare and it’s your fault) Brennan Lee Mulligan once said something that reminded me of Jean so much: Everyone can be saved. But that doesn’t mean YOU can save everyone.

I think my fav Jean angst kinda carries that same weight. That sense of losing something, of not being enough, of giving it your all only to realize: it was never gonna be you.

First of all dear anon apologies I took so long with answer, I've been busy with school. 😔

And oh, yes, I must agree this indeed could be about Jean and his relantionship towards Harry. Because yes, Harry is not a lost cause, he can get better, but Jean simply isn't the right person to help him with it. I like to think that he's quite the opposite actually and they just have the unfortunate tendency to bring out the worst in each other. And Harry's amnesia can really be good opportunity for Jean to realise "oh, I was never going to help him, I was never able to help him" and step back either giving Harry chance to get better on his own or letting Kim to help him instead.

But of course there is the angst angle that is so easy to imagine especially considering Jean's depression. That the reason why he could not help is not just because he simply happened to be the wrong person to do that but that he was not good enough and he was not really worthy for Harry to bother to try because of him.

For how little we actually know about Jean Vicquemare he is such an interesting character with such a sad undertones and I love him.

[skenekidz]

Hey! Just saw this so sorry for the late response but wanted to respond. I am the “Unpopular Opinions” Person btw

OBVIOUSLY all the respect is meant. You are a genius <3 love your work, this is just some commentary

- Brennan IS a worse person than Killian because Killian really… doesn’t have THAT much agency in his life. Idk maybe I’m being too soft on him but I’ve always emphasized w/ children who make bad/objectively ambiguous decisions as the result of a turbulent life. Therefore, where Killian and Brennan made the SAME level of bad choices, Killian was genuinely a good person who was just trying to be a teenager/live his life in this “Fish out of Water” scenario he was put in. Brennan, meanwhile, came off like he had A LOT more agency and… strength, so to speak, not only in his own life but who he was in general. Therefore it’s a lot harder to excuse him for the stupid shit he puts himself in (like involving himself w/ the Principal’s son AND getting drawn into the bad/rebellious crowd, etc.). Therefore, Brennan is a worse person because generally those people (the reckless people who know they can make different, better choices and CHOOSE NOT TO), don’t tend to make the BEST decisions for their loved ones as well. Like I could see Brennan pulling some real dick behavior and causing shit for the people he cares for. Meanwhile, Killian? I highly doubt it. It’s the difference between “all bark but no bite” (Killian) and vice versa. One is just better.

- I agree on that! I’m just saying that IRL, the friends that stick will stick around. No amount of distance can TRULY crush any friendship. No doubt. Meanwhile… him relying on his friends as his family? Idk. There’s a difference between “My friends are my family” and “my friends can replace my family.” One is a MASSIVE cope and the other is just having close platonic/non-traditional family relationships. I still say Ireland would’ve given him time to grieve, properly, and become a more stable/stronger person. Just because something is harder to do doesn’t mean it’s the wrong choice.

- They are healthier!! You’re so right. And yeah, Staz and Ethan are similar but not the same people BUT… Will ALWAYS gave me the wrong vibes. I don’t vibe w/ hypocrites, and he is a MASSIVE one, considering him and Jude are EXTREMELY alike (Will just have the advantage of not having a horrible relationship w/ his Mother, otherwise I GUARANTEE he would’ve made similar if not the same choices). HOWEVER, the dynamics are EERILY similar. Two soft boys from subtly troubled homes change the perspective of two much more damaged, aggressive boys? Yeah, apologies if this wasn’t the correct read in the slightest, but both couples sort of gave me those vibes tbh. Although not ENTIRELY, clearly, as they are both complex enough to not be carbon copies (I realized this might’ve been insulting and so sorry if it is. I’m not trying to say that at all, they just follow the same TROPES.)

- You were an EXCELLENT writer (I mean your characters than were ten times more complex than mine are NOW), I just think the plot needed the characters to do what it needed them to do and there wasn’t a lot of time for diversions. Also, it really isn’t your fault if they were “a nightmare.” Hollywood/etc. LOVES the dysfunctional friendships. Just look at Riverdale! White Lotus (if you need a more updated example)! Gossip Girl! Literally any superhero movie. It’s just more fun for friends to sort of hate each others guts, unfortunately. ESPECIALLY in Young Adult media. Benji is still a bad friend to Ethan and Gideon tho… I will DIE on this hill (plus Sonnet and Ethan are the platonic soulmates we never got to see).

And that’s it! Thank you so much for your time!! I hope I never veered into disrespectful or rude while writing this. I feel like I did at multiple points so if I have, I am extremely sorry, clearly not my intention. I have a HUGE amount of respect to you and obviously, these are tour books, I just was curious to see if you would hate these tbh. All the love <3 Have a great day/evening!!!!

Cheers :)

This was super respectfully worded and I really appreciate the perspective! As the writer, it's sometimes hard for me to imagine how things can be interpreted differently than I intend, so I appreciate these kinds of honest perspectives. It gives me a lot to consider when writing in the future! Thanks for sharing! :)

[pb-dot]

It took me until episode 3 of Junior Year, but I've finally found out what I found kind of strange about the Theological (mis)Adventures Of Kristen Appelbees. To get ahead of the Kristen Discourse train for a second, this isn't a criticism of either of the show or Kristen, just an observation about cultural differences that might be interesting for someone who isn't me maybe? Fantasy High spoilers for all three seasons below the cut.

Ok, so this is about what religion is in the Fantasy High universe, and I suppose in D&D in general. At the start of Junior Year in particular, much hay is made over how Adaine's last deity YES!/YES? has ceased to be on account of being abandoned by its first and last follower, Kristen, who also did a so-so job at getting the good word out there. This ties in with the larger mechanics of the divine, which I will concede is very consistent, in that the gods rely on mortals for their ongoing existence, and also are shaped by their followers, see how Galicaea is a bit of a self-hating mess because her (majority high elven) worshippers would Very Much Not Prefer to talk about that whole werewolf/animalistic aspect of their goddess.

Now, this is a very human/sapient mortal/sapient almost-mortal-centric way to structure the universe of your story, which is what we've come to expect from Brennan and his knack for character-centric storytelling and general humanism. It is also, however, the structure that ends up putting what I would argue is an unreasonable amount of weight on the shoulders of the clerics of the world, including our favorite disaster lesbian.

Now, as a teen, I suppose it isn't unusual to feel like the whole world is on your shoulders. Hell, I suppose it's a feeling Kristen is very much used to as the ex-chosen of Helio. Still, even the abstract "my child will do everything right"-pressure kind of pales in comparison as far as mental stress is considered compared to "if I do not Class Well Enough this living thinking entity that functionally lives in my head and who I have personally picked a name for and now have a bit of a fraught relationship with will capital D-die and it will be my fault," which is frankly such a heavy narrative sword of Damocles that it makes me, as a viewer, too stressed. The stakes are too high, and for a school to require a teenager to navigate a relationship with the divine for a passing grade feels unreasonable even on a level past "getting your own school supplies and the school supplies are a frankly unreasonable amount of diamonds and other rare arcane items," or even "Fig has to start going to class" for that matter.

Granted, I'm sure this will read a lot closer to truth or storytelling-friendly truth simulacra for those who have gone through school with a learning disability or autism, ADHD, or other challenges that school has historically not been great at making allowances for, and the way the third episode, in particular, was very good at leading the thoughts in that direction did a lot to assuage my anxiety. "Relax, you're supposed to think this is a bullshit sort of situation to strand poor dear Kristen in, and her ending up in a similar holding pattern as she started Sophomore Year is a sign of her still not getting the help she needs, not an unflattering reflection on her or an unreasonable dickishness of the plot."

Now you may be asking "Hey Peebs, wasn't this supposed to be about some cultural stuff, what's with all the soul gazing?" and yes, you retain stuff well, at least as it pertains to rambling quasi-essays on streaming content. I'll get to the point I'm making anon.

Part of why the above situation and interaction between worldbuilding, character, and plot felt so gravely upsetting to me, I think, is because it does seem to follow what I've come to understand as a uniquely American understanding of religion, or perhaps if I were to make a less sweeping statement, an understanding of religion that differs from my own and from most models of religion in Europe that I know of personally.

Just to lay my cards bare before I go on, I am not religious myself, in most aspects I'm staunchly atheist and/or agnostic. I have, however, grown up around religion, as being religious, and Protestant Christian in particular is viewed as the norm in Norway. The Norwegian Monarch is required by law to be protestant Christian, no-one's forced to go to church as a part of schooling but at least when I was young it was heavily encouraged, leading me to Christmas vacation being heralded with a school-sponsored semimandatory church service where one might sing psalms with lyrics like "Gud Er Gud om alle mann var døde/ Gud Er Gud om alle land lå øde" (God is God if all men were dead / God is God if all fields were barren [alternatively: all lands were desolate]. My translation.) Granted, Norway is a bit of an outlier in Europe in that much of our adherence to religion can be viewed as an adherence to tradition, although I will concede that might be the atheistic contrarian in me speaking.

Either way, this idea of "god's there whether you believe in Him or not, dude" seems typical of the European approach to the Abrahamic religions to me, and to the degree that the individual is considered at all it is in the "ok, so how do I save my own sinful ass in all of this" sense, whether the saving is in a vague uplifting sense Protestants seem to favor or the "or God is going to kick my ass most severely..."-vibe that Catholics seem to go for.

American religion, especially the practice of evangelical protestant Christianity, seems to be a lot more invested in the role of the individual. God needs soldiers as the worrying rhetoric will occasionally go, and to be a good soldier one must not only be A Good Person and Do Good Things, but one must also seek to proselytize and grow God's ranks. The question of religion and its role in society has little to do with tradition and is only interesting in the fate of the soul as a passing concern in the form of cosmic justice or retribution. On a societal level in evangelicism, religion is a question of the soul of society, and the only way to countenance the sources of evil in the world, be they real or imagined, is to spread the word, to convert, and to maintain a level of purity and cohesion that seems to always be just outside of reach.

I can imagine this is a deeply stressful way to live your life, just the thought of not being good enough for a divine being strikes me personally as absurd, but I digress.

It's not exactly a stated dogma of evangelical protestantism that God Needs Humans, but it is very easy to extrapolate it from the way the evangelical movement seems to answer the Problem Of Evil with the seeming cosmically ordained need for human struggle, I.E there is evil because god wants to/needs to test us and/or because god can not rid the world of evil without also ridding humans of their free will. It is perhaps related to how the evangelical blocs will have convictions with religious zeal about otherwise secular questions, such as women's healthcare and foreign politics, albeit part of that is no doubt just good ol' fundamentalism, which isn't a uniquely American idea but boy howdy has it taken root over there.

So that sure was a lot of words to say "The idea of the Cleric being a necessity for a divine being/god to exist in FH seems strange to peebs because Peebs grew up in a culture that's dominated by a version of Christianity that doesn't believe in a personal relationship with God or in the possibility of affecting any change on the divine or His Plan (TM)" huh? Well, I've been trying to dissect my own reaction to the initial Junior Year storyline for a bit now. It has been an interesting journey of discovery since I haven't really been blindsided by an aspect of American culture for a while now. I guess this one snuck under the radar because a lot of American media strives to be secular but not too much so, to not alienate potential viewers and as such ends up being kind of mealy-mouthed and centrist when it comes to questions of faith.

I guess this is another notch in the belt of my "give serialized storytelling that isn't inherently absurd or abhorrent to you three episodes to stretch its legs before you make any judgments"-approach, huh?

[catgirlriya]

the dropout discord is... a place! for sure! i literally went into suggestions to suggest changing how they handled trigger warnings (because we’re about to have a Horror Season and they Still Suck At TWing) and Immediately someone starts blaming The Viewers (after being told to drop it by a mod mind you) for not seeing the trailers trigger warnings in the discord, which every dropout viewer is totally apart of (/sarcasm), because “well if you didn’t read the mods comments and seek out the trigger warning list then its your fault for watching it anyway” ....... have i mentioned this also Wasn’t Even My Point and actually Directly ignored a major point of mine. my whole original point was just “hey say the overall triggers for the season and also add triggers to the beginning of episodes because not everyones in the discord!”. like hello. i really need to just leave the dropout discord at this point, shit like this is so constant in there its an actual hellscape. half of the dropout discord members will see dropout do the bare minimum on an accessibility issue and go “ok but they’re literally doing their best” (no they aren’t. they’re a company that can 100% afford to do better and they are not exempt from being held accountable because brennan lee mulligan is your little meow meow kitty cat blorbo). and this is not to disregard that they do Something, but doing Something does not equal doing Enough and i will die on this hill. this is not a major ask, and viewers should not be blaming other viewers for dropouts shortcomings just because they can’t get over their own bias for 5 minutes to understand why this is Needed and Important.