PRETTY PLEASE WITH A CHERRY ON TOP OF A PERFECTLY BAKED, LIGHT AND AIRY VANILLA CAKE, CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS DANG SCENE
this is, so far, some of my favourite panels in the series & by extension some of my favourite ashler panels, too, and I DO NOT SEE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT IT ENOUGH. In fact, I have never seen anybody talking about it beyond "Aidlyn hug" and "ofc Aiden knows that Ashlyn doesn't like carrots". This might be a me problem tho, I might just be finding myself on the wrong side of the internet, in which case, pretty sbg / ashler people, please take me with you if you find this post and guide me towards the light bc at the moment I'm a girl with a blindfold on shouting "SCHOOL BUS GRAVEYARD SCHOOL BUS GRAVEYARD SBG SBG SBG" into an empty field as if I'm calling for a dog, in hopes that the dog finds me by itself somehow
Even in the webcomic itself, they just carry on with whatever they were doing, paying literally NO attention to Tyler's words and it drives me insane.
I'm going to steal this beautiful jerk's (points in @tragedry's direction), who is also the one at fault for the existence of both the twins and ashler worms in my head, headcanon (? ig kinda? does that classify as a headcanon?), in which Ashlyn thinks being loved is the highest form of trust. Additionally, due to Tyler's skepticism and his history of being the only one he could trust with taking care of himself and his family, it takes a lot to gain his trust (took him literal horrors beyond human comprehension AND a death experience to start, brick by brick, removing the walls he'd built).
And what is this if not a display of nothing but trust?
Tyler doesn't say "it's not your fault", instead, he says "well, shucks, if you pulled us in then you should be able to pull us out, too". I trust you to be able to. Deep down, he understands that this is, technically, Ashlyn's fault (as she's the only one that seemed to have some sort of connection to the phantom dimension), and, unlike when Tyler died, Taylor is hurt, too. Taylor being affected plays a major role in how he perceives an event, I imagine, which is something I really wanna explore by writing a "Taylor's the one to fall out of the car" au at one point in this lifetime. That's also partially why he was able to forgive Ashlyn so fast: she didn't turn back for him, kept the group- kept Taylor safe, put her (Taylor's) well-being over his, which is something he'd do in a blink of an eye, without hesitation, too (put Taylor's safety over his, I mean, not over Ashlyn's, curse the gendered pronouns).
But this is a much bigger matter, because here he is not the only sufferer. He has all the reasons to throw a fit and blame Ashlyn for every bad thing that happened to them- had he been less of a well-written character, added into the story just to fill up the space of "the jerk of the group", that's what he would most likely end up doing. In fact, I can see the potential for an in-group conflict based precisely on that.
Picture this: there is our main character, finding out that every misfortune that's been happening to them is her fault. And then we have the jerk that's been sarcastic and skeptical since day one. I mean, they even had that whole fight at the very beginning of the series, right? And they've been butting heads a bunch ever since, right? So doesn't a major conflict between these two make perfect sense now?
(1/2)
baratheonpilled
janainaart
blakekathryn
yousharknotpass
