#arumph grumpy grump grumping

[iwritesnortsintragedies]

I was trying to figure out why I don't like Stranger Things fics that give Steve a history of physical abuse (particularly Harringrove fics that do that) and I think it comes down to

Billy is right there. Yes he's a violent, toxic and racist asshole. He's still ready-made ground to explore the theme and look at various ways people deal with abuse. You can even give him growth about it.

Steve has canonically been established as a teenager whose parents have a significant history of "never being here". No, the show doesn't go in depth about it but emotional neglect is also a form of abuse and horrible parenting, and I personally don't like the impulse to switch it out to something 'worse' to... Idk get him more sympathy point?

[iwritesnortsintragedies]

I'm getting increasingly irritated by fics that have Charles react to feeling jealous of Edwin's love interest with indiscriminate, open hostility and rudeness tbh???

It's like people saw Charles' reaction to the cat king in canon and assumed that was his whole personality without taking into account the fact that by the end of their first encounter The Cat King:

Forced him & his friends to go to the old cannery

Greeted them with not one, but TWO very obvious threat displays (hundreds of individuals who can hurt the boys + a blatant implication that the Cat King had people killed before)

Took Edwin away without consent, for a long period of time, and without guarantee he'd bring him back

Trapped them all in Port Townsend despite Edwin making it clear it wasn't safe for them to be there

Did or said something to Edwin that left him rattled and acting uncharacteristically tense*

Meanwhile, Charles was polite to Monty from the get go, did not react to Monty's initial rudeness beyond checking that it wasn't his fault, insisted on taking Monty's case when Edwin tried not to, and didn't outwardly show any bitterness when he tried to broach the subject of what he clearly thought was Edwin's budding crush on Monty. In fact, when he thought Edwin was going to admit to it, he smiled and joked about Edwin wanting to look nice for his crush

Like yes, we the viewers could tell that he wasn't happy about the development, but he was never rude, possessive or aggressive about Monty until his betrayal was revealed, and the fact that the first behavior is what stuck in people's minds frustrates me a lot if I'm going to be honest

* I can't remember of the top of my head if TCK say anything obviously sexual in the first conversation so I'm not counting it here, but his behavior was clearly predatory, it's no wonder it rang alarm bells in Charles' head even BEFORE you take all of Charles' other issues into account

[iwritesnortsintragedies]

I have reached the point where I'm blocking people who routinely make super long posts without using the goddamn cut function

It's right there, it takes less than a fucking second to use, and it gives you way more control on what your post looks like than the post shortening thing Tumblr has in place

Just fucking use it

[iwritesnortsintragedies]

Old man yelling at clouds moment incoming but:

It fucking annoys me that more & more people aren't using cuts anymore bc it leaves me with the choice of either having to scroll for fucking ever to get past things or set up the auto cut-off and gifsets don't display properly

Like HOW is using a cut so hard? What is the hang up there, can you not take .5 seconds to press a button???

[iwritesnortsintragedies]

I fucking hate people who mock me for being nervous about coming out to them even if it's meant as gentle teasing

Like fuck you, try being queer and dealing with the potential of immediate rejection upon saying you are--better yet, try dealing with the knowledge that the average life expectancy of people like you is about 30 years, and then come talk to me about making a big deal out of nothing

URGH

[iwritesnortsintragedies]

I know it's a joke but that one post comparing Henry Cavill's PC making video and Joey Batey's cooking video like they're on the same level still bugs me like

One of those is serious and the other was purposeful incompetence and I don't like putting them at the same level

[iwritesnortsintragedies]

So I had to see the whole "let guys be friends you Tumblr weirdos, there's not enough healthy male friendships in media, it's even rarer than gay ships" again and I'm like...do we live in the same world? Do we see the same mainstream movies? Do we really?

Because from my window, male friendships are like...a solid 90% of storytelling, recent and not? Like where the fuck do these people look that they perceive a dearth of male friendships? Because I don't see it.

As for the healthy argument, you know what? Fair. But if men (fictional or otherwise) would rather have emotionally stunted relationships with other men than be mistaken for gay, you know what's at fault? Toxic masculinity, misogyny and homophobia. Not the fact that a bunch of us have decided to get our hands on fictional characters and make them kiss like Ken dolls.

Like, how many times am I going to have to see that argument, really? Because I've seen it again and again and again, and so far I have yet to see it go in a direction that isn't "you annoying people are ruining things by forcing the gay in it"

And it's not even about erasing other types of queerness, either! Fuck knows there *is* a problem regarding that, even among queer people, and I am all for fighting that.

But if your complaint is that we're scaring straight men out of making an effort at being emotionally decent to their friends because they're too afraid to catch the gay cooties well frankly I don't care. They can put in some work, realize being gay isn't that bad, and learn not to give a fuck.

Lord knows it'd make things a hell of a lot easier for us too.

[iwritesnortsintragedies]

I think the more time passes, the more annoyed I get at stories that use too many fancy (or fancy-ish) words in narration.

Part of it is certainly because my own style is more on the blunt side, I think (though I'm not sure blunt is the right word?) but another part is because sometimes it feels like it's used to compensate structural problems, you know?

Like. When you read things like 'X watched the juice drip on Y's finger, then sucked the digit into his mouth' the word variation isn't here for clarity or style, it's there to avoid a repetition, which means in this case the problem is in the structure of the sentence but it's being confused with a vocabulary problem :/

(To be fair though, even without the confusion in question, I think I just like trimming the frills out of my writing and reading. I feel like if you need to use sophisticated words where plain ones would work in order to give your story some impact then maybe you're not taking the right approach)