People who are ex friends and colleagues aren’t always villains. Sometimes they’re just good people who move on because they have nothing in common with people they used to know. Sometimes they and their ex friends or ex colleagues wronged each other and they wish they treated each other better. I wish books, movies, television series, games, and some plays would realise this.
It’d be great if people online and offline also realised this.
The stereotype of ex friends being villains really annoys me. Mainly because it’s often used to be sexist and show women in cat fights, ageism, racism, ableism, classism and so on.
The only few not bigoted example of ex friends being enemies I’ve come across are Emperor Mage and the book Warcross.
I didn’t mind the ex friends portrayed in Emperor Mage because they actually had good reasons for being angry with each other. Numair had much better reasons for being angry with Ozorne, but that was still extremely well written.
And even though I really enjoyed reading Warcross, the ex friends being enemies (one of the ex friends being exceptionally petty) didn’t sit right with me.
Not all ex friends resent you for outshining them. Some ex friends just wanted to be treated with kindness and respect. Frankly that’s not too much to ask. My friendship with one girl ended years ago because she said being gay is evil and wrong. That doesn’t make me evil.