those do not antagonize antagonists posts are great in theory but i find that a lot of the time it doesn’t necessarily address the most important part of the issue: its not that characters aren’t allowed to talk back to powerful characters or react in whatever way is natural for them. its that writing is give and take, and that if that’s how your character is going to react, then there needs to be some discussion over the fact that so is mine.
i can not and will not let my muse kill your muse, despite that being his intention if you piss him off; but there needs to be an understanding that if i’m going to change my muse to better suit the thread, maybe you should too. i have had plenty of threads where zeus was in a less than desirable conversation with someone, and it turned out fine because the situation wasn’t one-sided. where one muse was aggressive, so was the other one. or when one finally started to back off, so did the other. those work, and those don’t require things to get messy.
but the problem is that some muses want to dish out a lot of bad-mouthing -- and as the mun of the character who’s being taunted, it really feels like i’m being used to make your character into some kind of hero, while i’m forced to do all of the work to keep the thread from verging into godmodding. your character is going to react the way they’re going to react, and you shouldn’t have to stop them; but you also need to understand that there’s only so much that i can realistically do to cater to that before i either have to change my muse beyond recognition, or drop the thread for fear of upsetting someone.
basically: open communication between mun’s is important, particularly when something nasty is happening in the thread. roleplay is two-sided, and if your sole goal is to paint your muse as the righteous one while the powerful/villainous muse and their mun are forced into an uncomfortable situation, then THAT’S not cool. if you’re alright with your muse being retaliated against, then great! bad-mouth away! but otherwise, there needs to be some realistic give and take so that everyone is okay.
