#dark subject matter | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

my-forgotten-notepad · 7 months

Text

DND Idea: The Thompson Extension

I have an idea for a dnd campagin; the Thompson Extension. A grand labyrinth of wild and alien chambers all sprawling out from underneath a lone home in some blue-collar all-american fictional city of Origin. Before I dive into recolouring it into a DND campaign/dungeon idea; I feel like its best to give a summary of the Thompson Extension first, to give a feel for the way the extension and the surrounding region could be used as inspiration for DMs.

The Thompson Extension (Made by Tiktok user baddreams1985) is a subterranean structure that spills out deep into the earth in ways that fail to submit to the rules and strictures of the laws of reality. The Extension was constructed under as of yet unknown means and is plagued by strange and terrible powers; often driving those exposed to madness or delusional compulsions. It was uncovered after Douglas Thompson was being investigated for fraud and tax evasion.

The building, The Thompson Extension, and the effects within both and the surrounding area are being constantly investigated as more and more strange and bizarre events seem to spawn from the Thompson family's actions and from the alien and nonsensical labyrinth of chambers deep beneath their home.

As the investigation grew, investigators gathered and cross-referenced data, journals, affects, and interviews of the people within the city of Origin; the results of which simply changed how the Thompson family was viewed, and potential leads for how the damnable extension came into existence. Such as Douglas Thompson's delusions of grandeur, his god complex, lying, thievery, cheating, and outright neglect of his home, wife, and children. Art over the intervening decades all seem to focus on prisons, mazes, freedom, transhumanism, and horses; a possible link to an urban legend known as the Skewbald Mare. The forests of Origin are home to several potent medicinal and poisonous fungi, mosses, and other forms of plant life; the majority of which engage and modify synapse and neurological responses.

Old video tapes and partially encoded diaries and letters provide investigators with the impression of several cults or paranormal societies acting in concert, but not all for the same goal; often clash and cause chaos in the pursuit of destroying their enemies. Some worshipping the Void and the Skewbald Mare, others fostering alien parasites that violate the human form beyond reason and description. There even being several layers and decades of bureaucratic and governmental corruption, abuse, and cover-ups to hide and obscure the length and enormity of the issues within the city of Origin.

Susan Thompson (nee Leefarr) seemed based off of journals seems to be a pained and utterly beleaguered housewife. Aware of the dire straits her family was in, the strain of her husband's neglect as well as the length and sordid depths of his shameless sexual escapades and ego. She found solace in her art; often small and rather abstract pieces reimaginings buildings, rooms, and the natural world that was always so visible from her kitchen window. After the family's dissapearance, some of her pieces wildly and hideously distorted, others quickly began to rot and the materials were swiftly tested. Each painting had trace elements of blood, bone, teeth, nails, hair and skin tissue within them; the all the material links back to a single individual: Susan Thompson.

In an interview with one of Susan's neighbours, Judie Sanderson calmly remarked that Susan went from boastful to frightened about her home in a matter of weeks. "She was acting real queer about it too! She starts telling me she's finally got her dream kitchen, a playroom for the kiddos, and even a new bathroom ... One fine day she comes over, looking like she's been up and put through the wringer. We were on my front porch, just sipping our coffee and she goes "Judie, it just keeps growing".... But she just looked at me with her eyes hollow like a burnt out Douglas Fir and says "If I sleep, it'll get bigger" The second-hand account from Judie Sanderson seems to strongly imply that somehow Susan Thompson was key to the development of the extension. This interview and the bizarre events surrounding her art seem to impyl that some force or power was or is capable to pull from her desires, conscious or otherwise and slam them together to fashion a new chamber, a new physical reality.

Damaged audio from Jack Caversham's attempt on Mr. Thompson's life only seems to highlight Susan's role in the extension's existence. "Susan! She is the beacon. The Celestial umbilical cord reaching into the heavens!... Her art, her unending passion, something you never even recognised is the key!" The recording shows that Jack worships the Skewbald Mare, believing that something akin to the Thompson Extension is needed to free it from terrible and near incomprehensible cosmic prison. The damaged audio only further strengthens the validity of Judie Sanderson's commentary and account; that somehow the governing power of the Thompson Extension originally pulled from Susan's artistic talents and vibrant imagination to fashion itself into reality; also meaning for horrors that dwell within the extension could also be linked to Susan Thompson's mind and creative capacity.

Tldr The Extension is a seemingly occult creation that was forged via unkown means (most likely via occult artefacts and dark rituals), the original construction of the extension seems to have been guided and nurtured by Susan Thompson's dreams, but radically spiralled out of her or Douglas Thompson's control. The Thompson Extension seems in some tangential way is connected to corrupt politicians, alien parasites, cults and an enigmated figure known as the Skewbald Mare.

Now here is the part where I take this massive baseline description of Baddreams1985's work and transpose it into a dungeon or a fully-fledged campaign idea.

Option 1) The Thompson Extension has all of its darker elements wiped clean (so no body horror, no psychological horror, no dangerous cults, no familial neglect or cheating etc) and the extension is simply a rogue experiment into the Far Realms gone horribly wrong (or right). Causing a breach between the Material Plane and the Far Realms, causing reality to warp and splinter; creating new rooms, making old ones larger, smaller as more and more of the corrosive power of the Far Realm continues to leak through.

Adventurers are then tasked by the colleagues of the archmage/scientist/professor who caused the breach to enter their home; delve deep within the unnatural extension; reaffirm the boundary line between realities and save their colleague. The Dm could utilise warped NPCs, highlighting that the players aren't the first group to be sent into the extension to repair and save reality, the extension could be a ploy by a malicious Beholder or a tribe of Ilithids seeking to carve pathways into and out of reality to better their positions for ensuring their dominate and dark future succeeds.

Option 2) This option is more or less Option 1, but instead of academics causing the breach and you needing to fix it; the violation between the Far Realms and the Material Plane is caused by cultists. Those that worship and seek the transformative might of the Skewbald Mare to enact it's will upon the static nature of reality.

This campaign can start off as a race against time before delving into a prototype of the supernatural labyrinth to prevent the Skewbald Mare from being unshackled. This approach would give players to investigate the cult and their motives as well as try and acquire the necessary tools to protect themselves from the cult and if needed; the Skewbald Mare itself.

Option 3) This option goes all in on the content of the OG work. The inciting incident could have been the result of a fantatical cult member and scholastic academic believing himself meant for grander, greater things than his menial role within both his institution and fringe movement of faith.

The cultist uses his powers and an expediently arranged wedding to a maiden of the goddess of creativity to set things in motion as he blasphemes and stains the house with his power and the dark power of the Skewbald Mare. But his actions are hopeless, impotent in some cases; so overtime the cultist begins to commit crimes, theft, charming, adultery, neglect and destruction; all to further his own ends. The cultist no longer wishes to serve the Skewbald Mare, he wishes to supplant the ancient beast; kill it and wear its might like fine silk robes and proclaim himself god.

His motives, actions, and their consequences draw great power to him, allowing for his darkest and most profane desires to finally become acheivable. But, that also meant his former colleagues and those he once called brother and sister knew of his shame and his sin. The resulting cloak and dagger campaigns, the black rituals and the resulting violent chaos; the cultist, his plagued wife and their two daughters dissapear and the nightmare labyrinth forged beneath their home begins to scream out to the world above. Each day, some new evil seems to spill out and plague the bodies, hearts, and mind of those within the citadel this cursed labyrinth lays beneath.

The local Lord; a bloated and conniving figure has bemoaned the fact that none wish to live within the region and that his wealth is drying up and his position politically, economically and socially is swiftly eroding away beneath him. The Lord quickly hires a band of adventurers to go into the region; offering whatever terms, upright and post-quest payment and title gifts to them so long as they manage to restore order to the region and finally put an end to the lasting remnant of the cultist's hideous work.

8 notes · View notes

bebemoon · 1 year

Text

the four horsemen of the apocalypse mood boards:

FAMINE . WAR . DEATH . PESTILENCE

#as requested #meant to save the ask but #didn't ^^'#masterlist #the four horsemen of the apocalypse #mood boards #dark subject matter #tw: death

15 notes · View notes

pain-is-too-tired · 6 months

Text

Idea based off a rp I'm doing-

But Hunger Games au where gods and such still exist but things are structured differently.

1. The reason the gods don't really do anything about the situation and government is because the president is a daughter of Zeus and she kisses up to papa really well.

2. Gods and monsters still are involved in the capital and such. Though a lot of gods try to avoid having anymore kids because of the state of things. (Kids fighting monsters and such for you is one thing, but being forced to fight to the death with no real achievement for it can be a limit for a few gods.) They do still have kids, but not as often as they use to.

3. There's not really a CHB or CJ in the way it is in the books. However, district 13 is led primarily by demigods, as they assist both demigods and mortals to safety. Unlike in the hunger games district 13 didn't draw back, they were legitimately destroyed. Demigods rebuilt it underneath.

4. Some gods might lead their kids together or have their kids in the same area. Hephaestus kids are often from District 2 for example.

5. Satyrs are rarer then in pjo, Grover and Couch Hedge being one the few left. They can disguise themselves as tribute escorts and other positions that get them close to children of Panem, and demigods. They aren't just working to help them escape, but also work as spies. Nature spirits do similar jobs.

There's other stuff but I explore it in later post.

Also want to lay out that the games and their victors will be vastly different from Hunger Games Canons. It's a world based off but not completely true to Hunger Games Canon.

I also never finished the books for some reason, I started to read the first book when I was like 12-13 but never finished it. Most my Hunger Games lore is from movies and other creators going into full details on the lore.

I will explore dark themes but not in the way I've seen some do already. (Ex. I'll explore how victors are exploited and dehumanized but I will NOT be touching on SA. Especially of minors. Any victor being obsessed over for looks or personality will be for specificly aesthetic reasons. More akin to how many might see a dog or bird. This is a personal decision on my part as that is my comfort level when wanting to explore dark and uncomfortable subjects.)

Anyway idk if I'll make a fic or just art of this. But I thought it be a fun au to work on. Feel free to ask about details! This au is still a wip ^^

3 notes · View notes

inorganicone2230 · 2 years

Note

Realistically how would overhaul feel if his s/o was SA’d in their past relationship? Would he look at her different? Much love xoxo

⚠️Trigger Warnings for discussions of SA⚠️

I don’t think it would make him look at her differently in a negative way, if anything, were he to discover something like this about her past, it would make him want to shelter her even more and convince him that she needs him to take care of her. And even if she’s recovered from it and moving on by the time her and Kai meet, he’s not going to be able to see her as anything but a victim.

Sadly, this wouldn’t stop him from doing the same thing to her, because as Kai sees it, it’s not SA if it’s him, because he loves her. What happened to her before is terrible and he’d already be making plans to hunt the filthy vermin down to make them pay dearly for it, even if they’re already in jail, but he definitely wouldn’t think that his own actions against her could be thought of in the same light.

#ask response #anonymous #Purity #yandere!overhaul #fem!reader #yandere!overhaul x fem!reader #mentions of noncon #dark subject matter #yandere bnha

34 notes · View notes

blurredlandscape · 11 months

Text

treat me

a dark thing

inside me

growing

can you imagine

a heavy handed

baseball bat

reflection gleamin'

slick with

sick "in the head"

meaning..

I'd swing right

to the throat

of another and

strangle their

car honking cries

in this midnight

you go blind

yelling shut the fuck up!

shut up!!

shut UP you stupid piece of

shit!

like sound gasiming

and, they'd struggle at first

as you bash their lights

then you'd have em' straddled

in their seat

held down gasping for breath

bat's crossin their stupid fuckin neck

and it’s pulsing width

i'd watch the light

leavin' their ingrate eyes

closely

for their reprieve

is my personal rot

my solitary demise

#stop fucking doing this #you idiot #peace please #dark subject matter

2 notes · View notes

chonnyjashh · 5 months

Text

DARK LORE WARNING! CHONNY JASH AU.

This will be a post regarding what caused their split... AKA, the childhood abuse.

As Good Day is the song that best explains it, I will mostly be using it to explain.

Its name I hate to call it

None of them like referring to their father as "dad" or "father." They instead simply refer to him with an emphasized "him".

It's something. I'm suffering.

Pretty self explanatory.

Instead it creeps at night and sneaks on in and festers while you sleep.

This... Is where shit gets dark. Their father was an addict- A severely sick, perverted one. While Addie (The child) slept, he would sneak into the room and try to abuse them in secret. They would pretend to sleep, as the first time it happened, and they tried to scramble away and scream for help, it led to them being beaten badly- Before the same thing that would have happened if they stayed quiet was done.

But you know this song is not about a no or yes or why

Addie was not given a choice in what their father did to them, no matter the reason they gave him— Though they shouldn't have had to give a reason to begin with, as he should have kept his hands off of them.

What's really what I say is that about a resignated sigh.

... Once again, pretty self explanitory. They would just stay put, resigning themselves to what was happening— Accepting it as fate, and unavoidable pain.

So come along, I think I'm done, I think we're done, yes this is done- The only question's whether it will be with pills or with a gun.

At the age of 10, Addie first considered suicide— However, they could not decide on a method, and spent so long deciding that the urge passed. They did not, in fact, attempt to take their own life in that moment.

You want me to sing? Fine.

Once again, they were simply accepting it— But at this point, they stopped pretending to sleep— Hoping that if they put up an indifferent, if disgusted appearance, he would lose interest. This backfired, leading to more physical abuse.

Looking through glazed eyes helps you to realize nothing's gone right in your life. The meds aren't that helpful, it's hard to feel half full, when all you feel's anger and spite.

At the age of 15, Addie first tries some of their father's drugs- He told them it'd make them numb, and they wanted nothing more than to feel empty for once, instead of the constant waves of far too much emotion they had been plagued with due to him. It backfires horribly, and they simply end up thinking unendingly about how horrifically wrong their life has gone. This leads to an uncontrollable rage, in which they physically attack their father for lying to them about the drugs- Which only made it all worse.

I thought you knew I knew 'bout why I want to die and say goodbye- I wanted you to know, I thought you knew but why, and by, and why

This line is Mind and Soul, telling Heart, as he starts to realize just why their father was banned from their life- That they had lashed out because they thought he knew. In their strange, messed up way, this was an apology.

Fine, I'll play us the happy version.

This is Heart, finally explaining what he THOUGHT their father had done to get barred.

Free from sadness and perversion.

Heart did not know of the sadness and perversion- Only of the alcohol and drug use. He thought their father was banned for being an addict. In this line, he is beginning to have flashbacks of the truth.

Eyes be blocked from devastation

This line references the fact that, whilst the abuse was happening, Heart was always sheltered. He was barred from being in control in these moments due to an instinctual knowledge he would be unable to keep still and cope with it, which would get them severely beaten and possibly killed.

All to see is self-elation

This is a flashback of one of the things Mind accused Heart of during the big fight— Of being prideful, and thinking he knew better, to go against them to see their father.

Birds and bees and television

Another deeply dark thing. They were forced, by their father, to watch NSFW content from a very young age- Content they were too young to even recognize.

Cardboard boxes, x-ray vision

Sometimes, Addie would hide in boxes or furniture when their father would come home drunk and angrily. X-Ray vision, is unfortunately referring to the way he would stare at them in a perverted way— As if trying to see through their clothes.

You don't want to see the truth, what's convenient will do

Another flashback to things Mind screamed at Heart, thinking he was just in denial/justifying things to himself.

Telephones and silly games

Mind's view of what Heart was doing, being on the phone with their father- As their conversations were extremely lighthearted and chill.

Periods and lots and lots of question marks

... A lot of things regarding their body were NOT explained— The abuse stopped around the time they first started getting periods.

So..... Yeah. That's the end of the explination.

KEEP IN MIND— This is an AU, and the character themselves is a person with DID. Extreme childhood abuse is kind of required to have said disorder- I say that as someone who went through ritualistic CSA abuse, which led to me being a system myself. This is not a glorification, making light, or joking around about these issues—

Jokes actually should not be made regarding this section of the backstory. It's most likely the most serious post I'll ever make. But, as I play these characters frequently online... It is a necessary backstory post. Here's to hoping I don't get banned for fictional writing about a topic I myself have dealt with!

0 notes

straightouttabraincells · 8 months

Text

Not happy with my coloring. Just posting in grayscale.

The fat one is a necromancer, trying to sleep with her former teacher, who isn't into it because he has trauma related to sex with people he cares about. Yes I'm going there.

The Necromancer is Elizabeth. She's trained hard to become a necromancer, as is required by all firstborn females of every noble family. She's on a quest for power, and in order to gain prestige, she's fattened herself to resemble the Immortal Empress. The monk's class wasn't much use to her directly, but he was more of a father to her than her real dad.

The Monk's name is Geoffrey, and he didn't even teach Elizabeth anything magical. Men aren't allowed to do magic in this society. He's a math teacher, conscripted to work in logistics when war came to their nation.

War is hell. Necromancers are evil.

#fatty #oc lore #necromancer #dark subject matter

1 note · View note

toss-a-coin-to-your-stan-account · 1 month

Text

waiting for everyone to get on board with "fiction that depicts dark subject matter is not inherently romanticizing it" so we can move on to "fiction that romanticizes dark subject matter should not inherently be condemned and sometimes the dark subject matter may in fact be Intentionally Romanticized to Make A Point"

#like. idk. not every piece of art about dark subject matter is going to be straightforward in saying 'THIS IS BAD THIS IS BAD' outright #and i don't think it's a bad thing. on the contrary i think if art that depicts dark subject matter is condemned #for not portraying it as Terrible and Bad or Rebuking It Outright and Blatantly #then a whole lot of very interesting art would be condemned and shunned and that's a damn shame #mine #media

1K notes · View notes

adokle · 12 days

Text

AU of an AU.

#mephiles the dark #sonicman #princess elise #silver the hedgehog #sonic #adokleart #pics carbon dated by their subject matter

324 notes · View notes

chorus-the-mutate · 7 months

Text

This is an edited repost of the Erzsebet Bathory character analysis I wrote yesterday that I refuse to let go to waste. I tried doing the right thing and tagging all of the necessary trigger warnings only for this post to be completely hidden from the Castlevania Nocturne and Erzsebet Bathory tags. Since I can't afford to tag the proper trigger warnings without being punished please do not read this post if discussions of rape or sexual assault triggers or upsets you in any way. I don't take these topics lightly and they are vital to this analysis of Erzsebet Bathory.

This post also contains major spoilers for this first season of Castlevania Nocturne.

This may seem presumptive of me to say but this thought has been stuck in my head for several hours: Erzsebet Bathory is the most rapist adjacent villainess I've ever seen without her actually being a rapist.

The first and smallest point against her is how often she mentions virgins. I know that Erzsebet's initial mention of virgin sacrifices is supposed to tie into the origin of her alter ego and consumption of Sekhmet but it's super fucking weird that it played into why she wanted to sacrifice Maria.

Next point against her is the lawyer's daughter. I'm not sure if this lady was a virgin but when she's first brought to Erzsebet she's already terrified and too dazed to fight back. It's obvious that she doesn't want to be there and that even if she did that she can't really express that desire. But Erzsebet still takes this lady out of a literal gilded cage, sits down and sits this lady on her dress to admire her despair before drinking her blood. The next time we see the lady she's still dazed. The only differences are that she's dolled up and seems more suggestible. Even with hundreds of people in this ballroom scene the lady is literally ignored by everyone except for Erzsebet who dances with her and parades her around for her own amusement. Everyone else knows that Erzsebet likes to make her victims suffer and they still refuse to acknowledge the lady because Erzsebet has made it clear that she's her possession. Hell the only person who is unhappy enough with Erzsebet to go rogue at this point is Olrox and he STILL IGNORES THIS LADY. When the lady is dragged outside to be fed on again without anyone batting an eye it reminds me of a rapist roofying their target and proceeding to do everything in their power to seem interested in their victim's well-being in order to take them to a second location. And no one speaks up since Erzsebet is the Harvey Weinstein, Prince Andrew or Thomas Jefferson of the vampire world; the embodiment of people in power getting away with abuse until the damage has already been done.

The last and biggest point against Erzsebet is the entire scene where she turns Tera into a vampire. For me personally that is just an allegorical rape scene and it's executed very well. Erzsebet makes her entrance at the abbey as a lioness of a woman, a literal predator who wants to take Maria as a sacrifice and turn her into a vampire to ensure Emmanuel the Abbot's loyalty. Tera protests and offers herself to Erzsebet instead. This is such blatant coercion that Tera refers to herself as the ram Abraham sacrificed to God instead of Isaac. And the only question or concern Erzsebet has at this point is if her sacrifice should be a virgin. The only reasons she accepts the sacrifice are Emmanuel's genuine love for Tera and the fact that Tera is a powerful sorceress. Once Erzsebet settles for Tera and physically lifts her to her level no one can stop her. Maria gets knocked out for trying and Richter gets bodied immediately after. Their only option is to get the hell out of there once Annette makes an opening and Richter rightfully runs for his life. Even Maria, the only person that could look back and see Tera turn, is knocked out and that feels like an intentional writing choice to give Tera one last shred of dignity. Erzsebet holds Tera really close in this sort of hug as she feeds on her and once she's fed she literally sits Tera on her lap for her turn to feed. Then Erzsebet cuts herself and the blood starts dripping down on Tera, starting at her skirt, going to her blouse and reaching her face. At first Tera doesn't react but then her body responds to the blood and she feeds even though she doesn't want to. Even though no one wants this for her. And that is exactly what it's like when someone has an unwanted orgasm. Tera's body is protecting itself the same way a victim of assault would and that paired with the blood on her skirt being reminiscent of the blood on a woman's thigh in the aftermath of an assault hammers home the rape allegory. It's very sad and uncomfortable to think of Tera's turn to vampirism this way but the thought lingers hours after like a grimy film on my brain.

I 100,000% believe that Erzsebet would have been an actual rapist if Netflix Castlevania didn't romanticize Lenore raping Hector and ending their relationship on friendly terms. Not to mention Sumi and Taka's sudden shift from allies to sexually assaulting Alucard out of spite. Castlevania Nocturne seems to shy away from rape and sexual assault in favor of allegories or moments so brief that I missed them unlike its predecessor. So I'm blaming the gratuitous depictions of sexual assault in Castlevania on Warren Ellis, the creator of Netflix Castlevania, who doesn't work on this show for a very good reason.

Everything from her size as Sekhmet to her tendency to torture women and girls before killing them contributes to the allegory of Erzsebet being the vampire equivalent of a rapist. She exudes power and not only does she enjoy making others feel helpless she's also great at it. She is a sadist without honor, willing to parade her lady victim of choice around vampire high society or hang a young girl on hooks to drain dry rather than let any of them die a quick death. The dragged out, needless suffering Erzsebet inflicts along with her preference for women and virgins frames her feeding as something more sexual in nature than the other vampire nobles who simply indulge in their gluttony. Even Olrox feeding on his former boyfriend isn't framed sexually, it's framed as a desperate, romantic gesture to keep his lover alive. And every vampire I remember from Castlevania has their feeding framed as a tool for political power or sheer, simple gluttony. Even the vampire general Cho was shown to be more of a tyrant or a general sadist clinging to power in Japan than a deviant.

Erzsebet's sheer sadism actually contrasts quite well with Dracula's humanity and restraint. He understood humanity, only feeding to survive or strike down the merchants who slighted him. (He probably also used feeding as a tool for political power but I don't think we saw that directly.) Dracula ultimately came to understand humanity so well that he fell for Lisa Tepes, the exemplar of what it means to be human. And that love is why I believe he respected Lisa's wishes and let her keep that humanity instead of turning her into a vampire. And after Lisa's death Dracula stopped feeding entirely, hoping to extinguish his life and take out as many people as he could because he believed that humanity should've been better. He believed that the people who lived alongside Lisa would've stood up for her and they betrayed her out of a mix of fear, religious reverence and apathy. Meanwhile Erzsebet doesn't care about humanity, seeing people like the lawyer's daughter as possessions or people like Tera and Emmanuel the Abbot as pawns to further her own rule. She might be taken aback by Drolta's death once she learns of it but there's an equal chance that she wouldn't even bat an eye.

So what do these points of analysis mean for Erzsebet and Tera's future dynamic as master and pawn? The one thing that's certain is that Tera has been fundamentally changed, forced into an unprecedented nightmare scenario that will drag her down a dark path. But I'm an optimist and I believe that Tera will ultimately be redeemed. She may never be human again but her humanity, her love for her son and daughter will save her soul. Ultimately I hope that Tera lives and recovers from the trauma of Erzsebet turning her. I hope that she goes home to her children and is taken in with open arms. But if Tera dies she will die as Tera, not as a pawn, and that is because Erzsebet could never kill her humanity.

#castlevania nocturne #castlevania nocturne spoilers #please heed the preamble #this post still discusses dark subject matters so I want you guys to be careful #erzsebet bathory #tera #tera renard #tera castlevania #dracula vlad tepes #anti lenore #sumi castlevania #taka castlevania #I really want to know what you guys think #and please forgive me if I've read way too much into Erzsebet #I just can't stop thinking about her lack of regard for most anyone #this could contribute to the colonization allegory with Erzsebet but I don't have the background or education to contribute to that talk #long post #ash rambles

106 notes · View notes

sideprince · 5 days

Text

I've seen the same post a hundred times now. Sometimes it's a few days old, sometimes it's from years ago, but it's always the same. Some anti posts about how they don't understand how anyone can like Snape because he was so awful, and then there's a long reply that goes something like, "imagine this happens to you, and then this, and then this" to describe Snape's experience. Sometimes there's some James Potter hate thrown in.

Look. You can go through describing a character's entire experience but you don't really need to. Here's the thing that antis don't understand:

For all her faults (and they're big, bigoted ones) Rowling understood a really integral part of the human experience and conveyed it through Snape. Everyone needs love and to feel accepted. It's that simple. Snape became a Death Eater to seek acceptance (Rowling has confirmed this, though I can't remember the source - whoever wants to add it please do), because it was the only way he could find any.

Snape's understanding of morality, like everyone's, is subjective. Some readers understand this and some don't. When faced against a morality that says there is good and bad in the world, everyone makes choices based on their personal experience. Context is everything. Someone who experiences pain and suffering will not see the person inflicting it on them as moral. That's it. 'How can this person be good when they caused me so much suffering?' = human psychology. Most of the people who think 'I'm a bad person and deserve this' have been gaslit and abused into thinking so, because it's not a natural reaction - it's one that has to often be socialized into someone at a young age, exactly because it's not natural. Everyone is the hero of their own story; no one sees themselves as a villain, because they see the valid aspects of their own perspective.

You can write essays on how vulnerable people needing acceptance is what cults and fascists exploit to recruit vulnerable people, or on how the standard anti's un-nuanced reading of Snape both ignores canon and displays a disturbing lack of empathy or compassion, but at its core it just boils down to context. From Snape's perspective he experienced cruelty, therefore the people inflicting it must be cruel. Again, it's that simple. He was a person, like any other, except he was fictional so he wasn't even real. On the flip side is James Potter, who, for all his faults, didn't get to live long enough to get a chance to change and grow unlike Snape, and I think the Snapedom also needs to acknowledge that.

They're fictional characters representing things an author wants to say, not sports teams, not martyrs, and not all good or all bad emblems that define your identity depending on how you feel about them. It's depressing how much time is wasted arguing with bullies and trolls whether from the Marauders fandom or just random antis. I literally can't find more than three blogs to follow without this argument coming across my feed daily. I know the Snapedom is Not OK™ and that's kind why we're all here, and I know that my take is super unpopular but like Snape, I don't care what others think: this fandom has been having the exact same argument for years and nothing has changed. There's fanart and meta and fic and so much content out there appreciating this character, you're not going to change an anti's mind who's deliberately trolling in the tags, so why are you trying? What are you getting out of it? What does it give you? It's exhausting just scrolling past it.

#The thing about morality is that it's subjective #the religious leader who's a beacon of moral purity to their congregation #is a source of selfishness and pain to someone they abuse in secret #is that abuse victim immoral for rejecting the values the religious leader represents?#the congregation might think so because their definition of morality relies on the religious leader being a moral guide #the victim might not think so though because how can something be righteous if it causes suffering #look this is just an example of how perspectives can vary and I know there are more possible takes on that example #my point is that the idea that there's no clear 'good' and 'evil' there's only power/what you do with it is actually how psychology works #'good' to one person can be pain to another #'scourgify' is an innocuous household spell that cleans stains until it's used to waterboard someone #context matters more than labels like 'light' and 'dark' magic

45 notes · View notes