o god w the anon saying dirkjake is abusive. They were teenagers in their first relationship in a terrible situation and they screwed up. It wasn't /abusive/ or /toxic/ it was just kids who didn't know what they were doing. Dirk is not some evil manipulative mastermind. He's not Bro. Jake's not some shivering delicate waifu. They both messed up and acknowledged they messed up. U don't say failed relationships at high school are abusive. they're just kids.... kids mess up.... chill
I find it interesting how fandom and indeed the general public always seems to beg for more nuanced portrayals of relationships and morality – they seem to ask and ask and ask for complex situations where no one is hard-line at fault, where all sides are sympathetic in certain lights, where characters behave in realistic ways that suit their motivations, their arcs, their histories and their personalities.
But when content creators deliver even a LITTLE bit of this, the narrative always immediately and, tbh, VICIOUSLY shifts to assign blame, to shove what we’re presented with into the Good Box and the Bad Box, into Hero and Villain or in this case, Victim and Villain, and as a writer myself it’s honestly just so… shitty.
It’s just so fucking shitty, lmao.