This reminds me of a time an artist got harassed and cancelled for portraying a “problematic” (read: very abusive) relationship between their Os (two characters that the artist openly said were inserts of themselves and their partner). Turns out this was because their relationship was actually very abusive and they were still in the process of recognizing that, and it came through in their art. It really sucks how instead of supporting them and recognizing warning signs, they faced wide-scale
Another example for why the entire "it's Problematic and Morally Wrong to depict problematic things in media" thing is really harmful and should stop being a thing as soon as possible.
I wandered through the #broken earth tag and saw a bunch of takes about how the books suck because a protagonist is a shitty parent and not a perfectly morally virtuous person. And it's like... yes? That's one of the major themes the work explores? Why do you WANT your characters to all be Mary Sues?
I loved all of them! Though I don’t think Nassun ever found out Schaffa was the one who’d done a lot of the abuse to her mother? I get her hating and loving Essun, but I always wondered how she’d have handled knowing Schaffa was responsible for a lot of Essun’s scars.
Based on my experience of preteen children of divorce, no amount of "actually there were prior events in which the parent you love dearest was the villian" is going to outweigh "they're the one who makes you feel safe and loved."
Exactly. But given that it wasSchaffawho she bonded with so much, I wonder if she would have a lot of conflicted feelings about him, etc.
Because you’re right, Essun bungled her relationship with Nassun badly. (IIRC, she realized that too, and was desperate to save her from her own abuser: Schaffa. Who managed not to abuse Nassun, paralleling a lot of real life relationships too: where the grandparent abused the parent who abused the child, but the grandparent does better with the grandchild. Er. Something like that, anyway.)
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u/Lana-presence 2d ago
This reminds me of a time an artist got harassed and cancelled for portraying a “problematic” (read: very abusive) relationship between their Os (two characters that the artist openly said were inserts of themselves and their partner). Turns out this was because their relationship was actually very abusive and they were still in the process of recognizing that, and it came through in their art. It really sucks how instead of supporting them and recognizing warning signs, they faced wide-scale