You have assumed, mocked, and twisted words in bad faith throughout our exchange.
I'm sorry you feel that way. I was enjoying the exchange and my compliments on the quality of your writing were sincere. While I disagree profoundly it was not my intent to mock. If anything I sought to mock the quality of my own writing. Writing is a talent, a skill and while I think I have good eye for prose I don't express myself as well as I would like to.
You can choose to believe me or not but I think you are expressing yourself well even if I disagree with your conclusions and indeed believe they trivialize a matter that should not be trivialized.
There are other charges in your #1 that seem to pulled out thin air so I will afford them the attention the deserve.
But I think you are doing something a bit worse trivializing the issue:
factor feeding anger from many fans toward Larian due to the IGN interview coupled with instances of insulting Gale on subjects related to his trauma within the narrative. The outrage is at a point where I can't even browse tags without encountering that anger.
Let's recognize that this conversation is taking place in context in which political actors are trying to generate anger over false accusations of grooming AND to expand the definition so far that it loses all meaning. For these political actors psychologists, social workers, DEI programs, sex educators, drag storyhour and even the very existence of trans people is being labeled as a form of grooming. We are living in an age where people people are being inspired to acts of violence on the basis of imaginary scenarios like pedophile rings being run out of pizza parlors.
I specifically tried to give you an out for that scenario with 'choose your canon'
Thanks for the out. I guess. But I didn't ask for one and I'm not granting you one. I do think it is a problem that
you have headcannoned that Mystra groomed gale for sexual abuse, abused him and that Larian needs to respond to the character you imagine as if he were as he imagined. Indeed I think you should take their light hearted approach to heart: why are the authors themselves not seeing what you do? Are you right to be angry at the authors for not viewing the story as you do?
To be clear I think it's fine that you have imagined the story this way. It's even fine for you to be angry at the authors for not agreeing with your interpretation. I do think it's problematic to encourage other people to be angry at the authors for not agreeing with your head cannon.
I am surprised that the interpretation wasn't something known or discussed here previously because it is not only prevalent in other fan circles, but an additional factor feeding anger
Yes I am aware of the cycles of outrage on Reddit - Mystra is a groomer, Auntie Ethel is a anti-semetic stereotype, anyone who dislikes the emperor dislikes LGBT folk, Shadowheart is a racist etc. I think it's a virtue of these forums that those viruses have not taken hold here. I don't think the writers are to blame for the feeding the anger, the people throwing chum into to the water are feeding the fury.
To be perfectly clear I'm telling to be quiet. By all means ask that support for your preferred interpretation to be added to the game but don't try to stir outrage when people don't see the same shapes in the inkblot.
I think the grooming narrative is poorly supported. Even if it is eloquently expressed. (And, again, that was a sincere statement - you write well) But the idea that someone who believes that the support is thin or lacking is unfamiliar with the concept of implicit story telling, symbolism, subtext, innuendo etc is more insulting than anything I've said. Sometimes a reader fails to read the subtext and sometimes the dragon in the clouds exists only in the eye of the beholder; this is a clear case of the latter.
It's even more insulting when I laid out the flaws of my analysis on the table - my experience was Gale was with him as a non romanced companion and my Tav was a cleric of mystra. If you want to show me evidence I missed I'll reconsider my position but the Arabella comment and the Minsc comment is pretty thin gruel and won't sustain me on the uphill hike you are asking me to take.
6) Hierarchies of suffering and abuse (as you've insisted upon employing with Asterion) are deeply offensive
Indeed. Even more offensive is invoking weighty concepts like hierarchies of abuse when talking about the shapes you see in an inkblot. If you are going to tilt at windmills you should use a lance and leave the nukes at home. I can only imagine you are going nuclear to cast me in some unfavorable light because it is a bizarre interpretation of my POV. I don't see Gale as an abusive victim. I see him as a victim of his own hubris. Not abused and abused is a not a hierarchical analysis. It just isn't.
But only since we are on the topic I confess this phrase did return to me when you seemed to make a distinction between sexual assault and rape. I tend to avoid the latter word because I know it is more likely to trigger people and because "sexual assault" emphases that this is an assault even when the wounds are not visible.
You and I will not be able to have meaningful discussions regarding explicit versus implicit storytelling for this reason.
Indeed it could be because I am too stupid or too poorly educated to understand the high minded ideas that you and the other residents of Laputa deal with. Or perhaps it's because you go nuclear when someone disagrees with you.
You appear to have misconceptions about what grooming is versus what it isn't.
Pot, meet kettle. You have given an account of grooming that would indict Isobel-Aylin. There is no real world equivalent but it the closest to the Gale-Mystra romance I can think of would be one of orders of nuns that consider themselves the brides of christ. They encounter divinity at an early age, find solace in it and then marry their god in adulthood.
Are those nuns grooming victims because they encountered their god at a young age?
(google "why do nuns wear wedding rings" and if you love yourself listen to Sister Wendy's description of prayer where she discusses how she asks her god to enter her body. Sadly I can't find the link but it's worth seeking out)
5) The words I used were only tools to communicate. Good faith may help improve yours. It does a lot for for prettiness when you're sincerely trying to express an idea to someone instead of lashing out.
Indeed. Physician, I recommend a heaping dose of your own medicine.
And perhaps add a bit of soul exploring? Why are you so quick to interpret praise as mockery? Playfulness as cruelty? Truly, before I read this response I harbored no ill feelings towards you and enjoyed your contributions.
On Alan Moore. It would take me a few days to find the podcast where he *fully* denounced the Killing Joke and said that the problem was inherent to the comic book format. It won't be easy to find because it was on a podcast about Magik and not about comics but the conversation wondered. Not sure if I'm invested enough in the conversation to find that interview but if you are interested its worth seeking out. I think it was in 2006?
