*sighs in Star Wars*

I wish we could move beyond this idea that "a redemption arc" means that the character comes out of it a good person who has made all the possible amends and is ready to be "accepted" back among the people.

For one, that means that if a character dies at the end of their redemption arc, those people hurt by them have had their ability to find closure wiped out, as the closure was tied to that character. It makes healing from the violence of someone else conditional to finding peace with that someone, instead of giving that process over to the victims.

It's also very... anti-recovery, the idea that you become good by deciding to be good, and if you can't "be" good instantly that means that it doesn't matter if you embrace wanting to be Not As Bad As Before.

It's just... limiting. And, like, frankly, if we're gonna use "redemption" as equal to "becoming socially reintegrated" I really wish people would start using the term Heel Face Turn to denote instances like... say, Ben Solo or Spinel or other high-profile "I'm deciding I no longer wanna be bad, but I'm gonna have to work on it", because someone being left with the potential to be a better person in the future has its own value.

Like... It would be nice if we could collectively stop demanding that stories do something they might not be capable of or even aiming for, and instead process them as what they're trying to be.

There are no good fandoms, only good friends

Honestly, the biggest reason I'm finding less and less value in reading criticisms of things I enjoyed (but maybe also didn't find that good) is because it will never not feel like the internet is trying to convince me that I shouldn't have enjoyed the thing, and it's bad that I felt the way I felt about it.

I mean, I'm peripherally aware that that's not what all the passive voice statements about the poor quality of The Thing We're Hating This Week are for, people just tend to phrase things in whatever way feels the most impactful and often that way is by referring to a consensus that might not even exist.

I recognise that it's a Van Brain Problem that statements like that... get to me, but since fandom is so inescapable now and there's no clear distinction between a presumed community reaction and the sum of the opinions of the people in the actual community I'm involved it, it's just really tiring. I also get tired of being included in the presumption that something is "good" and I must have liked it/should like it based on who I hang out with, but the negative version of it is arguably even worse because telling a depressed person they should shirk positive emotions is a lot more damaging than telling them to embrace positive emotions despite misgivings.

IDK, public and viral fandom continues to be a mistake. I would probably be less frustrated with F&F doing the thing with the calling-a-heel-face-turn-a-redemption if I hadn't already been bombarded by articles, listicles, memes and meta about how The Thing Is Bad to sour my mood to begin with.

V for victory

I wrote some 1600 words of how-to for divination using a tarot deck and I feel Pretty Damn Accomplished.

I still need to put it all in a Word document and illustrate it, but 1600 words is objectively Not Bad.