[ SECRET POST #5092 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5092 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 19 secrets from Secret Submission Post #729.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

03. https://imgur.com/FtsLJRP.png

[(Anonymous)]

My mind goes to Cordelia from Buffy

[(Anonymous)]

Cordelia was more of a mean girl than a bully though. There was no targeted campaign against Buffy or the Scoobies, just generalized snobbiness/cattiness.

[(Anonymous)]

Mean girl and bully are close enough for me

[(Anonymous)]

If you were never actually bullied, I can see how you would feel that way.

[philstar22]

I can't stand Cordelia, but she isn't really a bully. As the person said below, she was a mean girl, but she didn't focus her attention on any particular person or actively attack them. She just made random mean comments.

[(Anonymous)]

I am super interested in redemption arcs right now. Problem is I'm utterly uninterested in what we normally see either: one (1) good deed and then a heroic death, or it was Never Actually Their Fault and we should fight the real villain.

I want to see people realize that they were wrong and put in the time and effort and energy into improving themselves and making it up to all the people they've hurt.

Right now the closest thing I've got is Queen Maeve in The Boys.

[(Anonymous)]

I want to see people realize that they were wrong and put in the time and effort and energy into improving themselves and making it up to all the people they've hurt.

Seconding this. It's a frustration I have with a lot of Drarry fanfic. There's the tendency of writers to kind of shrug off Draco's years of cruel bullying as "Well he was young and he looked up to his dad and just didn't know better and then Voldemort forced him to do all the rest of it, and he never really had any choice you see." Sometimes writers even take it so far that they act like Harry is the one who should be apologizing to Draco for being self-righteous and insensitive and blind to Draco's pain. That drives me crazy. Like, no, Draco chose to be a cruel, racist, borderline sadistic little shitweasel. The fact that he may not have had any real choice to become a Death Eater and do Voldemort's bidding is one thing. But the fact that he was a teenager does not excuse the rest of his cruel, bullying behavior.

Even if people don't want to put in the work to write an actual redemption arc for him, I wish more people would have him acknowledge that he was an atrocious little shit in school, and that he doesn't deserve forgiveness from many of the people he hurt--but that he did realize the error of his ways, and change.

[(Anonymous)]

I have a hard time seeing Malfoy as Harry's bully, even though he definitely engaged in bullying behaviors. He never seemed to have any power over Harry and came off as an annoying pest for most of the series. He was more of a bully toward Ron and particularly Hermione.

[(Anonymous)]

Ayrt

Exactly! We see tons of that. 'It's not really his fault' or 'It was all someone else's fault' or 'Why didn't YOU help HIM?' and that is not redemption. That is retroactive whitewashing and I don't care for it.

[(Anonymous)]

It's unfortunate sometimes, there are authors who truly believe bullies can't be redeemed. When a hard work redemption arc would make their stories that much more interesting and complex?

This is also why I dislike 3rd limited. It's hard to do a bully redemption arc if you're never spending time with the bully to do the arc.

"The bully may have crap stuff going on in their life AND they're still wrong to bully others" is a message I'd like to see a bit more of myself. Bullying can be handled so badly.

[(Anonymous)]

"The bully may have crap stuff going on in their life AND they're still wrong to bully others" is a message I'd like to see a bit more of myself.

There was an episode of Hey Arnold that did that with Helga once. It's one of my favorites of that series.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, it's a distinction I'd like people to make if people are gonna write Drarry fics, just so that I don't have to see the dynamics portrayed as bully/former victim. But admittedly, this is because I don't care that much about Draco and am much more invested in Harry's side of things, so I just want to get the facts straight. Malfoy never mattered that much to Harry unless he was attacking one of his friends, until the point in the story when he actively became a potential threat.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree. They're extremely unpopular around fandom circles and personally, I understand the appeal. I was bullied so much my mom pulled me out of school so it's not like I don't understand what it's like being bullied but people are very sensitive to it. Personally, I think it's interesting to explore why someone is a douche and watch them grow when they understand the impact of their actions and regret them.

Sorry for this.

[(Anonymous)]

If you haven't looked on TV Tropes, here are some: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BullyTurnedBuddy
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReformedBully

Re: Sorry for this.

[(Anonymous)]

OP: This is actually pretty helpful, I always forget to give a look at tropes to find what I want. Thanks

Re: Sorry for this.

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

You're welcome! Still kind of sorry for sending you down the rabbit hole, though. I know I've gone there looking for just one thing and resurfaced hours later after going to 47 different pages.

[(Anonymous)]

I wrote a fic where a homophobic character went through a redemption arc. It was actually a popular fic but halfway through everyone was baying for their blood. Nobody told me they had a problem with the ending, but it did puzzle me. Redemption arcs are just more powerful to me than vengeance.

[(Anonymous)]

I wish I could feel positive towards bully redemption, but I struggle because I still have significant PTSD from being bullied all through my childhood which still affects me to this day, regardless of the therapy I've gone through. I guess I resent that the bullies in these redemption arcs manage to move forward with their lives whereas I'm still trying hard to get out of bed in the mornings.

[philstar22]

This.

[(Anonymous)]

IMO, it's super hard to do a bully redemption arc right, and that's why you don't see that many of them.

Because, yes. There should be more media that shows that just because you were a shit person when you were 16 doesn't mean you're doomed to be a shit person forever. But, by that same token, becoming a better person doesn't cancel out the horrible things you did in high school. A realistic redemption arc, where the high school bully becomes a good person even though the people they abused in school never want anything to do with them and aren't shamed for not letting them back into their lives, rarely happens.

[philstar22]

Depends on the level of bullying for me. And I'd need the redemption to be earned with actual repentance and no expectation that the victims of the bullying just accept that the bully was nice now. Also, no bully/victim romance ever even once the bully was good. That's an instant backbutton for me.

[(Anonymous)]

My brain always goes to The Bully of Barkham Street. It's an oldie, the sequel to A Dog On Barkham Street, told from the point of view of the bully who is a minor character in the first book. It bent my mind when I read them both as a kid.

[chamonix]

I seem to recall Zootopia did this fairly thoughtfully.

[(Anonymous)]

I like that they wrapped up the bully's arc in two scenes, and the whole thing managed to be both tense and heartwarming.