[ SECRET POST #5558 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5558 ⌋

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


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03. https://i.imgur.com/2dbj7Jd.png
[OP warned for nsfw; two people engaging in oral sex (Bridgerton)]


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04. [SPOILERS for Rise of Skywalker maybe? I don't actually know this fandom]




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05. [WARNING for discussion of sexual harassment]




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06. [WARNING for discussion of abuse]






















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #795.
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

[(Anonymous)]

Some people don't care for poor characterization. /shrug

[(Anonymous)]

Those people should stick to the canon materials then and avoid fanfic.

[(Anonymous)]

Fanfiction doesn't automatically have to equal crappy characterization. Hoping for good writing in fanfic isn't unreasonable or even weird.

[(Anonymous)]

Or, novel idea I know, fanfic can quit having crappy characterisation.

[(Anonymous)]

But...she's not really a character, she's a construct. You could interpret her actions (refusing to let the dog inside out of the rain, not asking/paying Sarah to babysit, taking Sarah's possessions and giving them to Tobey) any way you wish.

And in Return to Labyrinth, she is abusive to Tobey, so I don't see it as a stretch that she'd abuse a hostile teenager she doesn't share blood with.

[(Anonymous)]

Most people don’t consider Return to Labyrinth canon though. I don’t hate it, but I don’t consider it a necessarily canon sequel either.

I do agree with both you and other anons. I agree with the other anons that the stepmother isn’t downright evil, or even a little evil. And Sarah’s extremely hostile attitude towards her, and desire to view herself as the poor abused heroine by acting like her stepmother is evil is the main problem in their relationship. So people writing fic where she’s an actual abusive villain to Sarah is overly simplistic and unrealistic. There’s no nuance there.

Especially because being evil and monstrous is different than being abusive. The concepts intersect of course, especially in fiction. But being evil is a pretty simple concept without a lot of variation or different types of evil, besides outward personality, which only affects what type of character they are and what tropes they fall into. The added personality doesn’t really affect the evil though, because evil is a pretty static concept. But abuse has many different variations and levels, and a seemingly endless amount of ways to portray the abusive qualities. And character traits, personality and backstory actually affect it a lot. It can be broad or specific. And unlike evil, it’s far more realistic, and evokes a lot more personal feelings and potential triggers from the audience. So portraying the stepmother as evil basically cheapens the character, because it’s not real or based on anything, and feels like making the same mistakes as Sarah in imagining life and people as fairytales and fictional tropes. One of the reasons she evokes so much strong feelings in younger viewers and viewers who have gone through similar situations is that her behavior feels like a real type of dismissiveness that can border on emotional abuse and neglect. Even if it’s accidental, and she’s trying her best with a difficult teenage stepdaughter who hates her guts and a baby. So since she evokes so many feelings in people based on more realistic storytelling, making her just an evil monster is actually a downgrade. Not just for her as a character and construct, but in the case of the fic writers and the potential they have to do something more substantial. Not that evil characters are bad, but this feels like the wrong fandom to make everything and everyone so black and white. That kinda defeats the purpose of the some of the overall messages and narratives. Even in the case of the Goblin King, there’s nuance to make him more than just evil, especially because the movie gets the concept of The Fair Folk and their inhuman way of thinking pretty well. I know he’s not the best comparison to the stepmother, considering he’s more of a fleshed out central character than her, but hopefully you get what I mean.

But I also agree with you that some of the stepmother’s actions, the ones you pointed out especially, aren’t great. And easily lend themselves to rubbing younger viewers the wrong way. Even adults who have been in similar situations with step-parents might also hate her pretty easily, even if they might also know that she’s not outright evil. Like I said, her dismissiveness to Sarah could easily feel like the start of emotional abuse and neglect when viewed through a certain lens. Even if that’s almost certainly not what the writers and directors of the actual movie intended, which is understood by people looking at it from another perspective like a lot of the people in this secret thread. But clearly, the creator of Return to Labyrinth saw it from a similar perspective to the ones who saw the stepmother as potentially abusive. But again, it’s canonicity is frequently debated amongst Labyrinth fans.

It’s all very complicated.