Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-31255465-20170923034221/@comment-33378883-20171113041056

Easol1 wrote: She has a good support system, but she's been struggling a lot in the last year and this really hit her hard. It's why I don't glamorize stories for being dark, depressing, meaningless or hopeless; there are people whose entire lives are swamped in those things with no way out, and pretending that it's more "adult" or sophisticated just makes a mockery of the horrible reality. Wbaf's more, stories with that sort of thing in them can actually make people who suffer from depression worse.

She does know Nick's stance, and the massive contradictions re: Renet. But the constant treatment of it as hard-and-fast canonical by so many, including series writers/producers, has really worn her out, and she's not sure what to think anymore. Well,  glad to hear she has support. I don't know her, but please let her know that I wish her the best anyway :)

You are right about stories that are dark or depressing. Might as well read a newspaper or history book. It would certainly be more worthwhile than a piss-poor attempt at a "realistic" ending that makes no sense within the context of the story. It's disturbing how some people seem to take some sadistic glee in dark/downer endings stories. Apparently, they don't think there is enough suffering in real life? And their reactions to people bothered by those stories are a little creepy, frankly. Do they think it's "childish" to have empathy? Do they think it's funny that people suffer from depression and may be adversely affected by things like that?

The easy answer would be to tell her to think for herself. To ask herself whether this arc makes sense in the overall context of the series. But I realize that sometimes may be easier said than done. I'm sure that certain toxic parts of the fandom aren't helping. Personally, I refuse (ABSOLUTELY refuse) to let one extraordinarily poorly written arc ruin my enjoyment of something that has accompanied me through my post-graduate medical training (some of which was during a time when my husband and I were forced to live apart). Not to mention this is part of  a franchise I have enjoyed since I was a little girl.