I Don't Think We Were Made For This

I don't think we were made for this

Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.

Never actually watched merlin BBC and just skipped to the fanfiction and I genuinely thought lancelot was black for like hundreds of fics before I saw a picture of him on Tumblr? After some soul searching I've realized it's cause Lancelot was black in once upon a time and i just connected connections that don't exist hdosjsosjd he's still pretty! But boy he looks nothing like my imagination

Young, neglected characters aren't always incompetent at taking care of themselves

I know it's not what some of you want to hear, but- despite the perfect savior concept of getting them into a batter family- that doesn't mean that

A. They even WANT to be 'saved' and

B. That they aren't doing a decent job at taking care of themselves

The thing about having independence at a young age, is that you learn pretty quickly at least the basics or you fail

If you make it too obvious while going to school (esp elementary but also middle), you will be caught

If you don't have a supply of food or the ability to make food, you will be caught (either by police or any adult) or very sick and THEN die or caught

If you change attitudes and routines completely and suddenly, you will be noticed and possibly caught

NEGLECTED KIDS WHO LAST MORE THAN A FEW DAYS KNOW THIS (even if subconsciously)

"Saving the poor baby" is good for children who are just recently out on their own (think a couple weeks, maybe a couple months if you stretch it)

But a couple years??? I'm sure a few children would like someone to take care of them but most of them (while also maybe yearning for the same) would rather not and I'll tell you three big reasons why:

Nobody noticed that they needed help when they truly needed it, regardless of the fact that they hid it with all their power, ergo others are not to be trusted because they do not care.

And/or

It has been like for as long as they remember and change that drastic is hard for any adult let alone a child to imagine.

And/or

They are perfectly capable of keeping themselves alive and do not need outside help (this can be a statement of truth, misleasing pride, or fear of change/other people)

"Wanting to save them" may result in anger at the idea that they are incompetent, especially if the child has been taking care of themselves for so long. Cause regardless of age, children have always been resilient and adaptable and capable.

Not every child will be saved from a bad situation and they know that. Children aren't stupid, and they aren't stupid to assume they can take care of themselves when so many have had to in the past and will have to in the future.

An Alternative:

Stop the narrative of "saving them" from such a terrible way of life (the only life they've known or have known for a long while).

START doing more of those skittish, feral, alley cat things where you either gain the characters trust and learn to be a family with TIME or you just like straight up steal the baby and live with the fact that your going to have a lot of screaming and scratching and broken belongings for a few weeks until the baby learns to feel sort of safe or makes an escape lol

For Tim and Bruce's relationship, I would like to see more "He's not my dad" and "he's not my son" but completely no angst about it

Like, just cause Tim had parents that werent the best doesn't mean he wants another one lmao (his parents didnt die until 15ish and like obviously he should have an adult to supervise him but its old enough to be emancipated in some states for a reason- not everyone needs a parent) and Bruce very clearly at the time was not ready for another son so I think they should just be friends

They take care of each other! They love each other! But why does it have to turn so violently paternal out of the blue like damn why can't people of wildly different ages just be besties???

Oblivious character, but oblivious in the way that they're very self aware about their own feelings and just assumes that they're an open book and that everyone knows exactly how they feel even though nobody can tell shit

Like something comes up and they're just soo frustrated because "because i'm in love with you?!? Obviously?!??"

And every single mother fucker around including the person they're in love with is like "!?!?!?!? YOU ARE?!?!?!?!"