Pinned
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Manifesting Joel win in nice life
Guest Joel : should probably post this before nice life ends
Reblogged e-to-the-v
In a hypothetical Hermitcraft Season 11 superhero au, where EGG is a supervillain group, what would Joel be?
A superhero? An antihero? A rival supervillain?
Reblogged umcytblrsexyman
your local dragon tavern keeper 🥀
Reblogged
Okay so I saw a TikTok that was talking about how most romance stories these days miss the fundamental question of “why do these two people belong together” and I was thinking about that in context of my own long fic (Smalletho dating sim au) and wanted to break down from my brain of why they do. (Lowkey this might make more sense to me cause I know my whole story for it so like some of these things will be referenced later lmao)
So I think the easier of the two to explain the reasoning for is Etho, which is because he is crown prince but also specifically the second prince he has this whole underlying thing of a responsibility that wasn’t originally his was shoved onto him so now his life is dictated by the expectations people want from him in that role of crown prince that just shoved upon him when someone else didn’t want it. The reason Joel is so special to him, and why they deserve to be together, is that Joel, who specifically had a whole life in a world with out that assumed expectation, doesn’t care and to Etho it’s so freeing to see someone who doesn’t care if he’s too loud, or is not always pleasant, or treats him like he’s fragile, something that Etho was always expected to do. Joel to Etho is the freedom he had before becoming crown prince because Joel doesn’t have this expectation that everyone else had, to Joel Etho is just Etho and not the crown prince.
The reasoning for Joel on the other hand I think is a little more difficult to like explain in just that he is so traumatized from things happening to him that he has changed in a way that makes him care about Etho different. A huge part of Joel’s character that I’ve built is the fact that he’s afraid of losing people and failing to provide for them. He already lost Lizzie by dying and he almost lost his father at a relatively young age (I know he’s lived 2 lives now but I hope it’s obvious that he mentally regressed). Losing Lizzie is a loss he can’t effect anymore, but he failed at providing for her by dying and leaving her alone, a regret he has but can’t change. Also the reason he can’t move past if Lizzie would forgive him is because he already feels like he failed her once by dying and moving on would mean betraying the love that they had because he’s living somewhere new while she’s stuck with the reality of him being dead. He’s getting over it but the path is slow because he doesn’t quite realize yet that responsibility and guilt that he feels isn’t something that he needs to carry the way he is, he hasn’t learned that it’s okay to move on. His father almost dying creates this wake up call that once his father does pass he will have to step in to take over, especially now that he’s older. He doesn’t really have time to goof off the same way his friends do because to him the responsibility of being the sole provider for his family could be around any corner, which is why he’s so willing to isolate and hurt himself by distancing himself from his friends so that he won’t be as hurt when it does happen. For him Etho, and even the idea of Etho, is this world he can’t reach because he has things to be responsible for so he can’t let himself give into that lest it’s ripped away from him and is another thing he loses. That’s why he doesn’t realize he likes Etho for a while and tries to ignore it for so long because with the path he has to take for the sake of his family, Etho is the one person he can’t have. So to Joel it’s better to never have than to lose. Joel likes Etho he just doesn’t want to have him ripped away.
Etho’s idea of responsibility and Joel’s idea of responsibility are so different and they don’t realize that about each other, Etho thinks Joel is giving into societies expectations losing the part of himself that doesn’t care. But Joel still doesn’t care about what society thinks he and just doesn’t want the people he loves to get the hurt that comes from his loss. By both of them choosing to put the feelings aside for now and being friends is showing that Joel doesn’t want to be too close to Etho for when he loses him and Etho doesn’t want to act to rashly and lose Joel.
Also side thing, I get comments comment sometimes that are like “noo joel just kiss the pretty boy” which I understand is just meant to be silly and also yes I agree he should just kiss the pretty boy, but there’s also so many deeply seated reasons to why they can’t. They really do just gotta communicate dude.
Uhh anyways new chapter soon im working on it promise its almost done too. Some of these things might be explored in it 👀. Also like sorry if these ideas don’t get portrayed as well in like the actual story or if the motivations are changed a little later, its so much easier to just rant about an idea than it is to write in a characters voice (specially cause im lowkey shit at writing internal monologues lmao)
I mean as much as I love fluff, the angst is necessary, it creates that tension. I just hate it in the moment and scream in the comments (because they both clearly want to kiss and be together so bad). And I really do love fluff. Also oh my gosh I was starting to think it wasn’t coming back and it’s coming back? It’s a miracle! Like really I know I’m not the only one, I can’t wait for new fans that just didn’t know it yet to find this and giggle and kick their feet along with me.
…I might bug you again sometime this week. Later though because I need to reread this again.
