Reading your take on the characters makes me feel like we read two completely different stories, it's funny
im ngl telling the author of how their characters should be because it's not what you expected nor wanted, is all your rant not just a headcanon?.. just cuz u think hayden's not a service top or brett is a "taker" does not mean that is what they are lol, that's your perception and how you interpreted the story, at the end of the day the author made those characters and knows who they truly are
you really made up a story in your head and got mad at it
I did say it was my interpretation, so yeah. Media literacy exists for interpretation, especially when an author is so open ended with their characters. You’re acting like I broke down the authors door to tell them I knew better or some shit. I literally said I was just ranting because I had an opinion lol.
My day carried on just fine lol. I had an opinion on a piece of media like literally everyone else and shared it, also like everyone else. Mostly to see if anyone felt similar or had their own thoughts, but just got bland carbon copy responses from yall adding nothing to the conversation. :/
Surprise, people experience/interpret things differently! Wait until you hear about color blindness.
I think your opinion overlooks a lot of Brett’s actions and reduces his feelings to mere infatuation when their relationship is clearly more mutual than that.
Yes, Hayden loves Brett more openly and intensely, but that doesn’t mean Brett isn’t trying. You said don't give the bullshit of "love can look different" but love isn’t always expressed in the same way, and expecting both people to show it identically ignores how different relationships work. No couple is perfect, and flaws or conflict do not automatically mean the love isn’t real or they would breakup.
You said Brett would have never come after him, when it was literally Brett who approached Hayden first after the breakup. He kept trying even while facing rejection, which shows that getting Hayden back mattered to him. His methods were flawed, but that doesn’t erase the fact that he was making an effort. If it were only infatuation, he wouldn’t have continued fighting for the relationship the way he did. The series would've ended at season 2 if it was just infatuation lol.
Brett definitely has flaws, especially in how he handles things, but Hayden has always known who Brett is and still chose to love him. That matters. Their relationship isn’t perfect, but perfection isn’t the standard for whether love is real. They’ve gone through a lot together and still continue to choose each other, which says more about the strength of their bond than the fact that Brett is imperfect.
So while Hayden may be the more openly devoted one, I don’t think it’s fair to say Brett doesn’t genuinely love him or that the relationship is doomed just because Brett is not as emotional.
Really interesting breakdown!
I definitely realize I chose the wrong phrase with the “ love can look different” being bs, because I do recognize that all loves are unique. In this case, I was viewing what I read as more of a situationship than a relationship, if that makes sense.
I appreciate your take, it actually helped me find the middle ground from my opinion.
I really interpreted that from the jump the author never intended for Brett to reciprocate Hayden’s love and I hate that. I don’t know why that’s being taken for realism, because you can literally put anything on paper and just go “how realistic”- that’s just a lazy cop out for not being capable of fulling fleshing out the complex characters you created and the relationships between them.
Don’t get me wrong, it was decent and I enjoyed the art. But nothing is actually resolved. Hayden is not a service top, he’s a general doormat who is going to give and give and give pieces of himself to fill Bretts emptiness during the relationship until eventually he’s hollow. We know these people in our own lives, it isn’t romantic.
Brett is a taker, clearly still of the outdoor cat mindset and only became attached to what Hayden could provide him (seen in his childhood flashbacks paralleling his internal confusion). From the Authors note, his little character comments and how from beginning to end it was only Hayden compromising, this isn’t love to me? It’s Hayden’s unrequited love bending its knee to accept crumbs Brett could scrape together for him.
And please spare me with any “love can look different” cliches or “Brett chased him at the end” because that was bullshit. Hayden pointed it out himself that Brett would never have come after him and it took him years to do so despite Hayden doing everything in that time to get his attention, Brett knowing nothing about him so not knowing how to court him and instead trying to provoke him into angry sex. If there was a spin off, they’d break up, simple as that. Because this is just infatuation.
An author writing characters too big for their story. Granted, it was originally a short story, but that’s something they surely would have weighed before embarking on this. Plenty of authors have handled complex characters and relationships remarkably well.
End rant, this isn’t that serious but I just have a lot of thoughts haha. Totally fine if yall liked it and whatnot, we all dig what we dig.